Cole Simmons

About Me

Some history

I build software, and for about a decade most of it has circled the same problem: getting structured, trustworthy data out of documents that fight you on it. I like crafting beautiful HITL workflows where good data compounds and accelerates the rate of subsequent review.

Bad data in commercial real estate creates vast inefficiencies and has multi-million dollar ramifications, so I dropped out of Stanford to start AbstractCRE. As the sole engineer for most of that time, I was responsible for the full stack. I eventually decided to move on, but the company is still alive, thriving, and is in great hands.

I decided to go back to Stanford to finish undergrad, took an ancient history class on a whim, and fell in love with cuneiform. Turns out Assyriologists face a lot of the same problems I worked on at AbstractCRE, just with documents a few thousand years older. So now I’m at Oxford mastering cuneiform, with a DPhil starting in 2026 that I intend to spend building the tools the field has gone without, tools that I believe will lead to a profound change in how we tell the story of human civilization.

Cole Simmons

The timeline

  1. Oct 2026

    DPhil Asian & Middle Eastern Studies

    University of Oxford

  2. 2024–2026

    MPhil Cuneiform Studies

    University of Oxford

    Intensive training in Akkadian, Sumerian, Elamite, and the cuneiform script. Expected completion: June 2026.

  3. 2022–2024

    B.S. (Honors) Symbolic Systems

    Stanford University

    Concentration in AI. Minor in Classics.
    Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research.

  4. 2022–2023

    Independent Contractor

    Lush Software LLC

    Built web and mobile applications for a sidewalk repair business to plan and track work. Three patents pending.

  5. 2016–2022

    Co-Founder & CTO

    AbstractCRE

    Enterprise SaaS to extract structured data from commercial real estate documents. Built and maintained the entire stack for six years.

  6. 2014–2016

    Undergrad (Round 1)

    Stanford University

    A good education sure is wasted on the young. Left after sophomore year to start AbstractCRE.

  7. –2014

    Born and Raised

    North Georgia mountains

    Started teaching myself to code at 14. Did senior year of high school online so I could work full-time at Atlanta area startups.