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Before graduating from Syracuse University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science in May 2024, Thomas Montfort convinced his professors to let him finish his coursework remotely. He moved to a “hacker house” in the San Francisco area, working on his own startup that would eventually get acquired by Nvidia.

“I felt like I grew so much in such a condensed period,” Montfort said.

On Tuesday, Montfort virtually spoke to United AI, formerly known as Cuse AI. He talked to organization members about how he obtained a role in Silicon Valley at Nvidia, the world’s first $5 trillion dollar company.

“I wouldn’t be a senior engineer at Nvidia without my whole journey,” Montfort said.

With a history of coding since high school, Montfort came to SU with a passion for tech. His passion led him to join CuseHacks — formerly SU’s Innovate Orange club — his freshman year.

Through his time there, Montfort said he met upperclassmen who showed him the path toward internships and real-world projects. That early exposure pushed him to roles at tech companies like JPMorgan Chase and Amazon Web Services.

During his sophomore year, Montfort joined the Cuse Blockchain club. Although most of the leaders of the club focused on the trading side of crypto, Montfort favored a different avenue.

“I was just really interested in the technological side and some of the ideas going on there, which I think there was less of an appetite at Syracuse for,” Montfort said.

As a rising senior, his interest in the tech side of crypto led Montfort to start Agora Labs, a startup he built with two co-founders he met online. While the company initially focused on blockchain tech, Montfort and his team realized big companies such as AWS don’t offer a good solution to renting out Graphical Processing Units, a tool for processing large AI tasks.

“We found that the GPU shortage was really a problem,” Montfort said. “Think like Airbnb. If you have a GPU sitting around, you could rent it out.”

Realizing that, Montfort pivoted Agora Labs toward AI infrastructure. During his last semester, Montfort joined Brev.dev, another startup building similar GPU tools. He said Brev.dev leadership reached out directly to Montfort, asking to acquire Agora.

Eventually, Nvidia acquired Brev.dev, bringing Montfort to the artificial intelligence company. Montfort said he even got to meet Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, one of the richest men in the world.

He said now his days are spent supporting what he describes as a company innovating at rapid speed. Montfort emphasized Nvidia’s push to make its technology more accessible, as the company is looking for “anyone” to build AI apps and agents.

He also discussed Nvidia Launchables, a tool that gives artificial intelligence developers one-click templates when renting GPU power. Montfort said this is part of a broader effort to simplify the onboarding process.

Montfort now works on the Dynamo team, Nvidia’s framework used to run AI models at data-center scales. He described it as the core software enabling bigger organizations with larger GPU centers to deploy models faster.

Nvidia provides GPU rental services to smaller tech developers and startups that require expensive GPU power to launch its products.

GPUs have been in high demand due to their ability to handle the massive workloads of AI. With AI innovations exploding after the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, demand massively outpaced supply.

Despite the massive shift from a startup of single-digits to a corporation of tens of thousands, he said the core of his start-up experience stuck with him.

Students who attended the United AI event said hearing his story firsthand made Silicon Valley feel a lot closer.

Tyler Katz, a senior applied data analytics major, said Montfort’s virtual talk made a career at Nvidia feel more grounded and realistic, especially after hearing how openly Montfort uses AI tools.

“I always thought everyone at Nvidia was some unattainable genius, but he was really human,” Katz said. “Seeing someone who started where we are at SU showed me anyone here could get there.”

Ben Altenburg, a junior economics student, said the presentation left him feeling motivated to pursue entrepreneurship. After hearing Montfort’s background, an on-campus student who moved to San Francisco, Altenburg believes he may want to follow a similar path.

He said a similar work ethic to Montfort is something he “really strives for” as he hopes to create his own startup as a student, taking inspiration from Agora.

“One day, I’d like to be my own boss like him and start a company of my own,” Altenburg said. “He made it seem like the sky’s the limit.”

For Montfort, returning to SU wasn’t about highlighting his achievements, but rather showing students that they can reach their potential.

He said there’s never been a better time to write software and that there’s “literally no excuse” as technical experience isn’t needed anymore. He said it’s “easier than ever” to invent and recommends students continue working on their ideas.

“If you’re a Syracuse student right now, the biggest thing is to start something. Join a club, build a project, find people who are better than you and learn from them,” Montfort said. “All the crazy career stuff only happens once you take that first step.”

Published on November 19, 2025 at 10:23 pm