I'm Jacob. I build things.

MIT-trained mechanical engineer turned founder. I spent nine years building a company, sold it, and I'm now working out what I want the next ten years to be.

Jacob smiling in front of a green hedge — Hi.

Oculus pulled. Apple didn't.

MIT is where I learned to love building: find a real problem, question the assumptions, start from first principles.

In school I interned at Oculus right before Facebook bought it, then at Apple. Two great companies, two completely different worlds. At Oculus everything was still being figured out, and I loved that. That's when a love of building products turned into a love of building companies.

Jacob in his MIT baseball uniform — Nerdy MIT athlete

Prototypes at 2am

Senior year, a few buddies and I took Bill Aulet's entrepreneurship class and tried starting something. That became Perch: computer vision for the weight room, built by MIT athletes who knew the problem firsthand.

We had no idea what we were doing, and even less traction by graduation. I started grad school and we kept chipping away on the side. Machine shops between lectures. Prototypes at 2am. Somewhere in there it stopped being the side thing, so I dropped out.

Demoing Perch on stage at MIT DeltaV — Demo day, MIT DeltaV

Nine years of Perch

Our first customer was LSU, during their 2019 national championship run. Perch ended up in more than 300 elite weight rooms around the world: Georgia, Duke, the New York Giants and many more. We grew to a team of about 23, built a profitable business, and in 2025 we were acquired by Catapult Sports.

Those years were long days, early mornings, constant travel and carrying the hardest problems home. I've come to think the suffering is part of the job. Founders refuse to accept that a problem can't be solved, and that refusal is both the engine and the cost. If it's coming either way, point it at something worth it.

An athlete lifting at a rack with a Perch unit — Perch in the wild

The Perch team in front of a squat rack — The team

A few days in the woods

I stayed on after the acquisition. The same pull I felt at Oculus came back, stronger: the only work I really want is zero to one. I spent a few days in the woods to be sure, and then I left.

Jacob standing by icebergs in Iceland — Thinking it over

Building again

Now I'm building with AI every day, and testing what agents actually change about running a business. I'm making Wren, a writing partner for founders, plus a handful of side projects that may or may not become companies. I advise early-stage founders and I'm starting to angel invest.

Where I'll spend the next decade is likely big, hard, real-world problems: physical AI, robotics, energy, healthcare.

Family first

Deanna and I moved to Durham, North Carolina for her surgical fellowship at Duke, with our daughter Robin and our dog Oso. Whatever I build next, family comes first.

If you're in the middle of something hard right now, I'd love to hear from you.

Jacob and his wife Deanna by the water — Deanna and me