Welcome to our Featured Founder series, where you’ll meet startup founders from Tampa-St. Petersburg, who are building and scaling their ventures to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges. We interviewed Fallon Williams, CEO of GladysDrift LLC, which builds quantum-enhanced energy reduction applications for data centers.

Please provide a brief one-liner about your company.

Our company builds quantum enhanced energy reduction applications for data centers.

What were you doing previously, and what inspired you to launch your company?

Inspired by Dr. Gladys West and the experience in GNSS simulation devices and Critical Infrastructure I understood the necessity for real time precise atomic clocks. The possibility of the earths core measurement if not accurate could affect our precise timing in GPS devices. Calculating the earths inner core through quantum algorithms woudl to be possible without the current quantum computing advances.

During that same year, the dominant energy consumption crisis and datacenters and the mornings I spent with the Tampa Bay Estuary taught me that energy savings do not have to be mutually exclusive. Drafting my patent, I decided that the job of reducing energy consumption at datacenters could be on the road to validating measurements for the Earth’s core.

What pain point is your company solving? What gets you excited to go to work every day?

U.S. data centers with new AI technology intially was projected at consuming approximately 176 terawatt-hours (TWh) , about 4.4% of total U.S. electricity. Now the estimated by 2028 are triple that number. Advances in quantum computing provide the perfect opportunity to optimize complex problems like energy reduction in datacenters. This work has been the most fulfulling work of my life – discovering new ways nature and emerging deep tech can work in harmony is amazing.

Name the biggest challenge you faced in the process of launching the company. How did you overcome it?

The climb up the scientific discovery mountain with an exciting probability of success. The foundations of which are in papers and books written by in small part by the greats like Einstein, Fourier, Hugyen and Faraday. Down the mountain where learing does not fund startups is the challenge. Overcoming the challenege is in the saying “it takes time” for the average small business owner. There is always pressure of failure but then I look at what I have developed and I am so proud of myself. The ability to be proud of myself is a gift in itself.

Where do you see your company headed next?

I have been able to develop in stealth mode for a year to build IP and asset value for both employees and investors. I believe small, purposeful steps to build brand recognition while introducing revenue avenues are our next step.

Give us a tactical piece of advice that you’d share with another founder just starting out.

View each professional connection as a 20-year investment into a relationship.

Why Florida?

The top on my list is the environmental stewardship; my grandfather (who still attends the TBEP early AM Saturday pickups), family, and friends have committed their extra time to philanthropy and environmental stewardship. A small electrical controls family company is still in Ybor City. His is grandfather was one of the first mayors in Tampa.

Second, weighted heavily as the first contender of “why” is the USF community, the research and academic foundation within the institute, and within the College of Engineering, and what they have built over the last two decades is nothing short of incredible. #GoBulls