Most of it collected before my first college lecture.
Building came first. In high school outside Philadelphia, I captained a VEX robotics team to the World Championship quarterfinals, co-led a computer science club that grew from ten members to sixty, and spent afternoons wiring Arduinos to do things they were never meant to do. Somewhere in there I learned the lesson that still drives me: software and hardware are leverage, and the person who can build gets to decide what happens next.
Research taught me to translate. I studied human gait dynamics in a Penn State lab as a high school student, then built machine learning models screening compounds for Alzheimer's therapeutics, work that helped surface more than fifteen candidates for further study. The real lesson was not technical. It was learning to explain a model to a physician, a poster to a parent, and an idea to a room that does not care how clever the code is.
Then building met business. Hackathons became a habit: third place in the Congressional App Challenge, second at The Foundry, a run at PennApps. Those weekends turned into InstaTrain, the hospitality training startup I operate as co-founder and COO. We raised a $100K pre-seed, filed a provisional patent, and built partnerships across brands including Marriott and IHG. Nothing teaches valuation like watching someone decide whether your product is worth paying for.†First finance lesson, learned the hard way: revenue is an opinion, cash is a fact.
Aequitas STEM started with my cousin in Pune, who told me she would probably study engineering without ever having seen what engineers do. The problem was not resources. It was isolation. So I founded a 501(c)(3) built around community: a platform that rewards students for helping each other, thirty industry mentors, and in-person workshops across five schools. More than a thousand students across the U.S., India, and Brazil are now part of it, and I logged over 4,000 volunteer hours along the way.
The policy work followed. As one of five ambassadors for the Dynamic Teen Coalition, I helped lead a 200-member youth coalition spanning twenty countries, drafting frameworks on algorithmic transparency and consent submitted to the UN Global Digital Compact and the ITU. If engineers do not show up to the rooms where technology is governed, someone else decides for them.
Now I am in Austin, one of thirty students pursuing dual honors degrees in electrical and computer engineering and business, interning in private equity at Oak Stream Partners, and pursuing Air Force ROTC cadet training. The throughline has not changed. I want to build things, and I want to understand what makes the things we build worth something.
Finance is the thread that ties it all together. Markets are how the world decides which ideas deserve resources: which robot gets funded, which compound gets trialed, which student gets a mentor. Engineering taught me to build the asset. Research taught me to explain it. The startup taught me to sell it. The search fund is teaching me to price it. And cadet training is where I am learning to decide with incomplete information and own the outcome, which is the oldest job description in finance.
Built to compound.
One of thirty students in the Texas ECB Honors program, pursuing dual degrees in Electrical & Computer Engineering Honors and Canfield Business Honors. An engineer's toolkit, pointed at a career in finance and technology.
Co-founder & COO
Training technology for hospitality teams. Raised a $100K pre-seed from A-1 Hospitality, filed a provisional patent, and built partnerships across brands including Marriott and IHG. Second place at UC Berkeley StEP and a UC Launch finalist.
Founder · 501(c)(3) nonprofit
A global STEM community spanning the U.S., India, and Brazil, with 1,000+ students, 30 industry mentors, and in-person workshops for 150+ students across five schools. Built around collaboration, so the platform rewards helping peers rather than beating them.§The return on community compounds faster than any asset I have tried to price.
Tech Leader & UN Ambassador
One of five ambassadors leading a 200-member youth coalition on data privacy and AI ethics. Drafted frameworks on algorithmic transparency and consent, submitted to the UN Global Digital Compact and the ITU.
Build things.
Private Equity & Search Fund Intern
One of three interns on a live lower-middle-market search focused on financial services, backed by $200M+ in capital. Supporting deal sourcing, screening, and diligence.
Research Assistant · Alzheimer's therapeutics
Built machine learning models to screen compounds for Alzheimer's drug discovery, helping surface 15+ candidate compounds for further study. Earlier, university-lab research on human gait dynamics at Penn State.
ECB Honors · Electrical & Computer Engineering + Canfield Business Honors
Selected as one of thirty students to complete both honors degrees in four years, pairing quantitative engineering training with corporate finance and valuation.¶Engineers build the asset. Markets decide what it is worth. I want fluency in both languages.
Value what's built.
Let both compound.
Pierce Brown
A miner claws his way into an empire's ruling class. Ambition, hierarchy, and what it costs to climb.
Lev Vygotsky
How language builds thought. The original argument that we learn through community first, which is the whole thesis behind Aequitas.
Always glad to talk markets, startups, or the long road into finance. I reply faster than most funds return calls.
A note on this page: it is arranged like a memory palace. Seven numbered rooms, five margin notes marked in green, one thesis repeated at spaced intervals. People remember journeys better than lists, so the story is anchored to places. If you remember one thing, let it be this: I build things, and I am learning what they're worth.
Ishaan Joshi · Austin, TX · MMXXVI