Bio
CEO and co-founder of Applied Intuition, a ~$15B AI company most people have never heard of. Customers include 18 of the top 20 automakers, plus DoD, mining, and construction. Built it for a decade in stealth on purpose. Earlier ran operations at Y Combinator. Vocal counter-narrative against "build in public" orthodoxy and against humanoid-robot-style AI hype; advocates for "intelligence into things that already exist" as the cleaner positioning frame.
Operating themes
- Intelligence into existing things. Lower adoption friction than new agentic surfaces.
- Build quietly. Caveat: only if you already have a network.
- Radical pragmatism. Two-word company ethos beats values manifesto.
- AI as just-in-time labor. Most physical-labor verticals already can't hire.
Cards
- Position AI as intelligence put into things that already exist, not as a new thing — Position AI as intelligence put into existing things [Tier A]
- Best work is done alone and quietly — caveat: only if you already have a network — Best work is done alone and quietly; caveat applies [Tier B]
Sources captured
- 2026-04-28 — Lenny's Podcast, "Physical AI, radical pragmatism, build quietly" (
raw/podcasts/qasar-younis--physical-ai-radical-pragmatism--2026-04-28.md)