Personal Update: Founding Airloom AI

Jumping with both feet from the corporate world into a Founder role.

Those of you who know me know that I’ve always wanted to be at the helm of my own company centered around connected devices. Lots of companies build pure software. Lots of companies build good hardware with crappy software. I’ve long thought that there’s a big opportunity to build software and services that unlock the potential of hardware. I haven’t done my own startup before because I didn’t have enough conviction around a specific product concept to make the leap away from a successful corporate career in product leadership and general management roles.

I do now.

I’m making the corporate>startup transition in two stages. The first stage is supporting my wife Sara and helping her launch her own startup successfully. The startup is allister, a new restaurant and craft cocktail bar that is opening in downtown Mercer Island in a few weeks. I’ve been working full-time this month as the resident IT guy and all-around gopher - doing whatever is necessary to help us get closer to launch. Did you know that our restaurant has about 30 connected devices (POS devices, ticket printers, VOIP phones, security cameras)?

The security cameras and network video recorder at our restaurant are the inspiration for the new startup I’m founding, Airloom AI. There are millions of businesses in the United States alone that have networked security camera systems, yet that video is wasted. Operators look at their video in response to specific events and save off clips, but otherwise the data is wasted and typically gets deleted after thirty days. I believe there is tremendous value in that data that, if harnessed effectively, can help real-world businesses become more successful. That’s the thesis.

I have a clear view of the customers we’ll serve, their problems and opportunities, a sketch of the solution, the competitive environment, and a go-to-market approach. Now, it’s time to build. I’m ramping down my work at allister and ramping up in my new full-time role as Founder.

That’s all I’m sharing for now. Subscribe to the Airloom AI substack if you’d like to follow our progress or learn about ML Engineering roles that will be opening in the coming months.