Jack: Prashanth can you tell us a little bit about your background?

Prashanth: Like many people at Keep, I grew up globetrotting. I’m originally from Mumbai (Bombay), my family lived in Dubai for a few years and then I moved to the US for college when I was 19. I was 6 when I took my first international trip to Hong Kong; back then it was still under British rule. As a teenager, I traveled around Europe, North America, and parts of Africa. So, I’ve grown up experiencing a world without borders.

But at heart I am Indian, and I am influenced by the best of Indian traditions. In particular, I believe in using nonviolent means to make the world better (अहिंसा). To me, science and technology applied with a conscience, is the most powerful way to effect non-violent change. This is why engineering new technology to better the world has been core theme of my work. And that is why I am at Keep.

J: Could you tell us more about your career and how it relates to what you’re doing now?

P: My career so far has been focused on bringing socially responsible technologies to life. This takes a variety of expertise, and as anyone who has developed new products & technologies will tell you, this is an art. As with any art, the more you do it the better you get.

I spent the first part of my career helping to develop and commercialise solar power technology, with the goal of helping reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. My first formative experience was as the energy systems tech lead for the 2007 Georgia Tech Solar Decathlon team.

The Georgia Tech 2007 Solar Decathlon Team (I’m on the far left)

The 2007 Solar Decathlon directly led to my being hired as a Product Engineer by Alcoa (now Arconic), which was one of the sponsors. My role at Alcoa for the next 5 years was to develop Building Integrated Solar Power systems (BIPV) and Facade products designed to reduce the energy footprint of commercial buildings. During my time at Alcoa, I worked on 6 hardware development projects, and led 3. These rigorous projects in a very disciplined corporate setting helped me form my initial mental model of the operational aspects of bringing new technology to market.

My next significant experience was as working for the Georgia Tech Research Institute. Where Alcoa was a finely oiled and highly focused product development machine, GTRI’s was greenfield innovation. At GTRI I honed my ability to dive deep into new areas of research and bring together teams to build MVP’s and test out our hypotheses. At GTRI I worked on a piezoelectric interactive tile for NASA Kennedy Space Center, innovative agriculture projects in Haiti, and a study of the economic impact of parks in the US. It was during my work at GTRI that I first got to work on a Blockchain project in collaboration with Corbin Pon.

Working at Tesla in 2015

I also spent two periods of my life helping to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport. I worked for Tesla twice, and since the machine that builds the machine requires operations excellence, I gained significant operational competencies during my time there. The first time in 2015 and during the Model S ramp up, I helped increase operational visibility and won an award for this. I returned in 2017 to help increase operational visibility during the Model 3 ramp up, which was a very challenging time and was difficult for me to accomplish. But the failures during this period only served to improve my mental model of operational effectiveness during a period of high growth.

Another failure that taught me a lot was the disbanding of the medical device company I co-founded as part of the Georgia Tech TI:GER program. This was my first opportunity to be a founder and go through the various troubles and turmoils that founders go through when starting a company. I also received an in depth education in the regulating of medical innovations, which I’ve concluded is a significant barrier to bringing life changing technologies to market.

There’s an old Indian story of a group of blind men trying to describe an elephant. Bringing a new technology to life is a very similar experience. This is even more true of Keep, a new technology in a very new space. I’m using the lessons from my career thus far to get a bit more foresight into a very nebulous landscape.

I’ve been fortunate in my career to have worked on some amazing projects that have helped me improve my art. Keep is a very novel project in a very novel space, and I’m looking forward to using the skills I’ve honed to help bring it to life.

Antonio and Prashanth sailing The Bay on our Keep Retreat.

J: How did you get into cryptocurrencies/blockchain?

P: I blame Corbin Pon for first stoking the flame. I was working at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and was looking at how to enable women-led businesses in places like Haiti and Ethiopia. Corbin was working on Fold, and thought that Bitcoin or a blockchain based payments system could help reduce some of the high transaction costs involved in setting up a business in some very challenging environments.