Cyrus Yari
*Rational VC Podcast is being relaunched as "Rational Founder". Links will be updated soon. For now, get the newsletter (RSS feed). I've written new Timeless essays and will launch them at the same time as the new podcast, sign up!
My Current Portfolio of Bets
| Rational.School | Tech hiring course & coaching, helped 500+ people get new roles |
| Codesmith AI-ML Programme | Co-Founder and Lecturer, currently in its fifth cohort |
| RationalX | Contracting & consulting (software & product work if I like the biz) |
| Rational.Fund | Small VC Fund, >$2M AuM & growing, invested w Thiel, OSV, et al. |
| RemoteStreet.com | Remote tech job board for my students, not yet available to public |
| ZenResu.me | Will be testing w/ my students before launching -- AI résumé builder |
| Rational Founder Podcast | Exploring Timeless books (formerly Rational VC, Top-25 podcast) |
| Rational Founder Organisation | Lifetime access to Rational Notes, founder support network, meetups |
About Me
Left corpo comfort. Turned down VCs. I work for my customers, not for hype. I love helping people, and their results are what I care about most. Seek sanity, not vanity. "Don't be a sheep." Optimise for independence. Will be sharing more on my X, you can follow along.What feels like play to me: Getting people new jobs in tech, irrespective of role and experience level.What else feels like play: Rational Founder Podcast (formerly Rational VC). In an age of short-form brain rot, I'm going the other way: two-hour podcasts on Timeless texts and Worldly Wisdom. I’ve been making YouTube videos since 2006 and podcasting since 2016. I’ve also interviewed many people, including Stephen Wolfram and Jim O’Shaughnessy.Most recently: I was a Senior Software Engineer at Tesla. I never started my career as a coder. See here for my anti-normie career path and why I'd do such a thing.Past: Lots of senior experience across various fields, building & selling. Former finance bro and part of a founding team for Silicon Valley Bank in London after university, where I wore several hats as we expanded, before moving into startups & tech. More about my past on my LinkedIn (#1 normie app).Early life: I was born in post-revolution Iran (Shiraz, the heart of the old Persian empire) under difficult circumstances. We escaped and moved to London when I was five. I grew up lower class, attending some of the worst-rated schools in England. In high school, I ran businesses and worked jobs like cold-calling and door-to-door sales. Then I worked 40+ hours a week in hit-target-or-die cold sales while completing a full-time degree. I always say: "born in Iran, made in England." God save the King. 🇬🇧Interests: reading Timeless texts, autodidactism, trading of ideas, latticework curiosity, sovereignty, asymmetric bets, helping people boost their income, mentoring & helping Iran's youth, Zoroastrianism, steaks after deadlifts, martial arts, architecture, hiking, flâneuring the Alpine region.
(The "Rational" brand was created in 2020, deeply influenced by the teachings and philosophies of the Incerto series and Poor Charlie's Almanack. I’ve also recorded 40+ hours of evergreen podcast content on these six books. They continue to inspire much of what I do.)