Open to work — AI Engineer / Research

Austin Nafe

AI Engineer. Founder. Technologist.

I build production AI agents in Python, FastAPI, and LangGraph. Currently looking for roles in AI agents, healthcare tech, and AI research.

Austin Nafe

Now

What I'm focused on this season

Building

AI agents for real workflows

Shipping LangGraph + FastAPI agents with persistent memory, schema-mapping, and SMS-based UX.

Researching

Hyperdimensional computing

Exploring HDC for cross-modal integration. Presented at the Science of Consciousness Conference (July 2025).

Looking for

AI / healthcare / research roles

Open to AI engineering, healthcare tech, and AI research positions. Remote or Denver-based preferred.

Ventures

Production AI products I've built and shipped

Boundless Horizons

We use AI to make your dream a reality. An AI-native creation engine that turns intention into outcome — businesses, songs, careers, lives. Stealth. Pre-Seed. Hiring exceptional individuals.

Stealth — by invitation →
🚐

TM Go

AI-powered tour management platform (formerly TourSync). Python + FastAPI + LangGraph backend with stateful memory, group SMS coordination, and a schema-mapping engine that adapts to any user data format. Deployed on Render with Supabase + Stripe.

Visit Site →
🏠

SelfNVest AI

Full-stack FSBO real estate platform. React + FastAPI + Supabase + Stripe with a LangGraph AI backend handling property inquiries, showing scheduling, and negotiation support with persistent per-user memory.

Visit Site →

Projects

Building at the intersection of tech, health, and creativity

HRV Detector

Camera-based heart rate variability detection using photoplethysmography. No wearables required — just your phone camera.

JavaScript Signal Processing Health Tech
View Project →

Simulacrum — Multi-Agent RL

Interactive simulation environment for training and observing multi-agent reinforcement learning policies. Visualizes agent behavior, cooperation, and emergent strategies in real time.

Python Multi-Agent RL Simulation Streamlit
View Project →

Octagon — AI Agent Red Team

Adversarial testing playground for AI agents. Probes agents for prompt-injection, jailbreaks, tool-misuse, and unsafe behavior using reinforcement-learning-driven attack policies.

Python RL AI Security Streamlit
View Project →
In Progress

LangGraph Eval Harness

Open-source evaluation framework for LangGraph agents. Auto-generates test suites, runs evals against golden outputs, tracks regressions across runs, logs token cost, and visualizes results.

Python LangGraph Evals AWS
In Progress

RecSys Engine

From-scratch recommender system exploring collaborative filtering, content-based, and hybrid approaches — with a focus on cold-start handling and explainability.

Python ML Recommender Systems
In Progress

Music Recommender

Audio-feature-driven music recommendation engine. Uses spectral and embedding-based similarity to surface tracks beyond what mainstream platforms suggest.

Python Audio ML Embeddings
In Progress

Dating Game

An interactive dating game with AI-driven characters and dynamic dialogue — exploring agent personality consistency and player-driven narrative branching.

LangGraph LLMs Game Design

PwC Innovation Hub

Shipped 5+ production AI plugins end-to-end as Senior Associate AI Engineer — RFP generator, internal knowledge base connector, EDGAR search. Spearheaded the AI Factory upskilling program for the data science team.

Python Azure LLMs Enterprise
2023 – 2024

TM Go

Stateful, SMS-native tour-manager agent — keeps the bus on schedule and the band fed. Group SMS is its native interface.

LangGraph FastAPI Supabase Stripe
Try it →

SelfNVest Agent

Real-estate FSBO agent — reads the contract twice, answers buyer questions around the clock, and pulls neighborhood comps.

LangGraph React FastAPI Supabase
Try it →

Prior Auth Agent

Healthcare advocate that reads insurance policies, cites the exact CMS reg, and files appeals when care is denied — with receipts.

LangGraph FastAPI Healthcare RAG
Try it →

Festival Companion

Festival co-pilot — finds your friends in an 80,000-person crowd, tracks set times, and reminds you to drink water.

LangGraph Streamlit Real-time
Try it →

Earnings Inspector

Earnings-call analyzer — scores management tone, flags the CFO dodge, and surfaces what the press release left out.

LangGraph NLP Finance Streamlit
Try it →

AutoFill Claims

Insurance form filler for patients — does the first thirty-eight of the forty hours you'd otherwise spend fighting your insurer.

LangGraph FastAPI Healthcare Forms
Try it →

StemDeck

Stem-splitter agent — hand it a track, get back isolated vocals, drums, and bass to remix and rebuild.

Python Audio ML Demucs Streamlit
Try it →

tunelab

Open-source music experiments — where songs go before they're songs. Audio ML and MIDI sketches, most of which don't make it.

Python Audio ML MIDI
GitHub →

Music & Sound

Creating audio experiences and exploring sonic landscapes

Check out my latest tracks and audio experiments on SoundCloud

Quarterly Letter

To my imaginary LPs · Q2 2026

DENVER, CO · MAY 2026

Patience, conviction, and the limits of being early.

Dear partners,

Q2 closed up 6.2% against SPY, with the bulk of attribution from NVDA and the quiet networking sleeve. We trimmed PLTR on the late-April rip and added selectively into the May drawdown. The book is now 18% cash — the highest in twelve months — not because we are bearish, but because optionality is unusually cheap right now and we like having dry powder when narrative shifts.

The harder lesson this quarter was a smaller one: a watchlist name we'd held conviction on for two years finally re-rated, and we hadn't sized it. Being early is being wrong, as the saying goes; the corollary is that being right at the wrong size is also a form of being wrong.

We continue to underwrite the agent-infrastructure thesis (picks & shovels in the AI capex cycle) and remain net long the index. Specific names and rationale follow in the position notes below.

— A.N.
Sole partner, sole LP, sole reader.

This is a parody letter. None of this is investment advice. The numbers, like the LPs, are imaginary in proportion.

Charts I Made

Three views of the book

Portfolio vs SPY (since first entry)
Book SPY
Allocation
6 names
VOO 30% NVDA 22% CASH 18% ANET 12% TSM 10% PLTR 8%
Return since entry by position
NVDA +34% PLTR +22% ANET +16% VOO +8% TSM -4% CASH +4%

Portfolio

Current positions. Allocations only — no dollar values. Self-reported, illustrative, not investment advice.

Total Return
Alpha vs SPY YTD
SPY YTD
Positions
Best
Worst
Ticker Alloc Entry Stance Thesis
VOO 30% 2022 Core Index core. The benchmark we're trying to beat — partially by owning it.
NVDA 22% 2024 Long Highest-conviction single-name. Every agent I ship is paying rent to Jensen.
ANET 12% 2025 Long Quiet networking play under the AI capex tsunami. Hyperscaler ramp is the catalyst.
TSM 10% 2025 Long Semis diversification beyond NVDA. Geopolitical risk is the discount.
PLTR 8% 2025 Long Government revenue is stickier than the bears underwrite. Trimmed on rips.
CASH 18% Always Dry T-bills paying real yield. Optionality on the next drawdown.

Updated May 2026 · Personal account · Pre-tax · Vibes-adjusted

My Picks

Watchlist of names I have an opinion on but don't necessarily own.

NVDA Long

Picks & shovels of the agent era

Every agent I ship pays rent to Jensen. Customer concentration risk in any other name; here it's the bull thesis.

PLTR Long

Quietly shipping while everyone argues

Valuation is rich, execution is real, government revenue is sticky in a way the bears keep underweighting.

COIN Watch

Toll booth on digital scarcity

Custody moat is real; derivatives ramp is underappreciated. Waiting on a cleaner technical setup.

"GPT-for-X" Avoid

Wrapper SaaS without a moat

Gross margin disappears the day OpenAI ships the equivalent feature. Most aren't deep enough in workflow to defend it.

Dispatches

Field notes from the road

May 2026 📍 Denver, CO

Trailhead debugging

Twelve miles before opening the laptop. The best line of code I wrote all week showed up at mile nine. The trail does what coffee can't.

Apr 2026 📍 South Bend, IN

TM Go beta from a kitchen table

First customers using the platform live. Every product decision is closer to the user than it's ever been — and the map on the wall keeps growing.

Jul 2025 📍 Tucson, AZ

Presenting HDC research

Science of Consciousness Conference. Spoke about hyperdimensional computing as a substrate for cross-modal cognition. Left with more questions than answers — the right ratio.

Studio

What I use to make sound

DAW

  • Ableton Live
  • Logic Pro

Synthesis

  • Serum
  • Vital
  • Diva

Hardware

  • Push 2
  • SM7B
  • UAD Apollo

Process

  • Voice memos first
  • One take per session
  • Ship before you tweak

Stack

What I actually use in production

Languages

  • Python primary
  • TypeScript
  • SQL
  • JavaScript

Backend / AI

  • FastAPI
  • LangGraph
  • OpenAI & Anthropic SDKs
  • pydantic

Frontend

  • React
  • Astro
  • Tailwind / vanilla CSS

Data

  • PostgreSQL
  • Supabase
  • pandas
  • Redis (cache layers)

Deploy

  • Render
  • Vercel
  • Docker
  • Azure (PwC enterprise)

Glue

  • Stripe
  • Supabase Auth
  • Streamlit (demos)
  • GitHub Actions

FAQ

What people usually ask

Are you open to remote?

Yes. Denver-based, mostly remote since 2020. Comfortable across time zones.

What's TM Go?

An AI-powered tour management platform (formerly TourSync). Python + FastAPI + LangGraph backend, stateful memory, SMS coordination. Live customers since mid-2025.

What's Boundless Horizons?

An AI-native creation engine. Stealth. We use AI to make your dream a reality. More soon.

Are you available for consulting?

Selectively. Reach out — I'll tell you straight whether it's a fit.

What's your stack?

Python, FastAPI, LangGraph for backends. React + Astro for frontends. Postgres / Supabase for data. Render / Vercel for deploy. Stripe for billing. Switch the theme to AI Agents for the long version with the Stack section.

Where can I hear your music?

Switch to the Creative theme — full catalog there. SoundCloud is linked in Contact.

Why does this site have nine themes?

Because different audiences care about different things. Send a recruiter the Finance link, a friend the Adventure link, a VC the Founder link. Same person, focused lens.

Why Healthcare

Where I want the work to actually matter.

I've shipped enterprise AI at PwC, spent two years on biosignal-adjacent research, and a year volunteering at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab — the top rehabilitation hospital in the country. That last one taught me the most: I watched good technology fail, not because it didn't work, but because it didn't fit how the clinic actually runs.

So I build for the workflow first. Agents that read the policy and file the appeal. Tools that capture a biosignal without a wearable. Systems that survive contact with a real clinical day — the interruptions, the EHR, the staffing. The AI is the easy part.

🚀5+Production AI systems shipped
💼8PwC client-facing engagements
📡2Years biosignal-adjacent research
🏥1Year volunteer rehab hospital (Shirley Ryan)

"The hardest part of healthcare AI isn't the AI — it's the workflow. I build for the clinic the way it actually runs, not the way a deck says it does."

The Practice

Yoga · breath · slow strength

🧘
200hr RYT · Vinyasa lineage

What I teach

I teach the practice the way I needed it when I started — biomechanically honest, not mystical, but not mechanical either. Sequences that respect anatomy and leave room for the body to talk back.

Most weeks: morning Vinyasa, Tuesday-evening Yin. Slower than the studio average, more attention to breath than to shape.

📍 Denver, CO 🏷 Studio · private · retreats Book a class →

Routines

Short sequences you can do today. Linked when there's a video.

10 min

Morning Spine Wake-Up

Spine + shoulders · Beginner

Cat-cow into thread-the-needle into low cobra. Five rounds, slow.

20 min

Hip Opener Sequence

Hips + low back · All levels

Pigeon, lizard, half-frog. Hold longer than feels comfortable.

15 min

Post-Run Restore

Hamstrings + IT band · All levels

Long forward folds, supine twist, legs-up-the-wall.

30 min

Pre-Sleep Yin

Whole-body downregulation · All levels

Five poses, three minutes each. Lights out within 20 of finishing.

Notebook

Articles. Honest about what's evidence, what's experiment, what's intuition.

personalApr 2026

How I fixed my left shoulder

Six months of impingement. What finally worked: less stretching, more isolated strength.

evidence-basedMar 2026

Cold exposure: what the literature actually says

The bro-science vs the actual papers. Some of it survives.

personalFeb 2026

On feeling cells: meditation, vagal tone, and HRV

What I notice when I sit. Caveat: n=1 forever.

evidence-basedJan 2026

Why I don't trust most supplement claims

A short field guide to spotting marketing-as-science in the wellness aisle.

Not medical advice. One person's experiment, written down.

Rehab Tech

Where technology meets the body's repair systems

❤️

HRV Detector

Camera-based heart-rate-variability detection using photoplethysmography. No wearables — just your phone camera. Proof-of-concept for accessible biosignal capture.

Repo →
🏥

Shirley Ryan Ability Lab

Volunteer at the top US rehab hospital (2021–22). First-hand exposure to how technology gets adopted — or not — in real clinical workflows.

🩺

Prior Auth Agent

AI advocate that reads insurance policies and files appeals when care is denied. Building. The gap that matters most: getting care actually authorized.

🧠

HDC for cross-modal signals

Hyperdimensional computing as an efficient substrate for integrating biosignals (EEG, HRV, motion). Presented at Science of Consciousness, July 2025.

🧫

Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine

Coursework — the biology of tissue repair: stem-cell differentiation, scaffolds, and where regenerative therapy actually stands today. The science under the rehab tech.

The Rig

Ambulance conversion · documented in versions

🚑
The Patient
Type-III box on a Ford E-450 chassis · diesel
V3 · Comfort + cockpit

V1 — Bones

Fridge, electrical, solar panels, generator, bed. Could sleep + cook + run lights off-grid. The minimum to call it livable.

V2 — Kitchen

Kitchen area built out — new sink, backsplash, real counter. Solar panels mounted properly instead of strapped temporarily.

V3 — Comfort + cockpit

Maxxair fan in the ceiling, diesel heater for cold nights, new driving dashboard, interior lighting dialed throughout.

V4 — Wrap

Vinyl wrap. The cosmetic moment after three versions of guts-first work.

National Parks

11 of 63 · climbing slowly

🏜Big Bend2023
Guadalupe Mountains2023
🌾White Sands2023
🌵Saguaro2023
🌲Sequoia2023
🌳Joshua Tree2023 · 2024
🪨Yosemite2023
🌲Redwood2023
🏜Death Valley2024
Zion2025
🪨Capitol Reef2025

Next on the list: Glacier · Olympic · Crater Lake · Grand Teton · Arches.

Festivals

Where I show up loud

🔥
Burning Man
Black Rock City, NV · 2023 & 2025

Twice. There is no review.

🌲
Electric Forest
Rothbury, MI · 2023 & 2025

The forest does what it says. Stayed both years, going back.

💎
gem and jam
Tucson, AZ · 2023

Desert bass + sunrise sets. The right way to start a year.

🌑
Texas Eclipse Festival
Hill Country, TX · 2024

Totality at noon, bass under the moon. Cosmically scheduled.

🎡
Wonderland
2025

Adjust your reality settings.

🏁
Indy 500
Indianapolis, IN · 2025

Not a music fest but absolutely an event. Loud, sunburned, perfect.

Bucket List

Places I haven't been yet · roughly in priority order

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What I Pack

The kit that's earned its spot. Updated by trip.

Daily carry

  • Passport + Global Entry card
  • Apple Watch (offline maps + transit)
  • Aer Field Pouch for cables
  • Bellroy slim wallet
  • Anker 30W GaN charger

Bag

  • Tortuga Travel 40L (carry-on)
  • Bellroy Classic Backpack (day)
  • Eagle Creek packing cubes
  • Matador dry bag for laundry

Tech

  • MacBook Pro 14"
  • iPhone (primary camera)
  • AirPods Pro
  • Kindle Oasis
  • eSIM + universal adapter

Trail

  • Salomon X Ultra 4
  • Patagonia Houdini (windbreaker)
  • Smartwool merino × 3
  • Buff (sun, sweat, scarf)
  • Black Diamond headlamp

Sleep

  • Silk liner (hostels, sketchy mattresses)
  • Manta sleep mask
  • Loop earplugs
  • Melatonin for time-zone jumps

Just in case

  • Compact first-aid + electrolytes
  • Duct tape (wrapped around a pen)
  • Cash in two currencies
  • Photocopies of passport
  • Tiny notebook + Field Notes pen

Album

Photographs from the road

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Photos load from the Photos sheet. Add a row with a place_id and image URL, and it appears here.

The Numbers

Vanity metrics. Updated when I remember.

3Ventures live
2In production
1Stealth
5Agents shipped
14Avg days, idea → prod
0Paid acquisition
2yrOperator runway
Ideas per week

Decisions Log

The calls, the reasoning, what happened next.

May 2026 Open

Build Boundless Horizons before raising.

The pattern of "raise on a deck, then build" is misaligned with how I actually move. Closing the loop the other way: ship a working v1 to a small group, see what compounds, then talk to capital with leverage instead of dependence. Cost: longer to scale. Upside: nothing to renegotiate later.

Apr 2026 Worked

Renamed TourSync → TM Go.

TourSync had collision in search and was a mouthful in group SMS. TM Go is two syllables, queryable, and owns the .com tier. The migration cost was a weekend; the brand clarity has been worth it every week since.

Mar 2026 Open

Open-sourcing the LangGraph eval harness early.

Tempted to keep it private and let it be a moat. Decided the opposite: distribution beats moat when the tool itself is the demonstration of skill. Watching adoption to see if the bet is right.

Feb 2026 Worked

Render over AWS for both startups.

AWS is the right answer at scale; it is the wrong answer at 0→1. Render lets me ship a stateful FastAPI service in an afternoon without writing IAM policy fan-fiction. We'll graduate when the cost of graduating is cheaper than the cost of not.

Jan 2026 Worked

Killed TM Go's "events module" pre-launch.

Customers had asked. The feature would have shipped. But it dragged the core flow toward configurability and away from the SMS-first experience that was working. Cut it, refocused. Three customers later, no one missed it.

Dec 2025 Reversed

Tried to ship TM Go and SelfNVest in parallel sprints.

For three weeks I split focus 60/40, then 50/50, then 40/60. Both products got worse. Reversed in early Jan — TM Go takes priority, SelfNVest goes to maintenance mode. Lesson: parallel founders are rare for a reason.

As not featured in

ForbZ TechCrumb Wired AF The Wallst Generic Journal Bustled Bizzles Insider

Not yet. Working on it.

Build things people use. Ship before you tweak. Let the work do the talking. Repeat.

The Garden

Slow projects. Planted, watered, observed.

Loading the plot…

USDA zone 5b · Denver, CO · April–October growing window · click any plant for how it's grown

Seasonal Calendar

What happens when. Plan in seasons, not sprints.

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Harvest Log

What came out of the dirt this week

May 10 First basil pinch 2 oz
May 8 Sugar snap peas, second flush 1 lb
May 5 Sugar snap peas, first ones 6 oz
Apr 28 Salad mix (arugula, butter, mizuna) 8 oz
Apr 25 Radish · French Breakfast 1 bunch
Apr 18 First asparagus spears 4 stalks

Field Notes

Wildlife, weather, small wins, small losses

May 10, 2026

Hummingbird at the salvia, second time this week. The lavender is fully alive — bees in chorus from 9am on. Counted four kinds of pollinators on it before breakfast.

May 4, 2026

Robin nesting in the raspberry trellis. We'll let her be. Tied off the canes she's using and routed the path around them.

Apr 22, 2026

Late frost forecast — covered everything tender with sheets at 9pm. Lost the last of the spring lettuce anyway. Lesson: Denver doesn't release until Mother's Day.

Apr 11, 2026

Neighbor's cat ate the parsley flat to the soil. Replanted in pots on the porch. The cat-parsley feud continues.

Mar 28, 2026

Started tomatoes and padrons under lights in the basement. 18 cells. The room smells like dirt and possibility.

Journey

Not all who wander are lost — though I have re-entered the same roundabout four times. Where I've been, where I'm at, and what got made along the way.

States
Countries
Pinned
📍 —Currently

Pinned places

If you're in these cities, here's what I'd actually do.

Catalog

Straight from SoundCloud — it updates whenever I post.

Video

Sessions, performances, experiments