Hi, I’m Dan.

I’m a technologist spending time between San Francisco and New York City. I currently work at Applied Compute as a research engineer. I previously co-founded and led Sharpe, a YC-backed startup. Before that, I began my career at Jane Street Capital.

I enjoy working on, thinking about, and investing in technology startups. I believe startups are one of the best ways we have to solve hard problems and bring about a positive, prosperous future. Startups are difficult, but the hard work is often worth it.

Right now, I am mostly focused on post-training. In the past, I've worked on non-convex optimization, physics-informed machine learning, numerics, and many other kinds of statistics-oriented and quantitative work. Beyond research, I enjoy thinking cross-functionally and contributing to strategy, product, and go-to-market.

I have too many hobbies. I enjoy technical communication and writing. I journal frequently and occasionally post my writing online. I maintain a large collection of rare and exotic plants, specializing in the genera Nepenthes, Heliamphora, and Drosera (I blog about my plants here and have published a book on them). I spend time in the outdoors when I'm able, primarily skiing and mountaineering (I've summited around 15 peaks above 14,000 feet).

If you’d like to contact me, I can be reached at: dan DOT dipietro DOT pub @ gmail DOT com. Thoughtful emails from humans doing interesting things are welcome; please no AI-generated emails or sales pitches.