Founder · AI Builder · Product Manager

Darya
Terani

I build consumer AI products people talk about. Currently shipping Scholr — an LLM-powered academic copilot — from zero to traction with no team, no funding, and no playbook.

200+
Signups in <1 week
25+
Universities reached
<3
Weeks to prototype
0
Paid marketing
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01 / About

Builder first.
Everything else second.

I'm a UC Davis double major (Economics & Statistical Data Science) and the founder of Scholr — an AI academic copilot I built from scratch using the Claude API while juggling 28 units a quarter.

I use AI as a genuine building tool, not a resume line. I've pushed the Claude API, Claude Code, and GPT-4 to their limits shipping real products for real users.

Before tech, I scaled a private chef business across five countries, logged 20,000+ hours across 500+ venues on Instawork, and self-funded my entire college education through independent work. I operate without a playbook.

Claude API LLM Products 0-to-1 Product Strategy Python / R French Fluent 5 Countries UC Davis
Current Focus
Founder & CEO, Scholr™
AI Academic Copilot · 2025–Present
Education
B.S. Econ & Statistical Data Science
UC Davis · Minor: Technology Management
Certification
NVIDIA — AI Agents with Multimodal Models
TieCon 2026 · Signed by NVIDIA VP
Location
Bay Area, CA
Open to relocation · Eligible to work full-time in US
02 / Projects
002
T-Bill Ladder Tool

A Treasury bill ladder investment calculator built with Aggie AI for college students. Shipped from conception to live product in weeks. Presented at showcase to 500+ students via live QR code demo.

500+
Live users
6
Team members led
AI Product Management Fintech
003
ML Research

Active research at UC Davis Department of Statistics — benchmarking multiple competing ML modeling approaches on datasets exceeding hundreds of millions of rows for multiscale feature selection and structural dependency modeling.

100M+
Rows processed
Python R scikit-learn ML
03 / Experience
2025 – Present
Founder & CEO
Scholr™ — AI Academic Copilot
Built a consumer AI product from zero — identified the problem, defined the vision, built the prototype, filed the trademark, and shipped to real users across 25+ universities. No team, no funding, no playbook.
Sep 2025 – Present
Project Manager
Aggie AI — UC Davis AI Student Collective
Led a cross-functional team of 6 (2 engineers, 2 data scientists, 2 designers) to ship 4 product iterations. Onboarded students with zero coding experience and scaled them to building live financial tools used by 500+ people.
Nov 2025 – Present
Undergraduate Research Assistant
UC Davis — Department of Statistics
Applied and benchmarked multiple ML methods on datasets exceeding hundreds of millions of rows for active research on multiscale feature selection and structural dependency modeling.
Feb 2020 – Present
Founder — Private Chef Practice
Self-Employed — US, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg
Scaled a freelance business to multi-six-figure revenue across five countries with zero external funding. Near-100% client retention. Self-funded college tuition entirely through independent revenue.
Aug 2021 – May 2023
Pastry Chef
Bungalow Kitchen — Tiburon, CA
Contributed to a 25% increase in customer satisfaction scores and $250K in quarterly revenue uplift through iterative menu improvements. Recruited directly from contract work based on standout performance.
2019 – Present
On-Demand Professional
Instawork — US
20,000+ hours across 500+ venues over 6+ years. Sustained 16-hour double shifts 7 days a week through the pandemic. The definition of operating without a playbook and delivering under pressure.
04 / Skills
AI & Machine Learning
Claude API & Claude Code
GPT-4 / LLM Integration
NVIDIA AI Agents
Prompt Engineering
scikit-learn
Statistical Modeling
Product & Strategy
0-to-1 Product Development
Roadmapping & Prioritization
User Research & Interviews
Go-to-Market Strategy
Sprint Planning
A/B Testing
Technical
Python & R
SQL
HTML / CSS / JavaScript
Canvas & Calendar APIs
Cursor & Perplexity
Data Analysis
05 / Contact

Let's build
something.

Open to full-time roles in product, AI, and founding-team environments.
Bay Area based — willing to relocate.