Pauli Xu

Hi, and welcome! I'm Pauli. I studied computer science and the humanities at Yale, where I also did neural-network research (published at NAACL 2018) and taught my first students as a course assistant in CS50, holding office hours for 100+ beginners. That's where I found the thing I love most: sitting next to someone until a hard thing becomes comfortable. Since then, I've worked in venture capital, where I evaluated over 1,000 software startups (many in AI) and built AI automations that made our screening about 20× faster. I've worked at BCG, where I built advanced analytical and automation solutions using Python, Alteryx, Tableau, and our trusty Excel and Powerpoint. And most recently I drove AI adoption across a 120-person education nonprofit — the training, the privacy policy, and a lot of one-on-one coaching with people who started out doubtful. These days I coach people in finance and consulting to get comfortable and independent with AI, on their own real work. I start with foundational framings and demos assuming zero knowledge. Soon enough you bring the model, the deck, or the task you're stuck on, and we explore it together. A machine-learning researcher who came in skeptical now runs his experimental pipeline through AI. A friend with three doctorates who'd never written code now drafts research with AI (and built a live website that inventorizes community lunches at a communal house). A team of non-technical colleagues now opens AI every morning. The people who changed my career were the ones who slowed down for me - who took an evening to walk me through what everyone else seemed to already know. I've cherished that. Coaching is my turn. I like people, I like their particular strengths and the nuance of what they actually want, and I love the moment someone runs ahead of what we built together and comes back teaching me something new. If you're heading into finance or consulting — or already there and stretched — being good with AI is fast becoming part of being good at the job. The good news: it's very learnable. Come as you are, bring what's on your desk, and we'll take the first step together. Message me anytime; I'd love to hear from you. Warmly, Pauli