# Michael Ulin

> Michael Ulin is a three-time AI founder and engineer who builds machine-learning companies in heavily regulated industries. He was the founding AI engineer and VP of AI at ZestyAI, whose property-risk models help underwrite trillions in U.S. insured assets, then co-founded and served as CTO of Paxton AI, a generative-AI legal research tool used by thousands of attorneys that raised a $6M seed round in 2023. He now builds from Bend, Oregon, where his current work centers on Trarian, applying AI to patent underwriting, alongside ventures spanning AI forecasting and probabilistic reasoning. He also writes the Substack 'And Yet It Moves' on entrepreneurship and the case for building startups outside Silicon Valley.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CTO at Trarian
- **Organizations:** Trarian, Tenki AI, Paxton AI, ZestyAI, And Yet It Moves (Substack)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.A., Emory College (Class of 2011), Emory University, M.S. in Data Science, University of New Haven
- **Known for:** Three-time AI startup founder/founding-team member across insurance, legal, and patents, Founding AI engineer and VP of AI at ZestyAI, a CB Insights Top 100 AI startup whose models help underwrite trillions in U.S. insured property, Co-founded Paxton AI, which raised a $6M seed round in 2023 and serves thousands of practicing attorneys

## Career timeline

- **2011** — Graduates from Emory College (Class of 2011, '11C)
- **early career** — Works at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
- **mid career** — Strategy and analytics work at McKinsey & Company, where he meets future Paxton co-founder Tanguy Chau
- **mid career** — Market intelligence role at RPX (patent risk management)
- **2015-2023** — Founding AI engineer and VP of AI at ZestyAI, building property-insurance risk models; ZestyAI named a CB Insights Top 100 AI startup and Top 50 Insurtech
- **2023** — Co-founds Paxton AI as CTO; the legal generative-AI startup raises a $6M seed round led by WVV Capital with participation from Andrew Ng's AI Fund, Kyber Knight, 25Madison and others
- **2024-2025** — Relocates to Bend, Oregon; writes about building startups outside Silicon Valley on his Substack 'And Yet It Moves'
- **2025-2026** — Building Trarian (AI underwriting for patents) as Co-Founder & CTO, alongside ventures in AI forecasting and probabilistic reasoning (Tenki AI)

## Achievements

- Three-time AI startup founder/founding-team member across insurance, legal, and patents
- Founding AI engineer and VP of AI at ZestyAI, a CB Insights Top 100 AI startup whose models help underwrite trillions in U.S. insured property
- Co-founded Paxton AI, which raised a $6M seed round in 2023 and serves thousands of practicing attorneys
- Designed Paxton AI to avoid the hallucination problem common to legal-AI tools, providing verifiable citations for every claim
- Recognized by Emory University with an Emory Entrepreneur Award feature

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Publishing on his Substack 'And Yet It Moves' about supporting Oregon startups and startup defensibility/patent strategy in deep tech.
- **2025** — Building Trarian, applying AI to patent underwriting, as Co-Founder & CTO, based in Bend, Oregon.

## Links

- Website: https://andyetitmoves.substack.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelulin/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/michaelulin

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/michael-ulin
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-07