Thomas Lee Young, the 24-year-old CEO of San Francisco-based startup Interface, is at the forefront of leveraging AI to prevent industrial accidents. His distinct background, rooted in Trinidad and Tobago with a family history of engineers deeply involved in oil and gas exploration, offers a unique credential in the competitive Silicon Valley landscape. Interface's core mission is to address critical flaws in existing safety protocols within heavy industry, thereby enhancing workplace safety.

Young's journey to becoming a Silicon Valley founder was anything but straightforward. From the tender age of 11, he harbored an intense focus on attending Caltech, captivated by the potential for innovation in America. His innovative application essay, detailing how he hijacked his family's Roomba to create 3D spatial maps, secured his admission in 2020. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about significant hurdles, including impossible visa situations and the complete decimation of his $350,000 college fund due to an abrupt market downturn. This forced him to opt for a more affordable three-year mechanical engineering program at the University of Bristol in the UK, a detour that, despite his initial devastation, proved pivotal.

While studying at Bristol, Young secured an internship at Jaguar Land Rover, working in human factors engineering—a field focused on the UX and safety design of industrial systems. It was during this immersion in heavy industry that he identified a pervasive and dangerous problem: companies either lacked proper safety documentation, relying on archaic pen-and-paper methods, or used poorly designed, siloed software that workers disliked. More critically, the operating procedures, essential instruction manuals and checklists relied upon by blue-collar workers for safety, were often riddled with errors, outdated, and nearly impossible to maintain, posing severe risks. When his proposal to develop a solution was met with disinterest from Jaguar, Young began to plot his entrepreneurial exit.

Determined to bring his vision to fruition, Young secretly applied to Entrepreneur First (EF), a European talent incubator known for its stringent 1% acceptance rate. After successfully navigating EF's selection process, he returned to Jaguar Land Rover and promptly resigned, sparking amusement over his fabricated