Suraj’s Background Double major + master’s at Penn, graduated August 2026 2 years R&D at Precision Neuroscience (Penn/Mount Sinai lab) during undergrad Decoded neural signals, worked on narrow specs and algorithms Role shifted toward statistical analysis, felt it had run its course Internship at Otsuka Pharma (compliance): built and sold an AI auto-labeling tool internally Clubs: Wharton Undergraduate Healthcare Club, bioengineering club (pitch competitions), chess club Role and Company Preferences Open to SWE or research roles; leans toward SWE as more hands-on Primary interest: healthcare/neurotech companies using AI Mentioned Nuro (AI for insurance auto-generation) as example of niche he finds compelling Familiar with Open Evidence; not familiar with Chai Discovery Ideal location: New York (family proximity, city culture) Open to relocating anywhere Culture fit: collaborative, innovative, driven people Available to start ASAP, actively recruiting now Next Steps Put Suraj into the recruiting pipeline Flag healthcare/neurotech companies first; he's open to SWE or research roles and wants to start immediately.
Hello?
Hey, can you hear me?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Awesome.
Turn that off. Hey, what's going on, man?
Not too much. How are you?
Uh, doing well, doing well.
Cool. Yeah, no, thanks for agreeing to meet today because I just wanted to— I guess I saw your profile, seemed pretty interesting with like the things you're doing with like neuroscience, CS, so.
Yeah.
I thought that was pretty interesting. Just wanted to hear about the things that you're doing and that kind of thing.
Uh, yeah, sure, dude. I mean, I, uh, I mean, yeah, from what you could tell, I like, like, neurotech, biotech. Like, I'm pretty into that. Um, just graduated recently. I Uh, in August actually, so just finished up all my summer classes. So, um, I worked at a couple of places over the summer. I worked at a pharma. I was doing a bit of like, um, It was an internship and then it kind of turned into contract work. I can go more into that later, but yeah, mainly it was just like Precision Neuroscience. Um, what they do is like they do their R&D at Penn and Yeah, I was doing a lot of R&D work. So I was doing a lot of R&D for Precision and, you know, working out some of their like narrow specs or whatever. And then, yeah, I graduated I graduated recently and I did like a double major and a master's. So I thought like when it comes to like job recruiting, I was like, yeah, I have like no time for this right now. So I'm gonna just focus on school.
Yeah. Congrats. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Where?
And then after doing all that, I was like, y'all take like a couple months of a break. So which is like now to December and recruit and then see what I want to do from there. So that started like 2 days ago. So yeah, it's Yeah, but I'm also like, I mean, I'm recruiting is one thing, but I'm also like, I don't know, I've been trying to like innovate stuff. Like, I don't know, I've been learning about creating like AI agents and stuff because I think they could be very useful for neurotech. Um, so I've been learning how to like code those specifically. I took a big AI class. I know how to code there, but in terms of like agents and learning all the specs of it, I don't really know all too much. So I've been trying to innovate there and Like learn more about it and see if I could like break into the space somehow. But yeah, I mean, that's what I'm doing.
Yeah. Oh, fire. Okay, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Are you interested in AI agents specifically for neurotech?
So far. Uh, for neuro— I mean, anything healthcare related, really. I want to learn the basics. I mean, I'm not going to limit myself. If I can find something cool, I'll do it. But yeah, I mean, neurotech is where I'd like to be in at some point eventually because, I mean, it's my big passion. So
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Awesome. Then I think, I guess I reached out at a good time because I guess I'll give a little bit about me.
Sure.
The reason why I found your profile was just because I was going through the Regeneron Scholars and I was talking to a couple other people as well.
Oh, you did SDS?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just calling.
Oh, sick, sick, sick. Yeah, yeah.
I think it's kind of interesting. Like, I feel like a lot of people, they start off as biology or like bio CS or something, and then they just turn pure CS. So I think it's glad— I'm kind of glad to hear that, like, there's quite a few people who kind of stuck around to Kind of combine the two intersections. But I guess a little bit about me, like I got into Brown PLME, which is like the Brown med school program.
Yeah. That's the med one. Yeah, peel me. Yeah.
Yeah, and then I guess like in college I was doing a lot of computer science instead of— I did the pre-med requirements as well, but I was focusing a lot more on computer science, so I did internships at like Apple Google, whatever. And then I guess like after that I was debating whether to go to medical school and I chose not to just because like I felt like my interests were more in like having skill And I was like, okay, I think I can have a really meaningful impact with computer science, but I still have like interest in healthcare. So I'm— I was really interested in combining the two.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I guess an opportunity kind of got to me or kind of reached out to me like a month ago. And essentially what I'm working on is like I'm helping recruit talent for a lot of companies. And obviously I saw your profile and I was like, oh, this is— your profile is really interesting. And we're trying to find like a lot of great talent, especially in healthcare. And I'm pretty sure you know a lot of these companies, like, I mean, not even just healthcare, like we also recruit for like Cognition, Open Evidence, like a lot of these like frontier lab companies.
Yeah. Yeah. Sure.
Yeah, just wanted to reach out and I think it's a great time for you probably just because like you said that you're recruiting and I'll definitely love to like put you through the pipeline. So
Yeah. Oh, that'd be sick. First of all, thank you for reaching out. I mean, I didn't know how, like, because I'm not really big on like a LinkedIn, I'm not really much of a LinkedIn guy all too much. So I mean, again, this kind of opportunity here is actually pretty sick. So yeah, could you tell me a little bit more about like some of the companies in your pipeline, things like that, some of the stuff you've been doing? That'd be great.
Me neither. Yeah. Yeah, I guess like the, our thesis, the thesis of the company is that like recruiters don't really know what talent looks like. Like it's like when you Talk to like medical school applicants. The people that get in are people that go through the pipeline through like medical school application or med school, like a board of med school people, like only People who are in a domain understand other people in that domain. Engineers understand engineers, and recruiters who come from like ASU or something, they don't understand like what it actually looks like to To be great, and I guess that's why they wanted me to help recruit for people like you because like I actually know that like you know what healthcare and AI and what talent looks like in this. So that's the kind of things that we're doing. And I guess like to answer your question about the companies that we're working with, we're still kind of portfolioizing, but like we already have a couple.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Like I mentioned, like Cognition, Open Evidence, TriDiscovery. Let me think of other healthcare. There's this drug discovery one called Genesis, which is like Series D, if you're familiar with that one. So yeah, we have quite a few healthcare companies and we also have other domains as well. I'm pretty sure you're more like, you probably want to join a healthcare company based on what you said. But if you're interested, there's also like gaming companies that we're working with. We're trying to also talk to some like robotics companies as well. So.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that sounds pretty cool. Yeah, dude.
Yeah, I guess like from your side, like is there a specific type of role that you're looking for? Because like I feel like R&D is like a more like researcher type role, I'm assuming.
Yeah. Um, R&D is definitely more research. I enjoyed it, but I think like in terms of role, I'd probably want something more hands-on. But obviously, like, you know, in my stage, like, I'm open to anything. I kind of I kind of just want to like break into somewhere in terms of a company, see what I can do to help, and then move forward from there. So I'm pretty much open to anything, I would say.
Okay. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Okay. And like, would it be better if it's like a neurotech company or are you open to like other ones?
It'd be ideal, but I'm, I'm definitely open to other ones. Like, I'm not gonna say no to an opportunity that comes my way, right? So, but yeah, like, that's the dream at some point maybe, but for But for now, I think it's like I'd take pretty much like anything so far that would fit me well.
For sure. Yeah. Yeah. What are like companies that like you're like specifically looking at?
Um, yeah, I was looking at a couple of different healthcare companies, like ones especially that are like using AI. Like, I know there's a company called New York. They're using a lot of AI for like insurance auto generation. Like, it's like niche stuff. Like, they're— it's a good application of AI and it makes like a couple hundred million dollars. So it's like kind of companies like that. I've been looking at that are super niche. But yeah, I mean, any healthcare company really is what works. I mean, that's where I want to work. That's my passion. So that's kind of like I have to work at a healthcare company or something with health tech. So yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Is there a reason why you want to work specifically in health tech?
I mean, it's just like, one, when I worked at Precision, I learned a lot about the space, like some of the innovations they've been doing and like a lot of the algorithms that they use and like to decrease Decode neural signals, for instance. So I'm very familiar with it, and I think there's a couple of ideas that I have where I could potentially be very creative.
Mm-hmm.
If I'm working for a company, my goal anyway is like if I join, I want to stand out somewhere, right? So I think that given that experience, this gives me the best opportunity to stand out. Now again, if it's not So if it's not a neurotech company I'm working at, that's fine. I mean, I'll probably like, I'm going to try to innovate as much as possible. I think that's like my number one like characteristic is I like to innovate and think of new ideas. So I'm sure anywhere I go, I could Definitely do that. But I'm just like out of like what I've done in my experiences, I think like working at Precision made me very inclined to join a neurotech company or that seems like very attractive to me in a sense.
Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Okay.
Yeah.
And is there a reason why you don't want to go back to precision?
Yeah, I mean, so the lab that I joined was I joined as an undergrad and then I finished my master's and stuff and I was working with them completely and I thought it was a good experience joining Precision. But it's kind of like, I think that it's pretty much run its course in terms of the work that I've been doing. A lot of it is like shifted to, oh, like, can you run like these clinical data reports and run like a statistical analysis? And then I did a lot of statistical analysis on it. Like, okay, like anyone can do that. Like, I don't need to be able to do that. So it's like kind of run its course. Like all the innovation and stuff was cool. I did a good project on it, but for now, like I think like they're A period of transition where they're just like working on like smaller things, and I thought like this is a good time to like find myself to do something new.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Correct. For sure. Interesting.
Yeah.
Okay, have you heard of companies like OpenEvidence or ChaiDiscovery?
Yeah, I mean, I'm— I don't know about the second one, but Open Evidence I'm definitely very familiar with, so.
Okay. Okay.
Yeah.
I guess like ChaiDiscovery is like drug design similar to Genesis, but I think Genesis focuses on like small molecules.
Yeah.
Okay.
Interesting. Okay.
Yeah. Okay. Interesting. So are you like interested in like working like New York or is anywhere like fine?
Uh, anywhere's fine, obviously. I mean, I grew up in New Jersey, so like, to be— yeah, I mean, like, to me, like, New York's the greatest city in the world, so, you know, it's ideal to work there. But yeah, I'm young, man, so I'm open to work anywhere, travel to new places. So I mean, I don't really have a preference, but if I were to work in New York, that'd be like a dream come true.
Oh, it's a different color. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, interesting.
Yeah.
I'm just trying to understand like what you like because like I think my goal is to like basically understand what your ideal role and your ideal like work environment, your ideal culture fit is. So If there's like anything, you know, you have in mind, you can just like definitely let me know. Like nothing can be used against you. It can only like help me like understand.
Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. I mean, obviously, like, look, I'm a very open person. I'm always open to anything, new opportunities. I mean, I will say that New York would satisfy everything that I want, which is to be closer to where My parents who are also getting a little older, so I'd want to be somewhat closer to them. But yeah, I mean, New York satisfies all of that in terms of work culture and environment. Just something Yeah, I mean, I think it's just something collaborative, you know, like, I mean, I don't really care what the opportunity is. I think I've developed a skill set where I could adapt to whatever it is. So, um, but something that's like collaborative that allows me to innovate, it's just like driven people. Yeah, I mean, I love New York. I love the city. I love the people, driven, smart people. That, that's the ideal place I'd want to work at.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, interesting. Interesting. So I guess like before, well, you said you worked in R&D, was that at Precision?
Yeah, R&D was that precision.
Oh, okay, okay. And what did you do before that?
Um, before that, I mean, it was during my undergrad pretty much. It was for 2 years. So the summer before that, yeah, yeah, the summer before that, I mean, I was kind of like you. I was a pre-med. So I just, I was taking like classes online, like over the summer, like chem and whatever, like orgo. But yeah, I finished all my recs and then decided I didn't want to be a pre-med. But, and then, um, that was it. I was for 2 years and then I took a break last summer to do a different internship at Otsuka. It's a kind of a mid-sized pharma.
Oh dang, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so similar to me. Okay. Okay.
I think they recently got acquired by AstraZeneca maybe or something like that. I think I read, but yeah, mid-sized pharma startup. It was like a compliance internship. So I was in charge of like Labeling or whatever, or like looking at like FDA labels. But I got bored and then I just made this like AI thing that like an AI tool that automatically labels stuff for you. And then I sold it to them. Yeah, for like a— yeah, yeah, very similar actually. I get that a lot. Yeah, it's very similar. So I tried doing that and it— they'd use it as like a tool to help assist them, but obviously you can't label automatically. It's like too dangerous to do that when it comes to the FDA. So they use it as a tool to help them start. So yeah, I sold it to them for like a very small amount of money, but I thought like overall, like cool experience. It was fun. So yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So it's like Scale AI kind of. Got it. I see. I see. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Interesting. Okay, okay. Wait, were you always like CS and Neura, or was that something that like you kind of developed when you were in your undergrad?
Nope, I was just neuro. And after like my freshman year, I added BE like to whatever I was studying. And then I realized like, like this is the space I want to be in because that's when I do And so then after that, I ordered them. I added like my math major on just because I think it's useful to know some of that stuff because a lot of those math principles come up and I didn't think I really needed a CS major. I just took some of the important classes like data structures and, you know, like an AI class. Just let me know the basics. I already knew CS from like high school whenever I took CSA, but then I just learned like I already knew Java. I already knew a bunch of Python. Python because I was already doing it at Precision. So I've just been adding a little bit, a little bit here and there. And all my friends are tech friends, so anytime I had questions, I would just ask them and they'd like teach me stuff. So I have like a pretty composite idea of what's going on there.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So you spent like 2 years in your undergrad working for Precision, like on this side?
Yeah, because they do their, they do their R&D at Penn and Mount Sinai. So I was right there. I went to Penn, so I was just like, I can do this like while I'm at Penn. So I just did it the entire time I was there. Yeah.
Oh, got you. Yeah. Yeah, interesting. Okay. All right. Were you in any, any like clubs at Penn?
Yeah, I did. Warden Undergraduate Healthcare Club, it's like you, they organize like a bunch of biotech and healthcare companies every year for a conference, like a bunch of their CEOs, and they just like talk about like new events and stuff. I think the main one I was in was my bioengineering club.
Yeah. Yeah.
Getting people together, trying to like get them to innovate on different things, having them run pitch competitions as well. So yeah, it was just a bunch of stuff that I was pretty passionate about. And then chess club, because I play a bunch I was in my bioengineering club, which is like a bunch of tests like every day. So that was like the third club I was pretty heavily involved in. But yeah.
Okay. Stay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Go. So you were doing a bunch of clubs and a bunch of activities on top of like working at Precision? That's awesome.
Yeah, I averaged like 4 hours of sleep a day, so yeah.
That's insane.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like exhausted. That's— this is why I'm taking a 3-month break to recruit. Like, I am like tired as hell. So yeah.
Yeah. Damn. Okay, okay, that makes sense. Interesting. Also, in terms of like roles, like you said you're open to a lot, but like what specific roles are you like open to?
Um, do you have examples of stuff that I could like choose from maybe in terms of roles? Because I don't know about like specific titles or anything, right? So
Yeah, like for example, like I would say R&D is probably closer to like a research or like member of technical staff.
Sure.
And then if you're also interested in software engineering, there's also that option as well.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think software engineering is a big one just because like I know how to code now, and I'm— even though I'm not a pure CS major, like I know most of the stuff. So yeah, I think a suite could be cool. Um, yeah, honestly, like, I don't know what to— I mean, I'm good with SWE or research roles. I think they're both fine. I think the SWE is probably more hands-on because I get to— because that's more like, oh, you code AI, you get to build like Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I'm definitely open to a SWE position for sure.
Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I'll definitely note that. I guess because I feel like the roles, the role titles themselves don't really matter. I guess in my experience, there's software engineers that do more ML stuff and there's software engineers that work on infra. And then like the front end and like so many different parts of the stack that like at this point, like you're just an engineer. So I guess it doesn't really matter.
Yeah, that's what— that's why when you ask me like a specific role, I'm like, I don't know exactly know what to say, right? Because it's like you're just doing kind of your own thing that you're strong at is what it is. It comes down to
Yeah. Yeah. I guess like I was wondering if you had an answer. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Interesting. And when did you like want to start?
Ideally as soon as possible. I mean, like, I got the whole break thing, but I don't know, I've been getting like— I went to like— I've been— I vacationed with my friends for a bit too, and after like I came back I've been like a bit restless with like nothing to do, so yeah.
Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. I know what you mean. Yeah. It's like when you have work, you're like, shit, I want to rest. And then when you're like resting, you're like, shit, I want to work. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I, I read like my— I ended like school like August 10th. My friends and I were like, let's go to Japan for like a week. So we went to like Tokyo, Osaka, whatever. I came I came back like earlier this week. I'm still jet lagged. I came back a bit earlier this week and I've just been sitting at home recruiting. And I'm also like, damn, I really wish I had something to do while I was doing this because like my precision work is done now. I was just like, yeah, like I'm down to start anything as soon as possible. Like I'm like really serious. Yeah.
That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay, awesome. I might have to head out soon, but I think I'll definitely reach out to you about like the next steps because like I'll definitely let like the people know about like what you want and what you're interested in, but
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, man. First, that would be super helpful. So yeah.
Yeah, no, I'm glad I could be of help. Like, I honestly, it's like so good that you mentioned that because like I kind of just wanted to hear about what you wanted and like your story. But I guess like since you're recruiting, I was like, you might as well like put you through the process. So
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'd be happy to join the process. I mean, like, I've been looking for jobs and everything, stuff that's interesting. So if you could be like a direct pipeline towards it, that'd be super helpful.
I'll totally help you out. Yeah, definitely support you.
Yeah. Yeah, man. Thanks a lot. That's like, I'm super grateful for it.
Yeah, of course, of course. And you can just text me anytime if you need anything. So.
Yeah, you gave me your number, right? I just saw that on LinkedIn. Yeah.
Yeah. Cool.
Yeah, I'll definitely be in touch.
Awesome. Yeah, that sounds good. I have to head out, but it was really nice meeting you.
All right. All right. Thanks a ton, man. See ya.
All right, peace. See you.