Harini Janakiraman
Co-founder & CEO at BuildShip
Harini Janakiraman is co-founder and chief executive of BuildShip, a visual backend and AI workflow builder that lets developers and non-developers alike build products in plain English. Before founding BuildShip, she spent nine years at BlackRock, rising to VP of Engineering and building large-scale data infrastructure for Aladdin, the platform that manages more than 9 trillion US dollars in assets. She holds a master's degree in computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. On In The Blink Of AI, Janakiraman and BuildShip co-founder Shams discussed how the tool is building the future of developer tools.
In their own words
From How BuildShip Is Building the Future of Dev Tools (With Harini & Shams) · In The Blink Of AIWhat's more important is actually solving real problems for real people and businesses. That's what people should focus on.
Key moments
Jump straight to the part of How BuildShip Is Building the Future of Dev Tools (With Harini & Shams) you want.
- 2:43 What makes a great startup partnership work
- 5:23 Harini’s AI hack: voice-activated workflows for home and transport
- 7:21 Shams’ AI hack: pitch deck evaluator and vibe coding with Claude + Cursor
- 9:40 Comparing LLMs: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity
- 14:11 Tech hits misses: Midjourney, Replit, Cursor, Copilot
- 21:44 Where to prioritise capital pre-product-market-fit
- 24:49 Is moving to San Francisco worth it for AI startups?
- 27:43 Remote hiring lessons: trial projects, red flags, and finding fit
- 29:54 Why brand is BuildShip’s moat (and how merch plays a role)
- 36:11 How to earn BuildShip merch: hackathons and shipping tools
Connections
Spot something wrong? Suggest a correction Updated 25 September 2026
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