Operating advisory
for hardtech
founders and teams.
Senior, hands-on guidance for companies building physical AI, robotics, mobility, and aviation — from earliest prototype to scaled deployment.
High-signal advisory
for hardware in the loop.
The hardest problems in tech live where software meets the physical world — sensors, certification, manufacturing, fleet operations, real-world data. Generalist advisors flinch. We don't.
We work alongside founders and leadership teams as senior operators — pressure-testing strategy, accelerating technical decisions, and sequencing the work that actually moves the company forward.
Operator-grade,
engagement on your terms.
Project-based or ongoing. Embedded with the team or as an outside voice. We scale the engagement to the question in front of you — and stay useful at every stage from first prototype to scaled deployment.
Occasional, and
by invitation.
On rare occasions, when the stage and the fit are right, we invest directly or open our network for funding introductions. This is incidental to our advisory work — not the offer.
We're not a venture fund and we don't accept inbound pitches. If a check makes sense, it'll come out of working together.
Projects in development.
A focused set of companies building at the frontier of physical AI, mobility, and aviation. Advisory engagements; occasional direct investment.
Operator first.
Ain McKendrick
Three decades shipping hard-tech products — from co-founding Palm Computing and the original PalmPilot to leading Partner products for Netflix, Starsky Robotics (first driverless semi trucks on US public roads), and most recently founding Faction, an autonomous light-EV platform for micro-logistics.
Hands-on experience designing and shipping AI-native software — production-grade architecture, model integration, and deployment at scale across consumer and enterprise platforms.
Y Combinator alum. BS Computer Science, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Named inventor on over 20 patents spanning handheld computing, DVR, networked storage, and driverless vehicle systems. Based across Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, and Miami.
- Autonomous vehicle platform design across multiple OEM bases
- Safety-critical hardware — braking/steering-by-wire, ISO 26262 / ASIL
- ADAS sensor integration and compute platform development (NVIDIA Jetson)
- BOM, PLM/ERP, and program infrastructure from concept through production
- Commercial deployment across Bay Area, Houston, and Las Vegas operations
- End-to-end autonomous vehicle test strategy, execution, and release management
- Real-world commercial pilot execution — depot setup, staff, systems integration
- Data engineering and ETL pipelines for operational and vehicle telemetry data
- Cross-functional program management; JIRA, tooling, and reporting at scale
- AI/LLM systems, graph and vector databases for complex data environments
- Five decades of hardware product design across consumer, industrial, and tech
- Human factors and ergonomics for physical product development
- Product definition from early concept through production-ready specification
- Technical illustration, model making, and prototype development
- Physical product consulting across multiple design and engineering firms
