About

I'm Tanmai Kalisipudi. I'm learning about AI safety and policy, trying to understand the future and make it good for everyone. I live in Northern Virginia.

Here is my work, my projects, my schools and a few milestones, newest first, current as of November 1, 2026. The same things are on my timeline. To reach me, see Contact.

Work

Maslow, Co-Founder & CEO (Jul 2025 to Sep 2026). Ishaan Sharma and I started an AI consulting company for government contractors in Washington, D.C., with Tanish Jain and Sumanth Kalluru in it that first summer. We talked to 150+ govcon leaders. After the summer I kept it going from UVA and commuted to D.C. I ran Claude Code workshops and AI strategy sessions, for free at first and then as paid work, and I sold our first six-figure contract. I turned down job offers after graduating and stayed with it until September. I was learning a lot of entrepreneurial skills, like managing and shipping projects and doing enterprise sales. Tanishk Govil worked with me at the end. Maslow OS on GitHub Try Maslow OS
Suitable, Software Engineer (Jun 2025 to Aug 2025). I was on the product team under Dominic Visco, one of Suitable's co-founders. I migrated our QA suite, which was one of our biggest infra costs. I took the job to see how a founder scales a company, and watching Dom up close taught me more than the code did.
GradSteps, Co-Founder & CEO (Jan 2024 to Jan 2025). I started GradSteps in my second semester at Pitt with Hitesh Davuluri, Pravan Balamurugan and Ashka Shah. It was an AI degree planner: you told an agent which majors and minors you wanted to earn, it built a plan from the course catalog, and a validator checked that plan against your degree requirements. I ran product and engineering, Pravan did partnerships, Hitesh did marketing and Ashka did design. GradSteps
Lineaje, AI Engineer (Jul 2023 to Aug 2023). Lineaje was a seed-stage startup that secures software supply chains, and I was one of its first interns. With Tejas Balebail, and under Mudit Sinha, I shipped an AI agent that let customers search their supply chains for vulnerabilities in plain English. I fine-tuned the model and built the RL pipeline behind it, and I demoed it to stakeholders as we went. Lineaje
Cisco, High School Intern (Jun 2022 to Jul 2022). I learned networking from a Cisco mentor. I pitched a Cisco executive on an interoperable blockchain for domestic asset tracking.

Projects

LevelUp, Thesis (May 2026 to now). Research under Professor Anton Korinek, with Vithal Goel, Patarasate Unjitwattana and Joe Liang, on how AI changes which skills the job market pays for. I was taking his class at the time. LevelUp LevelUp methodology
Perceptron, Co-Founder (Sep 2024 to May 2025). I started a group at UVA to build multi-agent simulations of how different people react to things like elections and marketing. We had 12 active members. I also gave a talk at a UVA founders event about going from 0 to 1, with Perceptron and GradSteps as the examples.
Hawking, HackHarvard 2023 (Oct 2023 to now). An AI app that makes study material for any subject. Johanna Lohmus designed it, and Suraj Vaddi and I built it. Hawking on Devpost
First Year Council, University of Pittsburgh (Sep 2023 to Apr 2024).
TJRides, Creator (Sep 2022 to Jun 2023). A carpool app for TJ students, kind of like Uber. I built it with Ishaan Sharma.
Tutoring business, Founder (Sep 2022 to Jun 2023). I tutored kids for TJ and AOS admissions, the SAT and ACT, AP Physics, CS and Econ, and personal finance. When I had more students than I could handle, I brought on 8 underclassmen to help. We put in 900 volunteer hours in all.
ElectrAlert, Creator (Sep 2021 to Mar 2022). Goggles that use EEG to catch drowsy drivers. Tanish Jain and I built them. I did the CAD prototype and the business model, and we were Conrad Challenge finalists. 2022 Summit Finalist Teams, Conrad Challenge
Model UN, Delegate and Chair (Sep 2021 to Jun 2023). I won a few awards and chaired TechMUN, TJ's own conference.
Kalisipudi Holdings, Fund Manager (Sep 2020 to May 2024). I co-managed $250k to $1M of my own money and some friends' money.
TJ Investment Club, Vice President (Jan 2020 to Jun 2023). My friend Shahzad got me to join at 14. The pandemic bull market got me into trading, and I became vice president at 17.
TJ Track and Field, Sprinter (Dec 2019 to Jun 2021).
VEX Robotics, Vexperts (Sep 2017 to Jun 2019). I was on team Vexperts 5047B with Sumanth Kalluru, Dwij Joshi, Shrihan Kadhiresan and Jai Arora, and we made it to districts.
Newer Environment Starts Today (NEST), Co-Founder (Sep 2016 to Jun 2019). I started NEST, an environmental nonprofit, with Shreyaa and Esha Venkat and my sister Nikhita. We posted crafts made from recycled stuff on YouTube and got 100k views. I built a web app where people could post leftover food for homeless shelters. It had exactly 1 user. We still ended up on NBC News and won a few awards. 2018 Outstanding Volunteer Award Recipients, Loudoun Cares Tanmai Kalisipudi, Author at NEST
Piano classes (Sep 2011 to Jun 2016). Piano classes and other immigrant kid activities.
Taekwondo (Sep 2011 to Jan 2020). I kept going until I got my third-degree black belt.

School

University of Virginia, Computer Science (AI Focus) + Math (Aug 2024 to May 2026). University of Virginia
University of Pittsburgh, Computer Science and Physics (Aug 2023 to May 2024). I was in the Frederick Honors College and CSC @ Pitt. University of Pittsburgh
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, High School (Sep 2019 to Jun 2023). Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Riverside High School, Math Classes (Jan 2019 to Jun 2019).
Belmont Ridge Middle School, Middle School (Sep 2016 to Jun 2019).
Newton-Lee Elementary School, Elementary School (Sep 2012 to Jun 2016).
Dominion Trail Elementary School, 1st Grade (Sep 2011 to Jun 2012).
Virginia Academy, Preschool (Sep 2008 to Jun 2011).

Milestones

First marathon, Richmond Marathon (Nov 2025). I ran it in 3:57 after 12 weeks of training. Before that, I had never run 26 miles.
National Merit Scholar (Mar 2023).
Third-degree black belt (Jan 2020).
First tweet (Sep 2011). My first tweet, at 6. It literally said "nothing". My first tweet
Discovered the internet (Nov 2007).
Born (Jul 2005). I was born in Leesburg, Virginia, on July 17, 2005. My parents married in 1999, moved to the US, and settled in Ashburn. I have an older sister.