From NASA Engineer to Y Combinator Founder: Building an Open-Source AI Company After Working on Mars Rovers

Founder of ChatOpenSource — from NASA's Curiosity mission to Y Combinator

Not every founder story starts in Silicon Valley. Some start in South Louisiana, off the Mississippi River, in a region locals call "Cancer Alley" — a stretch dense with chemical plants, pollution, and health problems that shaped a young kid's determination to find a different life. This is one of those stories.

Growing Up in 'Cancer Alley': The Origin of a Different Kind of Drive

Growing up in South Louisiana, I was immersed in a place you might come across if you Google "Cancer Alley." It's a region with a significant amount of pollution due to the abundance of chemical plants, one of which my father worked for. Health problems were common in our family and among our friends.

Determined to find a different path, I went to Louisiana State University (LSU) where I earned a degree in physics and mathematics. Initially, I thought I might become a physicist. But I also had another dream brewing — one that had taken root at around age ten, when my parents gave me an old computer and, with it, access to a world beyond my front door.

I encountered the Bay Area tech culture through that screen and it stirred a feeling of optimism that was in stark contrast with my surroundings. Google was gaining momentum just as I was discovering the world beyond South Louisiana. The first AI winter — that period of reduced funding and interest in artificial intelligence — was waning. These experiences ignited a desire for something grounded in science and evidence, underscored by fresh mindsets and new technology.

From LSU Physics to NASA's Mars Missions

My journey was hardly linear. I initially pursued a PhD in quantum computing but ended up working for NASA instead — which, in hindsight, was not the worst pivot.

At NASA, I worked on high-profile missions including Maven and Curiosity — the Mars Science Laboratory rover that continues to operate on the Martian surface to this day. I honed my skills in systems engineering, spacecraft operations, and testing. The work was extraordinary. The pace was not.

I also had the opportunity to work at Northrop Grumman, focusing on the MQ-4C Triton — a Navy unmanned surveillance aircraft. There I further developed my expertise in systems engineering and DevOps while working within the cybersecurity and infrastructure domains.

Despite the thrill of working on missions that made the news, I couldn't escape a growing frustration. The pace was too slow. The operations too bureaucratic. It wasn't the fast-moving, fail-fast environment I was hungry for. These prestigious organizations gave me an exceptional foundation — but they also made clear exactly what kind of environment I needed to build something of my own.

The First Taste of Startup Speed: Deliv

The frustrations at NASA and Northrop Grumman eventually led me to Deliv — a courier delivery startup aiming to make deliveries within one hour of the order being placed. It was my first experience in the breakneck pace of a real startup environment.

Our team went from zero to one million deliveries per day in just two years — an almost incomprehensible pace compared to the meticulously slow operations I'd come from. The contrast was electric. This was the environment I'd been looking for.

Our rapid success prompted Target to acquire Deliv. Suddenly, I found myself inside a Fortune 50 retailer — a valuable education in its own right, and a bridge to what came next.

Y Combinator and the Founding of ChatOpenSource

Following my time at Target, I joined Y Combinator — one of the world's most prestigious startup accelerators — where I founded my first company. It was an intense, transformative process.

The initial journey involved numerous pivots, failed products, and unmet customer needs. Each failure installed a lesson: it's not about building products you love — it's about understanding what your customers actually need and meeting them there. Eventually, after considerable trial and error, I founded ChatOpenSource.

What ChatOpenSource Is — and Why It Matters

ChatOpenSource delivers an open-source alternative to ChatGPT. It's more versatile and purpose-built for companies with strict privacy and security requirements — including those in the legal, healthcare, and financial sectors.

The enterprise world is vast, and while consumer AI tools like ChatGPT focus on broad, general use, ChatOpenSource aims to meet the complex and specific needs of business sectors where data sovereignty isn't optional. As the centralization of power in the AI industry becomes an increasingly serious concern, ChatOpenSource offers organizations a path to AI capabilities on their own terms.

"You can have all the money in the world, but if you see a need in society and you fulfill that need and you make something new — that's what gives me goosebumps. That's what it's all about, really."

The Lessons That Carry Forward

The idea of building my own startup was once a vague dream nurtured by a computer in South Louisiana. It became real through a series of pivots, realizations, and experiments that pushed my limits. The path from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to Y Combinator to building an open-source AI company is not one anyone would have drawn on a whiteboard. But it makes complete sense in retrospect.

I would not be where I am today without the lessons learned from previous roles, mentors, peers, successes, and disappointments. The journey has not ended — it has only begun. The ever-evolving field of AI continues to pose new challenges, opportunities, and horizons to explore.

So for those of you with a similar dream — even if you don't know any founders, software engineers, or people who've left your home state — remember this: aim to meet the needs of your customers. Focus on addressing compelling problems, find the right distribution strategy, and remember that as a founder, your job is to solve problems. The rest follows.