America's Angels

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He built a virtual world where 150 million people made friends, fell in love, and even got married, all inside a headset.

Shawn Whiting, the founding designer of Rec Room (a platform once valued at $3.5 billion), joins America's Angels hosts Jennifer Kaehms and Andrea Kalmans to trace his journey from a small town in Virginia to the very dawn of modern VR. From giving a young Sam Altman his first-ever VR demo at Y Combinator, to designing social systems that united players across 12 platforms and multiple virtual weddings, Sean shares the wild stories behind building one of the most beloved VR communities in history. The conversation covers his early days hacking a multiplayer dance club above Jupiter, the realities of scaling Rec Room to consoles and mobile, what Snapchat's acquisition means for the future of AR glasses, and why he's now bringing his community-building expertise into the real world with Austin Demo Day. Plus, the hosts debate a timely question: are VR friendships actually healthy for kids, and how do we tell the difference between virtual connection and digital escapism?

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He shut down his 20-year consulting business to help a friend build rockets — then watched a rocket explode, a $16 million deal vanish overnight, and 160 people get laid off. His response? "Nothing is over until I say it's over."

In Episode 8 of America's Angels, Jenny Kaehms and Andrea Kalmans sit down with Eric Salwan, co-founder of Firefly Aerospace, the Austin-based space transportation company that grew from an empty grass field into a $6 billion IPO. Eric shares the unfiltered story behind the Amazon documentary To the Black — from Brexit wiping out half their Series A funding, to the rocket failure caused by a pin the thickness of a pencil lead, to the first successful commercial Moon landing in history (his name is literally on the Moon). He also opens up about the spiritual practices that carried him through a decade of near-death moments, his plans to build a nonprofit psychedelic retreat center, and his experience with experimental gene therapy as part of an XPRIZE trial. This is what building the impossible actually looks like — the pain, the persistence, and the spirit it takes to get there.

Watch the documentary: To the Black on Amazon. Then come back and tell us — what would you have done when they said it was over? Drop your thoughts in the comments or tag someone who needs to hear this story.

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Most companies are blowing money on AI they don't need. Brandon built a multi-million dollar business by knowing exactly when to use it and when a human is still the smarter choice.

After striking out on every job application he sent, Brandon spent a decade paying it forward, helping dozens of people land jobs for free. That led him to a discovery nobody else had figured out: there's a hidden layer of institutions getting paid to place people in jobs, and they're struggling to do it. His company, Job Machine, now uses AI to get veterans and trade school graduates hired at scale, but not the way you'd think. Brandon and his co-founder built a system that automatically routes work between AI agents and humans based on what's cheaper and better, applying principles from Austrian economics to cut costs by 25% overnight. In this episode, he breaks down his journey from selling robots to oil refineries at Gecko Robotics to bootstrapping a company that's tripling revenue this year, why he calls one of his team members "the slot machine," and the hard truth every CFO needs to hear about what AI actually costs.

Hit subscribe and join us next week for another episode of America's Angels. Think you know when AI is worth it and when it's a waste? Let us know in the comments.

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What if the single most critical piece of American infrastructure is something you've never heard of, and the people who know how to build it are nearly gone?

When a $50 drone can take out the power grid and it takes seven years to replace the transformer that keeps the lights on, one founder is betting $500 million that AI and old-school manufacturing can save the day.

In Season 1, Episode 6 of America's Angels, co-hosts Jenny Kaehms and Andrea Kalmans sit down with Bridget Youngs, CEO and founder of Terminus Industrials, and yes, her mom was an astronaut. Bridget shares her extraordinary journey from growing up at Johnson Space Center, to investment banking at Evercore, to utility-scale power investing, to serving as chief of staff at USAID during the DOGE project. Then came the lightning-bolt moment: the realization that America has lost the ability to manufacture high-voltage transformers domestically, leaving the grid dangerously dependent on foreign suppliers with 3-to-7-year wait times and documented security threats.

Bridget breaks down how Terminus is reshoring transformer production to Central Texas using AI-driven design, standardized manufacturing, and a vertically integrated facility that compresses production timelines from months to days. She dives into the national security implications, the supply chain crisis, her Tesla-veteran head of manufacturing, her software-focused co-founder building "Foundation OS," and why she believes private industry, not government, holds the future of the country.

Subscribe, rate, and review America's Angels wherever you get your podcasts. Have a question for Bridget or a topic you'd like us to cover next? Tag us on social and join the conversation, we read every comment.

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Ever wonder how the tools powering today’s AI revolution were built, or how to empower the next generation to lead it? In this episode of America’s Angels, co-hosts Jenny Kaehms and Andrea Kalmans sit down with tech pioneers Peter Wang (founder of Anaconda) and Andy Terrel (lead of compute and open source at NVIDIA) to explore the future of technology and human potential.

The guests share their inspiring journeys—from growing up in Communist China and rural Texas to shaping the global open-source software landscape—and discuss how Python and AI tools are transforming problem-solving and scientific discovery. They also dive into the founding of the Austin STEM Center, a hands-on community space dedicated to democratizing technology, fostering mentorship, and building real-world skills for kids and adults alike.

Want to help inspire the next generation of innovators? Visit austinstemcenter.org to learn how you can volunteer, bring your school for a field trip, or support their mission! Don't forget to subscribe to America's Angels, leave a review, and share this episode with a friend!

Special thanks to our Sponsors:

Law Sponsor: Lowenstein Sandler LLP

Industrial Real Estate Advisory Sponsor: Savillis

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What if the kid failing every class grew up to build one of the world's most successful satellite companies and then bet it all over again?

Gabe Dominocielo went from straight Fs to straight As overnight, found his way to Chico State, and turned a summer job into a decade-long legal tech business that made him a multimillionaire by 30. Then he risked it all to co-found Umbra, a satellite company that captures the highest-resolution radar imagery from space, seeing through clouds, darkness, and weather that blinds every other satellite in orbit. On this episode of America's Angels, Gabe shares how he raised money from crypto believers when traditional VCs laughed him out of the room, how hedge fund legend John Burbank handed him enough capital to fail six times (and only needed him to be right once), and why his angel investing thesis comes down to one rule: if the idea isn't bizarre, he won't touch it. Jenny and Andrea also dig into his move to Austin, his philosophy of helping people "find their exceptionalism," and the one investment he passed on that still keeps him up at night.

Subscribe to America's Angels on your favorite podcast platform, leave us a review, and share this episode with a founder who needs to hear that the best ideas are the ones that look completely broken. Got a question or a pitch? DM us. We might just feature it on the next episode.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

What if you could command a fleet of robots with nothing more than a flick of your wrist? A Stanford PhD pioneer and his former student-turned-CEO join us to reveal how wearable gesture technology is about to transform the way humans and machines work side by side.

Professor Luis Sentis, one of the first in the world to earn an end-to-end PhD in humanoid robotics, and Heeyong Huh, founder of Suhwa, sit down with hosts Jennifer Kaehms and Andrea Kalmans to trace the evolution of humanoid robots from $10 million lab curiosities to affordable $25,000 productivity tools. They explore how Suhwa's wearable wristband technology reads neuromuscular signals to translate natural hand gestures into digital commands, why gesture-based interaction could outpace voice and keyboards in spatial computing environments, and how smart glasses, AR, and AI are converging to reshape factory floors, military missions, and everyday life. Along the way, they discuss the ethics of human-robot collaboration, the journey from academia to entrepreneurship, and their shared vision for a future where robots empower small businesses rather than replace workers. It's a conversation about accessibility, upskilling, and making technology feel as natural as a conversation, all happening right here in Austin, Texas.

Subscribe to America's Angels and join the conversation! Leave a comment with your thoughts on gesture-controlled robotics, share this episode with a fellow tech enthusiast, and hit that follow button so you never miss an episode.

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What if the crypto kid mining Ethereum in milk crates next door is now the person Fortune 500 companies trust to keep their AI secure? That's exactly the journey Alex Mirran, co-founder and COO of Gridweave, shares in this episode — and the skills that built a crypto mining rig in a parents' garage are now powering enterprise AI infrastructure.

In Season 1, Episode 2 of America's Angels: Life Finds a Way, hosts Jenny Kaehms, Andrea Kalmans, and Nick Travers sit down with Alex to unpack how his unconventional path — from GPU mining in milk crates in Austin to building AI factories in his living room — led to GridWeave, a platform helping enterprises own their AI deployments, protect proprietary data, and control costs. The conversation dives deep into decentralized compute, federated learning, data sovereignty, and the explosive GPU market fueling the AI boom. The team debates whether we're in an AI bubble, what the NVIDIA-Hugging Face deal means for open source AI, and whether hacker houses should host one focused company or multiple startups for maximum innovation. Plus, a lively debate on the future of hacker houses as startup incubators.

Whether you're an investor, founder, or just AI-curious, this episode will change how you think about who's building the infrastructure behind the AI revolution — and why the people who care most about privacy might just be the ones who started in crypto.

Subscribe to America's Angels and hit the bell so you never miss an episode. Have thoughts on data sovereignty or hacker houses? Drop a comment below, share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, and join the conversation — because life always finds a way.

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How do you go from handing out beverage samples at Costco to backing a nuclear reactor startup? In the premiere episode of America's Angels, Austin-based angel investors Jennifer Kames and Andrea Kelmans sit down with fellow investor Nick Travers to unpack the wild, winding journey of startup investing—from a $300 million bet on Bai drinks to the front lines of the nuclear energy renaissance.

Nick shares the story of cornering Bai's founder at a Princeton street fair, riding that investment to a $1.7 billion acquisition, and learning hard lessons from cowboy-themed energy drinks, medical devices, and cancer immunotherapy along the way. The conversation then goes deep on nuclear: the Department of Energy's reactor pilot program, the founders behind Austin's Allo Atomics, and why small modular reactors may be the key to powering our AI-driven future. The episode wraps with the inaugural "Gong Debate"—can angel investors actually move the needle on a capital-intensive nuclear startup?—plus a pitch for an Alicia Keys theme song.

Whether you're a seasoned investor, a founder chasing your first check, or just curious about the Austin tech boom, this episode is packed with real stories, real lessons, and zero investment advice. Subscribe to America's Angels on your favorite podcast platform, follow us on social media at @americas_angels, and visit americasangelspodcast.com to stay up to date as we take the show on the road this season.