Who is Applied Intuition? Our Humans of Applied Intuition blog series aims to answer that question by diving deeper into what we do, what we like, and where we want to go. We want you to learn more about some of the most unique parts of our culture: the reasons we came to Applied Intuition and the reasons we stay.
Our co-founders, Qasar and Peter, have often said that our company is a training ground for future founders. Applied Intuition employees are surrounded by industry experts and ex-founders who are generous with their time and knowledge. On top of developing strong technical fundamentals, life at Applied Intuition also teaches the most valuable skills in leadership, problem-solving, management, and creativity—the bread and butter of a good founder.
We sat down with a few of our engineers who want to create something in the future. Meet Anya Vinogradsky, Frits van Paasschen, and Deepak Menghani.
Who are you? What do you do at Applied Intuition, and how long have you been here?
Anya: I’ve been working on the off-road autonomy team for the past two years. I joined as a new grad after completing my bachelor’s in computer science at Caltech, where I grew interested in the robotics and autonomy world after working at research labs and interning at Amazon Robotics and Microsoft.
Frits: I’m an engineering manager for our Synthetic Datasets and Log Re-Simulation teams, which are two of our tooling products. I’ve been here for four years, starting off as an IC (individual contributor) on various simulation and data teams, and eventually building out our Synthetic Datasets product from scratch. Before that, I was at Stanford doing my bachelor’s and master’s in computer science.
Deepak: I’m an engineering manager on the Vehicle Platform team—and lead the development of the vehicle data platform, cloud applications, and services. I’ve been here for over two years, and before that I was a tech-lead at Google working on natural language processing applications. Prior to that, I was a founding engineer at a small company called Matroid, building their machine learning based computer vision platform.
Why do you want to become a founder?
Anya: I want to pursue my own vision. I want the creative liberty to build both the product and the team from scratch in a fast-paced, exciting, innovative environment. That said, I want to focus on building my industry understanding and knowledge of good business practices first. I’m also still improving my skills when it comes to writing clean, performant code that’s deployment-ready. That—and having a really good idea—is what would determine when I want to start something of my own.
Frits: My motivations have always been to effect change in the world. Being in the driver’s seat is the closest you can get to the core of that change. I’ve always thought that I’d be the best founder when I’m the most T-shaped as an individual: when I have really strong depth in a certain domain but also wide breadth across people, product, and customer management.
Deepak: Even the challenge of beating the odds is a powerful motivator. I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum: a small startup that never achieved product-market fit, and Applied Intuition, which has. With the right team and a real problem to solve, you can be part of the lucky handful of startups that succeed.
How has life at Applied Intuition influenced your perspective on founding a company of your own?
Anya: Applied Intuition is so transparent in decision making and strategic planning—you can absorb a lot just by being in the office everyday. At the same time, you’re honing your technical IC skills. This is a great place to do both: get mentorship on your software engineering while picking up what you need to found your own company.
Frits: Working at Applied Intuition has been like building a startup with training wheels on. Taking something from an idea to an actual thing people get value out of in their daily lives—the whole process is extremely difficult and multifaceted. Engineers here have to be flexible. It’s your job to make the product successful. And if that means you have to be a marketer for a day, then you have to be a marketer for a day. Or if you need to sit and work through a really thorny technical problem, that’s also your job. That cross-functional experience is valuable for building that breadth.
Deepak: Applied Intuition has this really amazing culture of empowering people and being open. You get to learn about different aspects of the business even though you’re not directly involved. On my first day here, I was already in a customer meeting; these days, I’m involved in the day-to-day process of recruiting. You’re not siloed into software engineering. It’s a fast-paced environment, things change, and you get to influence that change.
Was founding a company always a goal of yours?
Frits: I’ve always wanted to, but more as an abstract concept—not like, “Oh, I’m going to go raise money from this VC at this time.” I really want to take a project of my own and turn it into something meaningful that affects other people in a positive way. Over the past few years at Applied Intuition, I’ve begun to see how I’d actually approach building a Silicon Valley startup.
Deepak: For me, it clicked while I was at grad school. People around me were creating things that seemed impossible, and by being in that environment, I started to believe that I could do it, too. My whole family has built their own businesses, so it’s always been at the back of my mind.
Anya: I always knew I wanted to pursue something novel and impact people’s lives positively. The challenge of it appeals to the competitive side of me. Why not? It’s something new to try.
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What should exist in the world that no one is currently working on?
Anya: People are working on many things—it’s a different question whether there’s a market for it. I think a real market for sustainability solutions will appear in a decade or two, especially one for more hardware-focused solutions. We need to build better infrastructure for solar panels, electric vehicles, and HVACs (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning systems).
Frits: The world’s biggest problem, in my opinion, is climate change. I think there’s going to be a natural marriage of software and hardware, chemical and process engineering. Deep technical solutions need to come to bear to solve the problem of climate change.
Deepak: One of the most important systems to work on is healthcare. I’m hoping healthcare gets better, more personalized, with more intelligent systems that can process your data and generate proactive diet and lifestyle suggestions, or even clinical diagnoses. I think that’s possible in a few decades if we leverage the emerging technologies we have today.
What traits make a good leader?
Anya: Thoughtfulness, honesty, dependability, pragmatism. You need to be someone who’s easy to work with and trust. Someone who demonstrates both creativity and flexibility in their approaches.
Frits: I don’t think you can be a good founder if you’re not empathetic. You need to empathize with both sides of the equation—with the customer by understanding exactly how they’re doing things and what problems they’re facing, and with the people you’re building alongside.
Deepak: A good leader embodies the values they want other people to live by. If you’re a leader, people will try to emulate you. So it’s important to lead by example and demonstrate the things you want to infuse into your company or team.
Who's the best mentor you've ever had, and what is the best piece of advice they've given you?
Frits: Adriano, the senior manager for our Vehicle Platform product. He managed me for about a year and taught me a lot about leaving my ego at the door. That kind of humility is important for a leader. It allows you not just to take ownership, but also to distribute it across your team.
Anya: One of my former professors, Adam Blank, was really passionate about bettering the lives of students, whether that be through redesigning courses or supporting student support services. They lead by example: if you’re passionate about something, you can get it done.
Deepak: One of my former managers comes to mind. He really believed in investing in people, empowering them by giving them stretch goals. Individually, we can only do so much. But if you form really strong teams, you have much more leverage. Investing in people means helping them broaden their horizons, urging them to take opportunities that will help them grow.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to entrepreneurial individuals entering Applied Intuition now?
Anya: Learn from the people around you. There are a lot of great people here who have a variety of interests and experiences in and outside of tech. Reach out and say hello; anyone will have a 30-minute chat with you.
Frits: Leaning into uncertainty is an important skill. We do a good job of fostering that. When you’re working on an early product or at a fast-paced company, there might be some chaos. It’s about learning how to function and prioritize effectively within that chaos.
Deepak: Even though Applied Intuition has achieved Series E funding and is a few hundred people, it’s still an evolving company. I’ve been impressed with how quickly new teams and projects have scaled up. Expect this to be an evolving culture that you’ll play a huge part in shaping. Come in with a high agency mindset and you’ll be in for the ride of a lifetime.
Want to explore working at Applied Intuition? Have a look at the many possibilities featured at applied.co/careers!
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