I’m the CEO/Founder of Thunderhead and an incoming freshman (class of ‘27) to MIT! See below and my CV to learn more about me and my academic/entrepreneurial endeavors. Feel free to reach out via email (spiegel1@mit.edu or addison@thunderhead.xyz).

Entrepreneurship

I’ve been entreprenuerial since a young age. I seek problems and try to solve them with a business, at scale. I’ve had ~10 endeavors since I was a child - you can see most of them listed on my CV. Failing does not scare me, and no matter the outcome of a business, I consider it a learning lesson and a win.

My path since youth has been long and windy, but I’m currently working on Thunderhead, a blockchain services company and my largest endeavor yet. I lead a team of 6 and together we’ve been fortunate to service thousands of clients and a handful of institutions across the globe.

I plan to continue learning and building in perpetuity!

Academic Exploration

In any subject, there’s something that will interest me. Even in English or History (not my favorites!), I found something that appealed heavily to me, such as the non-linear passage of time in comics and the Bank War, respectively. I hope to continue to explore a wide variety of subjects at MIT. I find Physics really cool and hope to take Quantum I-III. I like Math as well and am hoping to learn some Topology and further my study of differential equations. By nature of my business endeavors I’m also interested in Economics and Management.

My primary prospect at MIT is Computation and Cognition. I unfortunately haven’t yet been exposed to much CogSci/Neuro/Psych in my schooling, but its something I’ve been innately curious about since childhood. In 9th grade, I applied for a school grant to purchase an OpenBCI headset and try to predict the direction a user was thinking with an NN. I also applied for a Neuralink internship after Elon posted about it on Twitter.

There is of course a wide spectrum of human thought, but I seek a fundamental framework that all humans fit into. This would be helpful for finding optimal managerial practices in enterprise and in crafting economic systems.

Aspirations

Tiago Forte, a second-brain enthusiast, said we should “optimize a system outside of yourself, so you can remain happily unoptimized.” In the same vein, I aim to build digital systems that complement human idiosyncrasies - blockchain-based governance/financial infrastructure and true second brain software.

I aspire to build many new products and services for the world and I plan to work in a variety of industries.

Some of my more trivial aspirations include a music festival and a beach club! (I am an aesthetician as well)