Bimotal team

Toby Ricco grew up inventing and entrepreneuring. He started his first business at age ten, and built his first EV at age 12. After building over a dozen electric vehicles in high school, he started his career as an engineering intern at Tesla at age 17. He completed his BS and MS in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, and joined Tesla’s power electronics team where he quickly became a lead and architected, designed, and ramped production of electronics in the Powerpack, Powerwall, Model S, X, and 3. Toby's visionary perspective has led to his development of highly creative and functionally dense designs in the power electronics and powertrain fields. He holds patents ranging from novel inductor manufacturing methods to drive unit layout and novel gear topologies.

Cullen O'Connell is an embedded software engineer with a degree in computer science from Stanford University. First entering embedded software in the medical device space, he values writing software that empowers people in the real world.

Chad Furey, or “motor Chad”, is the best of the best. He led much of the magnetics design and optimization for the Tesla Model 3 motor design and had his hand in Model S, Roadster, and Semi. Chad has developed electric motors for aerospace and the Ferrari F1 team, and is now the brains behind Bimotal’s world-class micro electric powertrains.

Matt Rounds led the Formula SAE student team building both internal combustion and electric race cars while studying computer engineering at Cal Poly. He went on to develop embedded software for an aerospace startup building quadrotors with extreme flight time and payload capacity, progressing to lead both the custom battery management system firmware development team and integration of the flight controller and OTA update system. Matt directly applies his experience with ultra-robust automotive and aerospace systems, while building the software ecosystem for Bimotal's electric powertrains.

Julian Rubinstein is a mechanical engineer with experience in gearbox design, rapid prototyping, and design for manufacturing. He applies this expertise across Elevate and other hardware projects at Bimotal, driving reliability and manufacturability improvements from prototype through production. Julian earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (concentration in Mechatronics) from Cal Poly, where he first became interested in mountain biking. Outside of work, he enjoys building bikes, working on his car, camping, and photography.

Brooks Barrett is a mechanical engineer with 5 years of experience designing power electronics for Tesla. With dozens of parts in production, he has extensive knowledge of modern manufacturing technologies and design considerations for smooth production. Skilled in specialty materials and thermal management, Brooks is now helping Bimotal engineer ultra-dense and powerful battery systems.

Peter Pang leads strategy and go to market at Bimotal, bringing experience across fast growing startups and enterprise consulting. At Doss, a horizontal ERP startup, he was an early product hire who built core accounting and finance capabilities from platform primitives and embedded in 5+ enterprise deals, running technical demos and providing domain expertise that helped the team win. At KPMG, he led technical strategy and financial modeling for a Fortune 100 sportswear brand’s HR tech transformation, driving vendor evaluation and pitching the implementation roadmap to client leadership. Peter holds an MBA from Berkeley Haas and a BMath from the University of Waterloo.

Gerardo Castro is an engineering technician with a background in industrial design from San Francisco State University. In his free time, he can be found exploring the scenic routes in the East Bay on his bicycle, sketching on his notepad, or tending his small collection of bonsai plants.

Jack O'Neal is a mountain bike racer with a passion for all things that move. Whether it’s bikes, rockets, or cameras, Jack loves the challenge of making things work better, faster, and smarter. He started his own photography business at 15 and founded his school’s American Rocketry Challenge team. Jack studies robotics and mechatronics engineering at UC Santa Cruz, where he continues to pursue his love of motion, mechanics, and innovation.

Swadhin Gite was head of hardware engineering and production at Stenon GmbH. Previously, he developed thermal cameras for the German Armed Forces and Deutsche Bahn. Swadhin can design and lay out any circuit board, efficiently debug controls issues, and bring electronics from concept to high-volume production.

Charl van de Merwe has four years of research and development experience in the rail sector of South Africa, where he worked primarily on locomotive traction control. He is in the final stages of completing his master's degree in control systems engineering from the University of Pretoria. His core competencies are embedded systems firmware, modeling and simulation, and control systems design.