# Joe Wolfel

> Joe Wolfel is the co-founder and CEO of Terradepth, a Cedar Park, Texas company building an ocean data ecosystem that pairs autonomous underwater robots with a cloud platform to turn fragmented subsea readings into decision-ready intelligence for commercial and government customers. A U.S. Naval Academy graduate and former Navy SEAL, Wolfel started the company in 2018 with fellow SEAL Judson Kauffman after concluding that humanity's ignorance of the ocean was a solvable data problem. He frames Terradepth less as a robotics maker and more as an 'Ocean Operating System,' shifting the maritime industry from buying platforms to buying the intelligence those platforms generate.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Terradepth
- **Organizations:** Terradepth, Exbellum, McChrystal Group, Synexxus, U.S. Navy
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Graduated with Honors, Secretary of the Navy Distinguished Scholar, ranked 8th in class, U.S. Naval Academy
- **Known for:** Co-founded Terradepth and scaled it to roughly 49 employees, Built a vertically integrated ocean data ecosystem spanning vehicle design, data collection, edge processing, cloud aggregation, and applications, Graduated 8th in his class at the U.S. Naval Academy as a Secretary of the Navy Distinguished Scholar

## Career timeline

- **—** — Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with Honors, ranked 8th in his class
- **—** — Served as a Navy SEAL officer with multiple deployments across the Middle East and Africa
- **—** — Held leadership roles at McChrystal Group and led special projects at Synexxus in the defense space
- **—** — Managing Partner at Exbellum, a management consulting firm focused on human capital problems
- **2018** — Co-founded Terradepth with fellow Navy SEAL Judson Kauffman
- **2023** — Terradepth raised a Series A; total funding reported around $30M

## Achievements

- Co-founded Terradepth and scaled it to roughly 49 employees
- Built a vertically integrated ocean data ecosystem spanning vehicle design, data collection, edge processing, cloud aggregation, and applications
- Graduated 8th in his class at the U.S. Naval Academy as a Secretary of the Navy Distinguished Scholar
- Served as a Navy SEAL officer with multiple overseas deployments
- Raised roughly $30M to advance autonomous ocean data collection

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Featured in Defense.info's 'From the Seabed Up: Terradepth and the Ocean Operating System,' outlining a vision for persistent, decision-ready subsea intelligence for defense and commercial users.

## Links

- Website: https://terradepth.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-wolfel-aa76a054
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/terradepth
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV7RGZE06D4

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/joe-wolfel
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-16