Thomas Vadora

I wanted a place to write occasionally, about literally anything, but mostly about what I learn while building. Don't expect too much — I need the time to work.

First of all, I am a follower of Jesus. Second, I am a husband to my beautiful and amazing wife, Pilar. And hopefully I will be a dad one day!

I was born in Córdoba, Argentina in 1999. Now I am based in San Francisco. I wasn't born in America, but I choose this country every day — and I intend to do my part to keep it #1.

I have no hobbies. I always wanted one, but I just don't. What I have is a love for building things and solving problems.

I studied computer science at Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, where I met my best friends. I competed in ICPC for fun (I wasn't very good, but it was a blast). I later studied machine learning in Toronto, back when you coded neural networks by hand in NumPy. Good times. After that I worked in software and ML in oil and gas, and then at a utility doing machine learning for power systems.

Now I'm building Splight with two amazing friends. We're bringing the grid from static failover to dynamic orchestration. The grid handles failure the way computer systems did in the 1970s: overprovision everything and keep half of it idle, permanently, just in case. We build the layer that detects and responds in real time instead — so the redundancy lives in the control system, not in idle steel and copper. It's physical infrastructure with a real-time brain, and it's a much harder problem than it sounds. The result: the same lines carry far more power, and large loads interconnect in months instead of decades.

This is where 100% of my time (and money) goes. I believe someone needs to build a proper operating system for the grid — the largest machine in the world — so we decided to do it. It will take many years. But it's worth it, it needs to be done, and the only correct American answer to that is: I will build it.