William Dong

I like to see people and machines reach their potential.

My story

From grinding ranked ladders to building performance machines — the throughline is learning that work compounds.

20228th grade

Age 13

I was addicted to Valorant and League, and couldn't have cared less about school. My parents forced straight A's, so my grades held up. I never understood working hard — talented hard workers beat normal hard workers anyway.

2023Freshman year

Age 14

I watched Hajime no Ippo, an anime about boxing. For the first time I actually believed hard work could yield the results I wanted. I started boxing — and started trying in school.

2024Sophomore year

Age 15

I kept training and loaded up on harder classes. Balancing the workload with daily training left me on under six hours of sleep a night. I won my first state tournament.

2025Junior year

Age 16

I got obsessed with motorsports and the intricacies of F1 engineering. I won my second state title and founded Formula Theory and Automotive Design (FTAD), a motorsports-inspired robotics competition. That spring, I tore my ACL playing volleyball.

2026Senior year

Age 17

Off the mat, I became a mentor and assistant coach for my teammates. I went all-in on FTAD and startup culture, hitting networking events where I met notable VCs and founders. My FTAD portfolio landed me an internship at a deftech startup — and I fell in love with the scrappy, inventive world of defense tech.

Now2026 —

Age 18

I'm meeting as many people as I can and genuinely trying to gain and apply knowledge toward one thing: building the next generation of performance machines.

Get in touch

Let's build something.

Open to internships, research, and collaborations in robotics, unmanned systems, and computer vision.