Call Summary: Applied AI Society Contract Finalization & Strategic Kickoff

Overview

First sync of 2026 with Travis Oliphant to finalize EIR contract details, align on Applied AI Society vision, and establish working rhythms. Travis confirmed OpenTeams is "all in" with potential $50k/month budget once fundraise closes. Key breakthrough on "2026 is the year of Applied AI" thesis alignment. Established weekly Monday 11:30am syncs.

Key Topics Discussed

Holiday Recaps

Gary's Vegas Trip:

• Visited parents and brother with girlfriend in Summerlin
• Saw AI-enhanced remaster of original Wizard of Oz at the Sphere
• Google Cloud partnered with movie producers to extend film to full sphere format

Travis's Disney Cruise:

• All six kids together for Christmas, plus daughter's husband (9 total)
• Reprised 2012 family cruise, celebrated New Year in Caribbean
• Started from Galveston for convenience
• Youngest son turning 18 in five days

Travis's Reflections on Family and Marriage

Extended reflection on Amy's impact and the undervalued power of motherhood:

Travis: "You can't tell women that one of the greatest achievements they can make is to actually raise children. They got somehow, you know, 'oh, that's demeaning.' Is it really? Women have so much power in the relationships that they build... Ask me who are the people I admire the most? My mother, my wife, my daughters. The people who have power over me are women, actually."

Travis: "A lot of women basically abandon that power and try to replace it with corporate power. I get a boss at work who's a woman. Okay? Yeah, they have some version of power. They don't have power over my commitments."

Kids Updates:

• Oldest daughter (30): Pursuing career as physician, may not get married
• One daughter decided she doesn't want to get married
• Middle daughter: Just married, first year going well
• Oldest son: Going to Google this year after graduating
• Josh (middle son): Dating a freshman in college
• Youngest: Almost 18

OpenTeams Fundraise Status

• Not closed yet, expecting money by end of January
• Commitments from multiple people who are "serious"
• ~20 different investors, requires coordination
• Connected with "Futon Ready" who talked for 2.5 hours
• Also trying to find buyer for Common Shares (secondary sale challenging)
• Stressful period but progressing

Travis: "Looks like we have commitments from a few people that are closing. And they're serious... But serious commitment still require action and movement."

OT Incubator Updates

• Braden doing great, added partners and advisors
• Starting another Aerolytics group
• Canary Speech going well
• Converting C corp to partnership for tax advantages
• Fundraise happening on incubator side too
• Podcast progress slower than hoped, but Tiffany finished build out
• Met Ian Carroll for first time

Applied AI Society Funding & Structure

OpenTeams Commitment: Joe Merrill is "all in" on Applied AI Society. Once fundraise closes:

• Budget could be $25k-$50k/month from OpenTeams
• Additional sponsorship from OT Incubator
• First event budget: couple thousand dollars approved for photography, video, food

Travis: "As soon as we get the funds... Joe plans to put a budget together. We're organizing that budget right now. But it could be $50,000 a month. Essentially to sponsor events, travel, get people pulled in."

Independence is Critical:

Travis: "I really feel that needs to be an independent activity that OpenTeams is sponsoring... People need to understand what it is they're getting into. One of the things I said, look, we haven't really figured out what the thing is right now. It's an initiative, but it's intentionally independent initiative."

Entity Structure Discussion:

• Currently an initiative of OT Incubator (like Posse)
• Options: 501c3, 501c6, C4, Public Benefit Corporation, Partnership
• No rush to decide; can figure out based on what sponsors want
• 501c3 requires IRS approval (can take a year), annual reports showing public charity status
• 501c6 is industry consortium model
• From corporate sponsor perspective, business expense vs charitable donation is roughly equivalent

Travis: "Step one is, who else are we going to get to sponsor this? And then what do they want it to be?"

Contract Finalization

• Gary's Dec 23 email was missed during holidays
• Exhibit A additions (non-related IP) are fine
• Travis apologized for delay; will process today
• Corporate card/Brex system can be set up
• Raven is HR contact for questions
• December 16 start date payment may be challenging given late signing

Travis: "Anything is fine to put in the Exhibit. Legal contracts can always be modified as long as you have a relationship... they become essentially the sconces once the relationship breaks down."

Nabari Platform Deep Dive

Definition:

Travis: "Nabari is a commercial operating system for Applied AI... It's a gathering of all the tools that make applied AI possible and then puts on metadata. There's a thing we're calling the Codex—it's the Meta Registries, the registry of registries."

Key Concepts:

• Like Red Hat for Linux, but for AI workflows
• Legacy Nabari at nabari.dev is data science platform
• Adding agentic AI and applied AI capabilities
• "Vibe to production" focus (not competing with Lovable/vibe coding)
• Configuration management: models, applications, metadata, user permissions
• Command center for distributed deployments across machines/edge devices

Lockheed Partnership:

• Working with Lockheed to deploy Nabari for Saudi Arabia
• "Skyseeker" project - Golden Dome equivalent protecting against Iran missiles

Gary's Involvement:

• Will be pulled into Nabari product meetings
• Applied AI Society feedback will be critical for product direction
• Access to OpenTeams Slack channels coming

"2026 is the Year of Applied AI" Thesis

Both aligned on this being the defining theme:

Travis: "I totally agree. I'm going to Davos again. I want to be talking about applied AI to people at Davos."

Announcement Strategy:

• Gary will draft blog post defining "Applied AI Engineer"
• Similar to AI Engineer conference launch strategy
• Could have two categories: Applied AI Scientist vs Engineer
• Not trying to be model builders or AI researchers
• Focus on practical application, mix of software + business development + data science

Travis: "What specifically it isn't trying to be is model builders or researchers in AI space... This skill set is describing people's practical application of AI."

Vibe Coding Opportunity:

Travis: "Vibe coding or the enablement of natural language interfaces to computing gives this substrate a massive funnel. Lots of people can [participate] because everyone has gaps in their knowledge but AI helps them fill the gaps."

Key People to Connect With

For Applied AI Society Core:

• Dylan (key type of person to pull in)
• Fatma Tarlaci (already chatted)
• Kelsey Noel (ML engineer building Merck's AI agent platform)
• Tyler Hoff (change agent)
• Ian Newell (heads down building $20M business)

OpenTeams/Incubator Team:

• Logan McKee
• Paul Allen
• Paul Levine
• Kurkdurius
• Mark Lennox
• Jessica Egbert
• Jeremy
• Rebecca Johns (Posse director, can help with interns)

Resources:

• Posse program + Launch Wages partnership: first 12 weeks of intern paid
• Can use emerging professionals for event organizing, messaging, demos

Working Rhythm Established

• Weekly syncs: Mondays at 11:30am
• Gary will send async updates with blockers/questions
• Text Travis if email goes unanswered
• Documentary screening on January 14th

Vision for Applied AI Companion

Extended discussion on the ideal AI companion vision:

Travis: "I would love to see in the Applied AI Society people who are essentially making the paladin, where the AI companion is not trying to be your sex slave, not trying to be your therapist. It literally is just a tool trying to be helpful. Not trying to replace people in your life, maybe trying to help you get more relationships in life. It's trying to maximize your productivity and your happiness."

Travis: "In future world, I would expect my AI companion to be asking me about how, you know, 'I notice you've had these goals for a while. How's it going? Let me give you some ideas.' Some kind of 'How's it going with these key relationships in your life? Do you want to improve?'"

Gary noted this aligns exactly with what he's building - "next level context garden."

Key Quotes

On family power dynamics: "Ask me who are the people I admire the most? My mother, my wife, my daughters. The people who have power over me are women, actually."

On Applied AI Society independence: "I really feel that needs to be an independent activity that OpenTeams is sponsoring... People need to understand what it is they're getting into."

On Nabari: "Nabari is a commercial operating system for Applied AI... It's a gathering of all the tools that make applied AI possible."

On sovereignty: "I've been looking at how to replace Google over the next five years personally. I don't want to be in Google Docs. I don't want to be in Google Mail."

On target audience: "My thesis is there's tens of thousands of these people that have been overlooked by the AI Engineer crowd... Think of the folks around the Scikit-learn ecosystem that should be part of Applied AI Society."

Action Items / Takeaways

For Gary

• Sign contract once Exhibit A confirmed
• Draft "2026 is the Year of Applied AI" / "What is an Applied AI Engineer?" blog post
• Get pulled into Nabari product meetings
• Connect with key people: Dylan, Kelsey Noel, Tyler Hoff, Logan McKee, Paul Allen
• Explore Launch Wages/Posse for event support resources
• Start listing target event locations
• Put together event format/workshop structure

For Travis

• Process contract with Exhibit A today
• Set up corporate card/Brex access
• Pull Gary into OpenTeams Slack channels
• Connect Gary with Nabari product team
• Talk about Applied AI at Davos (Jan 19-26)

Established

• Weekly sync: Mondays 11:30am
• Text Travis if emails go unanswered
• Jan 29 first event at Antler confirmed
• OpenTeams + OTI as founding sponsors