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 podcast on enduring texts and worldly wisdom. Relaunching soon w/ Fellows membership & notes library. Previously Rational VC, ranked Top 25. 40+ hrs archived.
• Rational.Fund — fund and independent research. Co-invested w/ Founders Fund, OSV, Balderton, et al.

Past

• Senior Software & AI Engineer, 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.
• 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. Learned to sell, then build. "Born in Iran, made in England."

Conversations

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

Interests

Martial arts, steaks after deadlifts, mentoring Iran's youth, Zoroastrianism, Achaemenid history. Nuclear, advanced manufacturing, biotech, housing, education, and the compounding of human knowledge.

Elsewhere

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