Sarthak Tupe

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  • What did you build at Zavio?
  • How did the 42% return come about?
  • What do you want to do next?
  • What is Laminator?
  • What are you doing right now?
  • What did you study at Birmingham?

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from the end of your sentence to the first word of the reply, in the voice agent I built at Zavio
0.3 s
faster planning replies at Zavio, cut from 17 seconds to under 1
17×
cheaper voice infrastructure at Zavio than the closest service provider
75%
of applicants, chosen to represent the University of Birmingham to prospective students
Top 2%

Personal statement

I love building technology that people use, and my background is in AI products and quantitative finance. At Zavio AI I led the AI infrastructure and the full product lifecycle of a conversational travel agent, from prioritisation through to release, and delivered a voice interface that responds in under a second in English, Hindi and Marathi interchangeably. Before that I was Portfolio Manager at Blackwater Associates, where I built and managed an equity and derivatives portfolio on a proprietary risk framework, achieving a compound annual return of 42% over two years with a Sharpe ratio above 1.5, and presented performance and strategy to investors every quarter. I hold an MSc in Mathematical Finance from the University of Birmingham, where I ranked in the top 5% of my class. My ambition is to build my career in the startup space, joining companies at an early stage and helping them grow into established businesses and leaders in their markets.

Key skills

Customer & Stakeholder Management
Customer relationship building, needs identification, issue resolution, stakeholder communication and proactive follow-up.
AI & Product Lifecycle
AI infrastructure development, product ownership, prioritisation, iteration and technical problem-solving in an early-stage AI environment.
Commercial & Analytical Thinking
KPI analysis, performance monitoring, opportunity identification, forecasting and data-driven decision-making.
Communication & Presentation Skills
Experienced in investor presentations, stakeholder discussions and translating analytical or technical information into clear outcomes.
Technical skills
Python, SQL, STATA, C/C++, Git, machine learning and financial modelling.
Software expertise
Advanced Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Macros and Bloomberg Terminal.

Work experience

Zavio AI

Co-founder, Zavio AI

February 2026 - September 2026

  • Led AI infrastructure development for an AI travel agent, taking ownership of the technical foundations supporting product development and iteration.
  • Headed the product lifecycle from prioritisation and development through release and continuous improvement, aligning technical decisions with product objectives.
  • Worked across product and technical priorities in an early-stage startup, identifying challenges, structuring requirements and driving solutions with a strong ownership mindset.
  • Built practical understanding of how AI capabilities, infrastructure choices and user-facing product decisions combine to create measurable product value.

zaviotravel.com

ALDI Stores UK

Store Assistant, ALDI Stores UK

July 2024 - March 2026, part-time

  • Delivered efficient customer service in a high-volume retail environment, responding to customer needs and resolving day-to-day issues.
  • Monitored inventory, product availability, waste and operational KPIs to identify trends and support effective stock management.
  • Shared observations on customer demand and operational inefficiencies with store leadership, supporting commercial and operational decision-making.
  • Processed high volumes of customer transactions with 100% accuracy, demonstrating numerical accuracy and attention to detail.
Blackwater Associates

Co-founder & Portfolio Manager, Blackwater Associates

February 2021 - August 2023

  • Built and managed an Equity & Derivatives portfolio using a multivariate risk analytics framework alongside machine-learning-based optimisation.
  • Achieved a CAGR return of 42% over two years and a Sharpe ratio greater than 1.5.
  • Developed a proprietary RVT risk framework integrating volatility clustering and macro factor sensitivity.
  • Used VaR techniques to stress-test positions under simulated and historical market conditions.
  • Designed and implemented custom algorithms for back-testing and real-time portfolio monitoring, improving operational efficiency by approximately 20%.
  • Prepared for and participated in quarterly investor presentations, communicating portfolio performance, risk assessments and future investment strategies.

Open source and projects

Laminator

Open source, MIT licensed, published on npm

Visual feedback for coding agents. Point at anything in your running app and hand the agent the file and line that paints it. Entirely local, zero dependencies, works on any stack. Try it with npx laminator init

GitHub npm Docs

Asian Options Pricing using Monte-Carlo simulations

  • Built a Python-based framework to price floating-strike Asian options and compute option Greeks using Monte Carlo simulations.
  • Designed object-oriented classes for modular, reusable code and simulated asset paths under Geometric Brownian Motion.
  • Calculated Monte Carlo Delta with confidence intervals using statistical methods for path-dependent derivatives.

Live demo Code

Stochastic Interest Rate Modeling for Bond Pricing and Swaptions

  • Developed an interest-rate model using Vasicek models and Monte Carlo techniques, implementing Euler-Maruyama discretisation for SDEs.
  • Used Python, NumPy, pandas, SciPy and matplotlib with a C++ backend for computation-intensive tasks.
  • Achieved a 30% reduction in simulation runtime by parallelising path generation using C++ concurrency features.

Education and more

MSc in Mathematical Finance, 2:1

University of Birmingham, September 2023 - September 2024

  • Dissertation on AI-driven approaches to investment. 83%; Distinction.
  • Ranked in the top 5% of the class.

Dissertation code

BSc (Hons.) in Economics, Gold Medalist with Distinction

Maharashtra Institute of Technology, World Peace University, June 2020 - June 2023

  • Dissertation on Implementing Deep Learning for Portfolio Optimization. Distinction.

CFA Program

Professional designation, CFA Institute, United Kingdom

CFA Level 1 passed, Level 2 candidate.

University Scholar & Ambassador

University of Birmingham, November 2023 - July 2024

Selected amongst the top 2% of applicants. Represented the University during postgraduate recruitment events and provided guidance to prospective students.

My profile at Birmingham

Volunteer, NSPCC

Volunteer experience, March 2025 - present