Kai Micah Mills | Founder, Cryopets
Cryopets founder and Thiel Fellow Kai Micah Mills on vitrifying pets after death, the science behind cryopreservation and revival, why 6,000 people have joined the waitlist, and why the first step toward radically extended life may start with the animals we love most.
Cryonics has long lived on the fringe — dismissed as science fiction or Silicon Valley fantasy. But a new generation of founders is treating it as an engineering problem.
Kai Micah Mills, founder of Cryopets and Thiel Fellow, is building a company designed to preserve pets in a vitrified state immediately after death, with the long-term goal of revival once medicine advances far enough.
Behind the polarizing headlines is real scientific progress, serious capital, and a growing customer base that looks far more mainstream than most people would expect. In this conversation, Micah explains the breakthroughs already happening in cryopreservation, why thousands of pet owners have joined the waitlist, and why he believes the first practical step toward radically extended life may not begin with humans — but with the animals we love most.
You dropped out of high school, started building Minecraft servers, and sold your first company for six figures at just 16. What did those early experiences teach you about building companies and taking risks at such a young age?
Dropping out of high school is the single best decision I have made in my life. Minecraft was the launchpad that taught me how to be an entrepreneur. I was able to experience managing dozens of employees, thousands of customers, and large amounts of money while my peers were still in high school. Beyond just learning how to bootstrap and operate companies from scratch, I learned that isolation will force you to discover who you truly are, school is a scam, and to always, always, bet on yourself.
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