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Delivering immersive, voice-driven simulations for law enforcement through building skills, gaining real-time feedback, and preparing for real-world scenarios, Kaiden AI is a software startup co-founded by its CEO Ali Aldubaisi, BS Neuroscience ’21.
Aldubaisi had begun studying neuroscience at George Mason with the intention of going to medical school. However, the distance learning forced upon by COVID led him to think outside of the box and start his first company vRealm, an online tutoring platform.
After a few years working on the project, he co-founded Kaiden AI with his vRealm partner, Ali "AJ" Aldjaei. “When we first started, we were focused on the higher education market,” he says. “We initially built the AI platform for grading and evaluation. Like most startups, you build where you initially think is the right fit, and that’s going to be the market for you.” Throughout the process of building his startup and attracting investors, he would find each day bringing surprises.
After seeing limited traction in higher education, Aldubaisi and his team built a small-scale simulation demo to test a new direction. Among the first to see it was Steve Gladis, a senior scholar at George Mason’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being and a former FBI special agent. He immediately recognized its potential for law enforcement training and encouraged Aldubaisi to explore that path.
“We put the MVP [minimum viable product] in front of police chiefs and academy directors, and their reaction was completely different from our earlier demos,” says Aldubaisi. “That’s when we knew we had to double down.”
Now, Aldubaisi and his team partner with law enforcement agencies and regional academies to implement their simulation platform, with organizations like the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy currently piloting the technology. Recently closing a $1 million pre-seed round, Kaiden AI’s investors are venture capitalists largely outside of the law enforcement space.
Even though his current work does not appear directly related to neuroscience, Aldubaisi recognizes the value of his degree. In fact, he still keeps up with neuroscience journals, seeing the relevance between that field and running his company. Developing hypotheses and constantly experimenting has helped Aldubaisi and his team refine and optimize Kaiden AI, from its initial concept in January 2024 to its current phase today.
“A lot of the concepts mirror each other,” he says. “What goes into marketing, how to understand people, how people learn.”
In 2024, Aldubaisi led the keynote discussion at the Patriot Pitch Competition, an event organized by the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to support ideas and early-stage business ventures from George Mason students and recent alumni. He is now in talks with Rebecca Howick, the center’s director of operations and engagement, about getting more involved with their efforts.
“Having a center where somebody in whatever discipline that they’re studying can articulate or put together an idea or experiment on ideas is so crucial,” says Aldubaisi. He knows there are many intelligent people with brilliant ideas who may be hesitant to pursue their ventures because they don’t know how they’re going to get the funding or backing.
Having gone through that process, Aldubaisi offers crucial advice to aspiring entrepreneurs that reflects his scientific background. “Having the courage to focus on that one thing that you’re trying to prove out is probably the biggest thing,” he says. “Second thing is always look at what your idea is as an experiment, and the goal is to prove or disprove as soon as possible.”
By following these guidelines, Aldubaisi and his team have surpassed fundraising milestones and are excited to put Kaiden AI into the hands of many more law enforcement students and officers.