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[Linkpost] “Coordinal: A Postmortem.” by Ronak Mehta
This is a link post.
cart;horse: Most startups fail, this one did too. Tried too much with too little, with a little too much ego.
Coordinal Research's goal was to build an automated safety research platform. A researcher writes “Replicate X result from paper Y with tweak Z” and the system provisions a sandboxed compute environment, gathers context, writes code, runs experiments, and returns a research report plus oversight trail.
The bet was that AI-accelerated research is coming whether we like it or not, and having this differentially happen for safety work faster is good. The bet didn’t pay off — at least not in the form I tried to make it.
The main content is the condensed version. The full chronology, the final push, and the technical artifacts I shipped are appendices for anyone who wants them. See also our Manifund page for the original pitch/ask.
The arc, in brief.
The startup. Fall 2024 to Fall 2025: out of MATS 6.0, through Catalyze, into cofounding with Jacques. Most of Q1–Q2 2025 was grant applications and demo building (no dice on grants). In April a funder I’d previously pitched came back via a coworking connection. After a carefully-crafted email, we [...]
---
Outline:
(01:07) The arc, in brief.
(03:01) Lessons.
(07:16) What's Next.
(08:46) Appendix.
(08:51) A: The Startup.
(16:00) B: The Startdown.
(20:17) C: The Salvage.
---
First published:
May 18th, 2026
Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uTffD74jJrQvHJuBY/coordinal-a-postmortem
Linkpost URL:
https://ronakrm.github.io/coordinal-postmortem/
---
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
View all episodes
By EA Forum TeamThis is a link post.
cart;horse: Most startups fail, this one did too. Tried too much with too little, with a little too much ego.
Coordinal Research's goal was to build an automated safety research platform. A researcher writes “Replicate X result from paper Y with tweak Z” and the system provisions a sandboxed compute environment, gathers context, writes code, runs experiments, and returns a research report plus oversight trail.
The bet was that AI-accelerated research is coming whether we like it or not, and having this differentially happen for safety work faster is good. The bet didn’t pay off — at least not in the form I tried to make it.
The main content is the condensed version. The full chronology, the final push, and the technical artifacts I shipped are appendices for anyone who wants them. See also our Manifund page for the original pitch/ask.
The arc, in brief.
The startup. Fall 2024 to Fall 2025: out of MATS 6.0, through Catalyze, into cofounding with Jacques. Most of Q1–Q2 2025 was grant applications and demo building (no dice on grants). In April a funder I’d previously pitched came back via a coworking connection. After a carefully-crafted email, we [...]
---
Outline:
(01:07) The arc, in brief.
(03:01) Lessons.
(07:16) What's Next.
(08:46) Appendix.
(08:51) A: The Startup.
(16:00) B: The Startdown.
(20:17) C: The Salvage.
---
First published:
May 18th, 2026
Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uTffD74jJrQvHJuBY/coordinal-a-postmortem
Linkpost URL:
https://ronakrm.github.io/coordinal-postmortem/
---
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.