IK

Ivan Kirigin

Founder and Investor

Redwood City, California

Invests in

Locations:

  • Min Investment:

    $25,000.00
  • Max Investment:

    $500,000.00
  • Target Investment:

    $100,000.00

Skills

python
product mana
metrics
Machine Learning
Software Engineering
Distributed Systems
Algorithms
C++
JavaScript
C
User Experience
Python

Work Experience

  • Founder CEO

    2023

    AI for messaging

  • Investor

    2019

    We back early stage startups focused on AI/ML, automation and robotics. Fund I backed 46 companies, now on to Fund II. These include Albedo, Almanac, BotBuilt, Buoyant Aero, Callin, Charge Robotics, Climate Robotics, Clone, DeepSource, Depict.ai, Documatic, Dolphyn, Edia, Eto.ai, Faction, Fathom Computing, Fibo.finance, Finish Robotics, Freshpaint, Greenwork, Heywear, Hydra, Hypotenuse.ai, Impossible Metals, Instant Domains, Lightly.ai, Locomation, Mach9 Robotics, Mezli, Mythos, Nira, Orca Mobility, Pallet, Parthean, Phykos, Quartz, Red Leader Tech, Rhetoric, SixWheel, Slai, Stoke Space, Strong Compute, Teleo, Vici Robotics, Zensors, Zitara

2017 - 2019

  • PM at Level 5

    2017 - 2019

    Lyft acquired my startup YesGraph, and we continued our work building referral recommendations within the growth team. I then lead a team automating all of acquisition, using machine learning to efficiently deploy hundreds of millions of dollars. I then moved back to my robotics roots to Level 5, Lyft's self-driving division in Palo Alto. Our mission is to build the leading self-driving system for ridesharing. Together, with electric vehicles and Lyft Shared rides, autonomous vehicles will save millions of lives globally, eliminate congestion, reduce emissions, and allow us to rebuild cities around people and not cars.

2012 - 2017

  • CEO

    2012 - 2017

    YesGraph helps your business grow by recommending exactly who a user should invite. YesGraph was acquired by Lyft.

2010 - 2012

  • Product Manager

    2010 - 2012

    Growth Hacker, helped the company grow 12X in 2 years.

2009 - 2010

  • Software Engineer

    2009 - 2010

    Engineering lead with the commerce team. I built the first games dashboard and FB Credits payment flows.

Tipjoy Inc.

2008 - 2009

  • Cofounder and CTO

    2008 - 2009

    Tipjoy powered simple social micropayments. My design focused cofounder and I took my idea from design to implementation to market. Funded by YC in Winter 2008, and raised a small Series A from Ron Bouganim, Chris Sacca, Dave Shen, Paul Buchheit, Paul Graham, Trevor Blackwell, Local Globe, and Betaworks.

2006 - 2007

  • Software Engineer

    2006 - 2007

    I helped win multiple military research grants. I focused on image and sensor processing, with projects about super resolution, tracking, and obstacle avoidance. Working with iRobot's PackBot is great, but I had the most fun with iRobot's entry in DARPA's Urban Grand Challenge automated driving competition.

  • Research Assistant

    2003 - 2005

    I was a research assistant while studying towards my MS in robotics. I lead multiple projects in computer vision, including feature tracking and localization for highly dynamic legged robots.