Assertion Not publicly verifiable AI assessment confidence: 80% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Hover's early development was funded by Department of Defense contracts

AJ Altman · 1748 "Wouldn't Be Surprise If We Hit $50M This Year" says 3d Home Modeling CEO · May 7, 2020 · at 7:15

AJ Altman, founder and CEO of Hover and former Marine Corps infantry officer, explains how the startup funded early development.

0:00 / 0:11exact quote · 11.2s

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“It was a number of DOD contracts. Yes, a number of deals we did selling software to help, help the US government in, in, in tough places.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Hover initially funded its early product development through multiple software contracts with the Department of Defense.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Public federal procurement databases (including USAspending.gov, FPDS, and SBIR.gov) contain no records of prime contracts, sub-tier awards, or SBIR grants awarded by the Department of Defense to Hover Inc. between 2011 and 2015. Documented public financing during this era was private venture capital and equity/debt offerings. However, defense and intelligence software transactions for field deployments ('in tough places') are frequently classified, procured through intelligence community channels, or executed via mechanisms not published in standard federal award databases. Because secondary investor accounts corroborate early defense/intelligence software engagements but no official public documentation exists to confirm or falsify the contracts, the claim cannot be settled with public records.

USAspending.gov and FPDS record no prime contract awards or sub-tier transactions between the Department of Defense and Hover Inc. (DUNS 078514616) from 2011 through 2015.
SBIR.gov contains zero SBIR or STTR grant or contract records for Hover Inc. during the 2011–2015 founding period.
Early documented corporate funding is recorded via SEC Form D filings (2013) and venture capital rounds rather than public federal award notices.
Menlo Ventures and industry profiles reference early tactical 3D mapping work for defense and intelligence entities, but official contract records remain inaccessible in public repositories.

Checked against

[1] growfers.com [2] wyo.gov [3] apple.com [4] forbes.com [5] menlovc.com [6] usaspending.gov [7] sbir.gov [8] sbir.gov

"Hover Inc." "Delaware" OR "California" entity OR "incorporated" "Altman" "Hover Inc" OR "Hover" "AJ Altman" "Department of Defense" OR DoD contract "Hover, Inc." "CAGE code" OR "DUNS" "Hover, Inc." site:sbir.gov "Hover Inc" "Department of Defense" site:usaspending.gov "HOVER INC" "U29RCTRNTWN4"

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

Department of Defense Hover

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Disclosure

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Assertion Partly supported

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AJ Altman May 7, 2020 ▶ 7:59 1748 "Wouldn't Be Surprise If We Hit $50M This Year" says 3d Home Modeling CEO

Hover's early development was funded by Department of Defense contracts

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