Wells Fargo

Data Science Consultant, GenAI and LLMs

Flute and Feather

Interactive GenAI, ed-tech platform for young children to learn and have fun:

flutenfeather.com

Co-Founder & CTO

Data Dam

• Offer custom analytics, informatics and data science services with a core focus on Customer Experience AI. Present and past clients include:

- Diversigen
- Loop Genomics
- Black Onyx Management
- Oplytix
- Infinity Systems
- FEI

• Previously, led product and business development efforts of an AI-powered, question-answering platform using large language models (LLMs).
Identified and developed several use cases in biotech, pharmaceutical, finance and CPG industries.

Co-Founder

1865 Analytics

Sabanto

Brief stint exploring some projects related to analyzing bag files, image segmentation, and tractor route planning calculations.

Lead Data Scientist

Microsoft

Worked on NLP and CV projects to support Flip(grid): an ed-tech product empowering millions of learners across the globe.

Senior Applied Scientist Manager

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Analyzed gene variant and clinical data from Genomics England Database to inform rare disease strategy.

Bioinformatician

Near Wellness LLC

Started and sold a dropshipping e-commerce business. Learned everything about digital marketing, Shopify, and online sales—only to realize that making money in e-commerce is way harder than it looks. Didn’t make much, but walked away with a crash course in running a business.

Founder

Eaton

Built data science models and analytics tools to help optimize commercial operations.

Data Scientist, Business Analytics

Genentech

Worked in the RnD department to support bioinformatics and computational biology projects related to biomarker development.
Worked in Marketing Science department to support commercial analytics operations.

Bioinformatics/Data Science Roles

AI, engineering, data science, and cloud infrastructure experience in biotech, manufacturing, software and banking industry. Always up for a new adventure. Hit me up at: 

ali[dot]faruqi[at]datadam[dot]io

Ali A. Faruqi

Developer Advocate & Founder @ ML Data | Data Science & AI Content Creator

I didn't write my first line of code until I was 26. Now I get sponsored by companies like Anthropic, Amazon and IBM to create coding videos as a tech content creator.

My career path has been anything but linear - finance analyst to consultant to data scientist to full-time content creator. At each stop, I felt like I was starting over, but those diverse experiences became my superpower. My finance background taught me business fundamentals, consulting showed me how to solve complex problems, and data science gave me technical skills. 

When I combined all three and took the leap into content creation and developer advocacy, companies started paying attention.

Now I help others navigate their own career transitions by sharing what I've learned across industries and roles.

When I'm not creating content, you'll find me exploring running, playing pickleball or cuddling with my fur babies, Belle and Lola.

I'm always excited to connect with fellow career changers or anyone building something interesting. Feel free to reach out at megan@thedriveagency.co or send me a message here on LinkedIn 👋

Megan Lieu

I thanked my company when they let me go with no notice.

I tearfully thanked them during my termination call, and publicly thanked them in my LinkedIn announcement post.

I did it because I didn’t want to burn any bridges, but also, I just wanted to keep whatever dignity I had left intact.

It wasn’t until months later, after I processed my trauma, that I realized I didn’t owe that company anything but my true and honest feelings…

Which were that I felt used and like I was merely part of a transaction even after dedicating a year and a half of my life to them.

But that’s the thing: everyone who’s ever been affected by layoffs is just a number on a balance sheet.

Always have been, always will be.

Thanking these companies for their bad financial decisions isn’t going to change this fact, so might as well voice your true feelings because others are probably feeling the same way.

If you feel angry, resentful, or bitter that you had to pay the price for these bad decisions, express it because that’s normal.

And if that burns the bridge, then let that fire light the way to your next bridge.

♻️ Reshare this post for someone who needs to see this ❤️

Exactly 4 years ago today, I changed my life with a silly little LinkedIn post.

(Who remembers this??)

I literally wrote this post at midnight one night after a frustrating coding session, didn't think anyone could relate to such a niche struggle, closed my laptop and went to bed.

But it turned out to be my first somewhat “viral” post that made me actually start using LinkedIn more consistently instead of only lurking on the platform only when I was secretly looking for a job 👀

What happened next:

This shy, introverted girl who had previously been lost in her career slowly started to find her passion, her community, and most importantly, her voice.

But along the way in this content creation journey, I’ve stumbled across my fair share of naysayers, trolls, and worst of all for me, posting anxiety.

To this day, I still struggle with the rollercoaster of emotions that comes with worrying about:

What to say in the post
The exact time to make the post
How many people will like my post

Despite the ups and downs, I wholeheartedly believe I would not be where I am today if not for that one fateful post and the opportunities that came from consistently putting myself out there. 

My hope for your 2026 is that you finally hit “post” on the one post that could change it all for you.

It’s going to be one hell of a rollercoaster ride, but it will all be worth it.

♻️ Reshare this for anyone who needs LinkedIn post encouragement!

I was recently invited to a private shopping event at Under Armour's headquarters. But I left with so much more than new workout clothes.
 
When Salesforce invited me to Baltimore to experience their new Point of Sale system at Under Armour's largest Brand House, I'll admit, I was mostly excited about the shopping part.
 
But what I experienced completely changed how I think about the future of retail.
 
I walked in, and instead of being directed to a register, the sales associate had everything they needed in their pocket: a mobile device with Salesforce Point of Sale.
 
Within minutes, they knew I'd recently run a half-marathon based on my purchase history. They pulled up recommendations in my size and style, helped me find the perfect gear by checking real-time inventory, and checked me out right there in the fitting room. No lines and no waiting.
 
This wasn't just about convenience. It was about how technology can actually enhance human connection rather than replace it.
 
That's exactly what Salesforce Point of Sale enables. It's not just a checkout system, it's the infrastructure that lets brands deliver exceptional customer experience:
 
Every associate is empowered Every interaction is personalized Every touchpoint feels intentional
 
The future of retail is omnichannel, personalized, and powered by technology that makes human interactions better.
 
To learn more about how Salesforce's Point of Sale is creating this future, check out the link in my comments 👇
 
#SalesforcePartner

Brand partnership • Developer Advocate & Founder @ ML Data | Data Science & AI Content Creator

90% of people are either wasting money on AI tools…

Or missing out on powerful tools that are literally FREE.

Including me — until I finally understood the real difference between Free vs Paid AI Tools.

Here’s what nobody tells you about AI tools:

Paid doesn’t mean better.
It just means better for a specific workflow.

So I’m finally sharing my full Free vs Paid AI Tools Framework (by category) 👇

✅ Writing & Content
↳ Paid: Jasper AI, Writesonic, Copy. ai, Frase, LongShot AI
↳ Free: ChatGPT, Google Gemini, QuillBot, Grammarly, Wordtune

✅ Image & Design
↳ Paid: Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, Leonardo AI, Seedream 4.0, Runway Images
↳ Free: Bing Image Creator, Canva, Stable Diffusion, DALL·E, Nano Banana

✅ Video & Multimedia
↳ Paid: Synthesia, Pika Labs, Runway Video, Descript, Veo 3 Fast
↳ Free: CapCut AI, InVideo, Runway, Synthesia, Pexels AI Video

✅ Coding & Dev
↳ Paid: GitHub Copilot, Cursor AI, Tabnine, Replit Ghostwriter, Codeium Pro
↳ Free: GitHub Copilot, Gemini Code Assist, Codeium, AWS CodeWhisperer, OpenAI Playground

✅ Productivity & Research
↳ Paid: Notion AI, Perplexity Pro, Coda AI, Otter. ai, Evernote AI
↳ Free: Perplexity, Notion, Microsoft Copilot, Obsidian AI Plugins, Google Gemini

✅ SEO & Marketing
↳ Paid: Surfer SEO, Clearscope, MarketMuse, SEMrush AI, Ahrefs AI
↳ Free: Ubersuggest, Google Trends, AnswerThePublic, SEO Minion, Mangools Tools

✅ Audio & Speech
↳ Paid: ElevenLabs, Murf AI, Play. ht, Resemble AI, Descript Audio
↳ Free: Google Text-to-Speech, Mozilla TTS, Audacity AI Plugins, Talkie AI

✅ New & Trending AI Tools
↳ Paid: Claude Pro, Gemini Advanced, Lovable AI, Flux Pro, Runway Advanced
↳ Free: Nano Banana, Lovable. ai , Flux, Captions. ai, Playground AI

I went from randomly subscribing to AI tools…

To building a stack that actually matches my work.

And that’s the truth about AI tools…

Free tools help you start.
Paid tools help you scale.

♻️ Reshare this if it helped and follow me for more AI tools + workflow breakdowns.

a16z just dropped their list of unicorn startup ideas for 2026. 

The Silicon Valley VC firm just released a list of the biggest ideas their investing teams believe builders need to tackle this year.

So make sure you save this if you’ve been looking for the next unicorn startup idea:
 
 1. AI-native banking & insurance infrastructure
 2. Enterprise multi-agent orchestration platforms
 3. Physical observability platform
 4. Compliance-first AI development tools
 5. ChatGPT-native apps (via OpenAI apps SDK)
 6. Autonomous scientific discovery labs
 7. Multi-modal voice agent platforms
 8. Prompt-free, proactive AI applications
 9. AI-native industrial base companies
10. Reasoning/multimodal/computer-use-enabled companies
11. Industrial data collection & annotation platform
12. Forward-deployed AI consulting
13. AI startup tooling for greenfield companies
14. Voice-first AI operating system
15. AI-powered contingency business models
16. "See Me" consumer AI products
17. Synthetic biology design studio
18. AI-native insurance products
19. AI-powered sales qualification platform
20. Electro-industrial stack components

Which of these ideas are you betting on?
 
Check out the full article from a16z linked in my comments below 👇

Tech Startups by A16z

A major lawsuit is exposing how AI is rejecting job seekers before any human even sees their resume.

If you’ve been applying to jobs and getting ghosted, this AI company could be behind it all.

Should we be able to sue companies for using black box AI systems in their hiring processes?? 🤔

♻️ Reshare this for a job seeker who needs to know about this, and check out my LinkedIn profile audit checklist in the comments 👇

AI fatigue is very real, especially for those of us with ADHD.

Every new tool promises to "increase productivity" but really just gives me another thing to context-switch between. Another interface to learn, another subscription to justify.

Most of them just help me do surface-level work faster, which sounds great and all…

Until I realize I'm now producing twice as much mediocre output instead of doing the deep strategic thinking my business actually needs.

Airtable’s latest product, Superagent, is the first AI tool that doesn’t add to my AI fatigue. It removes friction from the part of work my ADHD brain struggles with most: sitting through complex, multi-layered research.

If you struggle with the same thing, check out Superagent using the link in my comments 👇

#SuperagentPartner

taplio

The Battle

Ali A. Faruqi

Megan Lieu

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreMegan Lieu's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Ali A. Faruqi

Megan Lieu

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

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);}Megan Lieu's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreMegan Lieu's LinkedIn Performance