Thazen + Design Interactive · SBA Mentor-Protégé Joint Venture
Research that transitions to fielded capability.
Enactic Labs pairs Design Interactive’s SBIR research and human performance depth with Thazen’s production AI and software engineering, so promising prototypes become systems your users actually run.
What Enactic Is
One small-business team, two complementary companies
Enactic Labs, LLC is a joint venture between Thazen and Design Interactive, formed in August 2026 under an SBA-approved Mentor-Protégé Agreement between the two companies.
It gives agencies and primes a single small-business partner for set-asides in AI, software, simulation, training and human performance.
Protégé
Thazen
AI and software engineering firm embedded on defense, federal civilian and commercial programs. SBA Certified HUBZone Small Business.
Mentor
Design Interactive
Woman-owned research and technology company founded in 1998 in Orlando, focused on human performance, extended reality and data science.
Combined Strengths
From research question to production system
Most innovation programs stall between prototype and program of record. Enactic covers the whole path with one team.
Research
Human-centered, mission-relevant research and user studies.
Prototype
SBIR Phase I and II prototypes in XR, AI and assessment.
Engineer
Production software, cloud and DevSecOps built to operate.
Field
Program-embedded delivery that sustains the capability.
Capabilities
What we deliver
AI Engineering
Production machine learning, agentic AI and evaluation harnesses, held to the same engineering discipline as any other software.
Secure Generative AI
Private generative AI in government and commercial clouds, with data kept in the customer’s own environment.
Software Engineering & Modernization
Full-spectrum software development, architecture and legacy modernization at commercial speed.
Cloud, DevSecOps & SRE
Cloud platform engineering, secure delivery pipelines and reliability engineering for systems that must stay up.
Human Performance & XR Training
Human systems integration, extended reality, digital twins and automated performance assessment.
Program-Embedded Delivery
Senior engineers working inside program teams, owning outcomes rather than tickets.
SBIR & Transition Track Record
Proven research and delivery
Design Interactive
- SBIR-STTR Tibbetts Award winner, recognized by SBA for a patented wrist-worn stress-measurement algorithm that moved from SBIR research into Phase III work.
- Multiple SBIR Phase III contracts supporting the Navy’s Surface Warfare Officer School, USSOCOM and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
- Recent Navy SBIR Phase II work on extended reality for Navy shipyards, AI/ML for Standard Missile maintenance (a TRL-7 prototype goal) and USMC training and assessment tools.
- Army SBIR Phase II award (2023).
Thazen
- Federal civilian AI engineering for the U.S. Courts – Ninth Circuit.
- Secure generative AI proposal-evaluation prototype in a government cloud reached the semi-finalist round of the NAWCTSD AI Prize Challenge (2024).
- Engineers embedded on U.S. Army training, simulation and cloud programs as a subcontractor.
- Builds and runs Topsoil, a private AI coding agent, with a person reviewing every change.
Design Interactive facts from public SBIR.gov records.
Agencies Served by the Partners
Experience across defense and federal missions
- U.S. Army
- U.S. Navy
- U.S. Marine Corps
- U.S. Air Force
- DARPA
- Defense Health Agency
- USSOCOM
- Department of Homeland Security
- NASA
- U.S. Courts
- USPS
Agencies served by Thazen or Design Interactive individually, as prime or subcontractor. Enactic Labs was formed in 2026.
Identifiers
Enactic Labs, LLC
- CAGE
- 25AH8
- UEI
- D2JWBMC3LF41
- Basis
- SBA Mentor-Protégé Joint Venture
Contact
Have a set-aside, SBIR topic or transition challenge?
Tell us about the mission, the users and the timeline. An engineer will get back to you.