Plastic Labs

Total raised$9.0M
StagePre-seed
Founded2023
Team size11-50
IndustriesAI/ML

About Plastic Labs

Plastic Labs is an engineering-driven AI lab founded in 2023 that operates at the intersection of machine learning and cognitive science, headquartered in Williamsburg, Brooklyn's Domino Refinery. The company was started by three co-founders whose combined expertise spans hardware, cloud security, machine learning, and cognitive science, and has grown to approximately 11 team members including a core engineering team of four engineers plus the CTO. Originally launched as an AI tutoring company, Plastic Labs pivoted to infrastructure and is now backed by prominent investors including Long Journey Ventures, Mozilla Ventures, Greycroft, and Betaworks, with notable angel investors from Weights & Biases, Arcee AI, and early Facebook engineers. The company is committed to open source AI, user-centric data practices, and a decentralized approach to alignment, and has published research validating its methods.

Open positions · 3

Company at a glance

Location
New York, United States
LinkedInLinkedIn

Founders & Leadership

CL

Courtland Leer

co-founder plastic labs 🥽

LinkedIn
NA

NiMA Asghari

investing in communities and helping communities invest

LinkedIn
TH

Thomas Howell

Cofounder and CEO, Forum Education; cofounder, Felix Payments; cofounder and advisor, Plastic Labs.

LinkedIn
VT

Vince Trost

Co-Founder, Plastic Labs

LinkedIn
VV

Vineeth Voruganti

Founder @ Plastic Labs

LinkedIn

Location

About the Team

Team Distribution

  • Engineering46%
  • Leadership31%
  • Operations & Support15%
  • Specialized8%

Where the Team Studied

  1. 1.University of Pennsylvania
  2. 2.Harvard University
  3. 3.Yale University
  4. 4.Columbia University
  5. 5.Georgia Institute of Technology

Team Worked At

  • Microsoft
  • IBM
  • Tesla
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Sandia National Laboratories

Team Composition

11 people
  • Entrepreneurship4 senior4
  • Engineering2
  • Information Technology2
  • Administrative1
  • Customer Success and Support1
  • Finance1 senior1

Culture & values

Engineering-driven AI lab culture

High-touch, collaborative culture

Five days a week in-person work at Williamsburg office in Domino Refinery, Brooklyn

Flat organizational structure with everyone reporting directly to the CTO

Culture prizes high-agency autodidacts who thrive with broad freedom and significant responsibility

Values intellectual diversity and interdisciplinary curiosity spanning cognitive science, linguistics, neuroscience, and philosophy

Techno-optimistic mindset

Engineers own end-to-end projects

Team builds in the open

Daily teaching and learning among team members

Engineers engage with users in Discord and act as thought partners on product direction

Generalist mindset where everyone wears multiple hats

Life at Plastic Labs

Frequently asked questions

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