An instinct to build.
Kevin Michael Segal is the founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Segal Industries. His work connects architecture, mechanical engineering, product design, software, and the physical systems those disciplines make possible. At its center is a lifelong ambition: to turn bold ideas into machines, environments, and infrastructure that expand what people can build and achieve, on Earth and in space.
From humble beginnings in Los Angeles, Segal found his first commercial talent in software design. While still in middle school, he built websites for clients he found on Craigslist, learning to translate someone else's ambition into something they could see and use. The tools were modest; the instinct to create was already taking shape.
That instinct reached well beyond a screen. In seventh grade, he built a hovercraft for the science fair. He later created a plastic-bottle recycling system that transformed discarded material into printable filament, connecting the problem of waste with the possibilities of digital fabrication. These projects established a pattern that continues through his work: understand a system, build the tools, and find another use for what others overlook.
Throughout childhood, Halloween became a laboratory for immersive experiences. Scenery, light, sound, automation, and narrative were ways to turn an ordinary place into another world. That early interest grew into a lasting commitment to art direction and experiential production. Segal has overseen production and editing for numerous startups, while pursuing photography as a personal practice in observation, composition, and storytelling.
From the garage to industry.
An early developer and implementer of home automation systems, Segal designed sensors and equipment for his own use before extending that work to private residential and commercial clients. Connecting physical devices with software gave him firsthand experience of the whole system: the sensor, the network, the interface, and the person relying on it. His background also includes certification as a drone pilot, connecting his interest in autonomous systems with the practical discipline of flight.
Segal attended Harvard University and the University of Southern California, with studies spanning architecture, mechanical engineering, and product design. He entered real estate development in early high school and served as chief operating officer of Grow Energy, an algae bioenergy startup, while still in high school. Together, these experiences brought the economics of development into direct contact with the engineering and operational demands of building something new.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, his parents' garage became a workshop. There, he designed and built the first Segal CNC and laser-cutting machines by hand. Working from the frame and motion system through to control software made fabrication a personal engineering discipline. That work grew into his development of building-grade 3D printers and a broader pursuit of the machines required to manufacture at architectural scale.
His personal development work also encompasses large-scale drone shows and autonomous piloting software: systems in which motion, coordination, safety, and visual expression must work together. From a machine cutting a part to a fleet composing an image in the sky, his interest lies in the connection between precise control and a much larger creative possibility.
Systems that move the world.
Segal's technology background includes serving as chief marketing officer of Immudicon, now known as Freenome, and advising Webflow, Deep Space Industries, and the 2045 Initiative. An early participant in digital assets, he began transacting in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2011. He has been a member of 20 Under 20 since 2012 and was a contestant for the Thiel Fellowship.
His financial technology work focuses on infrastructure for stablecoin-to-fiat adoption and private cryptocurrency transfers. He approaches those systems as practical bridges between emerging technology and everyday economic activity, with attention to how people and businesses actually move and use value.
A parallel interest in public service led him to work on the Romney for President campaign from 2011 to 2012 and to serve as a policy advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in 2017. Today, he is pursuing modernization solutions for developing countries, including the Philippines, where his maternal ancestry is rooted. That work explores how artificial intelligence and big data can help government and enterprise organizations modernize the systems on which their services and decisions depend.
The next frontier.
At Segal Industries, these pursuits meet in one long-term direction: strengthen the industrial capabilities of the present while developing the tools for the next frontier. Space development remains a central passion, alongside the conviction that the same ingenuity applied to a spacecraft can also improve a factory, a building, a financial system, or the institutions that serve a community. Create. Advance. Evolve. is the expression of that ambition.