# Karan Shah

> Building Pillar (Neo ’23) | Design + HCII @CMU

Location: New York, New York, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/karanshah

Building and learning

www.shahkaran.me

## Work Experience
### Founding Product Engineer + Designer @ Pillar
Jan 2024 – Present | New York, NY
First full-time hire

Designing, building and redefining commodity and fx risk management for SMEs

Backed by a16Z, Crucible Cap, Neo, DST Global, Graph Ventures, CEO of Uber and more.

### Teaching Assistant for 05-361 Advanced Interaction Design @ CMU Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Jan 2024 – Jan 2024 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Teaching assistant for Advanced Interaction Design

### Product Intern @ Automat AI (formerly Lasso)
Jan 2023 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco, California, United States
- Spearheaded the optimization of inbound and outbound sales processes, resulting in a ~17% increase in lead acquisition and a ~6% increase in lead conversion rate
- Constructed a KPI-based reporting framework alongside CEO to closely track sales performance, product development, and project status
- Served as primary implementation support to a web backend software engineering project utilizing Python and FastAPI, to implement new product capabilities and debug existing software

### Product Design and Dev Intern @ AscendEX
Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 | New York, New York, United States
- Engineered a 75-page web app in collaboration with the CEO, co- founders, and UX Head to incubate and accelerate blockchain projects&
- Prototyped an educational interactive graphical modeling interface to depict the effects of liquidity management on prices and volumes" 
- Created working wireframes of the project’s website for upcoming investor pitches

### Research Assistant @ Human-Computer Interaction Institute - Carnegie Mellon University - School of Computer Science
Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
- Researched under Dr.PaulPangaro, Head of American Society for Cybernetics, to find use cases
Cybernetic Systems to aid current A.I. Systems
- Ideated on arguments on Universal Design and Inclusivity in relation to Today’s A.I. to provide strong
premises on utilizing the principles of Cybernetics in Human-Machine Interactions
- Developed a comprehensive concept map that illustrated how Cybernetic Systems can act as an
alternative to Big Data A.I.

### Co-Researcher @ Carnegie Mellon University
Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 | Remote
- Part of a team of 10 Co-researchers who strived to understand and design pathways to migration equity
- Analysed and understood the application of Blockchains in helping migrants and refugees cross borders
- Participated in user-research to develop a pathways concept
- Designed a visual narrative that summarised our key findings to portray a possible pathway in helping solve the issue regarding Migration Equity


## Education
### Bachelor of Arts - BA in Design and Human Computer Interaction
Carnegie Mellon University

### IB Diploma
Ahmedabad International School

### Creative Writing in Creative Writing
Columbia University


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/karan-shah-1410cmudesign
- Portfolio: https://www.shahkaran.me

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Source: https://flows.cv/karanshah
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/karanshah/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-03-29