How Pelagic Insight Started
I was a Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune in the mid-2000s. Between combat deployments, there was a lot of downtime, and I spent nearly all of it on the water: restoring boats, running the inlet, and chasing fish (mostly unsuccessfully). It was the beginning of something, even if I didn't know it yet.
After the Marines, I ended up in the intelligence community in Northern Virginia, using data to find IED makers in Iraq and Afghanistan and tipping off forward-deployed troops to threats. When the wars wound down, I went to DARPA to work on big data and machine learning. I built on my undergraduate computer science and mathematics degree from Norwich University with a Master of Information and Data Science from UC Berkeley, focused on combinatorics and computational statistics. At DARPA, I had a front-row seat to applying data and machine learning to some of the most consequential problems in the world: human trafficking, counter-threat finance, international logistics warfare, high-frequency trading as economic warfare, and others.
In 2016, I started Data Machines because the companies I was working for couldn't keep pace with the speed of innovation at DARPA. We ended up being very successful and now employ 60 people across five states, still working at the edge of data analytics and AI.
In 2021, I hired a CEO to run the company and had a chance for some free time. My wife and I met on Topsail Island, so we spend a lot of our downtime there. When I got back into offshore fishing, I sought the mentorship of local captains and finally learned how to actually catch fish.
Pelagic Insight started with frustration. The existing apps for offshore planning were charging big fees for data that's mostly free from government sources, then displaying it in ways that weren't useful. Over time, I developed my own methods for accessing all those data sources and visualizing them to drive real decisions. My education and career in making sense of complex data turned into the passion project that became Pelagic Insight. I used the people and resources of my data-centric company to bring it together and share it.
Pelagic Insight was built as, and will continue to be, the app I want to use for my own offshore fishing. I iterate and change it based on the advice of the more experienced offshore charter captains I'm lucky enough to call friends, and I'm grateful for their wisdom and support.
A Note for Captains
My experience is data and software. I recognize and cherish the value and wisdom of captains and watermen. Because Pelagic Insight gets so much from their advice and use, any captain who personally knows me, or who is willing to share their captain's license number with me, gets the app free forever as a gift. Just reach out and ask.