Hello! I’m Ian Davenport. I’m writing this blog to share what I’ve been up to and document my thinking somewhere. I’ll mainly write about what I’m building and general thoughts/reflections on AI.

Basics

I grew up in VA in the Shenandoah Valley. I was mostly interested in sports and wasn’t a very serious student. Eventually I went to undergrad at JMU and later did my Physics PhD at Harvard. Despite the brand name I did not have an illustrious physics career :) but the people were great and I learned a lot. Since the PhD I’ve worked at a fluid dynamics startup for a year, spent a year trying “my own ideas” (too many to count), and I started working at a trading firm called Nascent in Oct ‘25. I’m moving to NYC (East Village) in ~April 2026.

Outside of work stuff I’m still pretty interested in sports, though I watch much less now. I try to always have a book going. I love to travel, I’ve mostly done Europe and a little bit of Mexico, but there’s still so much to see. Movies are great and I’d love to develop a better sense for the arts. I have my Private Pilot’s License though I haven’t flown in >2 years by now.

Contact / GitHub

Follow along my projects on my GitHub.

Reach out if you see anything interesting or want to hang out in NYC! davenport.ianc@gmail.com.

Rules for the blog

Some ground rules I’ll try to follow for the blog:

• I’ll write everything and not Claude or another LLM. I’ll get proofreading + formatting help though.
• I’ll post at least once a week on Saturday or Sunday.
• I’ll try to write or link to things that are helpful.