On February 18, 2024, Ian Laffey shared a tweet that rapidly propelled him and two fellow engineers, Sacha Lévy and Carl Schoeller, into the spotlight. Fresh from a hackathon, the trio had devised and built a drone for less than $500, capable of determining its location solely by analyzing imagery with an onboard camera and data from Google Maps—without reliance upon any GPS signal. Their innovative approach instantly captured attention online, unveiling timely and compelling potential applications, especially amid intensified GPS-jamming tactics affecting drone operations within Ukraine. There, drone pilots typically rely on specialized goggles, guiding craft visually amidst the increasing electronic interference and challenging environmental conditions like heavy fog or night patrols.
Though Schoeller ended the hackathon by parting ways and merely wishing his fellow teammates luck, the explosive viral interest spurred by Laffey’s tweet quickly reconvened the three young engineers. Encouraged by their online acclaim, they submitted an application and were promptly accepted into Y Combinator’s prestigious Spring 2024 program.
Today, working under their newly founded San Francisco tech startup Theseus, the group has raised $4.3 million in seed funding. The round was led by First Round Capital, with participation from Y Combinator itself and Lux Capital. Although drone innovation has recently experienced substantial growth, with firms such as Skydio, Shield AI, and the defense giant Anduril reaching multibillion-dollar valuations, Theseus carves out a specialized niche. According to CEO Carl Schoeller, the company’s exclusive focus remains providing precision navigation hardware and software for unmanned military drones intended to function independently from GPS signals. Notably, Theseus’s systems explicitly steer clear of developing targeting or weaponry decision-making tools, concentrating exclusively on autonomous navigation from one known location to another.
Though still in its early stages, Theseus has already drawn significant interest from U.S. Special Forces. Following initial contact prompted directly by their original viral demonstration, Theseus entered into an agreement with the elite military unit to perform early-stage testing at a confidential Special Forces installation. While the technology has not yet been deployed in active combat scenarios nor resulted in actual military contracts, new funding will allow the company to improve upon its prototypes, further refine its software, and quickly hire additional engineers.
Although forming a company just days after first meeting typically defies conventional wisdom, Schoeller described their choice as a worthwhile and exhilarating leap, propelled by an extraordinary idea and the dramatic momentum ignited by a single viral tweet.
