SWOVEECOMPANY / FOUNDERSHome ↗
COMPANY / FOUNDERS / DEVELOPMENT PLANAUG 2026

ONE FOUNDER SAW WHY
THE FACTORY MUST MOVE.
THE OTHER DEFINES
HOW IT KEEPS WORKING.

Swovee began in a 2017 dream: Karen Pendergrass woke with both a mobile-construction concept and a tiny sung “commercial” for a machine that did not yet exist. Hear the origin signal ♫ Karen and Jonathan Pendergrass are now organizing that product vision and its field logistics into a testable engineering company.

ORIGIN2017Concept first formed
PLANNING CASE$2.5MDevelopment program
HORIZON24 MO18 build + 6 finance
CURRENT TRUTHTRL 2–3Concept + A0 CAD
01 / FOUNDERS

VISION SETS THE CATEGORY.
LOGISTICS MAKES IT REAL.

The bios state what Karen and Jonathan own today. They do not invent degrees, former employers, patents or completed engineering results.

KP / 01FOUNDER

KAREN
PENDERGRASS

Principal Conceptualist
System vision + product architecture

Karen originated the Swovee concept in a 2017 dream. The insight that remained after waking was that construction-scale additive manufacturing would remain constrained if the printer—and its supporting material system—could not move with the work. She leads Swovee's system vision and conceptual product architecture, defining how mobility, robotics, AI planning, environmental scanning, material preparation and construction printing should operate as one platform.

Her responsibility is to preserve the product thesis, establish what the system must accomplish and turn a multidisciplinary opportunity into an engineering program that specialists can test, challenge and build.

ACCOUNTABLE FORProduct intent · system concept · product family · mission thesis · claim discipline
JP / 02CO-FOUNDER

JONATHAN
PENDERGRASS

Principal Logistics Engineer
Deployment + field operations

Jonathan leads the logistics logic behind Swovee's field deployment model. His responsibility begins where a conventional product diagram ends: how machines reach a site, establish an operating cell, receive power, move and process material, coordinate work, recover from interruptions and remain maintainable outside a factory.

As Chief Licensing Officer at the Paleo Foundation, he also brings experience in licensing operations and standards-based programs. Earlier in his career, Jonathan contributed additional sound design to Fallout: New Vegas and Foley editing to Sympathy for Delicious.

ACCOUNTABLE FORDeployment · site flow · supply chain · serviceability · field sequence · scale-up logic
THE 2017 DREAM

The printer was not the factory.
The complete production system had to move.

Karen woke with the machine concept and its own short advertising mnemonic. Receive the founder-origin signal → Jonathan later added the operating question: what must arrive, in what order, with which dependencies, so that a mobile field factory can repeat the job?

FOUNDER-MARKET FIT / THE CANDID VERSION

The founders own a durable system thesis and complementary division of responsibility. They are not presented as the complete technical team. Swovee must recruit senior systems, robotics and materials leadership before the architecture can become validated hardware.

Company titles describe internal responsibilities; professional licensure is not represented unless separately documented.
02 / CAPITAL PLAN

BUY THE NEXT
PROOF POINT.

The planning case funds an integrated Earth demonstrator and independent evidence. It does not pretend to finance lunar flight hardware, a production plant or a finished product line.

RECOMMENDED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM$2.5M24 months · milestone-governed · bottom-up planning case

Why this amount?

Less capital risks stopping between subsystem rigs and the integrated field proof. More capital, before the core physics and field loop are measured, asks investors to finance scale before evidence. The right pre-seed outcome is not a finished company; it is a defensible step-change in what Swovee can prove.

01

People + technical leadership

$1.25M50%

Founders, three critical technical leads, prototype/test capacity and specialist support.

02

Hardware + fabrication

$550K22%

Wet-path, Scoop, Prep Dock and integrated mobile-demonstrator components.

03

Testing + field validation

$250K10%

Materials, sites, instrumentation, third-party labs and analog campaigns.

04

IP + legal + insurance

$160K6.4%

Assignments, freedom-to-operate work, securities counsel, contracts and risk coverage.

05

Software + operations

$90K3.6%

Compute, engineering software, travel, records and company operations.

06

Program reserve

$200K8%

Long-lead variance, failed tests and the next financing process—not feature creep.

03 / THE FIRST TECHNICAL BENCH

THE FOUNDERS START IT.
THE TEAM PROVES IT.

Research consistently shows that early-stage investors scrutinize the people. Swovee's strongest answer is to name the gaps and fund them.

01

Chief systems engineer

Own requirements, interfaces, configuration, hazards, verification and final technical trade authority.

02

Head of robotics + autonomy

Own perception, localization, motion, manipulation, bounded planning and fault recovery.

03

Head of materials + process

Own feedstock qualification, mixing, conveyance, placement, consolidation and material QA.

See the complete twelve-seat build team →
04 / EVIDENCE GATES

RAISE BY MILESTONE.
NOT BY MYTH.

Capital should be released against measurable value inflections. Each gate either earns the next stage or exposes a reason to stop.

GATE 010–6 months

Make the material loops measurable

Run instrumented wet-path, Scoop and preparation rigs. Publish mass balance, throughput, energy, wear, restart, cleanout and intervention data.

GATE 026–14 months

Close the mobile build loop

An Earth demonstrator scans, plans, stabilizes, places and verifies useful geometry while carrying traceable material lots.

GATE 0314–18 months

Let an outsider measure it

Complete a third-party analog campaign with agreed acceptance criteria for accuracy, uptime, material properties and safety behavior.

GATE 0418–24 months

Earn the next round

Translate evidence into pilot economics, supplier quotes, field procedures, a seed plan and six months of financing buffer.

SEED-READY SCORECARDkg/h throughput · kWh per placed output · local-frame error · material-property distribution · uptime · operator interventions · maintenance hours · cost per useful unit
05 / CAPITAL STACK + PARTNERS

USE THE RIGHT CAPITAL
FOR THE RIGHT RISK.

Core IP and integration need flexible equity. Bounded R&D work packages, independent tests and industrial access can use other forms of capital.

PRIVATE RISK CAPITAL

Company-owned platform IP, core team, integration and the freedom to change course when evidence demands it.

NON-DILUTIVE R&D

Discrete technical work packages through eligible SBIR/STTR or comparable programs. Unawarded grants never count as runway.

PAID PILOTS + JDAs

Sites, hardware and acceptance data under written milestones. Investment and commercial agreements remain separate.

IN-KIND CAPACITY

Sensors, machinery, material, test facilities and expert time recorded separately from cash—not presented as bankable runway.

STRATEGIC PARTNER GUARDRAILS
Keep

Swovee background IP, platform optionality, test data access, explicit foreground-IP rules and the ability to partner by field.

Avoid

Blanket exclusivity, acquisition ROFRs, perpetual free licenses, core-IP liens, broad vetoes and investor-controlled technical milestones.

06 / FINANCING EVIDENCE

THE PLAN HAS
A SOURCE BASE.

Market data sizes the instrument. Academic evidence shapes the story. Securities rules determine what belongs in public.

TEAM

A randomized field experiment with 4,500 active early-stage investors found that credible founding-team information causally increased investor interest.

Bernstein, Korteweg + Laws / Journal of Finance ↗SELECTION

A survey of 885 institutional venture capitalists found management teams slightly more important than product or technology in investment selection.

Gompers et al. / NBER + JFE ↗MARKET

Carta reports that post-money SAFEs with a valuation cap and no discount remained the standard U.S. pre-seed instrument in 2025.

Carta / State of Pre-Seed 2025 ↗PUBLIC BOUNDARY

The SEC identifies unrestricted public websites as a form of general solicitation when they contain an offering. That is why this page publishes a development plan—not security terms.

U.S. SEC / General Solicitation ↗

Planning information only—not legal, tax, financial or investment advice. Financing structure, founder equity, IP ownership, tax treatment, professional titles and offering exemption require review by qualified U.S. counsel and advisers using Swovee's actual entity and cap-table records.

THE NEXT CHAPTER / INTEGRATED EVIDENCE

BUILD THE
PROOF.

Swovee's public case is the founders, the system, the milestones and the honest gaps. Exact private financing terms should follow a qualified introduction and a counsel-reviewed process.

Review the delivery plan →Inspect the A0 imagery preview →