# Rayan Krishnan

> Rayan Krishnan is the San Francisco-based co-founder and CEO of Vals AI, which builds independent evaluations of AI systems on professional tasks. He studied computer science at Stanford with minors in mathematics and philosophy, collaborated with future co-founder Langston Nashold on CPU forecasting research in 2020, and previously worked at Microsoft, Palantir and the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. As a high-school student, he helped build Schools Under 2C and the climate education game Operation Sustain.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Vals AI
- **Organizations:** Vals AI, Stanford University, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Palantir Technologies, Microsoft, Schools Under 2C, Operation Sustain, Stanford Rewired, EarthEcho International
- **Education:** Computer science; minors in mathematics and philosophy, Stanford University, Tesla STEM High School
- **Known for:** Co-founded Vals AI with Langston Nashold., Operation Sustain team received a President’s Environmental Youth Award, presented in 2018., Selected for the 2018 T-Mobile/Ashoka Changemaker Challenge.

## Career timeline

- **2017** — Technology director of Schools Under 2C; developed a transportation app to incentivize lower-emission school commutes.
- **2018** — Operation Sustain received environmental recognition; Krishnan presented the project with Anne Lee at Washington’s STEM education event.
- **2019** — Spoke at TEDxYouth@Seattle in October while a Stanford freshman.
- **2020** — Co-authored CPU forecasting research with Langston Nashold.
- **2024** — Vals AI’s independent evaluation business was featured by Bloomberg in April.
- **2025** — Co-authored Finance Agent Benchmark and wrote about the development of Vibe Code Bench.
- **2026** — Co-authored Vibe Code Bench, FormalProofBench and Legal Research Bench; announced Vals AI’s $40 million Series A in August.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Vals AI with Langston Nashold.
- Operation Sustain team received a President’s Environmental Youth Award, presented in 2018.
- Selected for the 2018 T-Mobile/Ashoka Changemaker Challenge.
- Delivered a TEDxYouth@Seattle talk in October 2019.
- Co-author of research on finance agents, end-to-end web application development, mathematical proof verification and legal research.
- Announced a $40 million Vals AI Series A at a $400 million valuation on August 13, 2026, led by a16z.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — Vals published an October 7 recap of its September 23 Public Sector Summit, including Krishnan’s panel with congressional staffers.
- **2026-09** — Co-authored Legal Research Bench, submitted September 30, with 413 expert-written U.S. legal research questions.
- **2026-09** — Appeared on the September 9 a16z podcast with Ben Horowitz, Jennifer Li and Erik Torenberg to discuss independent evaluation.
- **2026-08** — Announced Vals AI’s $40 million Series A at a $400 million valuation and the general availability of Vals Smith.

## Links

- Website: https://www.vals.ai/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayankrishnan
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/RayanKrishnan
- GitHub: https://github.com/rayankrish

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/rayan-krishnan
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-22