Documented path
Rohan Puri was a research specialist at MIT Media Lab where he co-invented a biometric identification sensing technology called 'Zensei' in collaboration with Google, and co-instructed a graduate-level course on computational imaging at MIT. He founded Stable Auto in 2017 with co-founder Jamie Schiel, pivoting from hardware to software after realizing the real bottleneck in EV charging was the business case, not the hardware. The company uses AI to analyze prospective EV charging sites and predict long-term profitability.
Family background and early life not documented in reviewed sources; was a research specialist at MIT Media Lab before founding Stable Auto.
Co-founder and CEO of Stable Auto; company has raised $14M total funding; based in San Francisco Bay Area.
Where the conditions came from
Each is placed on a −1 to 3 scale from documented evidence, and the three are never added together. A combined total would rank Rohan Puri against other people. Held apart, they explain why this path ran differently from another one—which is the only comparison this project supports.
The marble itself
+2Tailwind
What capability, drive, or early skill is documented in the person rather than their surroundings?
Research specialist at MIT Media Lab who co-invented biometric identification technology (Zensei) in collaboration with Google. Co-instructed a graduate-level course on computational imaging at MIT. Founded Stable Auto at ~18. Exceptional early research achievement at an elite institution.
Where it was dropped
0Neither way
What money, family standing, network, or permission was already in place before the work began?
No family background information available. MIT Media Lab position suggests strong academic preparation but no evidence of family wealth or domain connections.
The shape of the track
+2Tailwind
What place, timing, institution, or peer group made the next step available?
MIT Media Lab provided the elite institutional environment, research resources, and Google collaboration. Met co-founder Jamie Schiel in the Camera Culture group. MIT E14 Fund and Ubiquity Ventures backed Stable Auto. The MIT Media Lab ecosystem was trajectory-changing.
A −1 is a documented headwind, not a missing value; a 0 means the sources record nothing notable either way. Annotation confidence: Medium. These are analyst readings of what the sources record, not measurements of merit, talent, or effort. The twenty-two scored dimensions remain available inside the deeper research detail.
What moved through the conditions
This records repeated behaviour or recovery described by sources; it is not a grit or merit score.
This is an unchosen opening or condition in the record, not an estimate of how much luck caused the outcome.
Strongest documented signals: Elite institution pipeline, Exceptional peer / cofounder, Frontier geography.
Describes the starting position, not what the person later made of it.
Strongest observed levers: Complementary team, Domain proximity, Started serious reps before 20.
Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.
The timeline below shows the sequence of work and transitions around the selected early milestone. It is evidence of a path, not proof that every step was necessary.
Notable and widely recognized within the domain. The tier summarizes documented career recognition through the data cutoff—not Rohan Puri's worth or future potential.
Question four · where did the leverage come from?
Each non-zero lever gets a best-supported origin, evidence signals, and confidence. Unresolved is the honest default when the biography cannot distinguish self-built, advantage-enabled, earned, external, or mixed.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
A structural wave is external to the person, even when their position improved access to it.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
This is a bounded inference from the current annotations—not a claim about private effort, merit, or the percentage of Rohan Puri's outcome attributable to any origin.
Structural luck, Encounter luck, Event luck, Outcome variance can change every arrow in the path. This successful-only dataset cannot observe the near-identical paths that did not break through, so luck stays visible and unscored.
Multiplying capacity documented later in the path. Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.
Access or conditions documented near the beginning of the path. Zero means "no clear evidence in reviewed sources," not "advantage was absent."
Not documented in reviewed sources. No information on parents, family background, or early life circumstances.
Not documented in reviewed sources.
Rohan Puri leveraged his position as a research specialist at MIT Media Lab to co-found Stable Auto at approximately age 18, building an EV charging analytics platform that raised $14M. At MIT, he co-invented biometric sensing technology with Google and co-instructed a graduate-level course, demonstrating exceptional technical depth for his age. His co-founder Jamie Schiel was also from MIT Media Lab, providing a strong complementary partnership. The EV charging structural wave and MIT's entrepreneurial ecosystem (E14 fund) accelerated the company. No family background, parental domain expertise, or financial platform is documented in reviewed sources. His early advantages stem primarily from the MIT institutional ecosystem and his technical depth in machine learning.
advantage confidence: Low · source count: 4 · audit: partial_source_verification · status: subagent_researched_beta