Ayman Elhalwagy
Builder of systems, companies, and models of reality.
I work on hard problems where the world is messy, incentives are misaligned, and most existing tools fail. My focus is understanding complex systems deeply enough to change how people make decisions inside them.
RootCause
Causal AI infrastructure for enterprises. We discover the mathematical structure of how your business actually works, so you can simulate interventions and make decisions you can explain.
Role: Co-Founder & CEO
rootcause.ai →Core Obsessions
These are the problems I keep returning to. Each represents a gap between how things actually work and how people claim they work.
Why most intelligence systems fail in practice
Pattern recognition without causal understanding breaks under distribution shift.
How incentives shape behaviour more than technology
Systems fail organisationally before they fail technically.
Why correlation is not understanding
Prediction without explanation is dangerous at scale.
Why 'AI' without causality is mostly theatre
World models matter more than language models.
How to model reality instead of narratives
Most people optimise for stories, not outcomes.
Why organisations are structurally irrational
A systems view of corporate behaviour.
The Kind of Work That Matters
I am interested in:
- Systems that survive contact with reality
- Models that explain instead of predict
- Products that change how people think
- Companies that make hard problems tractable
I am not interested in:
- Incremental SaaS
- Shallow applications of deep tech
- Hype cycles
- Things that exist only in pitch decks
I'm really busy! But I love to make time for interesting things and people.
If you're working on hard problems, I'm interested.
Open to conversations about:
- →Building or deploying complex systems
- →Research collaborations
- →Deep-tech startups
- →Serious strategic opportunities
Not interested in:
- -Generic networking
- -Vague pitches
- -Low-effort outreach