Building an Independent Skunkworks Team

An Invitation to Experienced Professionals

To Members of the Network & Fellow Retirees,

For those of us who spent decades working in engineering, technical fields, specialized administration, or industry, in government or civilian environments, retirement often brings a strange paradox: we finally have the freedom to think, but we frequently miss the sharp intellectual engagement, the camaraderie, and the sheer satisfaction of solving hard, meaningful problems instead of just "waiting around".

I am writing to fellow retirees and seasoned professionals across all disciplines who are looking for a new kind of purpose.

My name is Rick Lawrence. I am an independent hardware developer and the founder of BOUNCE™ Safety Systems LLC. My background spans years of technical civil service—including working in the special instrumentation section at Edwards Air Force Base—and I have spent recent months developing and laying out multi-layer electronic hardware architectures (using KiCad) designed for extreme-environment sensing, edge-triggering, and real-time motion data processing.

If you care to see the adventure I've been on building this since the turn of the year, feel free to explore this site. And if you do visit, I ask you to click on the Professional Review Button in the navigation bar and fill out the data with your honest opinion or suggestions. Then call me personally at the number below.

The Core Technology

At the heart of this work is an ultra-rugged, fault-tolerant edge-triggering platform built around a triple-redundant 2-out-of-3 voting system. It utilizes three 6-axis IMUs, culminating in 18 distinct data points, all sampled at 1,600 times a second. This architecture eliminates single-point sensor dropouts, prevents high-g saturation glitches, and makes deterministic, split-second safety and actuation decisions locally at the edge.

While this platform originated from a personal hardware project focused on fall mitigation (because I’m tired of falling, breaking bones, and dealing with longer recovery times than when I was much younger), its underlying capabilities open up massive potential across multiple critical industries:

What I Am Building

I am looking to assemble a multi-disciplinary, collaborative "skunkworks" team. I am looking for the whole gamut of experience. Whether your background is in corporate sales, aerospace logistics, technical writing, administration, law, or advanced engineering, your lifetime of institutional knowledge is what's missing from standard startup models.

In fact, regardless of your discipline, if you have years of experience, a desire to get back in the game, and a passion for building things that matter, contact me. We still may be able to plug you in. We are looking to bring centuries of combined experience and wisdom into this project.

The Model

This is not a rigid corporate job; it is a collaborative, mission-driven partnership. We will leverage modern tools, including advanced AI collaborators to handle heavy research, drafting, and outreach, to punch well above our weight class. Compensation structure for key contributors joining this venture phase will be handled via commission and/or equity arrangements aligned with our success.

If you are an industry veteran who misses the challenge, wants to put your Rolodex and expertise back to work on your own terms, and wants to be part of a genuine engineering adventure, I would love to connect with you.

Partial Disciplines, Fields, & Experience I Am Looking For

  1. Government, Defense, & Aerospace Sectors: Executives of any level; compliance and procurement experts; former test instrumentation engineers & technicians; defense acquisition & program managers (familiar with SBIR/STTR or OTA grants); DOD/military logistics officers; and civil service technical evaluators.
  2. Engineering & Technical Disciplines: Embedded systems & firmware engineers (STM32 architectures); mechanical & structural engineers; PCB layout & hardware design engineers (KiCad); quality assurance (QA) & reliability engineers (MIL-STD or industrial specs); and systems engineers.
  3. Commercial Sales, Business Development, & Industry Sectors: Industrial automation & robotics sales veterans; aerospace & defense account executives; heavy machinery & mining equipment distributors; and strategic partnerships & licensing directors.
  4. Finance, Legal, & Administrative Operations: Corporate & grant accountants / controllers; intellectual property (IP) attorneys / patent evaluators; operations & facilities administrators; and government contracts administrators (CO/COR backgrounds).

This list is only partial because I cannot possibly think of every discipline that might be applicable. Call me, let’s explore together.

Rick Lawrence

CEO, BOUNCE™ Safety Systems, LLC

Phone: 602-632-2243

Website: bounceairbags.com

Emails: godsfuel@live.com | info@bounceairbags.com