Jul 2023 – Jun 2025 · 1 yr 11 mos · Chicago, Illinois, United States · On-site

• I founded Bedrock Materials with a colleague from Stanford to develop, commercialize and scale ultra-low cost sodium-ion battery materials. Sodium-ion batteries promised offer most of the performance of lithium ion, but at a lower cost and critical mineral intensity. We raised $9 million and opened a state of the art battery research facility in Chicago. Sadly, declining battery prices and EV prospects in the wake of the 2024 election led Bedrock to pause technology development in 2025. We paid our vendors in full and returned most of our capital to our loyal investors. Onward!

Jan 2022 – Jul 2023 · 1 yr 6 mos

• Enovix is a frontier manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries with advanced silicon anodes. Its products deliver outstanding energy density for consumer electronics applications. I joined as the first hire devoted full-time to electric vehicle technology. In my time with the company, I developed the business case and technical strategy to enter the EV market and designed the company's first products to serve it.
• The role was an engaging mix of business modeling, product management, and design engineering, and culminated in the company executing development agreements with two automotive OEM's.

Sep 2021 – May 2023 · 1 yr 8 mos

• As a graduate student at Stanford, I focused on next-generation metal-fluoride battery cathodes that have the potential to reduce the cost, weight, and size of lithium-ion batteries. As is tradition, I dropped out of my PhD program to found a company.

Nov 2020 – Mar 2023 · 2 yrs 4 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

• VMG provided executive and board-level advisory services on robotics and battery technology to several NASDAQ-listed companies.

Sep 2016 – Jun 2021 · 4 yrs 9 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

• Impossible Aerospace was founded to build the world's highest endurance battery-electric aircraft leveraging lithium-ion structure technology. The company raised ~$13 million from leading Silicon Valley venture capital firms and brought its first product, the US-1 unmanned aircraft, to market in 2019. The aircraft delivered category-leading range and loiter time to demanding enterprise and government customers. Impossible Aerospace was acquired in December 2020 and merged into Vayu Aerospace thereafter.

May 2015 – Sep 2016 · 1 yr 4 mos · Palo Alto, CA

• At Tesla, I was on a team of engineers that turned over 7,000 AA-sized cylindrical battery cells into an EV battery pack. My particular contribution was to redesign several key mechanical components (such as mounts, cooling systems, and safety systems) to enable the Model S P100D.
• The role was a multidisciplinary mix of materials science, mechanical engineering, and thermal analysis.

Sep 2014 – Dec 2014 · 3 mos · Palo Alto, CA

• I was involved in core research and development of next-generation (Model 3) concepts for cell cooling, interconnecting, and structural packaging.

May 2014 – Aug 2014 · 3 mos · Hawthorne, CA

• I designed secondary structures for use in the Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9R avionics systems.

Sep 2013 – Jan 2014 · 4 mos · Palo Alto, CA

Jun 2013 – Aug 2013 · 2 mos · Greenbelt, MD

Jan 2013 – May 2013 · 4 mos · Hawthorne, CA

Jun 2012 – Aug 2012 · 2 mos · Greenbelt, MD

Jan 2011 – Jan 2011 · 0 mo

Jan 2010 – Jan 2010 · 0 mo

Jan 2009 – Jan 2009 · 0 mo