Gridbase · ATOC · North Texas
Jake Knight
Founder of Gridbase and creator of ATOC. A systems engineer and published author with a background in aerospace manufacturing, building the full stack of modern tactical technology: edge networking, situational awareness, secure communications, and AI-accelerated software, from field-deployable hardware to production SaaS.
Approach
My work runs the entire stack: RF and embedded hardware, edge and self-hosted infrastructure, native mobile and web applications, and the cloud platforms that connect them. Aerospace manufacturing shaped how I build, with rigor, repeatability, and systems engineered to hold up in the field. I pair that discipline with advanced AI agent workflows: orchestrated, multi-agent pipelines that multiply throughput roughly tenfold, compressing ambitious scope into shipped, production-grade product at the velocity of a much larger team.
Expertise
Software & product engineering
Native Swift and SwiftUI iOS apps shipping on the App Store with StoreKit 2 subscriptions; Next.js, React, and TypeScript on the web; and multi-tenant SaaS on Supabase and Postgres with Stripe billing. A repeatable geospatial "radar-UI" pattern turns one proven formula into a family of products, backed by custom end-to-end encryption and forensic, root-cause debugging.
AI-accelerated engineering & automation
Advanced AI agent workflows are central to how I operate: orchestrated, multi-agent pipelines that multiply output several-fold and turn scope that would occupy a team into shipped product. It extends into production AI, with local and offline LLMs (Ollama, Open WebUI), hybrid local-plus-cloud inference, per-repository AI assistants with guardrails, and an AI voice agent that answers the business phone line and captures leads.
Infrastructure & self-hosting
Network topology and edge architecture built LAN-first and private-by-default, meshed with Tailscale and WireGuard. Dockerized services and systemd automation behind Caddy and Authelia; Jetson and edge-AI provisioning; offline-first, grid-down system design; and resilient storage, backup, and NVR video pipelines.
Radio, comms & off-grid systems
Ham radio and software-defined radio; TAK server engineering and federation (OpenTAKServer) for team situational awareness; DMR and digital voice; and Reticulum, NomadNet, and LoRa mesh field nodes, including RF-over-voice gateways that put an LLM on the other end of a radio call.
Security, OSINT & hardening
Ethical public-records OSINT pipelines across SEC EDGAR, USASpending, SAM.gov, and mapping data; firewall and egress control; IoT air-gapping; container and network hardening; and deception techniques such as honeypot tripwires that turn any intrusion into an instant alarm.
Hardware & fabrication
Field-deployable hardware product lines including the Pocket, the Jetson Field Gateway / RackPi, and base stations, plus 3D-printing and print-farm workflows, parametric CAD (build123d), and functional enclosure and airframe builds.
Brand, media & growth
End-to-end brand systems, marketing, and growth-funnel instrumentation; long-form builds and walkthroughs published on YouTube; and audio and music-production tooling.
Speaking & writing
As an educator, I speak publicly on radio communications and edge networking, translating complex field systems into practical, hands-on knowledge for operators and builders. I am also the author of "The Baofeng Buyers Guide," a practical handbook for choosing and getting the most out of Baofeng handheld radios.