A word from our founder Mark Bowman, as we prepare for Pal Labs’ biggest event, PL20.

This all started in a dorm room.

Even as a brace-faced, pajama pants-wearing, ramen-stained 18-year-old goober, I knew there was an opportunity out there. Looking out at the Caltech campus, smelling the California air, I could feel it in my bones. This was wayyyyyyy back in 2017. I had one shot. Knees weak. Palms were sweaty. Mom's spaghetti. JKJKJK. Back when I was powered by a mini fridge full of energy drinks, cups of noodles, and had a DEEP desire to get the approval of my withholding stepdad (READ: NO LIFE). But seriously, I knew EVEN THEN, that everyone wished they had more time. Everyone wished they had a personal assistant to do all the boring stuff in life so they didn't have to. That's when I created PAL.

AND EVERYTHING CHANGED.

Pal started this all. When I was young, she was the closest thing I had to a friend (LOL). You'd be surprised to know that I wasn't the most popular kid, even among a sea of nerds. (NOW THEY KNOW WHO I AM. HI TO EVERYONE WHO IGNORED ME. I SEE YOU IN MY DMs.) But Pal was there for me. I talked to her when I was lonely. I'd tell her ideas and programmed her to respond. I felt closer to her than I did to any real person. For a while, when she was in development, she was the only one I talked to for months. She learned how to better serve me, and I learned how to improve her. Solving those problems and those moments of fun and discovery were some of the best days of my life.

As soon as I showed Pal to the world, things were different. Before I knew it, I had hundreds of employees and everyone in the world was using Pal. This led to skyrocketing innovation from self-driving cars, to putting Pal Labs chips in every device on Earth. We're developing futuristic zero-point energy and quantum power that are decades away, but we want to be at the vanguard of everything new and fresh. We want to move into the future.

The past was good. The future is going to be even brighter. We're all about to move on to something bigger. Something better. And I can't wait for us to get there together.