Founding unique businesses for over a decade.
Big dreams require teamwork and dedication to bring them to life, and I’ve been bringing groups of people together to make big dreams a reality for over a decade. From helping coordinate tens of thousands of volunteers around the globe making medical supplies during a pandemic, to pushing the state of the art of robotics research, to creating viral entertainment sensations, to providing public access to professional manufacturing equipment, I’ve brought groups of like-minded people together to build novel, long-lasting businesses and communities time and again.
Open Source Medical Supplies
When China quarantined 780 million people to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in February of 2020, the global medical supply chain briefly collapsed. As COVID-19 spread, every country on earth demanded the same medical supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers and essential workers, while the world’s primary supplier shut down; this led to widespread shortages of critical supplies as the pandemic was accelerating.
I founded Open Source Medical Supplies (OSMS) in March of 2020 in order to empower makers and manufacturers across the world to make safe medical supplies from known-good, open source plans to help their local communities fight the pandemic. Over 70,000 volunteers joined its discussion forum, and the network jointly produced over 48 million units of medical supplies in 83 countries around the world, representing a total market value of over $268M.
OSMS was able to stand up a staff of 20 after raising over $950,000 in nonprofit funding from Schmidt Futures, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Toyota Research Institute, and private donors, and acquiring fiscal sponsorship from RESOLVE. I serve as Co-Executive Director.
Known-good plans
OSMS curated over 200 open source designs across 35 medical supply categories from across the globe. These plans could be made via a variety of processes, and ranged from crisis grade to authorized under the FDA’s EUA program.
Responding locally, globally
Makerspaces, manufacturers, and individuals across the globe stepped up to take those plans, create improvised assembly lines mid-pandemic, and produce DIY medical supplies and PPE for their local communities using they tools they had.
Protecting frontline workers
Hospitals, nursing homes, homeless shelters, essential services and communities across the world received improvised PPE and medical supplies that allowed them to protect themselves from COVID-19 while the global medical supply chain recovered.
Breeze Automation
The vast majority of robots are designed to operate indoors in ideal, predictable, structured environments. The heavy, rigid design of many electric motor-driven robots doesn’t allow them to interact with unstructured, outdoor, or hazardous environments easily or safely, and such environments represent a new frontier of robot hardware design.
I co-founded Breeze Automation out of Otherlab in 2018 to develop inexpensive, next-generation robot arms powered by pressurized ambient air and water instead of electric motors in order to interact safely and robustly with unstructured environments anywhere from under water to outer space.
Breeze Automation had a staff of 6 and generated $2.5M in revenue from R&D contracts with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and private clients. It disbanded in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted R&D funding. I served as CEO and CTO.
Research with production
The Breeze Automation team combined cutting edge controls engineering of compliant structures and compressible gases with design for manufacturing. The goal was to create inexpensive, safe, mass-producible robots for any environment.
Low cost, high performance
Breeze robots were made of plastic and fabric instead of metal; inventions included plastic cartridge valves, fabric actuators that withstood 230 psi, and joints that produced 2-3X more torque per weight than high-end electric actuators.
Unique robot capabilities
Fluidic robot design offered a number of advantages. Underwater arms used water for actuation and structure, making them neutrally buoyant and resilient to leaks. Pneumatic robots interacted with humans safely and took impacts without breaking.
MegaBots
Science fiction has dominated the Hollywood box office for the past decade, sci-fi franchises have shown serious market staying power through merchandising, and new sports like UFC recently sold for billions. The entertainment industry is ripe for new, technology-enabled sports that offer the potential to bring science fiction to life.
I co-founded MegaBots in 2014 to bring the giant fighting mechs of science fiction to life, with the goal of starting a next-generation live action sports league. MegaBots blended cutting-edge robotics engineering, heavy-duty steel fabrication, Hollywood-grade video production, and viral marketing into a cohesive attempt to use real-world technology to create a combat sport from scratch. The MegaBots team created the Iron Glory and Eagle Prime combat mechs, produced a season of entertainment content, and produced the Giant Robot Duel - the world’s first-ever giant robot fight, featuring Iron Glory, Eagle Prime, and Suidobashi Heavy Industry’s KURATAS.
MegaBots had a staff of up to 20, generated $2M in entertainment revenue (including merchandise sales, appearances, and ticket sales), and received $6.5M in venture capital investment from DCM Ventures, Autodesk, Azure Capital, V1.VC, AME Cloud Ventures, Enspire VC, Maveron, Ruvento, Greycroft, Golden Whales, Uncommon VC, and angel investors. It failed to raise Series A funding to launch a sports league, and halted most operations in 2018. I served as CEO, CTO, and executive producer.
Mixing engineering and entertainment
The MegaBots team included mechanical, electrical and controls engineers, metal fabricators, technicians, and part of the Mythbusters video production team. The team had to constantly strike a balance between production, engineering, fabrication and testing to create both a first-of-its-kind mech and entertaining content on a schedule.
Serviceable cutting edge
Eagle Prime had to protect its human pilots while fighting other giant combat robots on a live entertainment schedule. Its overall system design and control system were unique and cutting edge, while the structure and actuation of the robot was designed to be robust, modular, serviceable, and transportable anywhere in the world.
Entertaining the world
MegaBots challenged Suidobashi Heavy Industry to the world’s first Giant Robot Duel, and sparked a viral entertainment sensation. MegaBots YouTube content was viewed more than 27 million times, and the brand earned 40 billion impressions globally via earned media over the course of 4 years.
Project Hexapod
Robots are hard to make at the best of times, the skillsets necessary to design and build them can be difficult to attain, and they often require large teams.
Project Hexapod began as a hands-on, project-based robot design class at Artisan’s Asylum in 2012 designed to address how difficult it is to learn how to make robots, taught by myself and two other instructors. The goal of the class was to teach the mechanical, electrical, and controls engineering principles behind robot design by designing a giant, rideable hexapod robot that seats two, and to use class revenue to fund prototypes to prove the robot could work. At the conclusion of the class, the team ran a successful crowdfunding campaign for the funds necessary to build the final robot, and transitioned to a long-term, volunteer-run, open-source design-and-build project. Stompy is mechanically complete, and controls system development continues to this day in Cambridge, MA to make the robot safe for others to ride.
Project Hexapod has had a volunteer team of 25-30 people over the course of the last 8 years, and raised $97,817 on Kickstarter. I served as an instructor, project manager and mechanical engineering lead.
Starting with education
Robots can be incredibly expensive to prototype and build, and Project Hexapod was an experiment in designing and building affordable robots in a new way. Students paid to take a hands-on class in robot design, and the funds were used to pay for prototypes, to prove that a large hydraulic hexapod could be made cheaply.
Volunteer engineering and fabrication
After raising sufficient funds on Kickstarter, Project Hexapod became a years-long volunteer design and build project. Students became committed volunteers, and learned how to design, fabricate, assemble and service every part of a giant, 130-horsepower, propane-powered hydraulic walking robot.
Real-world testing and training
Stompy was designed to be as large as Artisan’s Asylum could handle, and once it was fully assembled (2.5 years after the project began) it moved to an outdoor car port in Cambridge, MA. The volunteer team has been developing control systems for walking over unstructured outdoor terrain ever since.
Artisan’s Asylum
Somerville and Cambridge are dense college towns whose homes don’t tend to come with garages or large basements. It can be impossible to maintain the tools or workshop necessary to be an artist, maker or artisan in these cities, and many people give up, move away, or look to their community for answers.
I co-founded Artisan’s Asylum in 2010 after I graduated from Olin College of Engineering, moved to Somerville, and no longer had access to the college’s machine shop to work on hobby projects. The goal of the space was to remove as many of the obstacles as possible to making creative expression a way of life. I rented a 1,000 sqft workshop, purchased $40,000 worth of fabrication equipment, and asked if my community wanted to share my tools with me in exchange for membership fees. The project snowballed immediately with overwhelming demand; Artisan’s Asylum moved into a 9,000 sqft workshop a month after its opening announcement, then into a 25,000 sqft workshop a year later while hiring full-time staff to keep up with membership, and then expanded to a final 40,000 sqft, serving over 300 members and 3,000 students per year within two years.
Artisan’s Asylum had a staff between 3-5, a committed volunteer officer group of up to 20 people as it was getting started, and a rotating group of over 50 instructors. It hit a peak of $1M/yr in earned revenue as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, and continues operations to this day; you can watch Mythbuster Adam Savage take a tour of the Asylum here. I served as President and member of the Board of Directors.
Starting with tools
The initial magnetic attraction of Artisan’s Asylum was the diversity of manufacturing equipment members could use. Even when the space was only 1,000 sqft, it featured CNC mills, lathes, welders, table saws, jointers, planers, sewing machines, sergers soldering irons and more. Members could make cross-disciplinary projects from day 1.
Building a committed community
Members came for the tools, students came for the classes, but everyone stayed for the community. Hundreds of people held memberships and rented offices at Artisan’s Asylum, and were surrounded by like-minded folks working on their own projects. The Asylum became a home away from home for many.
Making creativity a way of life
The Asylum broke barriers that kept people from making a living by being creative. Students could take night classes, learn new skills, and switch careers. Members could use millions of dollars worth of equipment to make projects for hobby or sale. Teachers could pay rent with class revenue.
Blues Union
I co-founded Blues Union in 2009 after learning how to Blues dance while traveling between national dance events, and needing a venue in Boston to practice in. Blues Union provided a central venue for the Boston Blues dancing community to gather in on Thursday nights, hitting peaks of 80 dancers a night, hosting live bands once a month, regularly holding beginner and intermediate dance lesson series, and occasionally hosting workshop weekends and practicum.
Blues Union had a committed weekly volunteer group of 10-20 people, a set of 5-10 dance instructors that rotated through lesson series, and a group of 5-10 regular DJs, and operates to this day (though is currently closed for COVID-19). I served as event organizer, dance instructor, emcee and DJ.
Learning the basics
The first step towards building a dance community was teaching people how to Blues dance. The idea for Blues Union was born out of overwhelming demand for more Blues dance classes from venues like MIT’s free dance lessons on Wednesday night, where I taught.
Practice, practice, practice
As early students improved, they became intermediate and advanced dancers that then taught new beginners. Dance instructors moved to Boston, and taught yet more people. DJs learned the genre. Soon, a community built around discovering and enjoying Blues was born.
Dancing the Blues
Blues Union soon became a staple in the Boston dance community, running every Thursday night for over a decade. Hundreds of people learned and danced the Blues over the years, keeping the Blues alive in their own ways.
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