British-Persian. Based between Zurich and Munich, Europe's hard tech heartland. Built Rational from 2020, rooted in the (technical) Incerto and Poor Charlie's Almanack. Seek sanity, not vanity.

Now

• Rational Founder — long-form monologue podcast on enduring texts and worldly wisdom. Launching soon with fellows membership and notes library.

Also

• Rational.School — tech hiring accelerator. 500+ people hired.
• Rational.Fund — fund and independent research. Co-invested with Founders Fund, OSV, Balderton, OpenAI, Paul Graham, et al.
• RationalX — online media and AI consulting. Selective.
• RemoteStreet.com — boutique tech talent placement for companies. Vetted, not volume.
• TMBC — Broadcasting on tech and the future of work. The unscripted side of the media barbell.

Past

• Co-founded & hosted Rational VC, a podcast ranked Top 25.
• Senior Software & AI Engineer at Tesla, Gigafactory. Zero to one products.
• Investment Banker + founding team at Silicon Valley Bank London. Wore many hats.
• Broad operator experience across US, UK and EU. Several acquired, several failed.
• Behind brands and creators on YouTube since 2006. In the podcasting world since 2016.
• Co-Founder, AI/ML Programme at Codesmith.

Origin

Born in Shiraz, heart of the old Persian empire, under difficult circumstances. Escaped to London at five. Grew up lower class, attending some of the worst-rated schools in England. Ran businesses in high school. Worked 40+ hours a week in hit-target-or-die cold sales while completing a full-time degree in financial engineering. Learnt to sell, then build. "Born in Iran, made in England."

Conversations

Stephen Wolfram, Jim O'Shaughnessy, Will Bruey, Eric Jorgenson, Ben Awad

Interests

Martial arts, steaks after deadlifts, mentoring Iran's youth, Achaemenid history, German philosophy, Zoroastrianism, entrepreneurial policy and the compounding of human knowledge.

Elsewhere

Essays, RSS, 𝕏, LinkedIn, yari [at] hey [dot] com