Afshin Nikzad

Questioner
DISC Type : c

Cofounder and CTO at Across AI

San Francisco, California, United States

Overview

Afshin Nikzad is the Co-founder and CTO of Across AI, a company developing AI agents for enterprise workflows. He is also an Associate Professor of Economics at USC (currently on leave), holding dual PhDs from Stanford University in Economics and Operations Research. His expertise lies at the intersection of AI, algorithms, and market design.

His academic research focuses on market and mechanism design, matching markets, and algorithm design, with numerous publications in prestigious economic journals. He has applied this expertise to real-world problems, including school choice mechanisms for the San Francisco Unified School District and analyzing global kidney exchange programs.

Afshin is a competitive programming gold medalist, showcasing his deep-rooted expertise in advanced algorithms.

Personality Overview

Cautious & Analytical

Price-Sensitive

Not Easily Convinced

While they don't hesitate to ask questions, they are generally risk-averse and tend to be late adopters.  They generally do not appreciate an overfriendly approach and prefer to stay to-the-point. They prefer to analyze every situation thoroughly.


Topics They Care About

Enterprise AI Agents
As Co-founder and CTO of Across AI, he is building AI agents that reason over specialized memory to transform enterprise workflows, starting with B2B sales.
Market Design
His primary academic research field at USC and Stanford, focusing on mechanism design and matching markets like school choice systems and kidney exchanges.
Hiring Engineers
He has posted multiple times about hiring full-stack and engineering interns to help shape the product and company at Across AI.

Media Appearances

Afshin has no verified media appearances

Work History

8-2024
Cofounder and CTO at Across AI
7-2019
Associate Professor (on leave) at University of Southern California
8-2023 - 12-2023
Visiting Researcher at MSRI / Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath)
9-2022 - 12-2022
Visiting Scholar at Becker Friedman Institute for Economics
8-2019 - 12-2019
Visiting Scientist at Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing

Education

9-2012 - 7-2018
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD from Stanford University
9-2013 - 4-2018
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD from Stanford University

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 2 Location : San Francisco, California, United States Job Level : Leadership Designation : Cofounder and CTO at Across AI
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Insights For Selling To Afshin

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Keep some extra margin in hand as they will likely negotiate the pricing
  • Share as much information as possible regarding your product
  • If you have a lower priced product compared to the competition, call out the same

DONT's

  • Don’t overhype the product/pitch, keep it measured
  • Don’t try to be too friendly or informal with them
  • Avoid phrases like ‘do not worry about’, ‘no one compares to’ etc.

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with Afshin is

  • Confidence that the product provides ROI, effective pricing and process adherence matter the most to them.

  • Will you ever get a clear answer from Afshin

  • It doesn’t come naturally to them but they can say no if they are not convinced.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will Afshin move?

  • They can move at a reasonable pace while making their decisions if they have the necessary information.

  • Can Afshin take some risk or not?

  • They can take risk if they are convinced that they have analyzed the circumstances well.


You And Afshin

Personality Compatibility


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