Co-Founder and CEO, Arcade; Managing Partner, Heretic Ventures; Founder, Chairman of Minted, board member at Medium, Every Mother Counts, Victoria's Secret.
San Francisco, CA
Joined April 2009
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Today in SF, builders get access to @arcade_ai's API at Shopping 3.0, our hackathon with @ForerunnerVC and @hereticventures.
700+ people applied for just 100 spots.
Teams will build agents and apps that turn ideas into real products, on top of our pipelines.
I'd love to see more people building commerce and physical product businesses. We're opening Arcade's APIs and manufacturing network so they can. Join me at Arcade's AI Commerce Hackathon on Oct 11. @kirstenagreen a judge; $10,000 1st / $5,000 2nd. Bring an idea! #SFTechWeek
Bring your taste. Build a business. Shopping 3.0: Arcade's AI commerce hackathon. First access to our specialized models and prompt-to-physical APIs. October 11, 2026, $15K in prizes. 100 seats. Apply: partiful.com/e/GmB2RWwfd99Jo… #SFTechWeek
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When custom becomes as easy as search, the act of shopping will transform on a magnitude not seen in decades. I'm excited to unveil my passion project, writing @arcade_ai's Maia, the first AI design agent that turns conversation into real, physical products. Not mockups. Not concepts. Actual jewelry, gifts and decor made by master artisans and luxury brands like @Christofle1830, Bitossi, Cabana, @L_Co_official, and Noemie.
This holiday season, recreate your grandmother's lost necklace. Design barware etched with coordinates from where you met. Create a christening gift engraved with your family's story. AI and craftsmanship aren't opposites — their partnership is the future of meaningful commerce defined by story, taste, and trust.
It has been immediately and immensely impactful to have @jampani_varun on board. Welcome, Varun!!!
We are thrilled to welcome @jampani_varun to @arcade_ai as our new Chief AI Officer.
Varun helped co-create Stable Diffusion 3.5 and DreamBooth, and now he’s joining us to pioneer how AI turns imagination into physical products.
We’re just getting started, pioneering the next chapter of commerce, democratizing creation, and unlocking human creativity worldwide.
Arcade keeps building out a great team, now with top 2025 prospect @ethan_Ng_13. Welcome!!
Today, I’m excited to share that I’ll be joining @arcade_ai as part of their Growth team this year.
Arcade has raised $42M from top investors to build the world’s first AI-powered physical product creation platform, and we’re hiring across all roles to help make it happen.
Thanks for including me in what was an incredible conference. Felt like the starting gun went off for consumer AI!
Our CEO @mnaficy spoke at #HumansintheLoop, a gathering hosted by @ForerunnerVC and others.
She shared what we’re building at Arcade: a platform where shopping begins with whatever you’re dreaming of, whether it’s heirloom-inspired rugs or mulberry tree pillows.
The hunt is over.
Grateful to @cerebral_valley for the deep dive into what we’re building at @arcade_ai—a new kind of marketplace where AI-generated designs become real products, instantly priced and made on demand.
cerebralvalley.ai/blog/arcad…
Congrats @recraftai @eladgil - I'm a big fan of Recraft v3. Subtly beautiful, sophisticated artwork that can truly be used in many applications.
We’ve raised $30M to amplify creativity without compromising quality or control
Led by @Accel, with @MadronaVentures, @khoslaventures, @natfriedman, @eladgil & @rtpvc
Thank you — to the 4M+ users and everyone who’s been part of this journey.
What’s next? Read the story in the comments ↓
GPT-image-1 has arrived at Arcade.
Customize and buy physical products, with GPT-image-1. Arcade’s marketplace manufactures and ships items to you.
If you can dream it, you can have it.
Commerce, powered by frontier AI.
@OpenAI @Arcade_ai
Hey @aplusk — We edited your rug with GPT-image-1. What do you think? bit.ly/4m59TdV
Congrats @noor_siddiqui_ on delivering this major achievement — giving parents the chance to not have to gamble.
When I was in elementary school, my mom started going blind. Retinitis pigmentosa. No family history. No treatments. No cure.
I got lucky. She didn’t. It led me to build @OrchidInc so my baby —and everyone else's—gets to win the genetic lottery—avoid blindness— and hundreds of severe genetic diseases.
Today, the New York Times covered the tech we’ve spent years building:
Whole genome embryo screening for *hundreds* of diseases.
Not in theory. Not in mice. In humans. In IVF centers. Right now.
The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives. - Audrey Lorde
3/ Thanks again to all of our investors - @brit @reidhoffman @aplusk @Kaepernick7 @karliekloss @jkeidan @alexavontobel @CTurlington @eladgil @ev @realSharonZhou @jluan @jeremys @niravtolia and many more
4/ Join our community to create and buy for yourself - or promote what you design (you'll earn every time someone buys your product). What will you dream up? arcade.ai