Richard Threlkeld has a different view of obstacles than most entrepreneurs.
No, he’s not the first who once had to consider dipping into a retirement account to keep his startup’s lights on.
Nor was he the first to tackle the challenge of landing that first client with potentially game-changing amounts of money for Threlkeld and his startup Axiom AI.
But when you add a terrifying life-or-death battle, you cannot help but change your perspective: Threlkeld has been fighting thyroid cancer while building his business for the last 3 years.
“It’s scary as shit,” he said. “But I have tried to turn it into a positive. It became, ‘How do I provide enough for my family so that if I do leave in the next 5 years, they will be OK? It turned into a motivation.”
A Life-Changing Drive Leads to Lucrative Defense Deal
That drive helped him lure a lucrative, $1.4 million defense contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop high-powered AI agents in March. Axiom AI is an Orlando-based startup specializing in artificial intelligence solutions.
These solutions can range from automating drones to filling out forms with data.
The technology leverages machine learning to analyze data and provide real-time support for critical operations, a function that has demonstrated innovative capabilities in defense.
The contract came after the U.S. Navy called its entry into a tech competition last month “compelling.”
The company has hired a half-dozen workers to fulfill the contract.
In the competition to provide AI-driven services to the branch, Axiom successfully beat out nearly 20 other competitors.
The win continued a recent string of successes for the Orlando-based firm.
A $100,000 deal in October gave Threlkeld a much-needed boost.
Axiom now operates as a client of UCF’s Business Incubation Program’s Research Park location in Orlando.
Beating the Odds: Axiom AI’s Rise in the Competitive Tech Landscape
With the money, Axiom will develop and deliver AI-based technology to the Department of Defense, for use with next-generation support tools.
The AI agents will leverage machine learning to analyze and assess audio comms, situational strategies and provide real-time support for operations.
The goal for the military is a reduction in operational risks.
“To be able to provide technology that will protect the Warfighter, it’s amazing,” said Threlkeld, 36, a U.S. Army veteran who served from 2012-2021.
Threlkeld launched Axiom summer of 2022.
At the time, he had been working in research for General Electric. That came on the heels of a roughly two-year stint with Lockheed Martin.
But the seeds of entrepreneurship were planted much further back.
As a child, he always believed he would have a business.
A self-described “life learner,” he would build robotics and also built his own computer.
“I just love learning and creating,” he said.
He had wanted to build a business, so he made the jump.
A scary stint with thyroid cancer convinced him to make the leap.
“It was a sign,” he said. “I was getting a second chance at life. Once we got past that, I thought some things had to change.”
Initially, the business languished.
By early 2024, Threlkeld had burned through most of his retirement savings to build Axiom.
“I’m not going to lie: it was dumb and I would not recommend it to anybody,” he said. “But we had enough things lined up that we kept trying.”
Axiom’s service applies AI into several functions, with the potential to take the lead on anything from automating drones to filling out forms with data.
In the end, the hope is that the U.S. Navy uses the technology to save lives, time and resources.
A Family Affair: Building a Business and a Future Together
Threlkeld said the feedback has been phenomenal, especially the company’s win at the competition.
“It’s one thing to create a prototype and prove it can do what you say it does,” he said. “But to go up against Fortune 50 companies and beat them, it blows my mind, man.”
Whitney Threlkeld, herself an occupational therapist who spent her career in healthcare, now leads the company alongside her husband.
She was reluctant at first, Richard said, but came around quickly. It helped that her father-in-law was, himself, an entrepreneur.
Threlkeld admits that he is not out of the woods yet, health wise. The unpredictability of the situation remains something to monitor.
But, for now, he focuses on Axiom, building it with his wife, which he says makes it one of his biggest successes.
“I didn’t know if we would strangle each other,” Richard Threlkeld said. “Instead, the opposite happened. I grew with her in a way I didn’t know existed. She’s my rock.”