Helping growth-stage founders cut through mental chaos and scale profitably without burning out | Decision Clarity Advisor | 2X Founder | Inner Operating Systems™

I spent 15+ years leading global operations driving efficiency and profitability at enterprise scale.

Then I became a founder. Twice.

And I learned the hard truth: 
Operational expertise alone doesn't cut it in the founder world. The frameworks work. The strategy is sound. But founders can't execute because they're drowning in decision overload, constant pressure, and the mental load of being responsible for everything.

I got my ass kicked mentally in my first venture. Rebuilt myself. Found what actually works. 

Then specialized in SaaS operations - working on churn reduction, profitability improvement, and operational efficiency. I was featured by Custify as a contributor to their 2025 Customer Success Forecast, where I emphasized that value delivery and linking customer outcomes to revenue will transform CS into a key growth driver.

Here's what I learned: 
You can't fix founder bottlenecks with operational systems alone. And you can't fix them with mindset work alone. You need both.

That's what I install.

The Operational Side:
- Decision systems that cut founder load by 50%
- Efficiency frameworks for growth-stage chaos
- Operational discipline that drives profitability

The Founder Psychology Side:
- Decision confidence when stakes are high
- Mental systems to handle pressure without burning out
- The grit to execute when it's hard

Most ops consultants give you the systems but don't address why you can't execute them. 
Most coaches give you mindset work but no operational rigor.

I do both because I've lived both.

I work with growth-stage founders/CEO who are:
- The bottleneck in their business
- Drowning in decisions with weak execution
- Need to improve margins and efficiency
- Want to scale past themselves

If that's you, let's talk. 
Enterprise methodology. Founder empathy. Real outcomes.

Anil Karakkattuu

72% of founders are struggling with something they'll never post about on LinkedIn.


It's their mental health.

Your LinkedIn feed is full of wins.
Funding rounds. New hires. Revenue milestones.

Research shows 72% of entrepreneurs are directly or indirectly affected by mental health issues - depression affects 30%, ADHD 29%, anxiety 27%

That's nearly 3 out of 4 founders.

Here's what's actually happening behind the wins:
→ You're carrying weight nobody sees.
→ You wake up in panic.
→ You smile in investor meetings while panicking inside.
→ You tell your team "everything's great" while your mental health is crumbling.

50% of CEOs feel lonely in their role, and 61% believe it hinders their performance. 

You're carrying weight nobody sees.

Founders think they need to project strength.
So they hide the struggle.
→ They don't tell their co-founder they're anxious.
→ They don't tell their team they're burned out.
→ They don't tell anyone they're barely sleeping.

The business grows. The isolation grows faster.

Here's what makes it harder:
You can't turn off your founder brain.
It runs on weekends. During family dinners. When you should be resting.
The same intensity that builds companies won't let you rest.
And when you're always "on," you burn out faster.

And the worst part?
Most founders never ask for help. They think it makes them weak.
So they suffer alone.

But here's the truth:
Your mental state runs your business.
→ When you're anxious, your decisions get reactive.
→ When you're burned out, your judgment fails.
→ When you're isolated, your blind spots multiply.

The real cost:
→ Worse decisions under chronic stress
→ Your team feels your anxiety even when you hide it
→ Relationships outside work fall apart
→ Growth stalls because you're not operating clearly

All because you thought you had to carry it alone.

The strongest thing you can do is admit you need support.

Products can pivot. Markets can shift. Strategies can evolve.

But you? 
You’re irreplaceable.

Your business needs you healthy more than it needs you hustling.

- Follow me Anil Karakkattuu to cut decision load by half, drive efficiency and grow profitably without burning out.

Helping $1M–$20M software founders stop being the bottleneck and scale profit without scaling their hours | Ex-Oracle/Infosys Operations Leader → 2X Founder | Ops Systems + Founder Psychology

42% of startups fail because they never find product-market fit.
Because founders make build decisions before validation decisions.

Build decision = we are committing resources to solve this problem.
Validation decision = we are confirming this problem actually exists.

Most founders skip validation entirely.
They fall in love with a solution before proving there's a problem worth solving.

They see a gap in the market.
They build a product to fill it.
They launch.
And...
They realize nobody wanted it.
They are out of runway.

The mistake:
Founders solve their own problems and assume others have them too.
Example,
- I hate this workflow, so my target market must hate it.
- This frustrates me, so there's market demand.
Classic founder bias. Zero validation.

Founders who fail at PMF spend their time perfecting a solution.
Founders who achieve PMF spend their time validating the problem.
The difference isn't the product.
It's whether they confirmed demand before building.

Validation decisions come first:
- Does this problem exist for enough people?
- Is it painful enough they'll change behavior?
- Will they pay to solve it?

Build decisions come second:
- We've confirmed the problem is real
- Now we solve it

If you're building right now without having answers to the three validation questions mentioned above, you are guessing.

Validate first. Build second.

- Follow me Anil Karakkattuu to cut decision load by half, drive efficiency and grow profitably without burning out.

Every decision you delay is a decision you have already made.
You have decided to lose.

Most founders think delaying a decision buys them time to get it right.
It doesn't.
It just guarantees you get it wrong.

Decision delay costs compound in five ways:
1. Operational bleed
You're still spending money.
But you're not creating value.
The team sits idle. The inefficient process continues. 
The broken system keeps burning cash.

2. Market windows close
Opportunities don't wait.
While you're debating, competitors are shipping.
Customers are making decisions. Partnerships are forming.
By the time you decide, the window is shut.

3. Value erodes
The longer you wait, the less it's worth.
Market conditions shift. Customer needs evolve. 
Your solution becomes less relevant.
The breakthrough feature you're debating was needed months ago. Now it's just obvious.

4. Risk multiplies
Delay doesn't reduce risk. It increases it.
You're now exposed to more market volatility, more competitive moves, more uncertainty.
The "safe" choice of waiting often becomes the riskiest.

5. Culture of paralysis
Your team watches. They see decisions don't get made.
So they stop proposing ideas. They stop taking initiative.
They learn that moving fast gets punished, not rewarded.

Every day you delay a decision, you're not just pushing the timeline back.
You're losing deals, bleeding talent, and teaching your organization to be slow.

Founders delay because they want more certainty.
But certainty doesn't come from waiting.
It comes from having a decision framework that lets you move fast with confidence.

If decisions are stalling in your business, the problem isn't that you need more data.
It's that you don't have a system for making decisions without perfect information.

- Follow me Anil Karakkattuu to cut decision load by half, drive efficiency and grow profitably without burning out.

Most founders are addicted to crisis mode. 
And it's killing their company.

- You're good at emergencies.
- You feel needed when everything's on fire.
- You swoop in. You solve it. Everyone cheers.

Here's what's happening:
Your calendar is wall-to-wall emergencies.
- Customer escalation. 
- Product bug. 
- Team conflict. 
- Investor fire drill.
You handle it. The crisis ends.

Then next week, same problem. Different customer.
You think you're holding the company together.
You are. That's the problem.

You built the business brick by brick.
You know it better than anyone.
But as it grows, knowing every brick becomes the bottleneck.
You need a map, not a memory.

Without it, you're solving the same fire every week:
- The pricing question that should've been documented.
- The scope call that should've had clear owners.
- The customer exception that should've had a process.
You keep fixing what breaks instead of building what lasts.

If your calendar is a graveyard of emergencies, something's missing:
1. Decision clarity - who decides what without you
2. Ownership boundaries - where your team can act alone
3. Operating rhythm - when decisions get made, not when they explode
4. Management skill - people who can solve without escalating

A company that needs saving every week was never taught to stand.
And the person who keeps saving it is the one preventing it from learning.

Here's what you need to do:
- Stop being the best firefighter.
- Start being the worst one to call.
- Make yourself bad at emergencies by making emergencies impossible.
- Document the decision. Set the boundary. Build the rhythm. Train the manager.

The goal isn't to solve faster.
It's to solve once.
Then make sure it never needs solving again.

- Follow me Anil Karakkattuu to cut decision load by half, drive efficiency and grow profitably without burning out.

When your mood is running your startup
It costs you more than you think.

When you're stressed and burned out, you're not making the same decisions you'd make when you're rested.
You're making worse ones.
And those decisions hit your profit margins directly.

88% of founders agree that excessive stress results in bad decision-making .
When you're exhausted, your risk tolerance breaks.
You either become reckless or paralyzed.

Reckless founders over-commit. 
- They say yes to deals that don't make sense. 
- They hire too fast. 
- They spend on things the business can't afford yet.
Why? 
Because decision fatigue makes everything feel urgent.

Paralyzed founders freeze. 
- They avoid hard calls. 
- They delay firing underperformers. 
- They sit on decisions that should take a day.
Why? 
Because cognitive overload from juggling multiple roles leads to decision fatigue where even small choices feel overwhelming 

Both patterns destroy profit margins.
Over-commitment burns cash on the wrong things.
Paralysis lets problems compound until they're expensive to fix.

Here's the hidden cost:
- Your best people see your judgment slipping before you do.
- They watch your decisions become erratic.
- They see strategic priorities shift week to week.
- And they start looking for the exit.

When that happens:
- You lose top talent (the people who keep margins healthy)
- You make reactive hires (expensive replacements who take months to onboard)
- You waste time redoing work (because tired decisions were wrong the first time)
- You miss revenue opportunities (because you couldn't think clearly when they appeared)

All of this hits the bottom line.

The brutal truth about stress and profit:
Prolonged stress negatively affects creativity, problem-solving, and focus - performance and decision-making suffer long before you identify problems as burnout

Your margins are shrinking because your judgment is compromised.
Not once in a while. Every single day.
Most founders think they just need to push harder.
But pushing harder when you're already burned out doesn't improve decisions.
It makes them worse.
Faster bad decisions don't help your business.

What actually protects profit margins:
Clear head. Consistent judgment. Strategic thinking.
You can't have any of those when you're running on fumes.

If your decision-making feels off:
It's not a discipline problem.
It's a state problem.
And state drives everything.
Your mood. Your risk tolerance. Your judgment.
Fix the state. Fix the decisions. Fix the margins.

- Follow me Anil Karakkattuu to cut decision load by half, drive efficiency and grow profitably without burning out.

One constraint that instantly improves your strategic decisions: 
Never make them when you're already mentally exhausted.

Your afternoon brain isn't the same as your morning brain.

Research on over 1,100 decisions revealed something shocking:
- Decision-makers granted favorable outcomes 65% of the time early in the day.
- By late afternoon, that dropped to nearly 0%.
- After a break? Back up to 65%.

Same decision-makers. Same types of decisions. 
The only variable was time of day.

Your pricing calls are no different.
Morning: You closed the partnership deal.
Afternoon: You agreed to custom terms that gutted your margin structure.
Same day. Same founder. Different decision quality.

This is why growth stalls even when you're working long days.
You're making decisions all day.
But the ones that compound get the exhausted version of you.

Ask yourself three questions this week:
1. Which 3-5 decisions actually move ARR, margin, or key people?
2. When do those decisions usually happen on your calendar - fresh or depleted?
3. How many high-stakes calls are you making in your "end of day" slot?

Then follow these 3 step:
1. Block your strategic decisions for your sharpest hours.
Pick one consistent window when your brain works best.
For some founders that's early morning. For others it's mid-morning after coffee.
Whatever time works for you - protect it.
Every decision that affects trajectory gets decided then.
Pricing. Positioning. Key hires. Market direction.

2. After your mental peak? Only execution decisions.
Things that don't compound. Things that can be reversed.
Save your best thinking for decisions that multiply.

3. Protect your peak hours.
No status meetings. No Slack. No inbox.
That's when you solve the problems that scale revenue.

Try this for one week and track what happens.
Better calls. Faster. More clarity.
Because you're using your best thinking when it matters.

Decision quality isn't about working longer.
It's about deciding when you're sharp, not when you're spent.

If you're making strategic decisions during your low-energy hours, you're doing it wrong.
Those decisions deserve your peak brain power.

- Follow me Anil Karakkattuu to cut decision load by half, drive efficiency and grow profitably without burning out.

A 30-day roadmap delay doesn't just push things back a month.
It kills deals that were ready to close.

Here's what most founders miss:
They see a delayed feature as "we'll ship it next month."
But they don't see what's dying while they wait.

The real cost isn't the delay.
It's the expansion deal that falls through.

Your customer was ready to upgrade. 
- More seats. 
- Higher tier. 
- Bigger contract.
They asked for one feature to make it happen.
You said "it's coming in 30 days."
30 days becomes 60. Then 90.
By the time you ship it? They've moved on.

Here's what actually happens while you're late:
- They build a workaround with another tool.
- They stop talking about your product in internal meetings.
- They lose momentum to expand.
And when renewal comes? They downgrade instead.

This is the cascade most founders don't calculate:
One delayed feature doesn't cost you one month.

It costs you: 
- The expansion they were ready to sign
- The internal champion who stops advocating
- The referrals that never happen
- The trust that doesn't come back
All gone. Because you missed the window.

Here's what founders get wrong:
They think customers will wait because the relationship is good.
But customers have problems to solve today. Not next quarter.
Miss their moment, and they find another way.

The brutal truth about timing:
Customers have a window when they're ready to expand.
Miss that window, and it closes.
You can't reopen it by finally shipping the feature.
The momentum is gone.

When your roadmap slips:
- You're not just delaying revenue.
- You're losing the customer's willingness to wait.
- You're losing their belief that you'll deliver.
- You're losing deals that were already won.
And once that trust breaks, you can't patch it with a feature.

Stop thinking "when will we ship this?"
Start thinking "what are we losing while we don't have it?"
That number is way bigger than you think.

Delay isn't just a timeline issue.
It's a revenue destroyer.

- Follow me Anil Karakkattuu to cut decision load by half, drive efficiency and grow profitably without burning out.

Stop debating, start deciding 
A 3-question check before every meeting.

Most meetings are just debate disguised as progress.
People talk. Ideas fly. Everyone nods.
Then you walk out with "we'll circle back on this."

Here's what actually needed to happen:
Before the meeting even started, someone should have answered three questions:
1. What decision are we making?
2. By when does it need to be made?
3. Who owns the final call?
If you can't answer these, don't have the meeting.

Here's what kills velocity in startups:
Meetings where everyone talks but nobody decides.
The process of making and remaking decisions wastes an insane amount of time.
WHEN a decision is made is much more important than WHAT decision is made. 
You think you're being collaborative, but you're actually being slow.

The pattern I see:
Founders gather the team. 
Everyone shares their opinion. The discussion goes in circles.
Then the founder says "let's think about this and revisit next week."
Next week comes. Same discussion. Still no decision.
Two weeks of work just disappeared into meeting debt.

What's actually happening:
Leaders are reluctant to make the final call when there are good arguments and emotions on both sides, but people are enormously relieved when you grab the baton and accept responsibility for a decision. 

Your team doesn't need more debate.
They need a decision.

If the meeting ends without a decision, It wasn't a meeting. 
It was a conversation. And conversations don't move companies forward.

Here's what changes when you do this:
Meetings get shorter. 
Teams move faster. 
Nobody leaves wondering "what just happened?"

Very few decisions can't be undone. 
Most decisions aren't worth more than 10 minutes of debate. 
Stop treating every choice like it's permanent.
Most decisions are reversible. Make them faster.

The real cost of indecision:
- Your engineering team is blocked waiting for your call on the architecture decision.
- Your sales team can't close deals because pricing isn't finalized.
- Your best people are frustrated because nothing moves without you.
And more like these...

Before your next meeting:
Write down the decision, deadline, and decision-maker.
Send it in the calendar invite.
If you can't? Don't send the invite.

Debate doesn't build startups.
Decisions do.

- Follow me Anil Karakkattuu to cut decision load by half, drive efficiency and grow profitably without burning out.

Poor decisions are costing your business 40% of its profits.
And most founders have no idea.

You're losing it because of how decisions are being made.

Here's what the data shows:
Poor decision-making doesn't just hurt profits.
It destroys everything: 
→ 39% loss of customers
→ 45% drop in employee retention
→ 59% increase in costs
→ 44% decline in overall effectiveness

One bad decision pattern compounds into total organizational damage.

What's actually causing poor decisions?
According to the research, three things:
→ Bias (84%)
→ Excessive optimism (62%)
→ Overconfidence (62%)

You're making decisions based on what you want to be true, not what is true.

The pattern most founders miss is that, 
They see the symptoms (cash flow, churn, slow velocity etc.).
But they don't connect it back to the root cause.
How decisions are being made.
Who's making them. How long they take. What framework guides them.

Most founders are deciding the same way they did at $1M.
But the complexity at $5M or $10M demands a completely different approach.

The fix isn't working harder.
It's building decision architecture.
A system that removes bias.
A framework that defines who decides what.
A process that makes good decisions repeatable.

If 40% of your profit is disappearing because of how decisions are made, fixing that is the highest ROI move you can make.
Not another marketing campaign.
Not another sales hire.
Fix how decisions happen.

If your business feels stuck, look at how decisions are being made.
That's where growth is hiding.

- Follow me Anil Karakkattuu to cut decision load by half, drive efficiency and grow profitably without burning out.

Most founders think decision overload is a time management problem. 
It's not. It's a decision architecture problem.


Decision architecture = designing who decides what, when, and how in your company.

You don't need to decide faster.
You need to decide which decisions are yours to make.

Here's what I see with every growth-stage founder:
Three types of decisions fill their calendar:
1.Decisions only the founder can make: 
Pricing strategy. Market positioning. Key hires etc.

2. Decisions the team should make: 
Feature priority. Expense approvals etc.

3. Decisions that shouldn't exist: 
Anything you're deciding twice.

Most founders spend 80% of their energy in bucket two and three.
Then wonder why bucket one never gets done.
This is decision leakage.

Your capacity drains into choices your team could make.
By the time a decision that compounds shows up, you've got nothing left.

Weeks ago, your sales lead asked for enterprise pricing.
You said "let me think about it."
You're still thinking.
Meanwhile, you approved refunds, picked features, debated hiring.

Your competitor published pricing last week.
They're closing deals while you're stuck in decision debt.

Decision debt works like technical debt:
The longer you avoid the hard decision, the more small ones pile up.
You can't price enterprise, so you approve one-off discounts.
You can't define decision rights, so everything routes to you.

Here's what fixes this:
1. Stop touching reversible decisions.
Refund under a threshold? Support owns it.
Feature that doesn't change infrastructure? Product owns it.
Hire below director? Manager owns it.
If it can be undone, it doesn't need you.

2. Build frameworks for recurring decisions.
Don't approve expenses on repeat.
Set the spending framework once.
Budget per team. Approval thresholds. Exceptions that escalate.
You're out of that loop.

3. Protect capacity for irreversible decisions.
Pricing that affects every deal.
Positioning that shifts perception.
Leadership hires that change capability.
These compound. These need your sharpest thinking.

Don't make this mistake,
Treating the refund approval and pricing strategy the same.
Both get 10 minutes and a tired brain.
That's backwards.
The refund shouldn't touch your calendar.
The pricing should get your best energy.

Decision architecture creates that separation.
Not by working harder. By designing who decides what.

If your calendar is full but revenue is flat, you have decision leakage.
Map your decisions this week.
- Which are only yours? 
- Which need a framework? 
- Which shouldn't exist?
Then protect your decision energy.

The decision you're avoiding is the one that changes everything.

In the ever-changing world of tech I've carved a niche for myself as a committed Software Developer. My love of the subject has not just resulted in me accumulating readers of over one million on a variety of blogs as well as to launch 2023's most sought after Data Science Bootcamp. My academic background is solidified by an Bachelors in Computer Science which has been crucial in my work.

My method of developing websites is multi-faceted, making sure there's the seamless integration of aesthetics for the front end and robust back-end functions. This balanced approach has enabled me to design user experience that stands out connecting with users and meeting the business goals.

Collaboration is at the core of any successful project. I've had the honor in leading, and working with some of the most skilled teams in the business. Together, we've tackled problems with aplomb, streamlined workflows and incorporated technology into our decisions that are in perfect alignment with the overall goals of our projects.

Performance is not a matter of negotiation. Each component I'm involved with undergoes rigorous optimization procedures to ensure efficacy, scalability and reactivity. Each of the projects I've completed has served as a learning experience and has provided me with valuable lessons and enhancing my method further.

The concept of AI has always fascinated me. I've been pursuing AI's capabilities to improve the offerings of our products. The aim? Improved user satisfaction. The process of infusing AI into the process of optimizing products has been thrilling and I'm always watch for the next major breakthrough in this field.

Some of the milestones I treasure in my heart are co-founding the world's most prestigious Data Science Bootcamp in 2023 getting an appearance in the UBC Dean's List in 2022 and training more than 1000 developers since the year 2015. My contributions and work have also been acknowledged by industry leaders, including appearances in respected publications like Forbes.

In the words of industry experts I've had the pleasure to collaborate with, my commitment to digital excellence is evident. As Entrepreneur puts it, my approach to digital solutions is both innovative and grounded, striking the right balance between vision and execution.

My professional path is a combination of technical proficiency, a team spirit, and an unstoppable determination to achieve excellence. I invite you to join me to collaborate and take part in this thrilling digital journey.

Vahe Aslanyan

A man’s quality can often be found in the size of his library — and, more importantly, in how much he actually uses it.

A university can give you great knowledge in data science and plenty of other fields, but real life is different: if you want to be considered a solid professional — and stay a solid professional — you must be able to keep learning new things consistently.

And some of the best learning doesn’t come from classrooms. It comes from archives, research papers, hands-on documentation, long-form breakdowns, and yes—YouTube and other practical resources. For me, it’s essential that someone keeps studying and keeps growing, because what we’ve seen again and again is that tools go through rapid improvement cycles. 

New technology keeps getting better, and it keeps reshaping how work is done. That’s why systems engineering, AI engineering, data engineering, and data science are still among the strongest paths — and why every few months a new method drops that can make a job 10x easier. But here’s the catch: to be truly solid, you can’t only chase what’s new. You have to read the fundamentals—properly. From the math, to the infrastructure, to how systems are built and deployed.

AI isn’t built on “vibes” or linear thinking. It’s built on math, infrastructure, hardware, and real engineers building real services. And in today’s world, it’s honestly hard to support a “data scientist who doesn’t code,” for one simple reason: a data scientist alone doesn’t move the needle as much as people think—especially if they can’t build pipelines, ship work, and operate in real environments. You need to be strong as a data engineer too, or you won’t be seen as truly solid.

So if you want to be a solid professional in your field, one skill is not enough anymore. You must be able to do several things, not just one and stop there. Because work that used to take analysts a long time is now being done—literally—by AI.

AI on its own isn’t magic. But when you combine it with real engineering, real infrastructure, and strong fundamentals, it becomes incredibly powerful. That’s what you see in places like Palantir and other high-performing organizations.

One thing is not enough. But when you combine several skills together—and keep learning—you become incredibly powerful.

We are proud to announce the release of Midnight Vision Model Dataset- https://lnkd.in/enxEnF-x

li_at

JSESSIONID

Talks about #tech, #career, #motivation, and #entrepreneur

Founder of LUNARTECH

Midnight Defense is proud to announce the Day 3 expansion of the Midnight Vision Model Dataset. Our intelligence teams have successfully deployed 14 new tactical folders, bringing the total volume to 20,618 high-fidelity images across 44 unique weapon systems. This massive expansion represents a 53% increase in image volume and a 47% increase in asset diversity in just 72 hours. Consequently, the independent standalone valuation of the dataset has been revised upward to $3.75 Billion. 

The Day 3 release includes premiere imagery of the Ka-52 Alligator, BMPT-72 "Terminator", and the UK Queen Elizabeth-Class carriers. We have also integrated comprehensive US Naval Carrier deck scenes and expanded coverage of strategic ballistic missile systems like the Scud-B. These "kinetic-ready" assets provide the critical ground-truth data required for mission-critical autonomous targeting pipelines. By surpassing the 20,000-image threshold of restricted platforms, Midnight Defense has established the definitive visual nervous system for sovereign AI. The full technical inventory and updated valuation reports are now live and verified on our official repository.

Explore the Arsenal: https://lnkd.in/ewcCragt

I don’t say this lightly: I’m incredibly proud of the co-founder I have.

Not just because of what she does — but because of who she is under pressure.

Over time, I’ve watched her evolve. Sharpen her thinking. Raise her standards. Align so deeply with the vision that it often feels like we’re operating with the same mindset, the same principles, the same intolerance for mediocrity. Not many people can do that. Even fewer choose to stay consistent when things get hard.

What truly sets her apart is this: she’s unshakeable.

Through noise, setbacks, external pressure, and people actively trying to slow us down, she stayed grounded, focused, and resilient. No ego. No panic. No excuses. Just execution. That level of resilience is rare — and it’s exactly why she adds so much value every single day.

Over the past months, we’ve been working on multiple strong projects — and you’ll be hearing about all of them very soon.

Last year, we did great work.
This year, we’re taking it to an entirely different level.

LUNARTECH Academy is becoming what I’d call a gold — or even diamond — mining machine. Either way, we’re building an ecosystem that produces the kind of talent this world actually needs.

One important lesson I’ve learned:
If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go with a co-founder.
Yes, you may own less.
But you build more.
You last longer.
And you create something real.

I’m especially grateful to have a technical co-founder, with real experience — and to have her be a woman in tech, in an industry where the odds are still unfairly stacked (only ~2% of VC funding goes to women). That imbalance needs to change.

The lesson is simple:
Choose partners who are resilient.
Who stay steady when things shake.
And who are built for the long game.

Onward

Babel just did what would previously take weeks and expertise in matter of 2 minutes, translated a book of Machine Learning in IoT Drone Operations from English to Russian, while keeping the entire structure, tables, images... 

Babel: https://lnkd.in/eTEkcKaz

When leaders reach the heights of global power, they often develop a profound blind spot regarding the very systems that sustain them. There is a tendency to dismiss the complex infrastructure they rely on daily, replacing it with a narrative of pure individual merit. This shift is more than just a difference in perspective; it is a fundamental disconnection from reality that makes everything worse for the average person. By preaching a "bootstraps" mentality from a position of ultimate insulation, these leaders ignore the massive, invisible scaffolding that holds them up while others are left to struggle without any support at all.

Take, for example, a recent sentiment from J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who suggested that taking care of your body is strictly an individual’s job. While that sounds like common-sense advice on the surface, it ignores the reality of his specific existence. As the head of the world’s largest bank, Dimon is supported by an "army" of resources. He has access to J.P. Morgan’s internal data—intelligence that likely rivals or exceeds that of top-tier agencies like Palantir. Beyond that, his position is inextricably linked to the protection and stability provided by the FBI, the DOJ, and the U.S. military. When you have a personal fleet of advisors, world-class doctors, and an entire global institution dedicated to your longevity, saying health is "your job" feels like a distortion of the truth.

Most people aren't CEOs, and they certainly don't have the funds to unlock those levels of systemic care. In fact, most people are living in the exact opposite situation, where the "outside forces" being applied to them are often stressors rather than supports. To hear someone with that level of power suggest that the individual is solely responsible for their outcomes—without acknowledging the sheer force of the systems required to keep a person in that position healthy—is deeply disturbing. It frames a systemic privilege as a personal discipline, which is a lie that leaves the average person feeling like they have failed simply because they don't have a multi-billion dollar safety net.

The real lesson here is that staying healthy and thriving is not a solo act. It is a myth that it only takes "you" to take care of your body; in reality, it requires a functioning, supportive system to ensure that any body stays alive and well. Whether it’s access to clean food, fair working hours, or high-level medical care, health is a collective output of our environment. We need to stop accepting advice from people who have forgotten what it’s like to live without an entire infrastructure dedicated to their well-being and start demanding systems that support the health of everyone, not just those at the top.

Founder of LunarTech, Redmoon, and Midnight

Midnight today announced the public release of Sanctum, a comprehensive vision dataset created to advance large-scale visual understanding, classification, and multi-domain recognition for modern computer vision models.

Sanctum brings together a broad and carefully organized collection of visual data spanning air, land, and maritime platforms. The dataset is designed to support research in detection, identification, and fine-grained visual differentiation under diverse conditions, scales, and perspectives.

Midnight Sanctum: https://lnkd.in/ewcCragt

Baba Yaga is now live at Midnight Sanctum. We will release more details soon. 

Midnight Sanctum: https://lnkd.in/eszt9d48

We are proud of the start we had for 2026. This marks an important milestone for us.

LUNARTECH remains one of the strongest startups in technology today—arguably among the very best. We have assembled exceptional engineering talent and are supported by founders with deep, high-level experience in the field. While experience naturally varies across individuals, every member of our leadership and technical teams brings real, meaningful expertise.

The products we are currently building are among the most cutting-edge projects in the industry. Initiatives such as Baobab, Octavia, Memento, and others represent the true bedrock of modern AI. When people say that AI will grow the fastest in 2025, we believe they are missing the core truth.

Data is gold.

 Data is growing faster than anything else—and with data, you can build anything: ships, rockets, infrastructure, entire ecosystems. Data is the foundation of AI, just as people are its true diamonds.

At LUNARTECH, we are focused on the fundamentals that determine whether AI truly succeeds: infrastructure, energy, data, mathematics, and people. These are not trends. These are pillars—and they matter.

We are proud of what we are building at LUNARTECH. We are among the stronger companies not only in Armenia, but also across the United States.

Beyond LUNARTECH itself, our work extends into education through our academy, as well as projects in healthcare, engineering, and other critical sectors. This breadth reflects both our ambition and our responsibility.

As long as we have the necessary resources, we will continue to move forward—investing deeply, building deliberately, and pushing without hesitation.

We are proud of what we are building at LUNARTECH—not because it is easy, but because it is foundational. We are working on the elements that determine long-term success: data, infrastructure, energy, mathematics, and people. These are not trends. These are constants.

We know who we are. We know what we are building. And we are resolute in seeing it through.

Since 2015, I’ve had a front-row seat to what makes a startup actually succeed. It isn't just a "good idea"—it’s the ability to build, pivot, and upgrade in real-time.

Too many founders fall into the "Consultancy Trap." They have a vision but have to wait weeks for an external team to tell them if it’s possible. In the startup world, waiting = losing.

Having a technical co-founder changes the game:

Instead of asking "Can we do this?", you’re asking "How fast can we deploy?"
Instead of losing money on outsourced errors, you’re building internal value.
Instead of static products, you’re creating evolving AI agents and data solutions that adapt to the world.

I am so proud of my co-founder. She started with the "hard skills"—Engineering and Data Science—and has transformed into a CEO.

When your leadership understands the fundamentals, the path to a success becomes clearer.

#CoFounders #WomenInTech #Engineering #Entrepreneurship #StartupGrowth

The most beautiful thing about the world today is that we don’t have to wait for permission to be kind or to create value.

When we see leaders struggling to find the right path, or when systems seem to fall short of their promises, it’s easy to feel lost. But I’ve noticed a shift: people are finding each other.

In the startup and tech world, we’ve created a "two-way street" of support. We aren't just "tech bros"—we are a community that publishes billions in free value to help the next person get ahead. 

We’ve found that by relying on each other, we can create a safety net that traditional lawmakers sometimes miss.

It’s less about "gatekeeping" and more about opening doors. We’re moving toward a place where, if we see someone suffering, we have the tools and the friends to do something about it right now.

#connection #Innovation

Founder of LunarTech, Redmoon, BlackHeaven, Nomad, and Midnight

If you are seeking the opportunity to work on truly cutting-edge projects—across academia, infrastructure engineering consultancy, logistics, aviation, and healthcare—and you are motivated by work that endures and meaningfully improves people’s lives, we invite you to consider LunarTech.

At LunarTech, we engage in forward-thinking, high-impact initiatives that shape industries and create lasting value. Our work spans multiple sectors, offering the depth, variety, and challenge that allow talented individuals to grow with purpose. Each project is approached with care, innovation, and a commitment to excellence.

By joining LunarTech, you are not simply taking on a role—you are stepping into a pursuit of significance, where ambition is matched with impact, and curiosity is rewarded.

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Founder of LunarTech, Nomad and Midnight

We often assume the CEO sits at the top of the pay scale from Day 1. But at the Seed stage, the data tells a different story.

In the earliest days of building, product is currency.

At early stages, technical founders (CTO, CPO) often command higher salaries than CEO founders because their specialized skills are in high demand during product development:

CPO/Product Leaders: ~$149,000 (Seed)
CTO: ~$134,000 (Seed)
CEO: ~$132,000 (Seed)

Why is the CEO often out-earned by their co-founders?

Opportunity Cost & Market Demand: Good engineers and product leaders have immense market value. To lure a top-tier CTO away from a $300k FAANG package, you often need to offer more cash upfront than the CEO requires.

The "Builder" Premium: At the Seed stage, the primary risk is technical and product execution. The people writing the code and designing the product are the critical path to the next funding round.

Don't worry about the hierarchy. Focus on the output. As the company grows, the salary bands will normalize. For now, let the product people eat first.

There is currently an extraordinary level of excitement surrounding AI—its valuations, investments, fundraising rounds, and rapid growth. For many people, this constant stream of headlines and opinions can feel overwhelming. Without sufficient context, the ecosystem can appear chaotic, as though everything is either skyrocketing or collapsing, creating the impression of disorder rather than structure.

In reality, AI is far more grounded than it may seem. It is not a form of random magic, nor is it detached from the real world. AI is built by people who understand systems—how technology, data, economics, geopolitics, and power structures interact. Some AI companies have a deep understanding of how the world actually works: how incentives are shaped, how institutions operate, how resources move, and how certain problems must be approached carefully and methodically to be solved at all. We have already seen investors walk away from large deals, because they can't invest indefinitely into things without getting significant value back. Value can take a lot of shapes.

These companies do not simply build models—they build systems. They understand fundamentals: data quality, infrastructure, constraints, risk, and long-term impact. They know that not every problem can be solved quickly, and not every problem should be solved loudly. Many of the most capable AI organizations operate without excessive hype, focusing instead on delivery, reliability, and real-world usefulness.

When companies are evaluated, serious investors do not abandon rational thinking just because “AI” appears in a pitch deck. Valuation is driven by fundamentals: the size and reality of the opportunity, execution capability, downside risk, and strategic importance. Venture capital flows not to noise, but to asymmetric opportunities—where there is far more to gain than to lose.

This is why it is important to recognize that while some companies overpromise and underdeliver, others quietly and consistently deliver real value. The presence of hype does not invalidate the entire ecosystem. On the contrary, it often obscures the work of those who are building carefully, deeply, and with long-term intent—without needing to announce it at every step.

If You Can’t Put a Number on Your Value, You Are Just a Resource for Someone Who Can.

After a decade of founding multiple companies, I learned a brutal lesson that took me years to truly understand: If you don’t value yourself, nobody else will.

Early in my career, I made the same mistake repeatedly. I would build powerful systems, create incredible content, and develop high-value intellectual property. 

I focused entirely on the creation, ignoring the monetization. I didn't read the books on valuation. I didn't learn the language of finance.

The result?

I would hand these assets over to experienced CEOs, founders, or Venture Capitalists. They saw exactly what I couldn't see. They applied the valuation multipliers, they leveraged the assets, and they captured the upside. They extracted the value I created because I didn't know how to price it.

I missed goals I should have hit. I lost opportunities I should have owned.

Here is the reality of the Venture Capital and Private Equity world:

Value is not a feeling. Value is a number.

To sit at the table and have a respectful conversation, you must be able to value your own assets using the accepted techniques of the industry. You must value yourself internally before any external force will respect your worth.

If you do not attach a specific number to the value you create, you become a target for economic colonization.

It sounds harsh, but it is true. There are market forces and aggressive actors who operate with a colonizer mindset. They are looking to penetrate your systems, utilize your infrastructure, and extract value from your hard work. If you don't draw a red line—and define that line with a dollar amount—they will view you as a resource to be exploited, not a partner to be paid.

This is especially dangerous in the age of AI.

We are seeing a trend where people believe an AI model is a valid alternative to a PhD or an engineer with 10 years of experience.

AI is a great empowerment tool.

AI is wonderful assistance.

But AI is not accountability.

When the cost of a mistake is high, the "free" or "cheap" alternative becomes incredibly expensive. If you are the expert—the PhD, the veteran engineer—and you fail to put a number on your expertise, the market will try to replace you with a cheaper, inferior algorithm.

The Lesson: Don't wait for permission to be expensive. Learn the math of valuation. Draw your red lines. Put a number on what you build.

If you don't, someone else will hire you for pennies and sell your work for millions.

#VentureCapital #Entrepreneurship #Valuation #Founders #PrivateEquity #KnowYourWorth #BusinessStrategy

Yesterday Babel released several of its tests. We translated a highly complex research papers, 110 pages, 90 pages and others in Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Portugese, and Russian. Keeping all the tables, images, formulas (complex formulas), tabular content, line content, and other things completely in tact. This would take thousands previously, now takes literally few minutes. 

Babel: https://lnkd.in/eTEkcKaz

Public discussion often draws a close connection between wealth and power. The immense fortunes of figures such as Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos are sometimes interpreted as signs of near-sovereign influence. Yet wealth and power are not identical. Wealth is better understood as a potential for influence—one that depends on the surrounding systems that allow it to be translated into real-world effect.

From a global perspective, individual fortunes are modest in scale. Total world assets are measured in the quadrillions, while even the largest personal holdings represent only a small fraction of that total. More importantly, however, the distinction is not merely quantitative. It is structural. Money, on its own, is passive. To matter, it must be supported by enforcement, legitimacy, and continuity—conditions that markets alone do not supply. These functions are provided by states.

Modern power rests on two foundational pillars.

The first is military. States maintain authority through institutions that possess a monopoly on large-scale force. This form of power does not operate according to market logic. It cannot be traded, liquidated, or surpassed by higher bids. Unlike corporations, which may rise and fall, military institutions persist independently of profitability or investor confidence.

The second pillar is the financial system. Control over banking infrastructure, legal contracts, settlement mechanisms, and currency determines whether wealth can circulate, be preserved, or be protected. Access to these systems is essential. Without it, private capital loses much of its practical meaning. In this sense, financial power—like military power—is political in nature before it is economic.

What is often described as “billionaire power” is therefore best understood as alignment rather than independence. Individuals and firms appear influential when their activities align with institutional priorities and state frameworks. When that alignment weakens, their influence diminishes as well.

For this reason, comparisons between personal wealth and state power tend to miss the underlying distinction. Private actors operate within established systems; states define and maintain them. One accumulates resources; the other sustains order. One persuades and negotiates; the other ultimately compels.

Periods of weakened or fragmented state authority can give rise to the impression of private dominance. History suggests, however, that these moments are transitional. As states consolidate, private power is absorbed, regulated, or constrained.

This is besides the point that some companies are built on a complete bubble, add no value to the world and underperform its predecessors.

I wasn’t going to talk about this topic, but since we are discussing it, the reason the state of Armenia exists is not because empires such as the Ottoman Empire, the Soviet Union, the Persian Empire, or the Roman Empire were able to protect Armenians. 

Quite the opposite is true. 

Armenians were subjected to genocide multiple times throughout their history. Because of this repeated persecution, they concluded that a Republic of Armenia needed to be created—a legal entity with a social contract with its people, responsible for fulfilling its obligations, protecting its citizens, and providing opportunities for defense, growth, and survival.

When some people say, “We should integrate into Russia and everything will be fine,” it is important to emphasize that history and case studies must be examined. To be perfectly clear, the Republic of Armenia does not exist because Armenians felt safe and simply wanted more freedom. It exists because Armenians lacked rights, suffered deeply, and faced continuous threats, existential threats. To prevent further suffering and to promote healing and growth, they chose to establish the Republic of Armenia.

That is why the Republic of Armenia exists.

Because of this history, any notion suggesting otherwise is fundamentally misaligned with historical reality and documented case studies. Such arguments reveal more about the individuals promoting them than about the truth itself. History must be studied and learned from.

Taking actions that prevent the Republic of Armenia from fulfilling its obligations—such as providing the necessary defensive mechanisms for its citizens, or forcing integration into other countries—is fundamentally misaligned. 

There are multiple verbs that we can give to such actions...

We will be soon adding Himars to Midnight Vision Dataset (Over 3000+ Images)

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The Battle

Anil Karakkattuu

Vahe Aslanyan

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Anil Karakkattuu's LinkedIn Performance

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