Before founding Grounded, Sam worked as a Senior Software Engineer at SpaceX, where he wrote embedded software for Starlink hardware. Prior to SpaceX, Sam was a Product Engineering Manager for TripleLift, where he incubated new product lines for the company before it was acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $1.4 billion. Sam was also a creative technologist for SpecialGuest, a Brooklyn creative agency, producing interactive installations for clients including Google, YouTube and NIO. He was also a filmmaker, with his film RECOVERY premiering in the Big Apple Film Festival in NYC in 2015.