AI and data systems
Turn disconnected records into a coherent operating picture.
Founder · Product · Systems
I build systems that make complex decisions clearer.
I’m Richard McKinney, a founder and product builder working across AI, data, security, and climate—especially where fragmented information stands between people and better decisions.
Based in the Pacific Northwest · Building for the long term
Current work
01 / 04
Venturi
Building the attribution layer for AI.
As Founder & CEO of Venturi, I’m building the place for companies to understand how they use AI: what it costs, who owns it, and where action matters.
Security and trust
Design products that can stand up to enterprise scrutiny.
From insight to action
Make analysis useful at the moment a decision gets made.
Selected experience
02 / 04
Built in consequential environments.
My work has repeatedly started with complex systems, incomplete information, and an outcome that had to hold up in the real world.
Amazon
Infrastructure · Climate data
Built a global utility-billing platform that processed $2.5B+ and enabled $357M in savings in its 1st year, then built greenhouse-gas accounting infrastructure from fragmented operational records.
Salesforce
Security · Enterprise AI
Led work on Shield Platform Encryption and contributed product leadership to Agentforce—translating security, platform, and AI complexity into enterprise products.
Cruise
Operations · Security
Served as Chief of Staff to the Security VP during Cruise’s 1st U.S. city launch of driverless ride-hailing, connecting technical execution with high-stakes operations.
Education
MS, AI & Machine Learning for Engineering, University of Washington · MS, Cybersecurity Engineering, University of Washington · MSc, Oxford · BA, Pitzer College
How I work
03 / 04
A practical point of view.
Make ambiguity operational
Find the useful structure inside a difficult problem, then turn it into a product people can actually use.
Build trust into the system
Security, evidence, and clear ownership belong in the architecture—not in a checklist added after launch.
Stay close to the outcome
Good strategy survives contact with implementation. I work across product, data, and operations to close that distance.
Beyond the work
04 / 04
Curiosity is a throughline.
I’m an idealistic pragmatist: optimistic about what technology can make possible, most interested in the hard work required to make it useful, secure, and durable.
Outside work, that curiosity has taken me through marathons in San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Seattle, and Yellowknife; a 10-day silent meditation retreat in Israel; a bungee jump from a 20-story bridge south of Mount St. Helens; and a skydive over Wadi Rum. Home is the Pacific Northwest with my wife.
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