From Day 1, Contrary's mission has been to identify and invest in the world's most exceptional people. It’s enabled us to be early backers of companies like Zepto, Ramp, Hallow, Anduril, and many others.

Our student Venture Partners are a key part of this process. They’re an exceptional team of builders who work closely with us to discover the next generation of founders at universities across the US and Canada.

Every year we raise the bar, with this year being no different. With over 1,700 applications, it was by far our most selective and competitive year yet.

With that, we’re thrilled to welcome 21 new Venture Partners to the Contrary family!

This year’s class includes:

• 10 current and former founders, backed by YC, HF0, AI Grant, and more
• Product builders with apps that have served 10M+ users
• Hackathon winners, Olympiad gold medalists, podcast hosts, and competitive freestyle skiers
• Published researchers, engineering managers, and former investors
• Builders of rockets, humanoid robots, chariots, and flamethrowers

It’s a diverse and extraordinary group of individuals, and as we’ve gotten to know them over the past few weeks, we couldn’t be more excited to start working together.

In addition, each year we select one exceptional Venture Partner to serve alongside us as our Chief of Staff.

This year, we’re excited to announce that Cooper Saye from the University of Michigan has stepped into the role. A prolific Ramp engineer over the past two years while holding down a full course load, Cooper embodies our values at Contrary and has been instrumental in recruiting and onboarding this year’s Venture Partners.

Welcome Cooper, and Go Blue.

Alex Zhao - MIT

Hey there — I'm Alex Zhao, first-year from MIT studying math and CS with a minor in physics. I'm interested in frontier software and tough tech, specifically machine learning, robotics, and crypto. Previously I've worked in ZK and ML pipelines, and I have a strong passion for math olympiads. You'll find me cooking, lifting weights, and playing various card games and video games. I love meeting new people—feel free to reach out and chat!

Brian Mason - Duke

Hey! I’m Brian, an undergrad at Duke University studying math and something else. In high school, I built mobile apps and taught a bunch of kids to code. I’m currently in explore mode (hence the something else) and am working on software products and an NFC card. In my free time I like running, lifting, playing board games, playing tennis, reading, and listening to podcasts.

Brooke Joseph - Waterloo

Hi my name is Brooke Joseph. I'm currently in my second year of Computer Science at Waterloo. Before starting at Waterloo, I conducted research in Differential Privacy and other privacy-preserving technologies across various institutions and worked with startups focused on this field. More recently, I joined a consumer startup and built various apps reaching over 1 million impressions. I'm also super into long distance running and weight lifting.

Charlotte Kim - Stanford

Hi! I'm Charlotte, a first-year MBA student at Stanford GSB. Prior to Stanford, I worked at three venture-backed startups, two of which became unicorns during my time there. Most recently, I was a Senior Director, Strategy & Special Projects at Life House, a Series C hotel tech startup. Prior to Life House, I did Growth at JOKR, a 15-minute grocery delivery company. I joined at seed stage, and it became a unicorn within 8 months of inception. Before JOKR, I did M&A at Thrasio, the first Amazon aggregator. I joined Thrasio at Series B and was there when it became the fastest profitable unicorn in US history. I grew up in New York City and did my undergrad at Harvard. In my free time, I love Barry's Bootcamp and skiing (was a competitive freestyle skier).

Evan Zhang - Penn

Hey! I'm a first year MBA student at Wharton. Prior to Wharton, I worked in investing and across roles at growth-stage startups. Most recently, I led Product GTM for Rippling’s Benefits business and worked as a Product Manager at Big Health, a Series-C mental health technology company building apps to treat anxiety, depression and insomnia. Before joining startups, I was an investor at Norwest Venture Partners and focused on consumer health, technology and data. Outside of work, I love lifting, running, scuba diving, and traveling.

Feroze Mohideen - Harvard

Hi! I’m Feroze, a first-year MBA student at Harvard Business School, originally from New York. Prior to business school, I was a software engineer at Amazon, Ironclad, and a seed-stage startup called Porter. Before that, I studied computer science and electrical engineering at Duke. Outside of school, you can find me on the HBS gym's basketball court or Blue Biking around Cambridge.

Justin Wang - Carnegie Mellon

Hi! I’m Justin — currently an undergrad studying math at Carnegie Mellon. I’m interested in how we can help the development of AI benefit humanity, as well as in problems related to verification and authenticity. I recently helped launch Gray Swan AI and did a mix of research and engineering across various subfields of ML prior to that. In my free time, I enjoy playing guitar, hiking, and drawing inspiration from wonderful things that happen on the internet. Feel free to reach out! I love meeting people and am excited to support builders and makers bringing ideas to life.

Kevin Yang - Harvard

Hey! I’m Kevin, a freshman at Harvard studying mechanical engineering and philosophy. I spent most of my childhood taking apart computers, which snowballed into an innate love of modifying the built world. If I’m not busy building flamethrowers, chariots or 125lb robots, you can usually find me learning some new form of micro mobility (unicycle!), going on long runs, or pondering the good life. I’m interested in sleep tech, solving the climate problem, and transportation.

Krish Parikh - Stanford

Sophomore @ Stanford studying math. I led the team that won the first place grand prize at TreeHacks 2024. I’m currently interested in pushing the frontier of ML in geometric deep learning and biology. This summer, I developed a novel graph neural network at Stanford SNAP which achieved SoTA results on inductive graph learning tasks, with applications to better content recommendation algorithms and improved drug discovery from pharmaceutical knowledge graphs. Right now, I’m working with Stanford SNAP and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to build a genomics foundation model, which we expect to be the largest bio ML model ever released to the research community, surpassing AlphaFold and ESM.

Max Forsey - BYU

Hey! I'm a junior at Brigham Young University majoring in computer science with a specialization in machine learning. I’m currently immersed in AI research at the PCC Lab, focusing on mechanistic interpretability. Previously, I co-founded Sameday AI and participated in both Y Combinator's W23 batch and AI Grant's first batch. At BYU, I serve as the Vice President of the AI Association, an organization dedicated to providing students from diverse academic backgrounds with practical AI experience.Outside of my academic and professional pursuits, I’m passionate about longevity, metalearning, and sustainability.

Mira Nagarajan - Harvard

Hi! I’m Mira, a first-year MBA student at Harvard Business School. My experience spans corporate strategy at IT / Customer Service B2B SaaS companies to commercialization and policy at a seed-stage industrial climate technology startup. I’m most passionate about early-stage solutions at the intersection of tech and sustainability across both hardware and software. Outside of work, you can find me at running along the Charles, at trivia nights, or doing the NYTimes crossword in my favorite reading chair.

Nikhil Bhatia - Stanford

Hi there! I'm a first-year student at Stanford GSB. Before Stanford, I led an engineering team at Citadel building the research platform for the systematic equities business. I have a BS and MEng in Computer Science from MIT, where I also played on the water polo team. I’ve published academic research in networks and ML + education, and am looking forward to building in AI. When I’m not on campus, you’ll most likely find me on the golf course or at the poker tables!

Nina Khera - Harvard

Hey! I'm Nina, a second-year student at Harvard studying neuroscience, with a minor in economics. I am currently involved in Alzheimer's research with the Tsai Lab at MIT, as a member of Harvard Innovation Labs, and working on an early-stage startup in aging. In the future, I'm hoping to get involved with more early-stage biotech orgs. In my free time, I love to run, lift, and write poetry!

Sajiv Shah - University of Michigan

Hey, I'm Sajiv. I'm a sophomore at Michigan studying Mechanical Engineering & Robotics. Previously I've worked on humanoid robot actuators at Figure AI, 3D printed tank dome structures for orbital rockets at Relativity Space, and quiet electric propulsors at Whisper Aero. I enjoy playing guitar (classical and electric) and running!

Sarthak Dhawan - Duke

Hey! I'm Sarthak, a sophomore at Duke with a passion for building consumer apps. My journey into startups began in 9th grade when I built a grade checking app that got over 40,000 users, and I was immediately obsessed. Earlier this year, I founded Umax, a self-improvement consumer mobile app which currently has over 12 million users and participated in the HF0 W24 residency in SF. Now, I started a new venture called Turbolearn, an AI education startup with 700,000+ users. I love the outdoors and am an adrenaline junkie at heart - hiking, skydiving (working on getting my solo license), scuba diving, basketball, lifting, and running makes up most of my free time. What motivates me the most is seeing strangers use my products in the wild and feeling a sense of direct impact and value on their lives!

Saurish Srivastava - Princeton

Hey! I’m Saurish, a second-year at Princeton studying computer science, mathematics, and philosophy. Before Contrary, I interned at a startup in SF working on conversational AI for healthcare, and am now doing machine learning at a startup building noninvasive language processing. I’m really interested in AI Safety, academic research, and deep tech startups. In my free time, you can catch me making catastrophic blunders in chess, hitting into the block in volleyball, or spontaneously doing random things!

Soham Govande - Stanford

Hi! I'm Soham, a third-year student at Stanford studying CS with a concentration in Artificial Intelligence. Before this, I've built, scaled, and exited a startup in EdTech. Now, I'm focused on research at the intersection of machine learning and systems at the Hazy Research Group, led by Prof. Chris Ré, at the Stanford AI Lab. I grew up near Austin, Texas, and love spending time in nature.

Sritan Motati - Penn

Hey! I’m Sritan, a first-year at Penn studying computer science and economics. My core interests surround deep learning and software engineering, but I’m broadly passionate about building cool products. I’m currently the founding engineer at Vytal.ai, a neuro-tech startup designing brain health tests with hardware-free gaze tracking. I’ve also spent a few years conducting applied AI research in the biomedical space. I enjoy playing pickup basketball, watching cooking videos, and meeting new people—feel free to reach out!

Stanley Zhao - MIT

Hello! I'm Stanley, a second-year undergraduate student at MIT studying computer science. I'm really interested in anything software, AI, and motion/web design. I'm currently a software engineer at Suno, where I've built user search, audio waveform tools, and even an entirely new user interface to help reshape the way we make music for over 15 million users. Prior to Suno, I worked on SciLynk, a startup I co-founded to make research easier and more efficient. At MIT, you'll find me helping with HackMIT, one of the world's premier hackathons for undergraduate students, or teaching web.lab, a class dedicated to teaching web development to over 300 students every year. Outside of school and work, I love all things physical: bouldering, volleyball, lifting, and ice hockey.

Tina Mai - Stanford

Hey! I’m Tina, a second-year undergrad at Stanford studying Computer Science and Neuroscience. I’m currently building new interfaces enabled by interpretable models and researching human-simulating agents (hoping to work on, broadly, better computers for humans). Previously, I took a leave of absence to work on a consumer startup (where we talked to thousands of people on the streets of New York City and built out of a tiny studio in lower Manhattan), but decided to head back to school to pursue more ML research. As some side quests, I’m a creative writing minor, love Christopher Nolan films, and am deep in the pickleball craze.

Tiggy Valen - Stanford

Hey! I'm Tiggy, a first-year MBA student at Stanford GSB. Prior to Stanford, I started my professional career as a TMT investment banker at J.P. Morgan before moving to product management in the Edtech space. Most recently, I led Education product and strategy for the Council on Foreign Relations, a foreign policy think tank in New York City. I grew up in the Bay Area and the Foreign Service (moving across the U.S., Bangkok, Paris, and Vancouver). I have an undergraduate degree in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University with certificates (minors) in Engineering & Management Systems, Finance, and East Asian Studies. In my free time, I run a Formula 1 podcast and early childhood literacy nonprofit. I also love to produce music and am working on retaining my French language skills.