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David Shan

David Shan

Co-Founder & CTO at Clado, focused on AI, infrastructure, and deep tech

North York, Ontario, Canada
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Joined March 2025
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Summary

David Shan is a visionary Co-Founder and CTO of Clado, an AI-driven people search engine backed by Y Combinator. He has led the development of sophisticated large-scale data infrastructure, search systems, and applied AI, scaling the platform to manage over 800 million profiles and 30 million companies. His technical contributions include pioneering a multi-layer retrieval stack, implementing efficient parallel data ingestion for massive datasets, and orchestrating agentic systems to enhance data scraping and evaluation. His expertise lies in blending engineering precision with entrepreneurial foresight to advance AI-driven search capabilities. davidbshan+2
Even during his high school years, David demonstrated a strong aptitude for AI and deep tech. He conducted research on agentic engineering at MIT CSAIL and contributed to impactful projects like a wildfire prediction model using semantic segmentation, which won an RBC Arnold Chan Memorial Award. His early work also includes developing telematics software during internships at Geotab, showcasing his practical software development skills from a young age. davidbshan+2
David actively engages in personal growth and entrepreneurial ventures beyond his primary role. He pursues diverse interests including long-distance running (having completed a 50k ultramarathon), competitive table tennis, and learning new skills like golf and guitar. He also acts as an angel investor in early-stage biotech and AI startups, reflecting his passion for supporting innovation and impactful technologies. davidbshan+1

Work

Education

Projects

Writing

Finding Meaning | 2023 Recap & December Update

January 1, 2024

A personal reflection on 2023, discussing his philosophy of finding purpose and meaning in life, the importance of enjoyment over motivation, and highlights from his year including running a 50k marathon, hackathons, robotics, and learning new technologies.

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Clado Infrastructure Blog Post

A technical blog post detailing the infrastructure decisions behind Clado's people search engine, covering scaling from local to global, retrieval stack evolution, cost vs. latency trade-offs, parallel data ingestion, agentic orchestration, and embedding at scale.

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Predicting Wildfires with Geospatial Data

A Medium article discussing the challenges and innovations in using geospatial data and semantic segmentation models like UNet to predict wildfires, detailing the unique approach compared to traditional methods.

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Hobbies

Enjoys reading various genres, with a focus on works like 'Man's Search For Meaning,' 'The Almanack of Naval Ravikant,' and 'Zero To One.' davidbshan+1

Actively participates in long-distance running, including a 50k ultramarathon, a 26k race, and the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. davidbshan+1

Plays table tennis as a member of Team Ontario. davidbshan

Currently learning to play golf, guitar, and sing. davidbshan

Enjoys classic movies such as 'Shawshank Redemption,' 'Good Will Hunting,' and 'Forrest Gump.' davidbshan

Engages in angel investing, supporting early-stage startups like Matrix Biotech (at-home DNA health testing) and Imagine AI (AI Clone for B2B Content). davidbshan

Notes

AHAlex Hamidisaid
DSDavid Shan
is someone they would trust to be a technical co-founder on a startup project.

Jan 8, 2026

AOAdam Omaralisaid they've seen
DSDavid Shan
make a noticeable positive impact on AI projects through their software engineering skills.

Sep 16, 2025