How this founder’s unlikely path to Silicon Valley could become an edge in industrial tech

Thomas Lee Young, a 24-year-old CEO and founder of Interface, has an unconventional background for a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Originally fixated on attending Caltech from a young age, his plans were disrupted by COVID-19-related visa issues and a market downturn that wiped out his college fund. He pivoted to studying mechanical engineering at the University of Bristol in the UK, where he worked at Jaguar Land Rover in human factors engineering, focusing on safety and user experience in industrial systems. There, he identified a critical problem: many industrial companies rely on outdated, error-prone, or cumbersome safety documentation and operating procedures, which inspired him to develop a better solution. Young’s entrepreneurial journey took a decisive turn when he joined Entrepreneur First (EF), a European incubator that accepts individuals before they have a co-founder or idea. At EF, he met his co-founder and CTO, Aaryan Mehta, who shared a similarly international background and had faced visa challenges during COVID. Together, they formed