AI's Next Bottleneck Isn't Intelligence — It's Energy and Water
Why the limits on the next decade of AI are physical — power, cooling, water — and what a mechanical engineering background says about who solves them.
Hi, I'm Aadi.
I'm a
I'm a USC senior who builds things — AI products, companies, and the go-to-market behind them. Right now I'm working with Scott Stanford at ACME Capital & Silicon Foundry on a stealth AI venture, and solo-building a second stealth venture in the consumer space — both shipped end-to-end with Claude Code and a small stack of AI agents.
Alongside that, I've done strategy and investing at Bain Capital and EY, scouted early-stage deals at Draper Associates, and closed $25K+ in sales at a Southeast Asia hardware distributor. I'm also a mechanical engineer completing a B.S. at USC — I've worked on rocket propulsion, autonomous vehicles, and consumer hardware.
Outside of work, I'm usually on my road bike, in the kitchen, watching Formula 1, or somewhere I've never been before.
If any of this resonates — I'd love to connect!
Experience
Stealth
Founder
Aug 2025 – Present
Stealth
Founder
Founding a stealth venture — building the product end-to-end and the go-to-market around it, shipped solo with Claude Code.
ACME Capital
Venture Builder
Mar 2026 – Present
ACME Capital
Venture Builder
Building a stealth AI venture with co-founder Scott Stanford — owning the product end-to-end (multi-source data ingestion, integrations, automated pipelines) in Claude Code, Python, and React.
Adaptive Security
GTM / RevOps Intern
May 2026 – Jul 2026
Adaptive Security
GTM / RevOps Intern
Owned RevOps automation: built Claude-to-Salesforce pipelines and a merge-request bot that lifted CRM accuracy ~30% and saved the team 1–2 hrs/day; ran outbound prospecting and took over a marketing campaign.
Draper Associates
Venture Scout
Dec 2023 – Dec 2025
Draper Associates
Venture Scout
Sole SoCal scout — sourced and diligenced 30+ early-stage startups across deep tech, climate, and AI, and wrote investment summaries for the partners.
Ernst & Young (EY)
Consulting Intern
May 2025 – Aug 2025
Ernst & Young (EY)
Consulting Intern
Only intern working with partners on a 45-person team for a $10M Singapore government contract — built executive strategy decks and budget models, and advised an aerospace client on its Singapore expansion.
Bain Capital
Summer Analyst
Jun 2024 – Aug 2024
Bain Capital
Summer Analyst
Sole undergrad on a $100M+ live deal team (subsequently acquired) — built LBO models and investment memos across market, competition, risk, and exit paths.
USC Rocket Propulsion Lab
Structures & Analysis Engineer
Jan 2024 – May 2026
USC Rocket Propulsion Lab
Structures & Analysis Engineer
Aerothermal and structural analysis of rocket nozzles and a 7068-aluminum bulkhead in ANSYS; designed mounting components for propulsion hardware.
USC Racing (SAE)
Drivetrain & Aerodynamics Engineer
Dec 2023 – May 2024
USC Racing (SAE)
Drivetrain & Aerodynamics Engineer
Designed a chain-shield and motor-mount redesign (+5% drivetrain efficiency, −15% component wear) and a CFD-optimized front wing.
Thoughts
Short notes on where AI, infrastructure, and startups are heading — written from an engineer's seat rather than an analyst's.
What Building AI Products Taught Me About Investing
Shipping software solo changes how you read a startup. Notes on what's obvious from the build side that's invisible from the outside.
Lessons From Automating a GTM Team
What replacing manual CRM work with AI workflows taught me about where real leverage hides inside a company.