Product Insights for Emerging Technology

20 years in emerging tech — ex-Head of Product at Palantir, now founder of two ventures.

At Common Sense, we’re building modern agentic AI systems for local government — 100x increases in productivity across critical workflows that simplify civil service and delight citizens.

At First Principles, we help emerging tech companies generate massive value, ship faster, align teams, and unlock product-market fit or hypergrowth — through fractional product leadership and expert product coaching.

Whether it serves 10,000 users or 10 million residents, the system has to work — and keep working.

Sound like I can help you? Get in touch:

adam@firstprinciples.la or adam@commonsensetech.ai

Adam Judelson

A city once invited us in for an in-person working session.

We aligned the agenda, booked the flights, and landed.

Minutes before the meeting while we prepared in a nearby coffee shop, they cancelled due to an emergency.

Most teams would have stepped back and waited for a new date.

We didn’t.

We went to the building anyway, stood in the lobby, and said, “We’re here. We know the timing shifted. We’ll stay as long as you need.” Turns out, the opportunity to get ahead outweighed the crisis.

This should be the bare minimum when working with public institutions.

Show up. Make it easy. Remove friction. Respect their time.

The difference between us and the incumbents is simple. 

We want to have a conversation. 

We want to understand the work. 

We want to sit with the people responsible for keeping the city running.

And we believe that if the government is going to get faster and more effective, it starts with partners who are willing to be in the room, see the real constraints, and prove what they can do.

Building Common Sense (govtech) | Founder, First Principles | Product Insights for Emerging Tech | Ex-Palantir | 4x Venture-Backed Exec

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I just finished one of the most talked-about books in government right now, “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future,” and it made me rethink something we see every day inside cities.

Wang’s core argument is that China became an engineering state, one that builds at speed and scale, while America became a lawyerly society that regulates, litigates, and creates veto points that block building.

The American “lawyerly” model has crucial advantages in protecting individual rights, constraining state overreach, and fostering a flexible, innovative society, even though it often slows physical building. He sees these legal and institutional strengths as exactly what China most needs to import, just as the U.S. should import some of China’s engineering spirit.

Local government sits right at the collision point of these two mindsets – cities need to build (housing, infrastructure, services) but operate inside a thicket of legal constraints and procedural requirements.

Most of the people I meet in government, across agencies, roles, and floors, genuinely care. They want things to work. They want residents to feel the difference.

Both types of thinking and action are crucial to progress, and the lack of understanding from these opposite optics causes the work to drag on, because every decision becomes defensive or about optics instead of outcomes.

Individuals start protecting themselves instead of the mission.

Wang’s point isn’t just about internal dysfunction – it’s about what happens when a society only optimizes for preventing bad outcomes rather than producing good ones. Local government has become very good at avoiding mistakes and needs work building things and taking bold, calculated risks. 

The question is whether we can recover some of that engineering ethos without losing the legal protections that matter to the world’s most important democratic republic.

Every city leader I meet wants faster service delivery with AI. And increasingly, the teams running those services want to deliver it.

But there’s a gap between enthusiasm and implementation.

The same AI doomerism questions come up in almost every conversation: “What if the AI makes a mistake?” “What if the AI misses something?” “What if the work or answer is incomplete?”

These are the right questions to ask. Public sector teams are accountable to their communities in ways that private companies aren’t, with a litigious public ready to pounce on mistakes. Every strong AI company must be able to explain how accuracy and quality are measured, for sure.

But it’s also worth asking: what’s the error rate in your current workflow? How much work is left entirely undone right now? How long are people waiting for answers or approvals under the status quo?

Because in most cases, the baseline isn’t perfection. It’s human staff working through hundreds of repetitive tasks under time pressure, applying convoluted legal frameworks, with inconsistent results.

The challenge isn’t that teams are being too careful. It’s that we’re measuring AI against an impossible standard while accepting a much higher error rate and set of delays from manual processes.

Government operations are excellent at managing long-tail risk.

But managing opportunity requires a different muscle to be flexed, one that involves controlled testing rather than comprehensive policy first.

AI won’t move in the public sector through white papers or policies alone. It will move through small, measured pilots that prove value in real-world conditions.

I’m an experienced academic orthopedic surgeon specializing in the reconstruction of the adult hip and knee.

Known for optimizing clinical outcomes, leveraging technology to address orthopedic challenges, improving diversity in orthopedic surgery, and expanding sustainable delivery of quality orthopedic surgery in lower to middle-income countries.

Also interested in angel Investing and real estate.

But here’s how it all started:

26 years ago: 

I moved by myself to the US for college and started odd jobs almost immediately: pizza maker, dishwasher, office messenger. 

A few highlights:

- 13+ years as an Academic Joint Replacement Surgeon

- Fellow of the American Orthopaedic Association, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons

- Baltimore Magazine “Top Doctor” Joint Replacement 2019-2022

- 50+ publications in orthopedic surgery (17 in 2023 alone)

- Serving everyone from world leaders to the homeless. 

- Founder/Director, Global Orthopaedics at Johns Hopkins

- CEO and Co-founder of XSITE Capital Investment (Co-Founders: Leslie Awasom, Tenny Tolofari)

- $243M in AUM, investors returns ~30%.

- Over $8.28MM in returns delivered to over 300+ investors

- Angel Investor  (Portfolio Highlights: Helium Health, Akido, Magic Fund, Chronus Health, MDAAS Global, ROM Tech)

- Working with many great partners, thought leaders and professionals.

- Co-founded a non-profit, Operation Stand Walk Run to serve patients in Nigeria.

Today:

On my way to an even bigger mission.

- In 2024, I returned to Nigeria to help improve access to musculoskeletal care in this part of the world.

Follow my journey & let’s grow together!

If you'd like to know more about our real estate investment or mentorship opportunities at XSITE Capital, use the link in my bio.

Julius Kunle Oni, M.D. FAOA

Dear everyone who's been told they need to pick one thing,

You don't.

But let me add context: early on, you probably need to build authority and expertise in one thing first. Master your craft. Build your foundation. Earn your credibility.

I didn't wake up one day as both a surgeon and an investor. 

I spent years becoming an excellent surgeon first - medical school, residency, fellowship, surgical practice that saw me perform thousands of surgeries. That foundation gave me the credibility and resources to expand.

But after that? You can build on that foundation.

I'm a surgeon and an investor. I operate in the morning, and analyze real estate deals later in the day. 

I teach trainee doctors and mentor entrepreneurs. I operate between countries, industries, and completely different worlds.

People used to tell me I needed to focus. "You can't be both," they'd say. 

They were wrong. Being both made me better at each.

Surgery taught me precision that makes me a more careful investor. Investing taught me long-term thinking that makes me a better surgeon. 

The discipline from one world strengthens the other.
And here's what I've realized: the world needs more people like this now.

Not just specialists who do only one thing perfectly. But complete humans who can think across disciplines, connect ideas from different fields, and bring their whole selves to their work.

AI can specialize. AI can be excellent at one thing.

But AI can't be you, with your weird combination of skills, experiences, and perspectives that don't make sense on paper but create something unique in practice.

So if you're an engineer who paints, a lawyer who codes, a teacher who invests, a doctor who writes, don't let anyone convince you to choose.

Your multiplicity is what makes you irreplaceable.

The world has enough specialists. We need more complete humans.

Be both. Be all. Just be excellent at whatever you choose to do.

What's your "and"?

Repost to inspire someone out there.

Experienced Academic Orthopedic Surgeon | Entrepreneur | Investor

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