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 Anduril, Ramp, Zepto, 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.

Each year, we run a rigorous recruitment and selection process to identify a small number of VPs to join our community. This year was one of our most selective and competitive years yet: we received over 1500 applications, of which we ultimately accepted 28.

They are a diverse group of exceptional builders, founders, researchers, investors, writers, engineers, and everything in between, and we are thrilled today to welcome them to the Contrary family.

This year’s class includes:

• A Regeneron Science Talent Search winner, a USA Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad camper, and researchers from world-renowned academic institutions and premier research labs
• Product builders and engineers from OpenAI, Palantir, NVIDIA, Groq, Databricks, Snap, and Figma, and have built apps themselves that have served 1M+ users
• Musicians (cellists, guitarists, a pianist, and producers) from around the world
• Builders of GPU compilers, neural implants, high-power rockets, and hypersonic jet engines

As we’ve gotten to know them over the past few weeks, we couldn’t be more excited to start working together. We’re thrilled to welcome the following new Venture Partners to the Contrary family!

Abiral Shakya - Princeton: Hey! I'm Abiral, a junior at Princeton studying ECE. I'm interested in making machine learning efficient and I especially enjoy thinking about co-designing algorithms down to computer architecture, and applications to robotics. I previously interned at Sail Research and hardware/memory startups such as Architect Labs and Kepler Computing. I was born and raised in Oregon and love to go hiking!

Akshay Anand - Berkeley: Hi! I'm Akshay, a 3rd year studying CS at UC Berkeley originally from Cupertino, CA. I do a lot of ML research and recently I've been interested in continual learning, RL, and ML systems. Currently, I'm on leave interning at OpenAI and I've previously worked on agent evals and ML infra at Databricks, and done distillation defense research at BAIR. Outside of that, I'm really into hiking, basketball, and soccer.

Angelina Antony - Berkeley: Hi! I’m Ang, a freshman at Berkeley studying Math and Computer Science. I’m interested in low-level systems and robotics hardware. Previously, I’ve built things like a compiler that fuses GPU operations and a 4-bit processor on a breadboard. Outside of tech, I love reading philosophical literature (currently obsessed with Russian realism), playing poker, and anything to do with sports cars!

Anusha Agarwal - Penn: Hi! I’m Anusha, a freshman studying Computer Engineering and Statistics at UPenn M&T. I’m interested in the intersection of foundation models and aerospace, especially their application to autonomous spacecraft. Before Penn, I worked on nanomaterial radiation shielding for orbital environments through Emergent Ventures. I also built high-power rockets for NASA SLI and did math/ML research at Hopkins. In my free time I love art and reading, and I’m always excited to meet new people!

Ashton Chew - Cornell: Hi! I'm Ashton, student at Cornell studying Computer Science. I'm interested in synthetic RL envs, RL infra, inference, and AI rollups. I currently work at Long Lake. Before, I worked on RL env research and RL infra at Amazon AGI Labs. Earlier, I worked on RL env research with Gray Swan, led synthetic RL envs at Theta (YC X25), and built the first tool-use eval infra for Nova Sonic at Amazon AGI. I also enjoy hackathons. Outside of tech, I love writing, movies, digital art, padel, and pickleball.

Ben Diamond - Stanford GSB: Hi, I'm Ben Diamond, a first-year MBA at Stanford GSB. Before school I was a forward deployed engineer at Palantir, redesigning enterprise workflows with AI across telecom and manufacturing. Before that, I worked in product at Uber and at Level All, an EdTech startup. I also run Outcome360, which deploys AI-native applications inside PE-backed trades and services companies. On the side, I built a pitcher injury risk model that I've licensed to MLB teams. I graduated from Wesleyan and grew up in Connecticut. Outside of work, you can find me skiing, running, biking or golfing (poorly). Don't hesitate to reach out!

Clay Nicholson - MIT: Hey! I’m Clay, a first-year at MIT studying EECS. I’m interested in chip design, computer architecture, and the hardware bottlenecks in AI inference. Right now, I am a researcher in MIT’s Quantum Coherent Electronics group, working on programs to analyze traveling-wave parametric amplifiers Before MIT I spent a gap year as an engineer at Hack Club running 10 different hackathons around the world. Outside of work I play ultimate for MIT and love building high-voltage electronics projects. Always happy to talk silicon.

Daniel Yim - Yale: Hey! I’m Daniel, and I study applied math at Yale. Previously, I’ve conducted research on decentralized storage at Yale Law School and worked on devtools + infra at PIP Labs. I now lead Yale Blockchain, a crypto-native performance engineering team. In my free time, I’m working on a collection of poems.

Diba Demir - MIT: Hi! I’m Diba, a sophomore at MIT studying EECS. I’m very interested in brain-computer interfaces and the neurotech space, especially neuroprosthetics. Currently, I’m doing computational cognitive science research at the McGovern Institute and theory of mind research at MIT CSAIL. I grew up in Turkey and outside of tech, I’m really into linguistics and language (I speak Mandarin, Turkish, French, and Spanish fluently), world literature and cinema, cello, and sailing.

Disha Gupta - Columbia: Hi! I’m Disha, a founding engineer at Ephemeral Technologies. We’re a New York-based startup implementing custom agentic solutions that help pharma and biotech companies bring new drugs to patients faster. Before Ephemeral, I applied ML to ligand discovery at Stanford’s Butcher Lab, where I became obsessed with the future of personalized medicine. Outside tech, I love cooking and playing pickleball!

Harsh Dubey - Harvard Business School: Hi, I'm Harsh Dubey, an MBA student at Harvard Business School. Before HBS I spent several years in climate and deep tech in emerging markets, first as an investor at Lowercarbon Capital and then in operating stints at Zeno and Rainmaker. I'm now exploring a variety of themes around how capital markets evolve to support infrastructure buildout. I was born and raised across the US, India, and Singapore.

Jeff Dai - Harvard: Hi! I’m Jeff, a sophomore at Harvard from Melbourne studying computer science, statistics, and mechanical engineering. I’m fascinated by hardware codesign, building industrial machines and products around where software capabilities are headed, and rethinking physical industries from the ground up. Last summer I was an early engineer at Antefactory, rebuilding the manufacturing stack around novel industrial CNC machines. I research similar ideas at the Kempner Institute and founded Harvard’s first student-run makerspace. Outside of work, I love reading, writing, and producing music.

Joshua Chilukuri - Duke: Hey everyone! I'm Josh and am currently studying Electrical and Computer Engineering & Math at Duke.  Broadly, I'm interested in human-computer interaction, and I spent my time before college doing research on mixed reality systems and assistive smart glasses interfaces. This past summer I was an intern at Enhanced Radar where I worked on aviation technology and this year I've begun to go deeper on independent projects to learn more about hardware. Beyond tech, I enjoy hiking (backpacking) and reading, and I've recently picked up cooking and playing guitar again. I love meeting new people and am always down to chat - feel free to reach out!

Karthik Suresh - Stanford GSB: Hey, I'm Karthik, a first-year MBA student at Stanford GSB. Before Stanford, I was an early software engineer at Blend and Pave, then founded a company building AI software to help wholesalers and distributors run their back offices. I grew up in the Bay Area, studied computer science and math in undergrad, and am always up for a surf, ski trip, long run, or poker game.

Matt Stokes - Waterloo: Hey, I am Matt Stokes—a Mechatronics Engineer studying at UWaterloo. I spent the last couple years as a MechE heading up Hardware Eng for New Products at Nimble Robotics, previous to which I worked on Construction Robots, Lasers and Humanoids. At the moment I am spending my time building hypersonic jet engines. I grew up in a log cabin in the woods and outside of tech I love music, climbing and, most recently, endurance sports.

Matteo Paz - MIT: Hey, I'm Matteo. I study EE at MIT. I'm interested in hardware design and control of nonstandard embodiments and systems. I previously worked as a mechatronics engineer at Optica Industries, and worked on a supercheap QDD actuator prototype under a 20K grant. In 2025 I won the Regeneron STS, and in my free time I like to write music on my guitar.

Mikael Haji - Waterloo: Hi! I’m Mikael, I study Electrical Engineering at Waterloo and grew up in Toronto. I work on chips: I’m currently on NVIDIA’s LPU hardware team, improving the performance per watt of inference silicon after spending much of last year at Groq. Before that, I built neurotech hardware ranging from a low-power neural implant to ultrasound systems, and co-founded Waterloo Hacker Fab with a few friends. I’m also a big film buff and play a lot of poker. Always happy to chat!

Nathan Chen - Carnegie Mellon: Hi! I’m Nathan. I love going down all kinds of rabbit holes, especially on model intelligence, architectures, and automated discovery. I’m currently at Discovery Loop. Before that, I was a Member of Technical Staff at Moonshot AI for about a year, and before that, I interned at Tilde Research for two months. In my free time, you’ll find me doing all things physical, writing blog posts (and tweets), and spending time in nature.

Nima Pourjafar - Waterloo: Hey, I’m Nima! I’m a Computer Science student at Waterloo. Previously, I worked on technical problems at NVIDIA, Figma, and Long Lake Management Holdings. Lately, I’m exploring tech industries in Asia, thinking about rollups, and AI diffusion broadly. Outside of work, I’m into film photography, traveling, and reading. Feel free to reach out and chat about any of these!

Rain Li - MIT: Hi, I’m Rain, a sophomore at MIT studying CS. I grew up in Beijing before moving to NYC. Previously, I worked on post-training at Ramp, and during the school year, I’ve worked on backend engineering and agents research at several other startups. I like to invest and love meeting founders and learning about what they’re building. Lately, I’ve been especially interested in RL, data, inference, and robotics. Outside of tech, I’m big into basketball, skiing, and playing guitar.

Ravenor Davion - Stanford: Hey! I'm Ravenor Davion. I study CS at Stanford. Right now I'm taking a few months off to work on synthetic RL environments at Nvidia. At Stanford, I do research (mostly focused on post-training language models) advised by Chris Re and Azalia Mirhoseini. In my free time I especially enjoy snowboarding + good books!

Rushil Kukreja - Princeton: Hey, I'm Rushil, a freshman studying Physics at Princeton. I'm particularly interested in space technology and its defense applications. Previously, I've deployed changes to THAAD (missile defense system) at Lockheed Martin Space, conducted NSF-funded autonomous satellite research with an MIT AeroAstro professor, and sent a payload to space from NASA Wallops. I was also a USA Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad camper (top 5 in nation). Next summer, I'll be working on Starshield at SpaceX (landed off a cold email to Elon!). In my free time, I love debating philosophy and politics, writing free verse poetry, and hanging out with friends.

Saurish Kapoor - Georgia Tech: Hi – I’m Saurish, a first-year Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering student at Georgia Tech. I spent 16 formative years across India and Malaysia, moving to the United States to pursue my American Dream. My experiences in hospitals and research laboratories across these regions have given me a unique perspective on the human condition, especially regarding disease and its heterogeneous manifestations. My goal is to make medicines to reduce pain and suffering and, importantly, give everyone more time with loved ones. This mission guides me and my work at Weill Cornell Medicine, where I’m developing deep learning models to answer the clinically urgent question, “Where does a drug go in a cell?” Beyond this, I enjoy nature walks, spending time with family, and cooking.

Sophia Tabibian - Stanford: Hi Brooke! Here’s my bio: Hey! I’m Sophia Tabibian. I was born and raised in SF and attended boarding school in Boston for four years. I’m currently a first-year studying Electrical Engineering and Materials Science at Stanford University. I’m most fascinated by how we can make energy, materials, and critical infrastructure cheaper, faster, and better. I believe great companies are the best way to deploy climate tech at scale, and I hope to dedicate my career to building and investing in them!

Trisanth Srinivasan - Berkeley: Hey! I'm Trisanth, a freshman at UC Berkeley studying Data Science. I'm fascinated by making intelligence faster, more efficient, and more capable. I'm currently doing research at Berkeley on efficient MoE inference, and previously worked on multimodal inference at Overshoot (YC W26) and humanlike AI agents at Givefront (YC W24). Before college, I founded an open-source networking platform serving students worldwide and was an early engineer at a startup. I'm especially excited about ambitious founders building at the frontier of AI and deep tech. Always happy to meet interesting people and talk about ambitious ideas!

Tristan Cao - Stanford: Hey! I'm Tristan Cao, currently freshman at Stanford studying physics. Very interested in materials and their applications for novel memory/logic systems. I previously worked on superconducting diodes at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center and materials for neuromorphic compute at CU Boulder. Outside of these interests, I love volleyball, photography, and playing the piano (currently learning Liszt's Sonetto 104). Don't hesitate to reach out!

Wyatt Lake - Penn: Hi! I'm Wyatt and I'm an engineering student at Penn studying computer science. I'm originally from the LA area and I’m currently on leave from Penn living in SF. Last summer I was at Snap Inc. working on edge LM inference for the Specs AR glasses, now I'm at Mercor focusing on real environments and human data, and next summer I'll be at Jane Street. Beyond work I’m into fencing, throwing pottery, and Philly restaurants.

Yash Dagade - Duke: Hey! I'm Yash, a junior at Duke. I love building :) I'm interested in energy and intelligence! Recently, I've been thinking a lot about the normative nature of intelligence—this has inspired my love for energy-based models. For the past year and a half or so, I've been fortunate to explore this interest at Yann LeCun's lab. I also love robots. I get excited about building robots that can be as dexterous as humans and learn as fast as we do. Besides building, I love running and reading, and have a deep love for nature.