# Sam D'Amico

> Sam D'Amico is the founder and CEO of Impulse Labs, a San Francisco-based startup building the world's most powerful and precise home appliances. A Stanford-trained electrical engineer who cut his teeth writing battery firmware for a solar car, then spent a decade building AR/VR hardware at Google Glass, Oculus, and Meta, D'Amico founded Impulse in 2021 after eating a pizza in 45 seconds at a wood-fired restaurant in Tokyo and deciding he needed to bring that power home. The result: a $5,999 battery-integrated induction cooktop that plugs into a standard outlet, boils a liter of water in under 40 seconds, and moonlights as a distributed grid storage node. Impulse has raised $25 million from Lux Capital, Fifth Wall, Lachy Groom, and Construct Capital.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Impulse Labs
- **Organizations:** Impulse Labs, Indicator Fund
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, M.S. Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Founded Impulse Labs, creating the most powerful and precise consumer induction cooktop ever made, Raised $25M total from top-tier investors including Lux Capital's Josh Wolfe, Impulse Cooktop won Dezeen and Red Dot design awards

## Career timeline

- **2008-2012** — Stanford University, B.S. Electrical Engineering; joined Stanford Solar Car Team, wrote battery management firmware, drove across Australia
- **2012-2013** — Stanford University, M.S. Electrical Engineering
- **~2013** — Intern at Google[X]
- **~2013-2014** — Hardware Engineer at Oculus VR
- **~2014-2017** — VR Hardware/Systems Engineer at Google (worked on Google Glass)
- **~2017-2021** — Product Architect, Facebook/Meta AR/VR team - incubated and served as product architect for Touch Pro controllers
- **2021** — Founded Impulse Labs in San Francisco after attending a haptics conference in Japan
- **2021** — Raised $5M seed round from Lux Capital, Construct Capital, and Lachy Groom
- **2022-11** — Raised $20M Series A led by Josh Wolfe at Lux Capital; investors include Fifth Wall, Lachy Groom, Construct Capital
- **2024** — Opened pre-orders for Impulse Cooktop at $5,999; product won Dezeen and Red Dot design awards
- **2025** — Began shipping Impulse Cooktops to pre-order customers; 74-person team; expanded to retail

## Achievements

- Founded Impulse Labs, creating the most powerful and precise consumer induction cooktop ever made
- Raised $25M total from top-tier investors including Lux Capital's Josh Wolfe
- Impulse Cooktop won Dezeen and Red Dot design awards
- Built product delivering 10 kW per burner - 5x more powerful than gas stoves
- Enabled grid-interactive demand response through embedded 3 kWh battery in a consumer appliance
- Stanford Solar Car Team participant - drove a solar vehicle across Australia
- Product architect for Oculus Touch Pro controllers at Meta
- Company began shipping units to customers approximately 4 years after founding

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — Began shipping Impulse Cooktops to customers after pre-orders opened January 2024
- **2025-01** — Production started summer 2025; stove qualifies for 30% federal tax credit reducing price to ~$4,200
- **2026-02** — Participated in debate on US vs. China manufacturing with Aaron Slodov of Atomic Industries
- **2026-01** — Discussed AI cooking features at public appearances and demos

## Links

- Website: https://sdami.co
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/s-damico
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/sdamico
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/srdamico
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sdamico

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/sam-d-amico
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-11