A photograph surfaced recently from Summer 1997. There I am in a newsletter from the Beckman Laser Institute, having just been elected Chairman of the Board. The headline reads "Board Elects New Officers." Institute Director Michael Berns is quoted: "It is fitting that Brian is our chairman because he and I initially approached Dr. Beckman in 1982 about establishing a laser institute."
What the newsletter doesn't mention is how that institute came to exist. It started in a carpool.
In the late 1970s, my friend Michael Berns and I would carpool each week, taking our children to religious instruction. Michael was a professor at UC Irvine and a very successful one. But success had created problems.
The university kept asking him to become department chair, which would steal time from the research he loved. Worse, the higher echelons of the university had a habit of taking the grants and funding that Michael and other accomplished professors attracted and redistributing them to colleagues who couldn't attract their own. Michael was trapped in a system that punished success.
I had started an actuarial company that was succeeding quite nicely. Michael thought I could help him find a solution to his problems.
My idea was structural, not technical. What if we created a freestanding building on the UCI campus where Michael could be the director, conduct his research with his already-assembled staff, and escape the apportioning of his grants? A building that could operate arm-in-arm with the Department of Medicine, using lasers to treat patients based on protocols developed from the research. An independent entity with its own governance.
I prepared a one-page document. One page. And off we went to see Dr. Arnold Beckman.
Arnold Beckman was one of the most successful scientist-entrepreneurs in American history. He had built Beckman Instruments into a global company. He was not an easy person to approach.
At the end of our meeting, Dr. Beckman said quite casually: "I will provide you an answer to your request for $2,500,000. But you must raise matching funds."
Michael and I walked out of that meeting as happy as two individuals could ever be. And then we were off to find a way to raise two and a half million dollars.
I created a notion in Michael's mind. Two and a half million dollars is the building. But buildings need land. Why not go to the university and ask if they'll contribute the land?
So off we went to meeting number two. I pitched the chancellor and the director of development: donate land equivalent to $2,500,000, and we'll find the remaining funds for the building. They had a twinkle in their eye. Not ridicule exactly, but a confidence that we never could. They assured us that if we could raise two and a half million for a building, they would indeed contribute land of equivalent value.
Now for meeting number three. Back to Dr. Beckman with a simple question: "Will you count the land that this building sits on as a matching gift?"
Of course, he said yes.
And that was the beginning of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic on the UCI campus. A $5 million institute created with $2.5 million in actual cash. The match was land the university already owned. I had satisfied everyone's conditions by making their commitments circular.
Did I know what I was doing? Absolutely not. Did I have a vision? Yes. A vision that Dr. Beckman endorsed and that has served the world for over forty years.
Building Again at 83
I am 83 years old. I am building another company.
The company is called Hallucinations.cloud. Its purpose is to detect when artificial intelligence lies to us. We query multiple AI models simultaneously and use proprietary algorithms to score reliability. In a world flooding with plausible-sounding nonsense, we are building infrastructure for truth.
Everyone thinks of entrepreneurs as young. Silicon Valley worships at the altar of the twentysomething founder. But I would argue that I am better equipped for a startup today than I have ever been.
I have fifty years of pattern recognition across technology cycles, from Fortran in the 1960s to AI in the 2020s. My actuarial training means I think natively about risk. My enterprise experience building platforms for Fortune 100 companies means I understand how institutions actually buy things. I've seen hype cycles before. I know what's real.
The $2,500,000 from 1982 would be roughly $10,000,000 today at a 3% inflation rate. And now, with a new dose of chutzpah, I'm going to make that ask. I'm seeking $10,000,000 in committed funding, contingent on matching funds. The same structure that built the Beckman Laser Institute.
Not only has the scale of dollars increased considerably over forty years, but so has the importance. That capital will allow us to take Hallucinations.cloud through its first stage, which is telling truth, to the next stage: taking information in real time and distributing it to people who may be on the edge of harm. In 2026, terrorism and other isms are on all of our minds. The danger in young people's and older people's way must be addressed.
Truth must be restored.
A Message to Fellow Octogenarians
I tell this story because I'm proud, not because I'm trying to seem important or better than anyone else. I was lucky. From time to time, I had the opportunity to reinvent myself, to do interesting things, to meet interesting people, and to add value in some way.
In addition to wanting Hallucinations.cloud to be successful, I want this story to serve as a message to other people who are octogenarians, plus or minus. It is never too late to be creative. It is never too late to be bold.
Having been bold on so many occasions, it's probably easier for me than it might be for you. But I hope this will be a tale of truth, a story that encourages you to go out and do something bold. Even if it's on a small scale. And when you succeed, you'll feel better.
That will really be the epitaph I hope for: that in some crazy way, with no more than average skills and a lot of luck, I stimulated people to have an opportunity to help themselves and improve their lives.
Don't lament. Engage.