{"id":198709,"date":"2026-04-02T14:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/?p=198709"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:00:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T12:00:39","slug":"startup-story-culturepulse-x-nato-diana-estonian-accelerator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/startup-story-culturepulse-x-nato-diana-estonian-accelerator\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup story: CulturePulse X NATO DIANA Estonian Accelerator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conflicts today\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0just happen on the battlefield \u2013 they start in how people think, talk, and form opinions. Understanding how information spreads and influences\u00a0behaviour\u00a0is becoming increasingly important.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CulturePulse<\/a>\u00a0combines\u00a0AI and\u00a0behavioural\u00a0science to better understand and predict how narratives shape societies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spoke with Michael\u00a0Gantley<\/strong>, Executive Vice President, and Jakub \u0160uster<\/strong>, Vice President for Strategy and Expansion, about where the idea came from, the challenges of turning complex AI into practical tools, and\u00a0why the NATO DIANA Estonian accelerator<\/a> is\u00a0an important step in their journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does your startup do?\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0
CulturePulse<\/strong> builds AI technology that profiles groups and models how narratives spread across societies to understand and predict how information influences\u00a0behaviour. The company was co-founded by Dr. Justin E. Lane<\/strong> (CEO), a computational social scientist from Oxford with a decade of experience developing AI systems for social cohesion, risk, and influence analysis, and Dr. F. LeRon Shults<\/strong> (Chief Research Officer), a leading expert in social simulation and AI with over 200 publications and multiple academic appointments. The leadership team also includes Dr. Michael (Mick)\u00a0Gantley<\/strong>\u00a0(EVP), an Oxford-trained computational social scientist who leads product development, translating advanced AI and\u00a0behavioural\u00a0modelling into operational tools for\u00a0defence\u00a0and government users.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you\u00a0come up with\u00a0the idea?\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started by noticing something critical. Modern conflicts\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0just happen on battlefields anymore. They happen in the information space first. Whoever can shape how people think about an issue often wins the narrative war. We looked at what tools already existed and found they were mostly watching what content was out there.\u00a0But nobody was really answering the harder question: how do stories actually spread from person to person, and what makes people actually believe and act on them?\u00a0That\u2019s where\u00a0CulturePulse\u00a0came in. We built something that models how humans actually think and make decisions \u2013 not just tracking narratives, but understanding how people absorb them, share them, and ultimately act on them. And we do this at scale, simulating millions of realistic human agents, so you can see the ripple effects across entire populations.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0the difference between knowing a story exists and understanding why it sticks with people.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biggest challenges\/failures and wins?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of our toughest challenges has been bridging the gap between powerful AI technology and something\u00a0defence\u00a0and government teams can\u00a0actually use\u00a0in their daily work. That journey from \u201cimpressive capability\u201d to \u201coperational tool\u201d is longer and more complex than most people expect. On the wins side, the validation speaks for itself.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0had strong results in UK government evaluations and been accepted into NATO DIANA, which tells us\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0building something the\u00a0defence\u00a0community genuinely needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What sets you apart from competitors?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most tools out there\u00a0monitor\u00a0content or track sentiment. We do something fundamentally different.\u00a0CulturePulse<\/strong>\u00a0models how humans\u00a0think, learn, and forget, powered by our proprietary Cognitive Architecture. This lets us build psychologically realistic agents quickly and at scale, from individual profiles all the way up to populations of millions. That means we can forecast and predict human\u00a0behaviour\u00a0at both the individual and group level, not just describe what has already happened. In our work with NATO DIANA, we focus on profiling groups and networks to understand how narratives spread and shape\u00a0behaviour\u00a0across complex systems. The result is a system-level view of influence dynamics, giving decision-makers predictive insight into how information environments evolve and how populations are likely to respond.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why NATO DIANA?\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We chose NATO DIANA because it gives us direct access to\u00a0defence\u00a0users, real test environments, and clear paths to adoption. Exactly what we need to\u00a0validate\u00a0and scale our dual-use technology. It also aligns closely with our mission: helping NATO understand and\u00a0operateeffectively in the information battlespace.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do you see your startup in 12 months and 5 years?\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0
In one year, we want to prove that our technology works in the real world. That means running pilots with\u00a0defence\u00a0users, gathering feedback, and showing measurable results in how we help analysts understand influence operations and support better decisions. In five years, we want to be a trusted, go-to capability for NATO and allied\u00a0organisations\u00a0when it comes to understanding the information environment and building resilience against cognitive warfare. Not a nice-to-have, but a core part of how they\u00a0operate.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who will be the next\u00a0defence\u00a0or dual-use unicorn?<\/strong>\u00a0
Honestly, watching the NATO DIANA cohorts, a number of companies coming through the program have serious unicorn potential, and the smart money is already paying attention.\u00a0The next breakout might be European, drone or AI-enabled, and battle-tested in Ukraine. Companies like Quantum Systems and ARX Robotics are building fast in the right lanes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which books\/podcasts\/publications and influencers in your field do you follow and would recommend to other aspiring entrepreneurs?\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0
The team follows a mix of AI,\u00a0defence, and\u00a0behavioural\u00a0science sources. In AI and technology, we find the work of people like Andrej\u00a0Karpathy<\/strong>\u00a0and publications such as MIT Technology Review and\u00a0arXiv\u00a0useful for staying close to technical developments. In the\u00a0defence\u00a0and security space, we look to\u00a0organisations\u00a0like NATO, RAND, and the UK MOD\/Dstl outputs, as well as work on information warfare and cognitive security. For entrepreneurship, regular listening includes podcasts such as a16z, 20VC, Brain We Are\u00a0and also\u00a0Dairy of CEO which\u00a0provide\u00a0practical insights into building and scaling technology companies. Across the company, we often come back to a few core reads, particularly The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni and The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NATO DIANA Estonian accelerator is implemented by\u00a0Tehnopol\u00a0Startup Incubator together with\u00a0Sparkup\u00a0Tartu Science Park.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: Jakub \u0160uster, Vice President for Strategy and Expansion (left) and Michael Gantley, Executive Vice President (right) by Enriko Pedaksalu<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conflicts today\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0just happen on the battlefield \u2013 they start in how people think, talk, and form opinions. Understanding how information spreads and influences\u00a0behaviour\u00a0is becoming increasingly important.\u00a0 CulturePulse\u00a0combines\u00a0AI and\u00a0behavioural\u00a0science to better understand and predict how narratives shape societies.\u00a0\u00a0 We spoke with Michael\u00a0Gantley, Executive Vice President, and Jakub \u0160uster, Vice President for Strategy and Expansion, about where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":198711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[182,198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-startup-incubator","category-dual-use-and-defence-technologies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198709"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198719,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198709\/revisions\/198719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}