{"id":"acf97bb2-5aef-4af5-83dd-00ba23a06b22","slug":"ben-claman","name":"Ben Claman","bioBrief":"CEO and Co-founder of Buoyant Aero (YC S21), developing autonomous cargo airships for middle-mile delivery. MIT mechanical engineer from Anchorage, Alaska; built distributed sensing systems for the military, phased array antennas for satellite connectivity, and GPS data loggers for motorsports before founding Buoyant in 2020.","priorExits":null,"nationality":"American","verificationPosture":"reported","aliases":[],"sources":[{"url":"https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/27/yc-grad-buoyant-wants-to-solve-middle-mile-delivery-with-cargo-airships/","title":"YC grad Buoyant wants to solve middle-mile delivery with cargo airships","sourceName":"TechCrunch"},{"url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/buoyant-aero","title":"Buoyant Aero: Bringing back blimps","sourceName":"Y Combinator"}],"reviewStatus":"reviewed","createdAt":"2026-08-14T19:04:22.476Z","updatedAt":"2026-08-15T04:06:20.058Z","educations":[],"companyRoles":[{"id":"521a28b6-b483-488f-a665-110ef7b63a43","personId":"acf97bb2-5aef-4af5-83dd-00ba23a06b22","companyId":"799b40c9-3736-4781-b28e-2f2278b920e5","role":"ceo","roleTitle":"CEO & Co-founder","startDate":null,"endDate":null,"currentRole":true,"roleBasis":"verified_secondary","createdAt":"2026-08-14T19:04:23.249Z","company":{"slug":"buoyant-aero","name":"Buoyant Aero"}},{"id":"da91b365-65dc-451e-bb1d-9118124d6773","personId":"acf97bb2-5aef-4af5-83dd-00ba23a06b22","companyId":"799b40c9-3736-4781-b28e-2f2278b920e5","role":"founder","roleTitle":"Co-founder","startDate":null,"endDate":null,"currentRole":true,"roleBasis":"verified_secondary","createdAt":"2026-08-14T19:04:24.015Z","company":{"slug":"buoyant-aero","name":"Buoyant Aero"}}],"boardRoles":[],"investorRoles":[],"foundings":[]}