The Shift from Prototype to Production Is Accountability
Why production AI is judged not by how it performs when everything goes right, but by what happens when things go wrong.
Read essayProduct & Engineering Leader · Founder · Investor · Advisor
Founder. Operator.
Investor. Advisor.
A product and engineering leader, founder, and investor — I back founders, advise teams on AI strategy, and explore how AI is changing the way we build companies and create value.
Founder & Managing Partner of 434 VC, building community through House of 434, and advising founders & teams on AI strategy.
FormerlyGoogle·Goodfin·Sprinter Health·Akamai·Intel·Amazon
Shilpi Nayak
Now
What I'm focused on right now.
Launching 434 VC
Growing House of 434
Advising founders on AI strategy and production AI
Exploring AI-native firms and vertical AI
Writing about AI, ownership, investing, and company creation
What I'm building
Three bets on how AI reshapes building, backing, and belonging.
434 VC
Founder & Managing Partner
Backing founders building vertical AI and AI-enabled services companies.
House of 434
Founder
A community for founders, operators, investors, and builders exploring AI, ownership, and what comes next.
Advisory
AI Strategy & Product
Advising founders and teams on AI strategy, product, and taking AI systems from prototype to production.
About
I'm interested in how AI changes the way companies are built — how expertise is scaled, how ownership evolves, and how software moves from tools to intelligent systems embedded in real workflows.
What I believe
A point of view on where this is going.
AI will create a new generation of AI-native firms built by smaller teams than ever before.
Vertical AI companies will win by owning workflows, not models.
The future belongs to people who build and own.
Communities create opportunities long before institutions do.
Trust, judgment, and relationships become more valuable as information becomes abundant.
Journey
Engineer → leader → founder → investor → community builder.
434 VC
2026 — Present
Founder & Managing Partner
Early-stage venture focused on vertical AI and AI-enabled services.
House of 434
2026 — Present
Founder
A private community and editorial platform around AI, ownership, and company-building.
Goodfin
2024 — 2026
Co-Founder & CTO
Built AI-native systems for alternative investing and financial decision-making.
Zania
2023
Early team & advisory
Enterprise AI for security, risk, and compliance workflows.
Sprinter Health
2021 — 2023
Engineering Leadership
Technology and operational systems for healthcare delivery and regulated workflows.
2017 — 2021
Search, User Modeling, Cloud, Collaboration
Large-scale ML systems, user modeling, enterprise cloud, and collaboration infrastructure.
Earlier
2012 — 2017
Amazon · Intel · Akamai
Internet-scale analytics, manufacturing systems, and applied machine learning.
Areas of interest
Where I like to build, back, and connect.
- AI-native companies
- Vertical AI
- Company creation
- Private markets
- Ownership
- Communities
- Future of work
- Human judgment in AI systems
Initiatives
The platforms and communities I'm growing.
Ideas
A body of work — essays, talks & frameworks.
Building something at the frontier?
Founder conversations, ideas at the frontier of AI, media, or House of 434 — let's connect.