Meet the Team: Austin Bourdier- Software Engineer & Co-Founder of Indisputable Labs
A Bay Area native, Austin’s first childhood home sits serendipitously just a mere few blocks from our workspace here at Indisputable Labs!
Austin lived here in San Francisco’s Mission District as well as in the North Bay and East Bay before attending the University of California Berkeley for his Undergraduate degree in Political Science and Government with a minor in Computer Science.
Growing up (and to this day,) Austin is/ was quite the active individual with a highly competitive spirit, playing the full gambit of sports including baseball, basketball, rugby, tennis, cross country running, track and football (even starring as his high school football quarterback!)
In addition to physical activity, Austin had a supreme interest in mental and intellectual stimulation, his elementary school friends sweetly referring to him as the “human calculator.”
Austin always loved the challenge of solving math problems (so much so, that he was the Mathletes Captain of every school he attended from elementary school to high school,) but it really wasn’t until halfway through college that he started dabbling with computer science.
Up until that point, computer science just sounded too big and scary, but then he got over the fear and started cracking away at it playing around with scheme, javascript and python on some machine learning projects as well as web development and data science projects. (We’re so glad he did!)
But before Austin was able to fully commit to a career in technology, he needed to try out a few other options and explore his passion for politics that he had had for as long as he could remember. He wanted to see how he’d enjoy working in the political space and he came in starry-eyed ready to make the world a better place!
He was especially curious about campaigns and elections specifically — the ways in which people maneuvered their way into positions of power. He decided to take on a summer internship on Capitol Hill for Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and while it was an amazing experience in many ways, he unfortunately didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as he’d hoped.
He left the experience feeling a greater angst towards politics after witnessing how fake people could be and how pervasive lying and manipulation were in the inner workings of the space. He felt disappointed in the reality he witnessed firsthand — people acting predominantly on behalf of their own self interest over that of the common good of the people. The amount of game-playing and deceit created a sense of disillusionment and Austin felt the need to explore a new path that felt more in alignment with his values.
He wasn’t sure what that new path to career and personal fulfillment would be just yet, so he continued the exploration and took on a finance role at Triage Consulting Group where he interacted with hospitals to perform revenue cycle reviews, analyzed client care contracts, and provided financial recommendations.
And while interesting, this role still didn’t quite hit the spot and Austin was left searching for something he’d truly enjoy working on.
It wasn’t until right after this role, about a year out of college, when Austin came back around to computer science. He visited a friend who told him all about these cool coding schools and bootcamps popping up around town and it seemed like the right next move to make. Austin then attended Dev Bootcamp, graduated from the program in 2014, and has since never looked back!
He took to coding again like a kid riding a bike and started started working as a software engineer in San Francisco following graduation. He really appreciated the amount of objectivity in the work he was doing and how he was able to physically create real world solutions to problems.
He found the exercise of programming mirrored the way his brain normally functions — in a more linear, logical, process-oriented way. He loved how it seamlessly interacted with his natural way of experiencing the world.
“While there are many ways to get to a solution, ultimately there’s one solution and that helps my brain.”
Since taking his first software engineering role, he has worked for tech startups ever since — his most recent position being Instacart before joining forces with the Indisputable Labs team.
How did Austin make his way to Indisputable Labs?
Austin was introduced to another one of the Indisputable Labs’ founders, Malcolm Garland, by a mutual friend and Malcolm told him about a hackathon him and some friends were going to be participating in. Austin joined the team for the hackathon and while the original concept they were developing ended up being pivoted to what is now known as Coral Protocol, Austin did not pivot from this group of people or the project.
As a group, they came up with the idea behind the decentralized anti-fraud protocol Coral Protocol and formed an official company to make it all happen. CEO of Indisputable Labs, David Kuchar, then came to Instacart and skillfully recruited Austin away to come on-board full-time as a co-founder of the organization.
Austin’s role at Indisputable Labs involves an array of engineering responsibilities with his current focus being the creation of systems and software programs that catch fraud in the blockchain ecosystem with Coral Protocol.
Austin developed the powerful Coral Phishnet Bot that crawls through social media channels detecting phishing scams and hackers. (You can even utilize our bot in your very own Telegram channel for free simply by adding @Phishnetbot… you’re welcome!)
Austin is incredibly excited to work on this first project of Indisputable Labs, the Coral Protocol, because it’s really testing him as a professional engineer. He feels the team has empowered him to fully flex his intellectual muscles and pushed him to code to the best of his abilities.
“Coral is a really interesting concept and this project is legitimately helpful in the blockchain space. Some people get starry eyed about the money they can make in space, and forget about the basic concepts like security. We are able to help the people involved in crypto now and in the future with a diversity of use cases and applications of blockchain to empower them with safeguards when they’re transacting.”
Austin says working at Indisputable Labs with this team is the first time he has ever felt truly at home in a professional setting. He feels a strong sense of belonging and considers this team to be like family.
“This is so much more than a job to me. This is a community of extraordinary people who bring a diverse array of gifts to the table working together towards a common goal!”
Why work in blockchain?
Austin is passionate about blockchain because it is a great example of a way in which we can apply full transparency to any institution. Prior to this experience in blockchain, all of his life was spent thinking about politics within centralized governments and systems. And as we’ve all seen on the news, powerful people can subjugate and oppress people with lesser access and education.
“Corruption is rampant. If blockchain technology is able to succeed, it can effectively displace the notion of a government being able to hide corruption or information from its citizens.”
Austin is stoked on the potential good for humanity this new technology can bring!
“People can sometimes get too caught up in the price of Bitcoin moment to moment and forget about the most important piece which is the implication of this transformative technology and what could be a new paradigm of human interaction.”
Amen Austin! We’re so happy to have your passion, technological prowess, and sweet, loving spirit with us at Indisputable Labs!
Fun Random Facts About Austin:
- Austin has had stints living in France, London, and Washington D.C.
- Austin spent half a year solo backpacking his way through India, Japan, Southeast Asia, Vietnam, and Nepal among other places
- Austin “pushed to commit” at the base of Everest (some serious dedication right there!)
- Friends have compared Austin to a golden retriever throughout his entire life
- Favorite cocktail: Japanese whiskey
- He’s a dual citizen with 2 passports- French & American
- Favorite hobbies: traveling, running, attending music festivals, and meeting new people
- One of his creative side projects: playing woodwind instruments and composing music
- Obsessed with sandwiches from the sandwich shop Mr. Pickles
- He’s surprisingly never been a professional model
- We’ve never seen him wear close-toed shoes (the man loves sandals!
- He’s kind-of obsessed with one of the office pooches Zelly (and the feeling is mutual!)
