What is As Built

Real hardware shows its scars. Every modification, workaround, and field fix reveals what actually happened during development. "As Built" drawings document this reality—not the original design, but what finally worked.

The best hardware knowledge lives scattered across industry veterans, expensive mistakes, and forgotten technical reports. Sometimes it’s hiding in plain sight, just never articulated.

As Built captures these hard-won lessons for engineers building hardware, founders scaling hardware companies, and investors backing them. They include manufacturing approaches, organizational strategies, market dynamics, and stories that are just plain interesting.

What to Expect

As Built content falls into three categories. Each can be subscribed to independently or all together.

Landscapes deliver deep understanding of entire industries, such as space, nuclear, and manufacturing. Multi-part series combine physics, technology, policy, history, and economics. Landscapes are written to be accessible to anyone participating in or evaluating these sectors.

Approaches share practical frameworks for engineering and company building. Some consolidate knowledge typically learned only after years on the job. Others provide systematic approaches to common problems. These are tools for engineers, technicians, and founders building hardware.

Standalones are general essays that otherwise don’t fall into approaches or landscapes.

Who am I

I studied mechanical and nuclear engineering at MIT. At SpaceX, I was an on console operator for the first Falcon 9 landing in 2015. In 2017, I founded ABL and built it from scratch to having rockets on the pad. At first, for satellite launch, and now for missile defense as Long Wall.

Not everything has worked along the way. Many of the failures and setbacks have been excruciatingly painful. But what didn’t work informs As Built even more than what did. These writings contain insights I wish I had years ago.

Off the clock, I like to build. Home construction, truck repair, sailboats, furniture and anything mechanical. I'm also a member of the Los Angeles Mayor's Crisis Response Team, providing immediate support to victims of trauma.

Contact

Your feedback is much appreciated and helps to shape As Built. Please don’t hesitate to reach out by DM on Substack.