Rishit Lakhani. Twice a startup's first solutions hire, now Head of Solutions Engineering at REAP. I write and speak on AI, infrastructure, and the people building both.
Functions built from scratch, teams across three countries, and quota carried every year.
The pattern has been the same across my roles. I join before the process exists and build it. The discovery motion, the qualification rubric, the proof of concept, the playbooks the field runs on, and the team that carries it after me.
I did this at Nile as the first solutions engineer in stealth, building the function to a team of six across three countries and working with enterprise teams including Stanford, Tesla, Carta, and Sigma Computing. I am doing it again at REAP, an agentic network operations company, as the first customer facing hire, from discovery through to the feedback loop back into product.
What connects the roles is the same work. Making hard technical systems clear to the people who have to decide on them, and caring about how the work gets done, from decision rights and readiness gates to the reasoning quality of an AI system.
The roles change. The work stays the same. Build the function, grow the team, earn the technical decision.
I would rather build a function that outlasts me than be the person every deal depends on.
I take on a small number of advisory conversations. These are the areas I know best.
The discovery motion, qualification rubrics, proof of concept design, hiring and ramp, and the first playbooks. What to build first when there is no process yet.
Where agentic systems actually reduce MTTR, how to set evaluation criteria for model reasoning, and how to tell a real capability from a demo.
Reference architectures, readiness gates, governance, and partner enablement. Rollouts that land on time and survive contact with production.
I write about the future of network engineering for Forbes, Network Computing, and others, and I speak at industry events including Tech Field Day.
SAUNDERS COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
EARLY STAGE INVESTING
Whether it is scaling a solutions team, sharpening a commercial motion, or pressure testing where AI actually helps in network operations, I am glad to trade notes.