Why I Joined Scale

When my co-founder and I started Plaid in 2012, the financial system was on the precipice of a fundamental restructuring. At Plaid, we provided infrastructure to enable developers to build novel financial applications that we never thought possible just years before. Whether it was in payments, underwriting, investing or whatever a developer could build, we enabled tens of thousands of developers to catalyze an industry that now empowers hundreds of millions of consumers and SMBs to take control of their financial lives.

As I watched Scale grow, it became clear that Scale in many ways was in a similar position to Plaid—it had become the underlying infrastructure player to an industry at an inflection point.

AI/ML has the fundamental ability to restructure the way that systems and businesses are built. Yet because of the vast amounts of unstructured data required, practical implementations of AI have been frustratingly limited. Scale stands alone in their focus and ability to change that. Alex and the team at Scale understand that model development alone is just one part of the complex AI supply chain. By enabling others to leverage the most advanced data annotation system and model supply chain, they’ve rewritten the narrative and enabled any company and industry to rethink how their systems are built and operated. Whether it's powering Toyota to build the future of automotive, helping Flexport improve our supply chains, or enabling the Department of Defense to better protect its citizens, Scale has the ability to dramatically amplify the real world impact of AI and ML.

As one of their credos says, ambition shapes reality. There is no team or company that is better positioned to enable AI to shape the world around us than Scale. I could not be more excited to join Alex and the rest of the board to help build out and accelerate an already incredible team.