CTO & AI researcher · 2026 arXiv papers / ICML workshop spotlight · YC S26
San Francisco, United States
Work formatOfficeHybridRemoteEverything above is an outside read of where you've been. This is the one block you write yourself — the direction you're steering toward.
Strong fit for early‑stage CTO or applied‑AI leadership given current YC‑backed Experiential Labs role and shipping an OSS model gateway. Research‑leaning roles are also plausible with 2026 arXiv outputs (including an ICML workshop spotlight) and prior AutoGPT maintainer pedigree.
Career trajectory
Read purely by the companies on record — the same shortcut a recruiter takes.
founding engineer
UNCONFIRMED
open‑source maintainer
founder
research contributor (part‑time)
UNCONFIRMED
founder / CTO
Arc moves from early IC roles into open‑source maintainer and then repeated founder roles, culminating in a YC‑backed CTO position.
↗ Ascending⚠DOE/Genesis step is self‑reported with no independent staff listing — confirm scope to lock the slope.
Building Experiential Labs’ open‑source model gateway and shipping CLaaS/Mech‑Interp research this S26 batch.
I’m useful where applied AI meets infrastructure: shipping LLM gateways that route across providers, and building evaluation harnesses so agents actually improve. I also work on continual‑learning loops that adapt models from real traffic without breaking reliability.
I can help founders and teams stand up pragmatic agent systems, from routing and observability to safe rollout and measurement — the pieces that turn demos into products.
›Stand up an LLM gateway that routes across providers
›Set up an agent eval harness with fidelity scoring
›Design a CLaaS loop to learn safely from production traffic
Currently Co‑founder/CTO of Experiential Labs, a YC S26 company building an open‑source model gateway and a research program around world models and continual learning. In 2026 he co‑authored two arXiv works — CLaaS (continual learning) and a mechanistic‑interpretability paper that lists an ICML 2026 MechInterp Workshop Spotlight — marking a growing research footprint. He earlier co‑authored “Testing Language Model Agents Safely in the Wild” (Nov 2023), listed on the NeurIPS virtual site alongside well‑known authors. He was featured by VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour as a “founding engineer of AutoGPT” and appears on AI Engineer Talks, reflecting an open‑source/agent‑systems pedigree. Prior initiatives include co‑founding Stackwise, plus Endflow and RecruitRamp; a Caplight listing pegs Experiential Labs’ total funding at $500k as of July 2026 (third‑party). Some items — e.g., a short DOE/Genesis stint and Stackwise’s YC note — remain self‑reported or lightly corroborated and warrant verification.
An outside read of the profile based on available evidence — what's strong, the one thing to tighten, and what else surfaced.
This reads like an early‑career AI founder‑researcher with a real open‑source footprint who is now anchoring his work in a YC S26 venture. The strongest signals are the YC directory listing for Experiential Labs, public OSS projects, and a 2026 research burst including an ICML workshop spotlight. Some items are nascent or self‑reported (DOE/Genesis, Stackwise’s YC note), and corporate filings are thin at this stage — typical for Delaware and very early companies.
Founding Experiential Labs (YC S26) while shipping an OSS model gateway and releasing 2026 arXiv work — including a workshop spotlight — reads as high‑momentum.
YC directory entry
YC S26 page confirms Experiential Labs and its ‘open source OpenRouter’ tagline.
OSS artifacts
Experiential’s ‘experiential’ repo and AutoGPT maintainer history are public.
Research outputs
Two 2026 arXiv papers, one noting an ICML MechInterp Spotlight.
DOE/Genesis role and Stackwise’s YC W24 claim don’t show independent confirmations yet.
Canada/Markham tie via siblings Sister’s rosters point to Markham, Ontario — a personal geography layer beyond SF.
Unified handles across platforms Personal site, X, GitHub, HN and OpenReview line up cleanly.
Funding datapoint via Caplight Caplight shows $500k total raised for Experiential Labs (aggregator).
Web sources + resume claims · 1 role needs confirmation
Experiential Labs — Co‑Founder / CTO
Vouched2026-06 — Present
Leads development of an open‑source model gateway and research in world models and continual learning; repos include ‘experiential’ and related tooling.
U.S. Department of Energy — Genesis Mission — Member of Technical Staff (part‑time)
Vouched2025-11 — 2026-02
Self‑reported part‑time contribution during the DOE Genesis Mission program; no staff‑list corroboration located.
Stackwise — Co‑Founder
Verified · 3 sources2023-11 — 2025-10
Co‑founded a collection of AI apps; maintained the open‑source Stackwise repo and public site.
AutoGPT (Significant‑Gravitas) — Founding AI Engineer / Core Maintainer
Verified · 4 sources2023-05 — 2023-11
Core maintainer on the AutoGPT agent framework; public speaker on AutoGPT; co‑authored NeurIPS‑listed agent‑safety work.
Model gateway providing a single control plane across providers and custom models.
Harness and fidelity scoring for agent behaviors and judges to support world‑model research.
Method to adapt models online from production traffic with sample‑efficient continual learning.
Mechanistic‑interpretability work proposing cosine‑scored sparse autoencoders; noted ICML 2026 MechInterp Spotlight.
Contributed to early agent framework development and platform benchmarks; spoke about AutoGPT at events.
Founder of a startup project; limited public detail beyond site and launch post.
Built a product with a live site and booking page; no separate team listing found.
Every file is checked before it goes live, then summarised in one plain line so AI can quote what you actually made — and each work links to the job or project it belongs to.
MM
Checked · safe & cleared
Miles-morales-phone-red-spider-verse-spiderverse-spiderverso.jpeg
Amazing-miles-morales_2560x1080.jpg2 graphic design images featuring Miles Morales in a stylized Spider-Verse theme. The artwork showcases dynamic compositions highlighting the character's iconic look and urban environment.
Featured speaker at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour as “founding engineer of AutoGPT.”
Speaker profile and talk with AI Engineer Talks, including a session titled “The Future of Work.”
NeurIPS 2023 virtual site lists the paper “Testing Language Model Agents Safely in the Wild,” co‑authored by Naihin.
ICML 2026 Mechanistic Interpretability Workshop — arXiv journal reference notes the paper received a Spotlight.
Generative AI Belgium announced him as a remote speaker on AutoGPT/Stackwise.
Chinese‑language feature video frames him in the AutoGPT context (R&D lead framing).
Each read carries a compliment and a tension, with its proof right beside it. It gets sharper as you go.
Y Combinator
Founder (S26) · 2026–2026
Participated with Experiential Labs (S26).
On Deck
Fellow · 2021–2022
Per LinkedIn.
Minerva University
Computer Science (not completed)
Self‑reported on personal site.
GOVERNMENT FILINGS (3)
PRESS & INTERVIEWS (16)
CORPORATE & PRODUCT (10)
SOCIAL & DIRECTORIES (7)
Silen Naihin works as Co‑Founder / CTO at Experiential Labs, based in San Francisco, United States.
Silen Naihin is a CTO and AI researcher known for Experiential Labs (YC S26) and AutoGPT.
Building Experiential Labs’ open‑source model gateway and shipping CLaaS/Mech‑Interp research this S26 batch.
Silen Naihin has worked at 5 companies on record:
Projects and ventures Silen Naihin is behind:
Skills listed on Silen Naihin's profile: CTO & AI researcher. I’m useful where applied AI meets infrastructure: shipping LLM gateways that route across providers, and building evaluation harnesses so agents actually improve. Can teach: Stand up an LLM gateway that routes across providers; Set up an agent eval harness with fidelity scoring; Design a CLaaS loop to learn safely from production traffic.
Silen Naihin is open to research collaborations, OSS contributions, early pilot users and talks & panels.
Silen Naihin's education:
Public mentions of Silen Naihin:
Silen Naihin's public sites and channels:
This profile is assembled from 36 public sources, last aggregated 2026-09-04. Every fact carries a label: Verified (backed by two or more independent sources), Vouched (confirmed by a person who worked with them) or Self-reported. 10 facts are confirmed by cited sources, and 2 colleague confirmations are on record. It is a public-source professional profile, not a background check.
Controlled by Silen Naihin
A registered account is linked to this profile — a living profile a real person maintains, not a passive scrape.
