Founders in Arms Frugality, Grit, and Scale: Inside Joris Poort’s Founder Playbook
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Aug 29, 2025 Joris Poort, CEO of Rescale, shares insights from his journey building a digital engineering platform that powers industries like aerospace and pharmaceuticals. He discusses the importance of being 'default alive' for startups, emphasizing cash flow over theoretical profits. Poort explores how maintaining a frugal culture while scaling is vital, and why internal promotions often yield better results than external hires. He also highlights the significance of resilience in hiring and the strategic risks involved in long-term R&D investments, especially in AI.
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Software Is The Supercomputing Multiplier
- Rescale builds a software layer that makes cloud supercomputing usable for engineers and scientists.
- That layer enables elastic runs, optimization of hardware choices, and new AI-physics capabilities for product development.
Boeing Experience Sparked The Idea
- Joris and his co-founder left Boeing to solve the problems they faced designing the 787 Dreamliner.
- That experience shaped Rescale's focus on cloud supercomputing for complex engineering workflows.
AI As A Probabilistic Design Navigator
- AI enables surrogate models that speed conceptual design by trading deterministic exactness for probabilistic exploration.
- This allows engineers to find better designs much faster while retaining detailed physics for final certification.
