Nishu Lahoti

About

Fullstack Founder

Building companies, developing products, generating content.

01 Bio

Build and invest in companies that shape millions of lives.

I read this mantra before starting everyday. It's aspirational (maybe even vague), but it helps me remember what I am working towards: using the precious time I have on Earth to build something outstanding.

Continuous learning is central to my career.

I get joy from building and compounding new skills. I believe this is central to leaving an impact on the world - a willingness to constantly learn and re-undewrite your own skillset. I often choose work environments based on the growth opportunities and the network of people I can learn from.

My new focus is building in public.

Entrepreneurship has always been my north star. In the past few years, I have been building my own companies and helping others get started. This has forced me to learn entirely new skillsets: software engineering, finance, and go-to-market. I love the learning and my now I am focused on sharing my progress at each step.

Download resume (PDF) ↓ LinkedIn ↗
02 Experience
  • Feb 2023 — Present

    Encode

    Chicago, IL

    Founder & CEO

    • Developing software systems to help commercial and municipal fleets electrify smarter, faster, and cheaper.
    • Building core Python algorithms, leading early sales engagements, and managing company legal & operations.
  • Oct 2022 — Present

    Nonlinear Labs

    Chicago, IL

    Founder

    • Building a "software factory" shipping AI-native products from idea to production for early-stage companies.
    • Kairos Biosciences: Built a multi-tenant platform that replaces the companys master business spreadsheet as the system of record for orders, invoices, and commission reconciliation (Stack: Next.js 16 + Mantine + Drizzle/Postgres)
    • Duezy: Designed and built a multi-tenant banking-application intake product (Stack: Next.js + tRPC + Drizzle + Better Auth)
    • Factory-kit (internal): Codified six prior client builds into a reusable harness of conventions (auth, data layer, forms, LLM workflows, security) and specialist Claude Code subagents.
  • Sep 2021 — Sep 2022

    R-Zero

    San Francisco, CA

    Senior Manager, Growth Strategy

    • Developed internal systems and workflows to support a rapidly expanding enterprise sales organization bringing modern biosafety solutions to healthcare, education, and commercial offices.
  • Jun 2020 — Sep 2021

    Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative

    Cambridge, MA

    Graduate Research Assistant, Social & Economic Recovery

    • Conducted rapid-response research for city-specific problems — policy, funding, and community development — for a global cohort of mayors and the Bloomberg Harvard executive team.
  • Mar 2017 — Jul 2019

    Google

    San Francisco, CA

    Strategy & Operations, Developer Relations

    • Chief-of-staff for a 100-person organization leading developer marketing across 30 countries.
    • Prioritized campaigns with Google Product teams, ran the org’s strategic planning, and distributed a $20M+ budget with the director.
    • Organized strategy summits in Europe and the Americas — cross-functional working groups, user research, systematic outcomes-sharing.
  • Aug 2015 — Mar 2017

    Google

    Salt Lake City, UT

    Program Manager, Google Fiber

    • Partnered with the Salt Lake City deployment team to launch fiber-to-the-home service for 20,000+ residents.
    • Led negotiations on permitting policy and process with the city’s Utility & Engineering departments.
  • Aug 2013 — Aug 2015

    Google

    Mountain View, CA

    Operations Specialist, People Operations

    • Determined compensation packages for 1,800+ new hires and 8,000+ Googlers transferring teams.
    • Negotiated with 100+ staffing and HR business partners; designed and delivered training on compensation strategy.
  • Jul 2012 — Jun 2013

    Cisco Systems

    San Jose, CA

    Associate Systems Engineer, Sales

    • Assembled wireless, data center, and communication technology BoM packages for client-facing sales engineers.
03 Education
  • Aug 2019 — Dec 2021

    Harvard University

    Cambridge, MA

    Master in Design Engineering (MDE)

  • Aug 2008 — May 2012

    University of Southern California

    Los Angeles, CA

    Industrial & Systems Engineering, Business Administration

04 Outside of work

Mentored gifted, underserved high-school students through Minds Matter San Francisco. Lead friends and family through guided yoga and meditation sessions.

Avid traveler (25+ countries, 40 states). Prolific reader, mostly political biographies. Chef — experimenting with Indian, Mediterranean, and Asian cuisines.