A huge shoutout to Digital Ocean for their longterm continued support of our community and showcases. If you attended the last show, we have a special offer for you on behalf of Digital Ocean — look for it in your inbox!
If you’re wondering where talent, capital, and technical ambition are converging right now, our last Founders You Should Know showcase offered a pretty good snapshot.
Last Wednesday, 300+ people packed into OpenAI to meet 10 founders building across robotics, AI research, critical infrastructure, mining, human simulation—and even data transfer through space. These are companies hitting real inflection points, tackling hard technical problems, and attracting growing attention from both engineers and investors.
“Hearing from the founders in real life and having the chance to chat with them is the most effective way to find out whether there’s a fit.” - FYSK engineer, Sept. showcase attendee
And if you were in the room, you got more than the usual pitch: founders shared the stories behind the companies, the problems they’re obsessed with solving, and a few things that aren’t public yet. Sorry, we still can’t tell you. It’s a secret. 🤭
We heard about robots that can learn to operate in the physical world, models that keep learning after they leave the lab, simulations of human behavior, software rebuilding mining and construction, robots assembling AI infrastructure, and satellites designed to move the internet through space.
There was also a Woody intermission. Like Whitman, we contain multitudes.
If you missed the show, you can learn more about the companies below:
Mariana Minerals
Mariana Minerals is rebuilding mining and refining as a software-first industry, using AI, world models, and reinforcement learning to design and operate mines and processing facilities.
Founder: Juan Lozano
Open Roles: MLE/SWE with autonomy experience, Generalist MLE, Controls Engineer, Product Manager, and other roles
Core Automation
Core Automation is developing AI systems that can continue learning after deployment and using agents to automate the process of AI research itself.
Founder: Jerry Tworek
Open Roles: Software Engineers, Research Engineers, AI Researchers
Ploy
Ploy builds AI agents that continuously analyze and improve a company’s growth engine, from websites and content to experiments and campaigns.
Founder: Bryant Chou
Open Roles: Data Engineers, Product Engineers, GTM Engineers
Generalist
Generalist is building general intelligence for the physical world, developing models that allow robots to learn new skills and operate in unfamiliar environments.
Founder: Pete Florence
Open Roles: Research Assistants, Research Scientists (Pre-Training, Post-Training), Infra, ML Infra, ML Optimization, ML Robotics Systems, Product, Robotics Controls, Electrical Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Engineering Technicians
EON
EON is building a space-based alternative to subsea fiber, using optical ground stations and satellites to move enormous amounts of data with infrared lasers.
Founder: Charlie Horowitz
Open Roles: FPGA Engineer, GNC Engineer, Embedded Software Engineer, Opto-Mechanical Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Thermal Engineer
Intelligence (Design Arena)
Design Arena is an eval platform for subjective AI tasks, using human preference to determine which model outputs are actually better.
Founder: Grace Li
Open Roles: Founder’s Associate, Product Engineering, ML Engineer, Post-Training Research, Data Science
Gradient Robotics
Gradient Robotics builds robots to manufacture and maintain the physical infrastructure behind AI.
Founder: JX Mo
Open Roles: Mechanical Design Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Robotics Software Engineer, Integration Engineer, Hardware Technician, Business Operations Lead
Simile
Simile builds models of human behavior that let companies simulate how different populations will respond to products, pricing, messaging, and other decisions.
Founder: Joon Sung Park
Open Roles: Hiring across Research, Engineering, Product, Deployed Engineering, Operations, and GTM
Unlimited Industries
Unlimited Industries is an AI-native engineering and construction company building factories, data centers, energy infrastructure, and other critical projects.
Founder: Alex Modon
Open Roles: Multidisciplinary Builders (Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace, Robotics, Motorsports, Dynamic Systems), Team Builders, Business Development
Thank you again to OpenAI for hosting us, DigitalOcean for their continued support, and to all of the founders, volunteers, referrers, and 300+ members of the FYSK community who made the room so special.
Couldn’t make this one? Our next showcase is coming up on November 18. Apply to the FYSK community to get invited to future showcases, founder dinners, and other events.