Will Taubenheim

AI EngineerFounderSpeaker

I build AI and autonomous systems for NASA, the Department of Defense, and businesses that need technology built to perform under real pressure. Two NASA awards, defense contracts, games played by millions. I turn hard problems into systems that ship.

Booking a speaker instead? Keynotes & briefings →
2x NASA Award Winner
DoD / SERDP Defense Award
Meta Presence Platform Grant
Epic Games MegaGrant
Google Partner
Founder, Lost Frame Ventures
130K+ Positive Reviews
2.5M+ Users Reached
Quest 3 MR Developer
Keynote AI Speaker
248K-Word State of AI Report
Meta Hackathon Winner
2x NASA Award Winner
DoD / SERDP Defense Award
Meta Presence Platform Grant
Epic Games MegaGrant
Google Partner
Founder, Lost Frame Ventures
130K+ Positive Reviews
2.5M+ Users Reached
Quest 3 MR Developer
Keynote AI Speaker
248K-Word State of AI Report
Meta Hackathon Winner

About

Building at the Frontier

I founded Lost Frame Development in 2018, now operating publicly as Lost Frame Ventures. Since then: two NASA awards (selected from 1,200+ global submissions), AI contracts for the U.S. Navy and Air Force, games played by millions, and a 248,000-word State of AI research report.

Today I work with founders and executive teams as an AI engineer and fractional CTO: architecture, hands-on builds, and technical due diligence across healthcare, real estate, defense, and document intelligence. I take companies from uncertain idea to working system in weeks.

I also build on my own account. I co-founded RareOS, an AI operating system for the $462B buy/sell/trade industry, and Next Pillar Capital, a private equity platform that acquires established businesses and modernizes them with AI.

Official press and milestones: Lost Frame News · Profile: lostframe.ai

0x
NASA Awards
0+
Shipped Projects
0K+
Positive Reviews

Portfolio

Innovation Showcase

Shipped work across NASA, defense, Meta and Google partnerships, games with millions of players, and enterprise AI. The State of AI 2026 report is featured in the section directly below.

2x NASA Award Winner
Meta Partner
Google Partner
Epic Games MegaGrant
DoD SERDP Award
Keynote AI Speaker

NASA & Defense

National competition wins, Navy contracts, and Air Force down-selects for autonomous and digital-twin systems

NASA LunaRecycling ChallengePLATINUM. Led the winning submission from 1,200+ global entries. Digital twin system enabling lunar waste recycling into 3D printing materials through controlled pyrolysis. First of two NASA awards.

NASA Prize WinnerNASA WinnerDigital TwinSpace Technology

NASA Lunar Recycle Phase 2PLATINUM. Second NASA award for advanced prototype development and digital twin engineering for lunar systems. Extended the Phase 1 winning technology into production-ready systems.

NASA Phase 2 WinnerNASA WinnerPrototypeDigital Twin

AIRAS Ballistic Missile DefensePLATINUM. Awarded contract for AI-integrated ballistic missile defense system for U.S. Navy destroyers. Advanced threat detection and autonomous response architecture.

Defense ContractDoD ContractNavyAutonomous AI

Terasynth AIMS-CertPLATINUM. Led the AIMS-Cert architecture down-selected by Air Force Global Strike Command for automated flight certification. Built on the lunar recycling digital twin playbook to correlate real-time thermal, optical, and vibration telemetry into a digital birth certificate for additive manufactured aircraft parts.

Air Force Global Strike CommandAFGSC Down-SelectAdditive ManufacturingEdge AI

ReArmor VR Therapy. AI-powered VR therapy platform built with UCF RESTORES and Dr. Deborah Beidel, achieving 200% improvement over traditional PTSD treatment. Exposure therapy system for veterans and first responders.

Healthcare AIUCF RESTORES200% Improvement

ARFAS Autonomous Wildfire Suppression. AI-powered autonomous wildfire suppression system with ground vehicles and vehicle-mounted jet engines. Awarded by NAWCTSD and SERDP for breakthrough autonomous capabilities.

NAWCTSD & SERDP AwardNAWCTSD AwardSERDP AwardAutonomous Systems

Naval Airwarfare CASCON. Fire detection and alert system training software for Naval Air Warfare Center. NAWCTSD awardee for defense training simulation.

NAWCTSD AwardNAWCTSDTraining SystemsDefense

Strategic Partnerships & Ventures

Direct work with Meta, Google, and venture-scale platforms at the leadership and engineering level

Meta Partnership. Official Meta partner. Flown to Meta HQ, met Mark Zuckerberg, consulted on Quest 3 development. Awarded Meta Presence Platform Grant for VR innovation.

Meta Presence Platform GrantMeta PartnerQuest 3Presence Grant

Google Partnership. Google partner working closely with the Google Gemini team and their lead engineers on AI integration and next-generation model deployment.

Google PartnerGemini AIEnterprise AI

RareOS (Co-Founder). AI platform targeting the $462B buy/sell/trade industry. AI-powered point-of-sale, inventory management with computer vision scan tool, and consumer marketplace. The Ventures Miami finalist.

Co-FounderVentures Miami Finalist$462B Market

AI Acquisition Platform (Co-Founder). Co-founder of an AI-enabled acquisition platform. Applies autonomous research and operational AI to identify, acquire, and modernize established service businesses.

Co-FounderAI + Private EquityOperational AI

Games & Immersive Media

Titles with millions of players, studio partnerships, and shipped VR/XR across Steam and Quest

Escape the BackroomsPLATINUM. Technical lead and lead developer (contracted via Lost Frame to Fancy Games). Co-op horror game with 130K+ positive reviews and millions of unique players. A24 is releasing a Backrooms feature film May 2026 based on the same IP universe.

Overwhelmingly Positive130K+ ReviewsMillions of PlayersA24 Film

Shipped Game Experience Portfolio. Designed and built across five shipped game experiences spanning co-op horror, solo horror, VR, multiplayer systems, and experimental XR. Combined reach across the portfolio exceeds 3M players.

Multi-Title Portfolio5 Shipped Games3M+ PlayersHorror + XR

Stranger & StrangerZ. VR horror franchise scaled to 2.5M+ users across Steam, Meta Quest, and Fanatical. Flagship Lost Frame owned IP generating ongoing passive revenue.

Flagship Franchise2.5M+ UsersVR HorrorOwned IP

Battle Builders (Epic MegaGrant). Selected by Epic Games for a MegaGrant. Innovative multiplayer combat mechanics built on Unreal Engine, reaching millions of users worldwide.

Epic Games MegaGrantEpic MegaGrantUnreal EngineVR

FoodLens AI Kitchen Assistant. Multi-modal AI kitchen assistant spanning mixed reality and mobile. The Quest 3 build uses a custom C++ Vulkan camera plugin and headset telemetry to scan pantry items and guide hands-free cooking. The productized mobile app pairs Gemini vision with a full guided-cooking experience. Solo-built in one week and submitted to the Meta Horizon Start Developer Competition.

Meta Horizon Start SubmissionMulti-Modal AIQuest 3 MRCustom Vulkan Camera

Solo Horror Release. Solo-developed horror release published by Lost Frame. Achieved a 94% positive review rating on Steam and validated fast-turnaround IP development for atmospheric horror experiences.

94% PositiveSolo DevHorror

Luxe Casino VR. Stereoscopic VR casino experience with custom Unreal Engine plugins for immersive gambling simulation. Built proprietary rendering and interaction systems.

VRUnreal EngineCustom Plugins

SafeZoneVR. Published VR survival game on Steam and Fanatical. 100% Lost Frame owned IP, built on the studio's cross-platform VR framework.

VRSteamOwned IP

OVERROOM. Mixed reality portal system that turns any indoor space into dynamic virtual rooms on Meta Quest. Built as a 3-day rapid prototype on the Presence Platform.

Mixed RealitySpatial Computing3-Day Build

RecipeLens. Mixed reality culinary companion with spatial anchors, hands-free interaction, and gesture navigation. Built in under 3 days.

Mixed RealityHand TrackingKitchen Tech

AI & Enterprise Solutions

Healthcare, document intelligence, and commercial AI platforms built for operators

FFO AI Document Intelligence. Enterprise document processing platform with AI-powered vectorization, RAG retrieval, Google Drive integration, and automated workflow management.

Enterprise AIRAGDocument Intelligence

RevolvAI (Real Estate AI). MVP in 2 weeks, commercial-ready in 2 months. Automated property analysis, pre-probate lead generation, and family outreach with strong investor interest.

Real Estate AILead GenCo-Founder

MedSpa Clinical Intelligence. AI-powered clinical operations platform for medical spas: patient analysis, treatment recommendations, scheduling intelligence, and HIPAA-compliant optimization.

Healthcare AIHIPAAClinical AI

AquaLeads (Pool Service AI). AI-powered analysis of Google Maps satellite imagery combined with data scraping to generate qualified pool service leads. Includes intelligent CRM for workflow automation.

Computer VisionSatellite AILead Gen

Proprietary Technology

Reusable engines and an internal AI operating system that power every deployment

Proprietary AI Operating System. A private, agent-driven platform that runs the business end to end. Deterministic knowledge routing, automated document generation, and multi-account workflow automation across the full venture portfolio.

Agentic AIInternal PlatformAutomation

AI Orchestration Engine. Reusable RAG, embeddings, and LLM pipelines deployed across every engagement. The core engine behind the document intelligence and lead-generation platforms.

RAGLLM PipelinesReusable IP

Computer Vision Pipeline. Object detection and image recognition deployed across defense and commercial systems, from satellite imagery analysis to real-time scan tools.

Computer VisionObject DetectionEdge AI

Web Scraping and Data Framework. Enterprise-grade data collection from public records, satellite imagery, and web sources, with anti-bot resilience and structured extraction.

Data EngineeringScrapingPipelines

...and much more.

Over 20+ projects shipped across defense, healthcare, AI, and entertainment.

Start a Conversation

New Research

The Foundations Are Cracking

The AI economy is 90% subsidized. True unemployment is 23.8%. One island controls 92% of advanced chips. Read the executive summary of a 248,000-word proprietary research paper on what comes next.

200+ sources. 35+ data visualizations. 7 research domains. 26 months of primary data collection.

248K

words of proprietary research by Will Taubenheim

Read the Report

The Journey

Eight Years, One Trajectory

From a game studio founded in 2018 to NASA, the Department of Defense, and the frontier of applied AI. Scroll to climb.

T+ 2018 · ALT 000 KM · Ignition

Founded Lost Frame Development.

Games, VR systems, and fully owned IP that scaled past 2.5M players. The engine that funded everything after.

Stranger & SafeZoneVR2.5M+ UsersOwned IP

T+ 2022 · ALT 012 KM · Liftoff

Meta came calling.

Flown to Meta HQ, consulted on Quest 3 development, and awarded the Meta Presence Platform Grant.

Meta PartnerPresence Platform GrantQuest 3
Press coverage →

T+ 2023 · ALT 040 KM · Max Q

Escape the Backrooms went global.

Led development on a co-op horror phenomenon: 130K+ positive reviews, millions of players, and an A24 film in the same universe.

130K+ Positive ReviewsMillions of PlayersReArmor VR Therapy
Press coverage →

T+ 2024 · ALT 090 KM · Stage Separation

From games to frontier hardware.

2nd place at Meta's NYC hackathon. First to run UE5.4 on Apple Vision Pro. Presented at the I/ITSEC defense conference.

Meta NYC — 2nd PlaceVision Pro First-MoverI/ITSEC

T+ 2025 · ALT 220 KM · Orbit Insertion

NASA. Then the Department of Defense.

Won the NASA LunaRecycling Challenge from 1,200+ global entries. Navy missile defense and autonomous wildfire contracts followed.

NASA WinnerAIRAS — U.S. NavyARFAS — SERDPRareOS Co-Founder
Press coverage →

T+ 2026 · ALT 400 KM · Station Keeping

Second NASA award. The research era.

NASA Phase 2. A 248,000-word State of AI report. An Air Force down-select. And Next Pillar Capital: private equity, rebuilt around AI.

NASA Phase 2248K-Word ReportAir Force AIMS-CertNext Pillar Capital
Press coverage →

The trajectory continues.

The next stage is being built now: AI systems for operators, ventures, and acquisitions. If you're working on something hard, let's talk.

Speaking

Keynote Topics

Available for keynotes, corporate events, podcasts, and executive briefings on AI strategy, geopolitics, autonomous systems, and building technology that matters.

01

Scaling Your Business with AI

The real playbook for implementing AI that generates ROI. Not chatbots, but full-stack autonomous systems that replace headcount and create defensible competitive advantages. Built from 10+ live deployments across healthcare, real estate, and defense.

CEOs, founders, operators

02

AI & Geopolitics: The Arms Race

The U.S. and China AI competition, NATO's AI doctrine, and what it all means for business. The geopolitical map is being redrawn by algorithms and compute.

Business leaders, investors, policy audiences

03

Protecting Your Business in the Age of AI

AI is being weaponized by competitors and bad actors. Deepfakes, autonomous cyberattacks, and algorithmic manipulation. Here's how to build a business that survives.

Executives, security professionals

04

The Autonomous Revolution

Lessons from building autonomous systems for NASA and the U.S. military that every business leader needs to understand. What 'production AI' means when the stakes are real.

Technology leaders, engineers, defense professionals

05

The AI Founder Playbook

A first-principles look at building AI companies: structuring for defensible IP, selling to enterprises and government, and building at 90% margins with AI-assisted engineering.

Founders, VCs, accelerators

06

AI & The Future of Human Work

A grounded, technically-informed take on what AI automation actually displaces, what it creates, and how individuals and organizations can position themselves on the right side.

General audiences, HR leaders, universities

Recent Engagements

  • EO DC Chapter KeynoteEntrepreneurs' Organization, Washington D.C.
  • Not an Accident PodcastGuest on AI state, automation, and future of work
  • I/ITSEC Defense ConferenceDefense simulation and training technology

and many more

AI for Good

Technology Should Leave a Useful Mark

I am drawn to AI because it can move real-world systems, not just generate content. The work that matters most to me uses that leverage to protect people, expand access, reduce waste, and make institutions work better.

Access

AI should expand access to care, expertise, education, and opportunity. The most useful systems meet people where they already are.

Protection

The same technology that creates leverage can create harm. I care about systems that protect people, institutions, and public trust.

Resilience

From wildfire suppression to healthcare operations, the best AI work makes critical systems more responsive when pressure is highest.

Education

People need practical literacy, not hype. I want more founders, students, and operators to understand what AI can actually do.

Long term, I want Lost Frame Ventures to fund and build more public interest technology: AI tools for clinical access, disaster response, responsible automation, and education. Commercial work pays for the engine. This is where I want more of that engine pointed.

Get in Touch

Whether you need an AI system built to perform under pressure, senior technical leadership for a hard project, a keynote speaker for your next event, or a strategic technology partner, I'd like to hear from you.

Location

Remote (EST Timezone)