hi, i'm ishan

i was born in the chicago suburbs but grew up in san diego, where i spent a lot of my childhood tinkering—building pcs, legos, roller coasters, and hosting dinners in my backyard.

in high school, i spent most of my time competing in the national public forum debate circuit, travelling with my friends, and hosting online hackathons.

i went to the university of illinois urbana-champaign to study cs and economics, and started to host small co-working sessions and hackathons to encourage people to build cool side projects.

that ended up becoming buildillinois, the community for ambitious builders, makers, and creatives at uiuc. we hosted events like hackathons, demo days, retreats, and more for over 1000 people, partnering with ycombinator, sequoia, google, prizepicks, soma capital, zfellows, etched, telora, leapyear, and more.

i believe that assembling the most exceptional people is the highest-leverage way to compound value, which is why i joined xai as a talent engineer in january.

i spend a lot of my free time traveling, learning how to dj, hanging out with friends, working out/running, making coffee at home, and having a good time!

always happy to chat, reach out on 𝕏 or ideshpande@x.ai.