Today we’d like to introduce you to Brady Brim-DeForest.
Hi Brady, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
We began TheoremOne in 2007 as a pure-play engineering shop, primarily working with startups during the early days of Web 2.0. As we grew, we shifted our focus to the enterprise and expanded our services. In 2022, we merged with Media.Monks to become Formula.Monks.
It’s been an incredible journey — going from a small boutique shop to a large firm servicing mostly enterprise clients. Despite the growth and scale, we’ve maintained a lot of the same philosophies we had as a nimble startup and applied them inside environments that don’t traditionally think the same way.
Today, I’m running multiple businesses and writing my second book. I’m also the chairman at BluShift Aerospace, where we’re building the next-generation propulsion platform for point-to-point orbital delivery.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Anyone that tells you things are always smooth is probably lying! One consistent challenge we’ve faced with all of the clients we work with is pushing back against the notion that large, scaled organizations can’t be innovative. Getting organizations, especially market leaders, to think differently about how to innovate and why to innovate has become a true life calling. We’ve developed systems and processes that enable large organizations to leverage small distributed teams (sometimes in counterintuitive fashion) in order to drive change. I talk about it extensively in my first book, Smaller is Better.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
At Formula.Monks, we’re focused on AI-led innovation. Our specialty is embedding small teams inside large organizations so that we can teach instead of show. We drive change through action, with an intense focus on outcomes. Innovation labs that don’t have the mandate to drive revenue don’t work.
We work almost exclusively with enterprise clients, helping them implement AI transformation, build software, create infrastructure, and shape the future of their industries through applied strategy and hands on co-creation.
What sets us apart is our culture. We encourage failure and prioritize learning over everything else. It’s not just talk — we live it every day. We’ve become known for our ability to inject startup-style innovation into large, established companies. It’s this blend of startup agility and enterprise-scale that makes us unique.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
If you want to learn more about the way we work, definitely pickup a copy of “Smaller is Better: Using Small Autonomous Teams to Drive the Future of Enterprise” It’s available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Audible. It’s a quick way to glean much of the insights I’ve picked up during my twenty year career, but through a simple, easy to consume format – this is knowledge and know-how that would be impossible to deliver individually at scale. It contains all of the same tactics I employ daily with my clients and across my organization.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://brimdeforest.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradybd
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bradybd
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradybd/
- Twitter: https://x.com/bradybd
- Other: https://smallerbetter.com
Image Credits
Photos by Justina Concepcion and Chase Sater
