About
About Next Pillar
Next Pillar is an AI implementation firm for established, owner-led companies: we install a private company brain and a simple app your team actually uses, built with you in person over a few weeks. Then we stay.
Last reviewed
What we do
We install a private brain for your company, and a simple app your team actually uses. Your documents, your meetings, and the tools you already pay for, connected, so someone can ask a question and get an answer from your own records. A person still approves anything that goes out to a customer.
We build it with you, in person, over a few weeks, and then we stay. How it works
Who runs it
Will Taubenheim
CEO
AI engineer with four NASA awards, won on the Terasynth team. Founded Lost Frame Ventures in 2018 and co-founded Next Pillar Capital. He builds the system.
Joe Staiber
Partner
Leads marketing and sales. Co-founder and CEO of Tampa Entrepreneurs, a non-profit that hosts free events for business owners around Tampa Bay, and founder of Autoscale, an AI-powered lead generation agency.
Advisors: Nick Maciel (automation and operations), Georgi Gospodinov, PhD (AI and data systems) and Darren Lau (AI research and policy).
Will Taubenheim’s credentials
Four NASA awards
Won on the Terasynth team, with its Lunar Re-Forge System, in NASA’s LunaRecycle Challenge:
- Phase 1 winner, Digital Twin track (June 2025)
- Phase 2 Digital Twin Milestone winner (March 2026)
- Second place overall in the prototype track at the finale (August 2026)
- People's Choice winner at the finale (August 2026)
NASA says the challenge drew more than 1,200 registrations, more than any competition in the 20-year history of its Centennial Challenges.
- NASA: the LunaRecycle Challenge finale results (August 28, 2026)
- The University of Alabama: the Phase 2 milestone winners (March 10, 2026)
- The University of Alabama: the Phase 1 winners (June 30, 2025)
AI for the U.S. military
Missile-defense AI for Navy destroyers, an autonomous wildfire-suppression award from NAWCTSD and SERDP, and an Air Force Global Strike Command down-select.
Missile-defense AI for NAVSEA · The NAWCTSD and SERDP award · The Air Force Global Strike Command down-select
Meta, Google and Epic Games
A Meta Presence Platform Grant and Quest 3 consulting at Meta HQ, an Epic Games MegaGrant, and partner work with Google’s Gemini team.
Software used by millions
Technical lead on Escape the Backrooms, with more than 130,000 positive Steam reviews. His own VR titles have reached over 2.5 million players.
Keynote speaker on AI
Illuminate 2026 at The Ion in Houston, the Greater Brookfield Chamber AI Summit and Entrepreneurs' Organization DC. Author of a 248,000-word State of AI report.
More: willtaubenheim.com and his profile on Lost Frame Ventures.
Where we work
Next Pillar is based in Tampa Bay, Florida. The install is done in person, and we take on companies across Tampa Bay and elsewhere in the U.S. Tampa Bay
Next Pillar Academy
Next Pillar Academy is our other business: where business owners learn to put AI to work: a paid online AI community and school, taught by Will with co-host Joe Staiber. The Academy is for owners who want to learn to do it themselves. Next Pillar is for companies that want it built with them.
On the web
- Next Pillar on LinkedInthe company page
- Will Taubenheim Launches Next Pillar, an AI Implementation Firm for Owner-Led CompaniesLost Frame News, on Will’s company’s site, October 18, 2026
- Next Pillar Opens: AI Implementation for Established, Owner-Led CompaniesWill’s personal site, October 18, 2026
- Next Pillar Academyour other business, where business owners learn to put AI to work: a paid online AI community and school, taught by Will with co-host Joe Staiber
The company
Next Pillar is run by Next Pillar Capital LLC. To talk to us, book a call.