Endeavours

Operating

A catalog of my most baked experiments…

AI × Computational Science

I write most of my research scripts using LLM chatbots. They're surprisingly good at abstract reasoning, but struggle with context—I spend as much time reminding the bot about my project details as I would writing the script myself. The deeper into a project I get, the more context there is to manage, making off-the-shelf chatbots impractical for serious scientific work.

Can we build an agentic LLM interface that solves this by intelligently routing the right context to the right tasks? How might promoting context to the same status as code allow us to automate more of scientific problem-solving, freeing researchers to focus on asking better questions rather than implementation? These are some of the questions I'm exploring at South Park Commons, with the goal of accelerating scientific progress by turning every researcher into a PI managing their own team of agents.

"Boring Businesses"

Last year, I bought a short-term rental property in Kure Beach, NC. Operating a real, cash-flowing business has been surprisingly fun—there's something refreshingly honest about maintaining an uncomplicated machine that directly turns elbow grease into profit.

Networked Identity (Sora ID → CLEAR)

Today, we predominantly verify our identities online using things we know (passwords, SSNs, magic codes, security questions) or things we have (devices, ID cards). But if a fraudster knows your secrets or spoofs your credentials, they have your identity, and if your identity is compromised at one place, it's compromised everywhere. This fundamental gap in Internet infrastructure leads to 3 million Americans getting their identities stolen every year and hundreds of billions of dollars stolen or laundered, much of which goes towards funding terrorists and rogue states.

Prompted by rising fraud during COVID and growing adoption of technologies like Apple's FaceID, I cofounded Sora with Stanford classmates to solve this problem by credentialing users based on who they are with biometrics. Sora's platform verified user identities for fintechs and banks, then issued strong biometric credentials that could be reused at any other Sora customer. We raised $6M from investors including Greylock, Abstract, and General Catalyst, scaled the business to seven figures of revenue and hundreds of thousands of users, then sold the company to CLEAR (NYSE:YOU) in 2023. Now, Sora's technology powers CLEAR's identity network across sectors, serving over 30M Americans and household names such as LinkedIn, Home Depot, Avis, Uber, T-Mobile, and Docusign.

The concept of identity is so foundational that Sora/CLEAR's technology was applicable to just about every kind of business. However, companies don't have identity problems—they have fraud, security, compliance, customer experience, or data silo problems. Thus, over the course of the ~5 years I spent in the industry, I got a crash course in how many sectors operate, and I learned how to diagnose and reformulate problems in order to build partnerships and generate revenue. If you're even more interested in the Sora/CLEAR story and have half an hour to kill, here's a podcast I was on where I talked through the journey.

Investing

I am an active angel investor with a focus on early-stage startups, selecting for founders with massive ambitions and chips on their shoulders. Select investments include:

• Wispr Flow: do-it-all AI voice assistant. Invested at Seed alongside NEA and 8VC.
• Slingshot AI: foundation models for mental health. Invested at Series A alongside a16z.
• Crippling Hot Sauce: hot sauce for every underdog, led by Drew Davis, a 19 year old entrepreneur with cerebral palsy. Invested at Seed.

I also operate a small prop fund with a friend, investing in both publics and growth stage privates. Early days, but returns have been positive.

Advising

I am an active advisor to Oncare AI, which uses AI to optimize operations for leading cancer centers. I also occasionally join advisory boards through StartX, which Sora was lucky to be part of in Winter '21.

On a more ad-hoc basis, I've guided several friends through their Seed raises, helping put rounds together with Abstract, Kleiner Perkins, Craft, and several other leading venture firms. Feel free to reach out if you're raising.