To all our friends, collaborators, and partners at Luxonis, it is with great sorrow that I write to share with you the loss of our Founder Brandon Gilles. As you may have read, Brandon passed away suddenly last month.
I have been absolutely devastated by his passing and have just now gotten to the stage in my grieving process to share an update from Luxonis. I’m still not quite sure where to start so I’ll just start at the beginning.
I met Brandon during our Freshman year at the University of Colorado at Boulder where we both lived in the same dorm hall and were studying engineering. We became fast friends and lived together off campus during our Junior and Senior years. Brandon was without a doubt the most intelligent, most curious, and most driven individual that I have ever met. He was good at anything he put his mind to and yet he was humble down to his core. Despite what hundreds of people told him throughout his life, Brandon was utterly convinced that he had only average aptitude and that what separated him from the competition was simply his curiosity and work ethic.
Throughout college I got to witness Brandon as such a kind and encouraging presence to everybody around him. He always took an approach of abundance with his time, if you were struggling with a homework assignment he would patiently help while never giving off the slightest hint that there was something else that he’d rather be doing. Personally, I didn’t take my academics too seriously and it was Brandon that inspired me to start going to classes; I credit him with the fact that my GPA improved every semester from my Sophomore to Senior years. And when I said that Brandon was good at anything he put his mind to, I meant it; he graduated number one in his class in Electrical Engineering.
During college we frequently stayed up late into the night dreaming about how we could create the future together one day. These were the most intense and stimulating conversations I’d ever had, we’d stay up until 4am interrogating each other’s ideas. We both talked about how much we’d love to work on a startup one day, Brandon always had an entrepreneurial drive and the thought of being able to follow him in that pursuit was thrilling.
Over our twenties we stayed in touch, always bouncing new ideas off each other and trading stock tips. It wasn’t until 2021 that the moment was finally right and I’m now forever grateful that we had the chance to work together at Luxonis. I had informally advised Luxonis previously but it was finally at the end of 2021 when I invested and asked Brandon to be able to join full time in early 2022. The six months that I had the opportunity to work with Brandon were hands down the most thrilling and rewarding times of my life. I'll always cherish this blissful period that we had together.
Despite our college dreams and my proclamation that I’d love nothing more than to do Luxonis with Brandon for decades to come, Brandon’s body had a different plan. Over the course of the coming months in 2022 Brandon dealt with escalating health issues. It was an immense struggle as the medical system couldn’t seem to nail down a diagnosis for his health issues. For anybody that has gone through this you know that it is immensely frustrating to have a loved one with a problem that no amount of specialist doctors and tests can seem to pin down. Brandon’s health issues became so debilitating that he was forced to take a medical leave of absence from Luxonis in August 2022.
At Luxonis, Brandon managed all of our sales, product development, technology, and administrative functions. He was essentially our CEO, CTO, and COO all wrapped into one. And as a fast growing startup we had to navigate not having him at the helm. Fortunately, Brandon had built an amazing team and we all stepped up to ensure that a more successful Luxonis would be waiting for him when he was able to return once he got his health back.
Over the next year it was a complete roller coaster with moments where it seemed that Brandon was getting better and moments where the outlook was bleak. I remained forever hopeful, constantly believing that a healthy Brandon was right around the corner. Despite some recent signs of improvement, Brandon passed away on July 28th.
Inexplicably, the world has managed to keep turning without Brandon. I have yet to be able to go more than an hour without thinking about Brandon. I go through the motions and things seem normal and then there is a wave of sadness as I’m filled with a memory of Brandon. I’d do anything to talk to him again, to see him again. And then the wave passes and I keep moving forward.
I’m grateful that Brandon was able to lead a full life where he accomplished everything that he set out to do back when we were naïve 18-year-olds in college. Most of all Brandon wanted to have a big impact on the world and he was best able to deliver that with the transformational technology that Luxonis now provides. Brandon would not have been one for worrying about legacy but that doesn’t stop the team at Luxonis from wanting to carry on what Brandon started. Brandon wanted to build a long-term sustainable business whose innovative technology could deliver engineering efficiency and improve the human condition all around the world.
As we look ahead to the next phase of growth as a business, we will honor Brandon and keep his family in our thoughts and prayers. Our team is incredibly excited about the future at Luxonis, we are determined to build something that would have made Brandon proud.
-Bradley