01
Discover workflow pain
Identify high-cost, high-frequency workflows in specialized industries where AI can remove friction and improve decisions.
Company
An Applied AI Lab building configurable products for specialized industries.
We discover painful workflows, validate them with design partners, and ship AI products customers can evaluate and deploy.
About Nara Labs
Nara Labs is an Applied AI Lab focused on specialized industries where workflow pain is expensive, repetitive, and underserved by generic AI tools.
We discover those workflows through research, design partner collaboration, and rapid product iteration — then turn validated patterns into configurable AI products customers can evaluate and deploy.
Our goal is to build a growing set of applied AI products that compound in value as we learn from each industry we serve.
The Applied AI Lab model
Instead of building disconnected experiments, we run a repeatable lab process designed to turn workflow insight into product.
02
Validate with design partners
Work with early partners to test assumptions, map real operational constraints, and define product requirements grounded in live workflows.
03
Ship configurable products
Productize validated workflows into AI systems customers can configure, evaluate through demos, and deploy in production environments.
04
Compound learnings
Feed production learnings back into the lab to improve existing products and inform the next workflow opportunity.
Team
The people building applied AI products from the lab.
Nagisa Ikeda
Founder
Product Strategy • AI Design Engineering • Go-to-Market
Founder of Nara Labs, leading product vision, design, and positioning for applied AI products. Background across product design, fintech, and AI-native workflows. Focuses on translating emerging AI capabilities into systems teams can evaluate and deploy.
LinkedIn →
Eddy
AI / Machine Learning Engineering
Machine Learning • Backend Systems • Agent Architecture
AI and ML engineer building production pipelines, agent systems, and local AI infrastructure. Experience with risk scoring, feature engineering at scale, and rapid hackathon-to-product execution. Drives the technical foundation behind Nara Labs prototypes and flagship products.
LinkedIn →
Jiawen Zhang
AI Engineering, Implementation
AI Engineering • Full-Stack Implementation • Product Development
Founding engineer shipping product concepts across frontend, backend, and AI-assisted workflows. Focuses on fast iteration, clean implementation, and integrating requirements into production-ready systems. Builds the foundation for Ahead and future agentic products.
LinkedIn →Advisors
Strategic advisors who help shape how we discover customers and validate product direction.
Advisor
Simon Spagnoletti
Customer Discovery Advisor
Senior UX Researcher • Former PayPal • Cash App
Customer Discovery • Product Validation
Simon advises Nara Labs on customer discovery and product validation. He brings research leadership from consumer financial products and AI initiatives at PayPal and Cash App. He helps refine customer interviews and turn user insights into product direction.
LinkedIn →Advisor
Jing Wang
AI Systems Advisor
Former Co-Founder & CEO, MiraRobo • Former Microsoft • Carnegie Mellon University
AI Systems • Applied Machine Learning • LLM Applications • Enterprise AI • Technical Strategy
Jing advises Nara Labs on AI systems architecture, technical product strategy, and the application of modern machine learning to real-world products. With experience leading AI startups and building LLM-powered systems at Microsoft, she provides guidance on scalable AI architecture, platform strategy, and technical decision-making.
LinkedIn →