Upgrade the Human

David Venegas, Founder & CEO of Edgerun, August 25, 2026

Every system on the modern battlefield has been upgraded. The human carrying it has not.

Ships, planes, tanks, drones, satellites: all have been redesigned, re-engineered, and refit dozens of times since WWII. The infantryman walks on the same two legs, powered by the same musculature, limited by the same skeleton. The kit on his back has gotten heavier every decade, yet his body has not changed.

Until now. Edgerun upgrades the warfighter with purpose-built physical augmentation to push harder, last longer, and go farther. We endeavor to expand humanity’s area of operations, on Earth and beyond.

The human is the bottleneck

In 2021, orbital launches reached a record high for the first time since 1967 and have continued to break that record every year since. Yet the number of humans reaching orbit each year is no higher than it was forty years ago. The ships are ready, but life-support systems are not.

Orbital testing creates a bottleneck. Each launch costs $100M+, failure is fatal, and iteration is capped by launch window. The repetitions needed to turn prototypes into trusted equipment require real users in the free market. History demonstrates technology must be proven on Earth first, as Apollo spacesuits were built by underwear companies that perfected their craft long before NASA contracts.

We begin by upgrading the load capacity of the soldier, who carries more gear, into worse places, at a higher cost-of-failure, than any other customer on Earth. Next we take on respiration, pressure, and thermal control, which have applications in energy, mining, construction, fire, and rescue. Space is where they converge into mission-critical life-support systems.

We are building the physical augmentation company, starting with the talent, the customers, and the compounding feedback loops required to optimize human performance in extreme environments.

Run to the edge

Humanity is drawn to the frontiers and the heroes who brave them. It is human to reach beyond, to explore the unknown, an ancient drive that leads to our survival and evolution. The edgerunner, in Mike Pondsmith’s 1988 universe, is the individual who refuses to be replaced by the machines. As robotics advance, so too must humans.

Edgerun builds for those who operate at the edge.