Carolyn Mooney

Major props to Carolyn Mooney, this absolute powerhouse in the startup and tech world. She’s the kind of founder who’s been crushing it across so many fields, and her story is just straight-up inspiring.

So, Carolyn’s been around the block, her background is heavy on systems engineering and decision-making tech. She’s worked at Lockheed Martin, messing with missile and radar systems, which is like the ultimate high-stakes engineering gig. Then she jumped over to the US Environmental Protection Agency, even there, she was deep in systems analysis, trying to solve big problems with tech. That’s a sign she’s all about making complex stuff work, no matter what.

But here’s where it gets really interesting. She’s also been a lead systems engineer and senior analyst at Grubhub, yeah, the food delivery giant, helping improve their decision systems, and she’s done simulation analysis for Zoomer, which is all about delivery logistics too. Basically, she’s been in the trenches making delivery and logistics smarter, faster, and more fast.

And she’s been coaching volleyball at Cherry Hill Volleyball Club since 2010, showing she’s all about community and lifting others up, way beyond her tech skills. That’s the real deal, right?

Fast forward to her starting Nextmv in 2019, a decision automation platform. Think of it as the Tesla of decision-making tech, making AI-driven optimization accessible to devs who wanna automate tough decisions. She participated in Y Combinator’s W20 batch, which is basically the startup world’s Ivy League. She’s built this thing from the ground up, and they’ve raised an $8 million Series A, no small feat. Her mission? Democratize optimization and simulation tools so they aren’t just for big corps or academia but for anyone who needs to make smarter decisions faster.

What’s crazy is that her whole process screams one thing: passion for solving hard problems and making tech work for people, not the other way around. She’s been in the trenches of systems engineering, decision science, and logistics, and now she’s building tools to enable others to do the same. It’s like she’s been collecting all these skills to finally build something that can change how decisions are made across industries.

Bottom line? Carolyn Mooney is that rare founder who’s got the technical chops, leadership, and grit to turn complex problems into simple solutions. She’s not just building a startup; she’s pushing a whole new way of thinking about decision automation. The fact she’s been in both government, big tech, and startups shows she’s relentless in her mission: making smart tech accessible and useful. No cap, she’s one of those people you wanna keep an eye on, she’s just getting started.