About BootLoop
We’re building the
OS for modern hardware development
Embedded software powers the physical world, but the tools used to build it have been left behind. BootLoop gives hardware teams AI agents that understand and interact with real hardware, and help develop, test, and debug firmware across the entire product lifecycle.
Our mission
BootLoop began with a problem we know firsthand. We met while building an emergency ventilator, working where hardware, firmware, and constraints collide. We later continued that work at MIT, building brain-computer interfaces that demanded a deep understanding of software and the physical world.
From leading firmware for SpaceX’s Raptor Engine and software for the Starship Booster Catch, we saw what becomes possible when firmware teams have exceptional tools, automated validation, and hardware-in-the-loop testing. Tools that, when implemented correctly, allow companies to literally conquer new frontiers. But we also saw that those capabilities rarely exist outside a handful of organizations.
AI made it possible to imagine something better - a system with all the benefits of the tools above but without the decades of implementation and support of dedicated teams. Writing code was only part of the problem. Firmware engineers spend most of their time understanding hardware, integrating systems, testing behavior, and finding the failures that only appear on a real board. We built BootLoop to bring that entire workflow into one intelligent platform: hardware understanding, hardware interaction, and rigorous validation from first bring-up through production.
What we believe
Firmware is about specificity
Generic answers or results are not enough when every register, timing constraint, pin mapping, and peripheral matters. The best tools understand your exact system, not an average of systems that look like it.
Proof beats opinion
Code that compiles is not necessarily code that works. Firmware is only finished when its behavior has been observed, tested, and proven in simulation or on the hardware it was written for.
Do engineering, not grunt work
Engineers should spend more time designing systems, exploring architectures, and solving hard problems - and less time cross-referencing documentation, rebuilding bench tests, and chasing avoidable failures.
The Founders
BootLoop brings together experience across AI, firmware, embedded systems, and building hardware where failure wasn't an option. We are building the platform we wanted ourselves: deeply technical, grounded in real hardware, and designed for engineers who care about getting the details right.
Noah Pacik-Nelson
Co-founder · CEO
Noah has spent his career building intelligent systems at the boundary between software and the physical world. Before BootLoop, he built AI agents at Accenture’s AI Refinery, researched neuromorphic computing and ultra-low-power AI at Accenture Labs and the MIT Media Lab, and served as CTO of the team behind an FDA-authorized emergency ventilator.
Chris Markus
Co-founder · CTO
Chris built firmware for SpaceX’s Raptor engine from first fire to flight and later led software for the Starship booster catch system. Before SpaceX, he developed embedded systems at the MIT Media Lab and led firmware for the emergency ventilator project where he and Noah first worked together. Chris was also BootLoop’s first user: an expert firmware engineer building the tools he wanted on his own bench.
Careers
We are building for engineers working on some of the hardest and coolest systems in the world - and we hold ourselves to the same standard. We are looking for driven, high-agency people who want real ownership, move quickly, and care deeply about the quality of what they ship.
Build side by side
We work together in person, five days a week. Hardware development is collaborative and physical, and we believe the fastest path through a hard problem often starts around the same board, bench, or whiteboard.
Own important problems
We are a team with a large technical surface area. You will take meaningful problems from first principles to working systems, with the trust and responsibility to make decisions along the way.
Work on the physical world
What we build helps engineers develop the systems that fly, drive, power, connect, and protect the world. The work is technically demanding, and its impact leaves the screen.
Raise the standard
We care about speed, but never at the expense of rigor. We want people who challenge assumptions, learn relentlessly, and leave every system better than they found it.