Engineering Impact on Jamie Gull: From Aerospace Dreams to Redefining Deep Tech Venture

From the moment Jamie Gull took his first flight with his grandfather as a young child, the course of his life was irreversibly set toward the skies and beyond. That early fascination with flight would eventually evolve into a deep-seated passion for aerospace and engineering, propelling him through a career that spanned elite institutions, cutting-edge startups, and eventually his own venture fund, Wave Function Ventures. 

Gull’s academic journey took root at a university in Stanford, California, where he completed both his undergraduate and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering. While still a student, he secured a prestigious internship at a major aerospace company, but the sluggish pace and bureaucratic inefficiencies proved frustrating. Gull says, “It took six weeks just to change a number on a drawing.” That experience solidified his desire to work in an environment driven by innovation and agility, values that would later define his career. 

His first formative professional experience came at a company known for rapid prototyping and ambitious aviation projects. “Six months in, I was one of three structural engineers designing an entire aircraft that we flew nine months later,” Gull says. That accelerated responsibility and exposure to experimental design shaped his appetite for building things fast and well. It also gave him a firsthand view into the value of small, elite teams focused on technical excellence. 

But it was his time at a world-renowned aerospace manufacturer working on space travel that pushed those principles to the next level. Joining when the firm had about a thousand employees, Gull quickly adapted to its startup-like intensity. He shares, “They'd say, ‘This goes to space in six months, figure it out,’ and we [the team] just did.”  

Gull attributes his growth to a prominent business mogul’s talent for building high-performing teams and eliminating bureaucratic hurdles. “My experiences taught me that success in deep tech startups boils down to assembling excellent teams and executing relentlessly,” he shares. 

Armed with that experience, Gull co-founded two of his own companies, where he focused on engineering, stepped into the CEO role, and steered the business through funding, strategy, and execution. He also learned a whole new set of skills, navigating government funding, managing teams, and planning go-to-market strategies. While he remains fascinated by engineering concepts, he admits, “I love the ideas, but I don’t miss the day-to-day execution. I prefer thinking from a systems perspective, what’s possible, what’s scalable, and where the real leverage is.” 

That realization led to the founding of Wave Function Ventures, a venture capital firm focused exclusively on early-stage deep tech companies across robotics, aerospace, energy, and infrastructure. “All hardware-centric sectors are where my expertise lies, and frankly, where the next wave of durable, defensible innovation is going to come from,” Gull states. 

Unlike pure software plays, which are increasingly hard to differentiate and defend, deep tech startups often require more initial capital but reward founders with more defensible IP and lower long-term scaling costs. The fund aims to capitalize on that opportunity. 

Gull is methodical about the kind of founders he backs. “I look for technical founders, people who could thrive in fast-paced environments,” he says. He tends to avoid candidates from large, traditional defense firms, whose cultures he finds too slow and hierarchical. More important than experience is what Gull calls “mental firepower and the rate of learning.” He’s particularly drawn to founders who are not chasing entrepreneurship for its own sake but are solving meaningful problems that couldn’t be addressed any other way. 

Gull points to what he sees as a 20-year innovation drought. He states, “We have had two decades of pouring capital into software and the internet. It gave us smartphones, sure, but fundamentally, life hasn’t changed much. Deep tech has the potential to change how we live in tangible ways, through energy systems, and manufacturing.” 

He believes that reigniting innovation in these sectors is not just economically important, but also socially vital. Gull says, “Productivity and quality of life hinge on our infrastructure and technological progress. We need to get back on that curve.” 

Wave Function Ventures shows the potential of both Gull’s track record and his investment thesis. From child pilot to aerospace engineer and then startup founder to VC, Jamie Gull’s journey is not just a career arc; it’s a blueprint for how deep tech can power the future. 

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