Team

The humans.

Who is actually building this, and who is advising them.

Founder

Mars Argeadai

Founder, The Living City

Mars is the founder of The Living City and the author of the philosophical specification it is built around. He spent years reading Plato’s Republic, Laws, Philebus, Timaeus, Statesman, and Critiasas engineering specifications, not abstract philosophy — and turned the reading into a working design document for a real city: the coordination kernel, the governance structure, the economic model, the festival architecture, and the long-arc plan for progressive automation of daily life. Before The Living City, he built an earlier codebase working through the civilization-engine architecture in software. He founded Build Civilization Inc. (the Delaware C-Corp holding the project) and put 18,000+ acres on the Cumberland Plateau under LOI in April 2026.

mars@buildcivilization.com

Real Estate

Heath Thompson

Managing Broker, Hayden Outdoors Real Estate

Heath was the broker on the Ketchen Holdings property before it came under LOI and is continuing as the buyer’s agent through closing. He knows this land and this region — the access roads, the water, the mineral rights, the railroad easements, the historical ownership, the neighbors — better than anyone currently involved in the project, and his photographic and aerial library of the Cumberland Plateau is the visual foundation of this site. He has agreed to be publicly named as the project’s real estate partner through the close.

Heath@haydenoutdoors.com

Legal

Legal counsel — engagement in progress

Corporate, real estate, securities, and regulatory matters. Counsel advises on the Delaware C-Corp structure, the land transaction, the Tennessee utility district pathway, and the seed round. Counsel will be named publicly once the engagement is finalized.

Advisors

One confirmed advisor — name held pending public disclosure

A senior technologist and philosopher who built one of the foundational simulations of the 1990s and brings deep reading across Plato and Kant. Committed to twice-weekly working sessions on the governance kernel and the coordination loop. Additional advisors are in active conversation and will be named as they sign on.

The Founding Team

We are hiring.

The project is recruiting ten founding roles. These are not normal hires. They are for people who want to arrive early enough to shape what the city actually becomes, and who are willing to commit the next three to five years of their lives to making the engine real.

Equity ranges below are real. Compensation will be a mix of cash (from the seed round) and founding equity in Build Civilization Inc. Full terms are shared after a first conversation. If you see your role below and the description describes you, email mars@buildcivilization.com directly.

Chief Technology Officer — Systems Architect

3–8% founding equity

Leads the build of the coordination engine itself — the shared list, the dependency map, the mission/team/contest/festival layer, the long-arc automation infrastructure. The most technically ambitious role on the team.

Head of Game Design

2–5% founding equity

Designs the city's daily loop — how missions surface, how teams form, how contests and festivals get run, how the three kinds of goods (present, future, mixed) get balanced across a week and a season.

Head of Mechanism Design and Economics

2–5% founding equity

Designs the governance kernel, the economics inside the operator term sheet, the incentive and reputation mechanics, and the long-arc economic structure as the city scales from 50 to 5,040 zones.

Head of AI — Kernel Lead

2–5% founding equity

Leads the Kernel residency track inside the Founding Cohort and the software-supported version of the coordination engine that arrives with scale.

Head of Community

1–3% founding equity

Leads cohort recruitment, operator relationships, and the first wave of public storytelling from inside the city.

Head of Governance and Civic Tech

1–3% founding equity

Leads the legal-tech layer, the governance rules, the operating-agreement architecture, and the relationship with the Tennessee utility district.

Head of Philosophy

1–3% founding equity

Stewards the Platonic specification in practice — the translation of Republic, Laws, and Philebus into daily governance, curriculum, and festival content. Works directly with Mars on the Blueprint.

Head of Growth

1–3% founding equity

Leads public launch, narrative building, network development, and the second and third cohorts' recruiting funnel.

Chief Financial Officer

1–3% founding equity

Leads capital strategy across the seed round, the Tennessee utility district bond issuance, the federal and state grant pipeline, and operator capital. Eventually responsible for the Phase 2 bond issuance.

Chief of Operations

1–3% founding equity

Runs the Phase 1 operating layer — coordination, facilities, logistics, relationships with external contractors, and the founding team's day-to-day.

For dated progress, see the Updates page. For the founder’s voice, read From the Founder.