Founded a “pitch startup” in college to get my feet wet, was a wearable wristband for basketball tracking. Lasted a year and a half but gave enough experience to see how the lower tier startup ecosystem functioned.
Spent a few years in industry getting as much practical experience in autonomy software as I could, working for less than I was worth but gaining valuable experience making actual robots do complicated things.
Got into the MRSD program at CMU and signed up for a tough line up of classes, worked hard on projects to have a strong showcase of work. Made a portfolio website that highlighted technical accomplishments, honed my resume.
Spent as much time as I could during my final semester interviewing and seeking out early companies, used big companies as interview practice. Had offers from Anduril, Aurora, Boston Dynamics, Uber ATG, Fox Robotics. Talked to a few others, some small Boston startups that hadn’t showed progress, on in Houston that had inexperienced engineering/leadership. Most of these were opportunities that I tracked down and applied for, but Anduril did a recruiting session on campus and did a dinner with Palmer Luckey that I attended. Someone from Human Capital reached out and talked me into doing the dinner.
Aurora had potentially high upside and seemed like a sure thing (SPAC has proven otherwise) but treated me like I’d be implementing other people’s ideas. Uber ATG was low and wouldn’t negotiate, Boston Dynamics was a pile of cash and seemed like fun work, but didn’t have any equity stake as part of the compensation package.
Had red flags from Fox Robotics, so steered clear. Observed a cold call while I was on site that had a weird tone, and seemed to be entirely engineer driven rather than having a blend of business and engineering acumen.
The founders at Anduril were really experienced which stood out, all coming from previous successful startups. Was easy to tell I’d be providing strong value to the company with their blend of hardware/software and could see a wide range of market potential in the defense space. Having a founder like Palmer meant there would be steady ability to hype the company to new hires, capacity to scale and grow an engineering team is extremely important for a startup - if you are impressed by the founders then others will be. Other members of the team had strong background building Palantir and growing a business in the defense space. Above all seemed like a group of people with a strong sense of mission who cared deeply about accomplishing their mission, having a purpose that is clearly defined is incredibly galvanizing. Joined somewhere in the 45-50 range.
Leave enough time in your career plan to fail with at least one of the startups you found/join. Failure is always a possibility and you should budget for it. Be willing to walk away - I gave up the equity in my first startup and walked away because it was evident that we were spinning our wheels and not gaining traction. Build valuable skills and make sure you have a breadth of practical knowledge so that you can wear a lot of hats when you first join, and be prepared to gracefully transfer those hats to new hires who onboard and are able to take work off your plate.
If you’re in high school do cool things that you can talk to later. Built a remote controlled hovercraft, spent more time programming video games than playing them. Interacted a bunch with people in the Blender community for feedback on what I was building. Choice of where you go for undergrad can be less important if you end up doing grad school, but I wouldn’t have had the chance to join Anduril if I hadn’t been at a top tier institution.