Travis Oliphant

Background

• "Godfather of AI" and creator of NumPy and SciPy libraries
• Leading contributor to PyTorch and foundational AI tools
• Founder of Anaconda and current CEO of OpenTeams
• Government contractor working with Joe Merrill on DoD projects
• LDS church member and faith-based collaborator
• Father of multiple children including daughter on mission

Professional Experience

Open Source and AI Leadership

Foundational Contributions:

• Created NumPy (fundamental Python scientific computing library)
• Developed SciPy (scientific computing ecosystem)
• Major contributor to PyTorch development
• Foundational role in making Python viable for data science and AI

Anaconda and Business Development:

• Founded Anaconda (Python distribution for data science)
• Created PyData conference series to build Python data science community
• Pioneered community-building approaches for technical ecosystems
• Demonstrated model of collaborative rather than competitive development

Government Contracting (with Joe Merrill)

Current Contract Work:

• SBIR Phase 2 contracts in development
• Working with Defense Innovation Unit (DIU)
• Targeting Air Force and broader DoD opportunities
• Building CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification) capabilities

Team Structure:

• Partnership with Joe Merrill (government relationships and contracting expertise)
• Jessica and Ari with TSSCI security clearances
• Emma Merrill leading marketing for OpenTeams
• Leveraging Kerasoft IDIQ contract vehicles

Contract Strategy:

• Relationship-based approach through program officers (colonels with budgets)
• Technical AI/data science expertise combined with government access
• Focus on measurable outcomes and cost-effectiveness
• Long-term service and support agreement development

Personal and Family Life

Marriage and Family

Wife Amy:

• Met Amy at age 22, foundational relationship for his career success
• Married for decades, strong partnership enabling his professional achievements
• Amy described as essential to his ability to build collaborative ecosystems

Children and Family Dynamics:

• Multiple children, some in high school or older
• One daughter currently serving LDS mission
• Strong emphasis on family relationships and balance
• Uses family experiences to understand broader community dynamics

Faith and Community:

• Active LDS church member
• Participated in missionary program (typical LDS experience)
• Deep understanding of faith-based community building
• Integrates spiritual principles with business and technical work

Life Philosophy and Approach

Divine Purpose and Agency: Travis: "I believe we're here to become more aware, become more action-oriented, to have our ability to act grow meaningfully... our soul or our essence as being a chooser, an agent."

Following God's Voice:

• Consistently follows divine guidance even at personal cost
• Three pivotal moments: BYU transfer (lost scholarship), meeting Amy (divine prompting), writing NumPy ("God told me to")
• Travis: "I know God is there. It's not a matter of faith... I've heard that voice in my life"

Work-Life Balance Insights: Travis: "I got this advice a long time ago... just be aware you're going to have to have balance in your life. You're going to have to invest in things that help you maintain connections... I feel really blessed because God put Amy in my life very early."

Relationship and Community Theory: Travis: "My hypothesis is you actually are modeling people in your own... You're predicting their behavior, I think... A mean relationship is you're successfully predicting each other's behavior. Not just behavior, but wants, mental state."

Human Connection Limits:

• Believes in Dunbar number limitations (approximately 150 meaningful relationships)
• Theoretical framework for relationship "click sizes" (5, 15, 35, 150)
• Understanding of how mental models of people work in close relationships
• Recognition that moving away from hometown allows personal growth

Name Meaning and Divine Calling:

• Gary interpreted Travis's name: "At the crossroads" (Travis) + olive/light-bringer (Oliphant)
• Combined meaning: "To bring to light God's steadfastness while bearing your own cross... illuminating divine patterns"
• Travis acknowledged feeling responsibility to "be truthful... explain what I think I know and then why"

Technical and Business Philosophy

Open Source Collaboration Principles

Christ-Centered Collaboration: Travis: "Christ enables us. As opposed to top-down, I'm going to control, I'm going to create power on this... The knowledge outside of the building is more than what's in the building, right? And so if you want to do this with a bunch of people because you know that what they bring is greater than what you have, egocentric people can't do this."

Love and Faith as Superior Fuel: Travis: "Love and faith are the best fuels... The part of open source that's valuable is love. It's because it's done out of... The part where open source gets ugly is when it also creates challenges."

Open Source as Divine Pattern: Travis: "What's good about open source is the communities that surround it... People are doing it because of love. People are doing it because of passion. People are doing it because they are giving of themselves. Those are the patterns that I know are godly."

Travis believes open source, when approached with love and faith rather than ego or control, creates optimal benefits for both solution builders and the broader world. This collaborative model enables sustainable scaling and collective value creation. Sees forking as divine pattern: "It's not meant to be a blob, an amorphous blob, living under dictatorial rule."

Enabling vs. Controlling Leadership:

• God's model of empowering rather than controlling people
• Distributed authority and collaborative decision-making
• Humility about individual limitations compared to collective wisdom
• Recognition that sustainable scaling requires collaboration not control

Community Building and Network Effects

Conference and Community Development:

• Created PyData conference series to build Python data science community
• Understood need for in-person gatherings to build network effects
• Model of regional conferences rather than single centralized events
• Demonstrated how community building accelerates technical adoption

Challenges of Ego-Driven Leadership: Travis: "If egocentric people end up building something like this, then it's actually a lot smaller... Because Elon Musk is similar. Like, he's pretty egocentric, right?... But he has to control a lot... And so then it doesn't scale very far."

Sustainable vs. Unsustainable Models:

• Collaborative approaches scale better than controlling approaches
• Distributed ownership creates stronger community buy-in
• Long-term thinking superior to short-term optimization
• Community resilience more important than individual control

Hiring and Management Philosophy

Learning from Hiring Mistakes

Common Patterns: Travis: "Hiring mistakes I've made have been typically out of... Enthusiasm... I get a dopamine hit when I see a puzzle piece fit into place... instead of doing the work of going and finding someone in this role, I'm trying to leverage the relationship I have to fill the role."

Misplaced Compassion: Travis: "The second thing is a misplaced desire to be compassionate to that person... It's actually compassionate to not... include somebody working in a role where they're not succeeding."

Contract-to-Hire Approach:

• Prefers 30-60 day trial periods before permanent hiring
• Usually knows within 60 days, sometimes within two weeks
• Recognition that hiring success requires seeing actual work performance
• Difficulty of assessing roles outside his own expertise areas

Team Building and Accountability

Management Responsibilities: Travis: "The measure of your success is how well are you able to organize a team to do this... If you're asked to be a hiring manager of somebody, then the measure of your success is how well are you able to organize a team to accomplish something."

Cross-Functional Hiring Challenges:

• Harder to assess people for roles outside his technical expertise
• Need to rely on other experts for evaluation of unfamiliar skills
• Self-referential challenge: success depends on finding good people to help evaluate other people
• Most organizations suffer from incomplete capability assessment

Strategic Insights and Vision

Technology and Human Connection

Integration vs. Replacement:

• Technology should enhance rather than replace human relationships
• Focus on enabling faster achievement of meaningful goals
• Against device-heavy futures that make humans subservient to technology
• Support for community technology and movement technology

AI and Social Organization:

• Understanding of network effects and scaling laws
• Recognition of both intentional design and emergent principles
• Biological systems as models for decentralized coordination
• Emphasis on local teams and distributed leadership

Faith-Based Innovation

Christofuturism Alignment:

• Strong supporter of Gary's Christofuturism philosophy
• Believes faith provides better fuel than fear or competition
• Advocates for authentic rather than watered-down approaches
• Sees technology as potential tool for moral and social progress

Taking God's Name in Vain: Travis: "I shouldn't be using my particular view of what God is to control other people, to basically implement non-divine patterns. It's a very dangerous thing to basically borrow the authority of God in somebody's life to essentially entrap them in a non-divine pattern."

Repentance as Continuous Growth: Travis: "Repentance is a gift, and it's an amazing gift because it simply means change... we are going to need to repent our entire life in the sense that we are going to need to be open to new points of view"

Educational Calling: Travis: "The most important thing you're doing right now is learning to hear God in your life. Learning what that means. Because it's not easy. It's not trivial."

Cultural and Social Issues:

• Nuanced approach to LGBTQ issues balancing acceptance and boundaries
• Distinction between welcoming individuals and promoting ideologies
• Understanding of how cultural movements can be parasitic vs. generative
• Emphasis on family structure and traditional relationships as foundational

Business Relationships and Network

Joe Merrill Partnership

• Long-term business partnership combining technical and government expertise
• Complementary skills: Travis's technical knowledge + Joe's government relationships
• Shared vision for technology applications in government and education sectors
• October 2025 tensions: Joe's fundraising optimism not materializing, Travis notes Joe is "good at pitching, not closing"
• Travis assuming interim COO role to provide operational leadership Joe lacks

Emma Merrill and Marketing

Team Leadership:

• Employs Emma Merrill (Joe's daughter) as marketing leader for OpenTeams
• Initially skeptical but became convinced of her exceptional abilities
• Joe describes Emma as "the best marketing person I've ever seen"
• Recognizes her unique combination of technical and marketing skills

Government and Policy Connections

• Access to DoD program officers and contracting opportunities
• Relationships with Defense Innovation Unit and other government agencies
• Understanding of security clearance requirements and processes
• Strategic position for educational technology government contracts

Connection to Alpha Schools and Gary Sheng

Educational Vision Alignment

Bell Labs for Education:

• Interested in creating "Bell Labs for education" with Alpha Schools
• Wants to work with Alpha Schools "in any capacity possible"
• Sees potential for AI-focused educational initiatives
• Technical advisory role and education technology innovation

Texas Education Pilot (October 2025):

• Developing AI education platform for Texas school districts
• Three integrated applications on Nibari platform:
  • Teaching assistant for lesson plans and assessments
  • Counselor co-pilot (Pebble and Pond integration)
  • Student guardrail tutor for guided learning
• Aligned with Texas legislative requirements for AI in education
• Seeking Gary's consulting expertise for demo development

Government Contract Opportunities:

• Alpha Schools could benefit from his government contracting expertise
• Educational technology applications for military training and families
• Potential for scaling Alpha's Two-Hour Learning through government contracts
• Strategic value of combining education innovation with government relationships

Personal Connection and Trust

Church and Community Connection:

• Met Gary through LDS church connection
• Spent 6+ hours together on May 25, 2025
• Strong personal rapport and shared values
• Mutual respect and collaborative potential

Truth Management Partnership (October 2025):

• Gary introducing "truth management" philosophy to OpenTeams
• Travis: "I completely agree... it allows humans to self-align"
• Plan for Gary to consult with marketing team (Emma Merrill)
• Potential comprehensive engagement across multiple OpenTeams initiatives

W2 Employment Offer (November 2025):

• Travis actively pursuing Gary for 1-2 year W2 position at OpenTeams
• Per Ian Newell: "Gary's going to build something big in the next year or two, three years. If I just get a year or two of Gary's time, I'm perfectly happy with that"
• Offering complete autonomy to build Applied AI community and continue consulting
• Wants Gary to lead AI Rodeo events and build movement around democratizing AI
• Supporting Gary's vision of "choose your own adventure" employment with side ventures

Gary's Assessment: Gary: "This guy's an absolute genius" and "I resonate a lot with Travis. Because I put myself last so often."

Strategic Value for Gary Sheng

Technical and Business Expertise

• Deep AI and data science knowledge for educational applications
• Government contracting expertise and relationships
• Open source community building and scaling models
• Sustainable business development approaches

Network and Relationships

• Government contractor network and DoD relationships
• Technical community leadership and influence
• Faith-based professional network
• International collaboration potential through technical reputation

Philosophical and Strategic Alignment

• Shared commitment to Christ-centered approaches
• Understanding of collaborative vs. controlling leadership models
• Long-term thinking and sustainable development approaches
• Integration of faith principles with practical business success

Potential Collaboration Areas

Educational Technology Development

• AI tutoring systems and personalized learning platforms
• Government contracts for military education and training
• Technical infrastructure for Alpha Schools scaling
• Research and development partnerships

Government and Policy Work

• Educational technology contracts with DoD and other agencies
• International development and cooperation programs
• Technology policy and regulatory engagement
• Strategic consulting for government technology initiatives

Community and Movement Building

• Faith-based technology and business communities
• Open source approaches to educational and social innovation
• Conference and event development for aligned communities
• Cultural and social impact initiatives

Business Development and Investment

• Technology startup advisory and investment
• Sustainable business model development
• Alternative approaches to venture capital and scaling
• Integration of faith principles with business success

Mission to Prevent AI Feudalism and Create Owners

• Core Warning: "We're re-engaging in a kind of feudalism... More and more things are owned by fewer and fewer people. That's a problem. That is not a divine pattern"
• OpenTeams Mission: Disseminating AI capabilities to prevent concentration into "few AI feudal lords"
• Creating Owners Philosophy: "I've actually embedded in it the ability for someone to break off... here's this incubator that you could actually use to help you grow"
• Rejecting Concentration: Links economic calculation theory to necessity of distributed ownership for human flourishing

Nibari Platform Vision (October 2025)

• Sovereign AI Platform: "Operating system for AI" enabling organizations to maintain control of their data and models
• Opposition to Hyperscalers: "We'll bring models to your data" rather than forcing data to cloud providers
• PyTorch Conference Success: Diamond sponsor alongside AWS, Meta, Google, IBM, Red Hat
• Technical Architecture: Packaging/environment management technology with chat-integrated notebooks
• Ecosystem Strategy: Enable "thousands and thousands" of domain-specific AI applications

Current Financial Challenges (October 2025)

• Personal Investment: Travis personally financing OpenTeams operations through liquidating illiquid assets
• Fundraising Struggles: Joe Merrill's optimistic projections not materializing, investors pulling out
• Public Offering Consideration: May go public sooner than planned to democratize investment beyond wealthy individuals
• Team Dysfunction: Joe and Braden "don't get along" despite complementary skills
• Interim COO Role: Travis taking operational control to stabilize company

Notable Quotes and Insights

On Divine Purpose: Travis: "We're eternal essences housed in a temporary cover to learn, to grow, and to act, so that our eternal essence becomes more ability to influence the universe, ability to have peaceful, harmonious, self-reinforcing positivity with the rest of the universe."

On Economic Calculation and Ownership: Travis: "You have to have ownership in order to even have prices... without prices, you can't coordinate scale behavior... The alternative is misery and death, actually."

On AI and Human Agency: Travis: "To call this robotic, mechanistic computer program an agent is, it's like sacrilegious to me... An agent [has] the power to choose, the power to act, the power to be an end of yourself."

On Collaboration and Leadership: Travis: "It requires you to surround yourself with people... I love the vision... how are you going to do this? I think that's exactly the way to think about it."

On Ego and Control: Travis: "Sometimes you need to... You know, sometimes things happen because you galvanize. Like, some of the energy you need to build something is from galvanizing people who are attacked."

On Faith and Technology: Travis: "I personally don't think that's the best fuel. I don't think that's Christocentric fuel... It's almost like God has this reactor to all the fuels that make things possible and will convert them into things."

On Relationships and Community: Travis: "Every group of humans will also have challenges... It doesn't matter who you are. Every group of humans."

On Balance and Success: Travis: "Actually, I got this advice a long time ago... you're going to have to have balance in your life. You're going to have to invest in things that help you maintain connections."

Future Opportunities and Next Steps

Immediate Collaboration Potential

• Alpha Schools technical advisory and development support
• Government contract development for educational technology
• Strategic planning for faith-based technology initiatives
• Network introduction and relationship building

Long-term Strategic Partnership

• Joint ventures in educational technology and government contracting
• International collaboration on technology and education projects
• Faith-based business and investment initiatives
• Cultural and social impact project development

Specific Project Areas

• US-China collaboration on educational technology
• Government contracts for Alpha Schools and related technologies
• Open source educational technology development
• Faith-based alternative economic and business models

Travis Oliphant represents a unique combination of world-class technical expertise, government contracting capabilities, strong faith foundations, and collaborative leadership philosophy. His partnership with Joe Merrill creates powerful opportunities for Gary Sheng's educational and strategic initiatives, particularly in government contracting and international collaboration. His commitment to Christ-centered approaches and understanding of sustainable scaling models make him an ideal long-term strategic partner for ambitious projects requiring both technical excellence and authentic relationship building.

Interaction History

• 2025-05-25: Initial 6-hour meeting through church connection, discussed Alpha Schools collaboration

• 2025-05-28: Extended conversation with Gary Sheng, Joe Merrill, and Emma Merrill covering Christofuturism, government contracting, economic policy, cultural issues, and strategic collaboration opportunities

• 2025-06-06: Three-way strategic partnership discussion with Gary Sheng and Lael Alexander exploring collaboration opportunities between OpenTeams and Lael's manufacturing/systems integration capabilities. Discussed AI infrastructure, government contracting synergies, SiloCloud technology demonstration, and potential for joint educational technology development. Established foundation for long-term strategic partnership combining Travis's AI expertise/government relationships with Lael's industrial capabilities.

• 2025-08-03: Dinner at Allan and Heather Staker's home with families and community members. Discussed Gary's spiritual journey transformation, business collaboration opportunities including faith-based school development, Travis's podcast planning, Anaconda stock considerations, and immediate collaboration possibilities. Travis offered investment interest in educational initiatives and suggested getting Austin Airbnb for continued collaboration. Demonstrated continued deepening of personal relationship alongside professional partnership discussions.

• 2025-08-04: Began direct collaboration with Tim Dort-Golts through Heather Clayton-Staker introduction at LDS church. Travis offered Tim immediate housing (guest house 20 minutes outside Austin) and multiple project collaboration opportunities including: family office development with Christian investment philosophy, documentary review work (Python documentary), podcast setup for open source software, social media strategy and ghost writing, book writing support, and Mormon Church advisory work leveraging Heather's father's church connections. Travis demonstrated rapid decision-making offering same-day moving assistance through his sons and immediate work start. Represents expansion of Travis's team through Gary Sheng's network, applying Tim's proven curriculum development methodology for comprehensive project assessment and strategic planning.

• 2025-08-07: Comprehensive philosophical conversation with Gary Sheng exploring divine attributes, open source philosophy, and faith-based innovation. Travis articulated his calling to "amplify divine attributes" through collaborative work, drawing explicit parallels between Christ-centered approaches and effective open source development. Discussed vision for 20-hour work weeks, multi-dimensional human development, economics as moral foundation, and the "scaffolding" metaphor for life support systems. Gary shared his spiritual journey from social media activism (800k followers, anti-police campaigns) to faith, including his disillusionment with crypto as idolatry. Travis revealed personal struggles with people-pleasing and evolution toward more assertive truth-telling. Extended into deep theological discussions including skepticism as "adversarial network" strengthening faith, AI limitations vs human intelligence ("acting" vs "acted upon"), repentance as continuous algorithmic updates, LDS theology on eternal progression and non-coercive divine power, political analysis of authoritarian tendencies, demographic challenges, cultural influence of music, international banking system critique, Tree of Life vision, pure intelligence revelation, and concrete vision for open technology media organization. Later joined by Doug Pennock (Travis's brother-in-law and former Anaconda executive) who provided detailed historical context about Anaconda's founding, the evolution from Enthought, talent recruitment strategies, PyData conference origins, and startup challenges around consulting vs. product business models. Conversation concluded with development of "open infrastructure" as conceptual framework and Gary's introduction of "discipleship infrastructure" vision. Travis shared his Fair OSS concept for micro-capitalizing open source projects. Established foundation for thought leadership movement integrating faith principles with technology innovation. Both expressed enthusiasm for continued weekly collaboration on developing these ideas into practical applications.

• 2025-08-08: Missionary visit at Oliphant family home in Dripping Springs with Gary Sheng, Amy Oliphant, Josh Oliphant, and LDS missionaries Sister Rusk and Sister Little. The conversation began with Travis and Gary sharing their collaborative work on "divine engineering movement" and "divine patterns" concepts - documenting successful organizational patterns from religious institutions (particularly LDS missionary system) that can be applied to other mission-oriented projects. Discussion evolved into theological exploration with missionaries about the Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ's ministry to the Nephites, and how scriptural principles apply to modern technology and business ethics. Travis shared his experience quoting Scripture at DARPA presentations and emphasized need for authentic rather than "lukewarm" Christian approaches to technology development. Conversation covered stewardship principles from biblical parables (talents, leaky bucket metaphor), critique of AI worship in tech culture, vision for "righteous AI" development, and discussion of religious wars vs. religious movements. Gary shared his upcoming baptism plans and family Christian heritage (great-grandfather was missionary/pastor in China during communist takeover). Travis demonstrated his teaching approach about missionary work effectiveness and event organization, showing pastoral heart for community building. Evening concluded with scripture study assignment (3 Nephi 11) and prayer, with missionaries extending invitation for continued Bible study. Demonstrated Travis's integration of faith principles with practical mentorship and his comfort hosting religious discussions in family context.

• 2025-08-20: Strategic convergence meeting at Austin residence with Gary Sheng and Tiffany Cianci focusing on podcast development, ethical technology collaboration, and anti-monopoly activism. Travis expressed sophisticated understanding of financial system corruption through biblical lens ("modern banking system is the whore that rides the beast"). Discussed "Open Futures" podcast launch with $2,500-3,000 budget for professional setup, Spotify-first distribution strategy, and content focus on AI ethics and community-built technology success stories. Explored Python documentary project (September 28 London premiere) as example of people-driven rather than corporate-controlled innovation. Demonstrated alignment with Tiffany's purple politics approach and consumer choice app development ("David's Sling"). Conversation covered venture studio potential, ethical startup incubation, and shared vision for democratizing technology against corporate concentration. Travis positioned as technical infrastructure provider for movement building, combining his open source expertise with Gary's strategic narrative abilities and Tiffany's media reach and anti-monopoly activism. Established foundation for three-way collaboration on ethical technology development and cultural change initiatives.

• 2025-08-23: Pivotal strategic and personal development conversation covering Gary's contemplation of fatherhood and marriage, critique of modern status-driven culture, Travis's incubator philosophy, and development of worldview documentation collaboration. Travis provided compelling perspective on family formation based on grandfather's Depression-era experience: "They lived in a tent. They lived in a chicken coop. They just made it work... the thing about kids is they're super resilient. And the thing you absolutely need is love. And attention." Gary shared transformation in consciousness through thinking about fatherhood: "When I feel like I've changed, my being has changed. The same people that I may see on the street. I feel completely different about." Extended discussion of Travis's Posse program for emerging economies, apprenticeship models, and incubator philosophy focused on scaling patterns rather than organizations: "I want to see a good idea replicate... ATP was a great idea that replicated and infused every cell." Major breakthrough on collaborative documentation project where Gary demonstrated his Faith Walk OS system and proposed creating Travis's "Worldview Operating System." Travis showed immediate enthusiasm: "This is actually a nice tool... This gives me things I can actually point people to, and it lets me filter away the things, because if I could use this to help others grow ecosystems faster." Established concrete framework for 3-month collaboration involving 2-4 hours weekly of recorded conversations, comprehensive worldview documentation, and strategic communication artifact development. Travis positioned as Gary's first client for new strategic communication service, combining software development, writing services, and biographical strategic communications work. Conversation demonstrated sophisticated integration of personal development, business strategy, and spiritual formation while establishing foundation for scaling Travis's wisdom and influence through systematic documentation.

• 2025-09-04: Comprehensive discussion covering Gary's experience at Epstein files press conference, political strategy, and major development of worldview documentation project. Gary shared insights from bipartisan press conference led by Ro Khanna and Thomas Massey demanding release of Epstein files, with Travis providing analysis of "control trees" and power structures. Extended discussion of political strategy including Convention of States mechanisms for constitutional amendments and formation of "purple caucus" of unencumbered politicians. Major breakthrough on open source history project with Travis enthusiastic about creating collaborative repository for Python/open source stories: "That is a better way to approach it essentially just to create a space, seed it, and then allow people, here's how you do it." Sophisticated theological discussion of Logos as divine logic and collection of principles ordering reality. Travis articulated core philosophy of community-centered economics: "The most meaningful things you do are with communities. That's where you get meaning out of life... And then the economic calculation is necessary to understand the impact of your community." Deep exploration of Travis's spiritual experiences and truth-seeking drive, including guidance to transfer from University of Utah to BYU despite scholarship sacrifice. Discussion of sovereign AI partnership agreements beyond traditional open source, emphasizing data ownership rights and human accountability. Advanced development of personal documentation systems as "APIs for humans" to enable better collaboration and filtering. Travis positioned as applied philosopher of ecosystem development, with Gary facilitating systematic documentation of decision-making frameworks for scaling organizational wisdom.

• 2025-10-26: Profound spiritual and philosophical conversation opened with prayer, exploring divine purpose, open source as expression of godly patterns, and economic calculation as necessity for scaling human cooperation. Travis shared three pivotal moments of following God's voice: transferring to BYU despite losing scholarship ("you need to be here when you get back"), meeting Amy after divine prompting not to go home after concert, and writing NumPy after God told him to solve the array library fragmentation ("I don't share that very often because people make light of it"). Articulated comprehensive worldview: "We're eternal essences housed in temporary cover to learn, to grow, and to act" with purpose being to "discover and understand eternal cycles, eternal patterns that really work." Explained open source success through divine lens: "People are doing it because of love... Those are the patterns that I know are godly." Shared discovery of Ludwig von Mises's economic calculation problem as transformative ("should be taught to every kindergartener"), linking ownership necessity to biblical commandment "thou shalt not steal." Warned of return to feudalism: "We're re-engaging in a kind of feudalism... More and more things are owned by fewer and fewer people. That's a problem. That is not a divine pattern." Described OpenTeams mission to prevent AI feudalism by disseminating capabilities widely. Critiqued "agentic AI" terminology as "sacrilegious" for conflating programs with divine spark of human agency. Outlined education reform needs: logic, probability theory, and economic calculation must be taught early as they don't come intuitively. Discussed Python community governance challenges around ideological diversity and need for tolerance. Gary interpreted Travis's name meaning: bringing to light God's steadfastness while bearing the cross, "illuminating divine patterns." Travis demonstrated rare integration of deep faith, technical excellence, economic understanding, and commitment to expanding human agency through creating more owners rather than concentrating power.

• 2025-10-30: Critical conversation revealing OpenTeams financial crisis and strategic pivot. Travis disclosed personal financial sacrifice: "I just closed today on a financing deal personally, so I could personally invest in OpenTeams to get it through the next couple of months." Revealed fundraising failures with Joe Merrill's "optimism" not materializing and investors pulling out. Announced taking interim COO role to provide operational leadership. Shared PyTorch conference success where OpenTeams presented as diamond sponsor alongside tech giants, announcing Nibari as "operating system for AI" enabling sovereign AI deployment. Articulated opposition to hyperscaler concentration: "That's exactly the wrong direction for a safe future... we actually need to push to a broader number of people." Requested Gary's help with Texas education pilot involving AI teaching assistants, counselor support, and student tutoring aligned with state compliance requirements. Gary introduced "truth management" philosophy, arguing "scaling before you have alignment on truth is just sowing the seeds of your own destruction." Used Vitalik Buterin example of how documented vision enables ecosystem growth. Travis embraced concept: "I completely agree... it allows humans to self-align." Discussed team dysfunction between Joe ("good at pitching, not closing") and Braden ("good at operations, not pitching") who "don't get along." Gary shared conclusion of three-month spiritual sabbatical and recent baptism in Gulf of Mexico, both connecting spiritual foundation to ability to handle heavy workloads. Travis: "Stress for me comes from not knowing" while Gary noted "hope gives you that peace even with that workload." Established plan for Gary to provide truth management consulting starting with marketing team (Emma Merrill) while potentially engaging across multiple OpenTeams initiatives. Travis demonstrated vulnerability about financial pressures while maintaining vision for distributed AI future opposing tech feudalism.

• 2025-11-20: Transformative conversation with Gary and Tim Joo discovering "Applied AI" vision while managing OpenTeams crisis. Travis revealed scraping together "every liquidity" to fund company with 1-2 month runway remaining. Shared divine guidance through son's Bible parable leading to decision to sell Anaconda shares at lower rate. Major strategic breakthrough identifying massive gap between AI hype and real business needs: "The promises being made to you are being driven by trillions of dollars of investor interest... not on how you're going to be successful." Articulated Applied AI movement vision helping real businesses succeed with practical implementations versus vendor lock-in. Gary suggested podcast focused on Applied AI practitioners, which Travis embraced: "That's worth infinitely [more than] the cost of the conversation." Tim Joo emphasized empathy as key differentiator in tech. Discussed AI Rodeo concept as alternative to hackathons for enterprise engagement. Planning to move to Utah summer 2025 with 4 of 6 kids already there. Braden's incubator success with Fund 3 ($12M) and Fund 4 target ($200M) providing bright spot. Explored "Evergreen Giving" concept buying businesses for emerging professionals to run. Prayer together about being "champions of AI for God's kingdom." Established commitment to become "benevolent leaders in Applied AI sector" creating millions of jobs while opposing AI feudalism. Travis: "I'm not sure if I'm in orbit or crashing to earth" but maintaining faith through crisis.

• 2025-11-24: Applied AI Society founding meeting with Gary Sheng, Emma Merrill, Inessa Pawson, Tyler Hoff, Josh Oliphant, and Willie. Travis articulated comprehensive vision for Applied AI Society as distinct from Navari OS community: "Applied AI society is not Navari... it's bigger... everybody's welcome." Emphasized mission of AI sovereignty and distributed wealth generation: "We advocate for the wealth generation of automation to be distributed... empowering people, educating people." Drew parallels to PyData community development, starting with Google workshop and Anaconda-sponsored meetups evolving into global movement with local chapters. Discussed potential nonprofit or public benefit corporation structure for governance transparency. Key principles established: serving practitioners not sponsors, providing beacon of hope against dystopian AI concentration, enabling humanity's diverse worldviews. Travis: "We want Applied AI society to be a beacon of hope to a world that is a little bit nervous about the dystopian potential of concentrated AI." Emphasized creating "watering holes" for AI-curious people and practitioners to gather. Discussed Austin pilot workshop at co-working space, careful distinction between "Applied AI workshop/meetup/discovery" versus OpenTeams' multi-day "Applied AI Rodeo" events. Travis committed personal sponsorship: "I'll do five of those right over the next year, if it's only a couple hundred bucks." Recognized need for early champions to set community standards, with Inessa leading community development from OSA base. Meeting established foundation for movement explicitly designed to prevent AI feudalism by creating owners rather than concentrating power.

• 2025-12-02: Gary sent BlessOut message and updates from AI summit in Utah where he discovered the Applied AI Institute at Utah Valley University. Met with UVU faculty member who explained the institute has existed for some time and represents a strong model for building local chapters of the Applied AI Society. Cloudflare CEO spoke at the summit and Gary identified him as "very aligned with a world of sovereignty" and potential "strong ally to the applied AI society" given Cloudflare's local presence. Gary emphasized that "a few early events and a conference are important to getting the word out" for building the Applied AI movement. The interaction demonstrated Gary's active field research and networking to advance the Applied AI Society vision, identifying both institutional models (UVU's institute) and corporate allies (Cloudflare) for the movement.

• 2025-12-04: Pivotal conversation formalizing Gary's Entrepreneur in Residence role at OT Incubator to lead Applied AI Society. Travis returned from Utah summit excited about policy makers' digital sovereignty interest and Cloudflare CEO's alignment on horizontal AI. Offered Gary $100-120k W2 position to build movement preventing AI feudalism through democratization. Travis revealed severe OpenTeams fundraising stress, using personal liquidity to maintain operations: "I've used all my liquidity to support the OpenTeams lack of fundraising." Discussed starting Applied AI Society as incubator initiative before formalizing foundation structure, learning from NumFocus mistakes. Travis articulated urgency: "If something like this doesn't exist, then it's going to be the dev rels from Google, OpenAI, Microsoft pulling people into their orbit." Gary presented vision of Applied AI Society as "shelling point" for engineers wanting to help businesses and businesses needing implementation support. Both acknowledged divine connection, with Travis stating "I believe that too, Gary" when Gary said God connected them. Established concrete next steps including January 2025 Austin launch event, connection with team (Tiffany, Willie, Thomas), and content strategy. Travis demonstrated deep commitment despite financial pressures: "I feel similarly right now, Gary. I think this is a thing that needs to exist. And so I'm eager to support it. It's a high priority thing for me." Travis telling his team: "Gary's going to do awesome things... If I could get Gary to just be part of the team for a couple of years, that would be amazing."

Applied AI Community Funding Commitment (November 2025):

• Verbal confirmation to pay Gary to build applied AI community in Austin area

• Supports Gary's thesis of connecting business owners hungry for AI integration with implementing engineers

• Aligns with Travis's broader mission to democratize AI and prevent feudalism

• Part of Travis's strategy to create "watering holes" for AI practitioners and businesses

• 2026-01-06: First sync of 2026 to finalize EIR contract and kick off Applied AI Society. Travis shared Disney cruise with all 6 kids over holidays; reflected extensively on Amy's impact and undervalued power of motherhood. OpenTeams fundraise not closed but expecting money by end of January; Joe Merrill "all in" with potential $25-50k/month budget for Applied AI Society once funds arrive. Confirmed Exhibit A for contract is fine; will process today. Deep dive on Nabari as "operating system for Applied AI" with Lockheed/Saudi "Skyseeker" deployment. Both aligned on "2026 is the year of Applied AI" thesis; Gary to draft defining blog post. Discussed entity structure options (501c3, 501c6, PBC). Travis going to Davos to talk about Applied AI. Key people to connect: Dylan, Kelsey Noel (ML engineer at Merck), Tyler Hoff, Ian Newell, Logan McKee. Established weekly Monday 11:30am syncs. Travis apologized for missing Dec 23 email during holidays.

Transcripts

Transcript ID	Date	Summary
2026-01-06-travis-oliphant-applied-ai-contract-kickoff	2026-01-06	Contract finalization, OpenTeams $50k/month budget commitment, "2026 is the year of Applied AI" thesis alignment, weekly sync established
2025-12-04-gary-travis-applied-ai-society-eir	2025-12-04	Entrepreneur in Residence offer to lead Applied AI Society with $100-120k compensation
2025-11-20-travis-tim-applied-ai-vision	2025-11-20	Applied AI community vision and OpenTeams crisis management with Tim Joo
2025-10-30-gary-travis-nibari-truth-management-openteams-struggles	2025-10-30	OpenTeams financial crisis, Nibari sovereign AI platform, and truth management philosophy
2025-09-27-gary-travis-divine-patterns-open-source	2025-09-27	Deep philosophical conversation on divine calling, open source philosophy, economic calculation, and creating owners vs. AI feudalism
2025-09-04-gary-sheng-travis-oliphant-epstein-politics-philosophy	2025-09-04	Political strategy discussion covering Epstein files press conference, Convention of States, and worldview documentation collaboration
2025-08-23-gary-sheng-travis-oliphant-fatherhood-truth-tech-incubator	2025-08-23	Personal and strategic conversation about fatherhood, marriage contemplation, and truth tech incubator development
2025-08-20-gary-sheng-tiffany-cianci-travis-oliphant-strategic-convergence	2025-08-20	Strategic convergence discussion about anti-monopoly technology, podcast development, and ethical innovation with Tiffany Cianci
2025-08-08-oliphant-family-missionaries-divine-patterns-discussion	2025-08-08	Evening gathering with Oliphant family and LDS missionaries exploring divine patterns, missionary work, and faith-based technology
2025-08-07-gary-sheng-travis-oliphant-divine-attributes-open-source-faith	2025-08-07	Profound philosophical conversation exploring divine attributes, open source principles, and faith-based technology innovation
2025-08-05-gary-sheng-travis-oliphant-conversation	2025-08-05	Strategic and philosophical conversation about collaboration opportunities and team dynamics
2025-08-03-gary-sheng-travis-oliphant-heather-clayton-staker-allan-staker-dinner-transcript	2025-08-03	Social dinner gathering with families discussing faith, technology, and business
2025-05-28-gary-travis-joe-emma-christofuturism-conversation	2025-05-28	Extended discussion on Christofuturism philosophy, economic policy, government contracting, and strategic partnerships with Joe and Emma Merrill
2025-03-26-conversation-with-angel-studios	2025-03-26	Discussion about AI implementation at Angel Studios, mentioned as potential guest speaker for hackathon weekend