Tatev Aslanyan

Senior Machine Learning Researcher

With a Master's degree in Econometrics, I bring 9 + years of robust international hands-on technical experience in Machine Learning, Data Science, and AI from Europe, US and Canada. High-impact global projects across Ecommerce, Recommender Systems, Search Engines, Marketing and more, with a focus on using Python, SQL, PySpark and cloud architectures like AWS. My skills extend to building and training Machine Learning and Deep Learning models in Python, complex SQL querying, cloud architecture, and econometric modelling. I am recognized for my analytical capabilities, statistical and mathematical background, and first-authored publications in top-tier US journals centered on NLP &amp; ML. An independent thinker. I thrive both autonomously and as a team player, complemented by my strong communication and collaboration abilities. Worked in Tech, as Data Scientist in ML and AI in both product-based and consultancy settings with a strong business sense, and collaborating with Tech Leads, UX designers, Senior Management, Product Managers, and Business Directors.🔍 Operate:Specialties: Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, NLP, Deep Learning, Advanced AnalyticsHave also Experience: Data Engineering, Product Data Science, LLMs(Bert)Innovation: Developed a recognized Data Science Bootcamp; Published first-authored papers in AI and NLP research at ACM🔗 Engage &amp; Explore:📘 Personal Portfolio: tatevaslanyan.com🚀 Data Science Bootcamp: lunartech.ai 💻 YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@LunarTech_ai?si=Xka8dNPM8Y2cB3S9📧 "The Data Science and AI Newsletter": https://tatevaslanyan.substack.com/💻 Github Code and Projects: https://github.com/TatevKaren✍️ Blog: medium.com/@tatevkarenaslanyan📆 Schedule a Call: tatevaslanyan.com/contact/Explore numerous Free Resources and Technical Code/Materials on my LinkedIn, Personal Website and GithubFeel free to explore the links above or drop me a message directly here on LinkedIn

Co-Founder

Co-Founder of LunarTech, and creator of LunarTechs "The Ultimate Data Science Bootcamp" ranked as one of the Best Data Science Bootcamps of 2023 [ITPro] featured on Forbes, TechTimes, and other international journals.

I created the following courses as part of LunarTech initiative:
🔘 Data Science Career Guide Course
🔘 Fundamentals to Statistics Course
🔘 Fundamentals to Machine Learning Course
🔘 A/B Testing Course
🔘 Introduction to NLP Course
🔘 Python for Data Science Course
🔘 Applied Data Science Course

No matter how many years of experience you have, if you don’t know how to treat people, it’s not “leadership.” It’s just a résumé. 🤝

- Skill gets you in the room.
- Character decides whether people stay in the room with you.

The older I get, the clearer it becomes: most “high performers” don’t fail because they aren’t smart. They fail because they create fear, ego, and silence around them.

If you want a simple leadership checklist:
- Speak with respect (even when you’re stressed)
- Give credit loudly, give feedback privately
- Keep your word
- Make people feel safe to tell you the truth and be free

Your title is temporary. Your reputation is permanent.

Don’t forget to follow LunarTech on social media for more AI & data science. 🤝

And if you want to switch careers (or level up fast): #LunarTechAcademy helps you become job-ready in AI + Data Science—with formal certifications in Data Science, AI Engineering, and AI for Executives.

Founder and CEO @ LunarTech | AI Engineer and Data Scientist | Seen on Forbes, Yahoo, Entrepreneur | Empowering Enterprises with Data Science and AI

There’s a popular idea floating around that early-stage founders should “activate their networks” to hire—former colleagues, friends of friends, people vouched for by angels or VCs. The argument is that using your personal network is faster, more efficient, and shows strength in “relationship capital.” I disagree—completely.

Early in our journey, I hired someone based on this exact mindset. A shared connection, someone from a familiar circle, vouched for their values and “good character.” That person turned out to be one of our worst hires.

No matter how well-meaning the referral was, the reality is:
▶️ Trust-based hiring leads to false confidence.
▶️ Familiarity becomes a substitute for skill.
▶️ And the cost of fixing that mistake is far higher—in time, in morale, and in culture—than simply hiring right through a proper, merit-based process.

I’ve seen this pattern repeat itself in startups, corporations, FAANG pipelines, and beyond. It breeds a dangerous environment:
• Some feel untouchable because they “know someone.”
• Others feel they weren’t hired on equal footing.
• Office politics starts to take root.
• And great talent—people who could genuinely contribute—is left on the shelf.

Culture gets damaged before it’s even built.

But it doesn’t stop at startups. This kind of network-based favoritism exists everywhere: in medicine, in justice systems, in public offices, and in every field where trust is misplaced and merit is ignored. You end up with unqualified people making decisions they have no right to make—while truly skilled, well-mannered, and capable individuals are unemployed or underused.

This isn’t just a hiring inefficiency—it’s a systemic failure. And we see the consequences daily.

So no, it’s not “faster” to hire from your network. It’s costlier. And it contributes to a long-term culture of incompetence.

If you’re a founder—even in the early days—build your brand. Let your company attract talent. Evaluate fairly. Hire through process, not connections. Trust your own judgment—not your friends’ opinions.

Merit > networks.
Process > shortcuts.
Earned roles > granted roles.

That’s the culture we’ve built—and it works.

This is my opinion, shaped by experience. And I stand by it! 

#LunarTech #culture #startups

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We’re #hiring a Software Engineering Apprentice (AI Engineering Team) — Armenia 🇦🇲

This 6-month apprenticeship is for recent graduates and career switchers ready to build real production systems and AI-related projects.

Key details
- Remote-first for now (Armenia)
- 25 hours/week | Unpaid internship
- English B2 minimum (C1 preferred)
- Opportunity to be considered for a full-time offer after the program (not guaranteed)

What you’ll do
Build web + mobile apps, implement UI from UX designs, integrate - APIs/services, and help productionize AI modelsalongside AI engineers, UX designers, bioinformatics professionals, and data scientists across Western Europe, North America, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.

Tech (examples): Next.js/TypeScript, React Native or Flutter, FastAPI/NestJS, PostgreSQL/Supabase (pgvector), Docker, CI/CD.

👉 Apply via LinkedIn or send CV + GitHub/portfolio + short note to me! Comment interested below if the link is filled!

#aiengineering #hiring #lunartech

Have you ever been in this situation?

You’re sitting with a PDF or a handbook — an e-book for learning, a research paper, or a medical / legal document — and it’s in a language you don’t speak.

You need it in another language. Fast. And accurately.

You try Google and ChatGPT Translate.
You try copy–paste.
Everything breaks.

Formulas disappear.
Tables fall apart.
Images shift.
Footnotes get lost.
And the structure that actually matters is gone.

This is exactly why we built Babel.

Babel is a layout-faithful handbook + PDF translation engine.
It translates complex documents into your desired language while keeping everything else the same.

That means:
tables stay tables,
formulas (even complex math) stay formulas,
images remain in place,
headers, footers, references, and layout are preserved.

Only the language changes.

Yesterday, we open-sourced Babel and published our full test results.

We translated highly complex research papers (90–110 pages) across:
Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian — and more.

What used to take weeks and thousands of dollars
now takes a few minutes.

We keep seeing the same use cases:
Students translating textbooks and handbooks for learning.
Researchers translating papers between Chinese ↔ English (and beyond).
Healthcare teams translating protocols and technical documentation.
Universities localizing academic material.
Anyone with an e-book who simply wants it in their own language.

If you have a research paper in Chinese and need it in English — Babel does it.
If you have an English handbook and want it in Armenian — Babel does it.

(For scanned documents, Babel Extreme handles translation + reconstruction.)

We open-sourced Babel because we believe language should never be a barrier to knowledge.

The tech behind it combines document-structure parsing, layout reconstruction, and AI-powered translation — built specifically for PDFs and handbooks, not generic text.

You’re free to:
use it, contribute, share it, and build with us.

Open source + tests on LunarTech Github

If you’ve ever struggled with PDFs across languages — this one’s for you.

About year ago I joined association. In my first presentation I mentioned my education and work experience outside🇦🇲 

A man objected. Then he asked something that’s actually worth answering:

“Why do we always hear about Armenian founders succeeding outside Armenia?”

So here’s my answer—based on watching, listening,quietly observing how “tech” works here

#Why Armenians succeed abroad

Because outside Armenia, there is usually higher chance that real value gets rewarded: competence, delivery, ethics, consistency, dignity. Not perfectly, not everywhere—but more often than in the current systems in Armenia

Inside Armenia, success can be filtered through a different logic: permission, not merit

let’s be clear: this is not about being extroverted. It’s not “go to more events.” It’s not “network harder.” What I’m describing is when ecosystem behaves like closed trust circle—where access depends on belonging, protection, loyalty chains more than on what you build. People are even afraid to say something because of the fear culture 

You see it in patterns people whisper about:
	•	same organizations & faces “rotating” through grants, sponsorships, visibility
	•	“community” platforms acting like gatekeepers, not enablers
	•	strong sexism & double standards still shaping who gets the spotlight and who gets “managed”

And if you stand up for yourself as a women and set boundaries- response isn’t “let’s fix it.”
It’s: “Let’s make YOU the problem.”
—while the “other founders” being showcased are already inside protective bubble. 

#The easiest example: AI-washing

Armenia loves to market “AI.” But you can literally feel the gap between branding and building when you meet the “AI” up close.

You’ll get a call from a so-called Armenian AI assistant, sounding futuristic… then you reply with your first sentence in English—
and suddenly the “AI” becomes a confused script that can’t handle reality.

That’s what happens when a system rewards labels, cheating, incompetence over competence.

#Davos - the uncomfortable reality check 🇦🇲

At Davos, Azerbaijan’s president Ilham #Aliyev said international relations are moving from the “rule of law” to “rule of strength”

If the world is becoming more brutal & competitive which is especially dangerous for Armenia, then in the very near future, fake companies, fake products, fake people, fake reality won’t save anyone

- Only real products, real progress, & real founders will

And that’s why this matters. The game being played right now in Armenia —where branding replaces building, - loyalty replaces merit—is a dangerous one in 2026 (some at the top who are involved know this - that’s why are perping their foreigner passports & exit plan) 

I’m not posting this to shame Armenia. I’m posting it because Armenia has real talent—and real builders including us deserve real ecosystem where value is the admission ticket, not “being trusted” by a cult.

LETS make real products, real connections & real impact! 🇪🇺🇦🇲

People love to blame “Gen Z” for poor work ethic or professionalism. I don’t buy it.

At LunarTech, we’ve worked with some outstanding Gen Z collaborators — curious, fast, reliable, and genuinely impactful. We’ve also seen unprofessional behavior from people across different ages, genders, and nationalities. In other words: it’s not generational. It’s individual.

A recent example: we opened a role for a grant writer. One applicant used most of the conversation to push “branding” instead (not what the role was for). Then came the pitch: “I’ll fix a couple of typos on your homepage for free… and you give me a testimonial.”

That’s not value creation. That’s a shortcut to borrow credibility — and to take credit for a brand founders build through years of daily work, consistency, and delivery.

The takeaway for founders and candidates:
	•	Respect the scope of the role
	•	Don’t waste time with misaligned pitches
	•	Don’t try to claim outsized credit for small cosmetic edits
	•	Be consistent: intentions show up in follow-through

Work ethic comes down to the person — how they were raised, their professional standards, and their intentions. Not their generation.

#Hiring #Startups #Professionalism #Integrity #WorkEthic #BrandBuilding

We’re #hiring: Grant Writer / Grant Strategist (Remote, Part-time)

LunarTech is looking for an experienced grant strategist to lead high-value funding efforts across AI / Deep Tech, with a focus on healthcare, education, and applied innovation.

- 100% commission-based (success-fee only) — no retainer
- Minimum 10 hours/week
- EU / US / Middle East funding experience is a plus
- Comfortable owning the full lifecycle: opportunity → strategy → compliant submission

If interested, DM me and I’ll share the role + survey.

Grant Writer / Grant Strategist (Remote, Part-Time, Commission-Based)

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

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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.

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...

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.

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

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