Dru
Applied AI generalist. This page is a short record of what I've done and how I work.
01 Worlds
I've learned most of what I know by living inside different worlds for a while: countries, jobs, institutions, a Zen center. Useful knowledge tends to stay stuck in the world that produced it. Moving between them is how I collect it.
- At 14, in India, I noticed in-game items were mispriced and flipped them for about $1,400. First taste of spotting an inefficiency and acting early.
- At 18 I moved to the US alone, mid-pandemic. Established residency and paid my own way through community college online while working.
- Transferred to UVA on need-based aid I targeted deliberately (roughly 17% acceptance). Left in 2024, on purpose.
- Lived with locals in 20+ countries, mostly couch surfing. Kitchens and family dinners, not hotels.
- Resident volunteer at the San Francisco Zen Center. Daily meditation practice since childhood.
- Helped a sales veteran with two decades of experience build his startup from the inside.
- Ran a dog-walking business solo: sales, scheduling, client relationships. 4.9-star rating.
02 Applied AI
I left UVA in 2024 to focus on applying AI to real problems. The applied side, not the research side: knowing what models are good at, where they fail, and how to build around both.
- Built and launched a product: qualitative city reviews for digital nomads, like Google Maps reviews but for deciding where to live. Flew to Thailand to interview users in person. Shut it down; kept the lessons and the speed.
- Worked with a YC founder generating high-quality POV training footage for top AI video labs.
- Owned tech and automation (HubSpot) and parts of operations at a sales-driven startup.
- Edited video professionally for UVA's business school: multi-cam, color, sound, motion graphics. Learned it on the job, one-on-one.
- How I work: best with autonomy plus one experienced person who asks hard questions. I learn fast with light mentorship.
- What I'm looking for: early-stage teams (seed to Series A, especially AI-native and consumer), nonprofits, and solo operators. Work that's a net positive.
03 personal
- i'm donor-conceived. born from a sperm donor. i'm open about it, and it's shaped how i think about identity and family. if you're donor-conceived too, i'd like to hear from you: email me.
- i'm a third culture kid. born in the us, raised in bangalore, back in the us on my own at 18.
- i meditate daily, mostly self-taught since i was a kid.
- i love animals, walking, and laughing at the absurdity of things.