Joel Santiago Baretti is Co-Founder and CEO of Kairox Systems, which builds Tempest, a low-cost fixed-wing drone that flies, dives beneath the surface, swims, and flies back out.

Joel studied Mechanical Engineering at MIT and previously worked at a stealth startup and the MIT TTDD Lab. He earned an Advanced Certificate of Engineering Leadership from the Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program in 2025.

Joel is a published author with IEEE and met his co-founders Alex and Jorge at MIT. The team built Kairox after conversations with warfighters and drone researchers about the gap between air and sea operations.

Kairox Systems is backed by Y Combinator and is based in San Francisco. Joel leads the company as it develops Tempest, its flagship platform, which is undergoing rigorous testing.

Kairox was selected from over 100 companies for the Technology & National Security Conference Innovation Showcase. The team was also accepted into the Harvard Kennedy Center QLab, a national security innovation accelerator.