AI unplugged with Vardhan Dharnidharka | Meet Stellaris' newest investor & AI powerhouse

Meet Vardhan, our newest investor at Stellaris and resident AI expert!

From leading engineering teams at Lyft and ClickUp, to building search and recommendation systems at Bloomberg, Vardhan has spent over a decade scaling AI/ML products that touch millions of users. He’s now bringing that same depth to his new role as an investor at Stellaris.

In this conversation, we cover

00:00 Introducing Vardhan!

00:39 Move to India, and the shift from engineering to VC

03:04 Evolutions in the role of an ‘ML Engineer’

06:02 AI Engineer – A new category?

08:30 Is classical AI dead?

10:02 Is the world undergoing an AI hype cycle?

11:40 What excited Vardhan about AI

15:28 The rise of Medium Language Models?

16:42 Consumer AI vs. Enterprise AI

19:52 Reimagining enterprise software with AI

21:26 The advantage of GenAI-native firms vs. Pre-GPT firms

24:05 Who has it better today – CTO vs. CPO?

27:20 Build vs. Buy

29:28 Evolution of AI talent in India

31:53 Advice to budding AI engineers

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Reach Alok Goyal

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alok-goyal-536557/

Twitter: https://x.com/alokgoyal1971

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Reach Vardhan Dharnidharka

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vardhan-dharnidharka/

Twitter: https://x.com/Vardhan1119

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