TEAM
Operator first.
MANAGING PARTNER
Ain McKendrick
FOUNDING & MANAGING PARTNER
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.
OUR TEAM'S SKILLSET
Vehicle Systems & Hardware Architecture
- 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
Fleet Operations & Program Delivery
- 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
Industrial Design & Product Definition
- 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
