Diaa Ziada Let's talk
Diaa Ziada standing with his arms crossed in a dark studio, lit by an emerald rim light

Diaa Ziada

I help founders build the right thing, then build it right.

  • Founder of Risero
  • Built products at Microsoft
  • AI engineer

Engineer.

Computer science, deep learning, and systems at Microsoft scale.

Founder.

Ventures that flew, ventures that fell, and a lesson from every one.

Translator.

Between what founders imagine and what engineers can ship.

My story

How an engineer learned to think like a founder.

  1. 01The spark

    It started in a high school classroom.

    At 15 I kept sketching platforms I had no idea how to build. One was an ad network for mobile games: watch an ad, earn a game credit or an extra try. It's common now. Back then, few apps did it. I couldn't build it, but it showed me what technology can do with a good idea.

  2. 02The crossroads

    I chose the harder path.

    Study business with some code on the side, or go all in on computer science and teach myself business? I went all in on CS and learned the business side on my own time. That choice taught me to walk toward the hard problem, not around it.

  3. 03The trenches

    Build, launch, learn. Repeat.

    University was one long loop of ventures. Some took off. Others fell flat. Each one taught me something about market fit, about adapting, about the business under the product. The ones that failed turned out to be stepping stones.

  4. 04From startup grind to Microsoft scale

    Milliseconds on drones. Real scale at Microsoft.

    At Precision AI, a startup building drones for agriculture, I made deep learning models run in a few milliseconds so they could keep up with a drone in flight. At Microsoft I worked on large, high-traffic products where real user data drives every decision, and I represented Microsoft at startup summits, walking founders through how to find, test, and launch an idea.

  5. 05The translator

    First the right thing. Then the thing, right.

    In YC's Founder Matching community I kept meeting founders with a clear vision and no way to explain it to engineers. So I translated. First we made sure they were building the right thing. Only then did we work out how to build it right.

    A founder says

    "I want an app where gamers watch ads to earn extra lives."

    What I hear

    1. Riskiest guessPlayers will sit through an ad for one more try.
    2. Cheapest testA "watch to continue" button in one live game, for two weeks.
    3. Decide firstHow many taps count as a yes, before anyone looks at the data.
    4. Then buildOnly what the test proved.

    Press and hold, or hold Space.

Diaa at a dark desk surrounded by floating holographic screens showing drone wireframes, node graphs and charts

What I do

Three ways I work with founders.

  1. 01

    Validate

    Test the idea before you bet on it.

    We find the riskiest assumption and test it fast and cheap, before real money goes in.

  2. 02

    Translate

    Turn the vision into a plan people can build.

    I sit between founders and engineers, so the product, the business, and the tech all say the same thing.

  3. 03

    Build

    Ship it, measure it, keep what works.

    We launch a first version built to last, then let real data decide what comes next.

My north star

Six principles I work by

Diaa standing in a dark gallery lined with glowing screens, hands in his pockets

Let's build the right thing.

Tell me about your idea. First we make sure it's the right thing to build.

Work with Risero Read my story