Aria Vikram is Co-Founder and CEO of Conviction (YC S25), an AI-powered trading platform that gives everyday investors access to the kind of research, testing, and execution tools once reserved for professional trading desks.

Aria studied Computer Science at Columbia Engineering and conducted NLP research at Columbia University, including deploying AI chatbots for doctors at CUIMC, before co-founding Conviction in 2025.

A Google Code-In Grand Prize winner, RSI alum, and USAID awardee, Aria brings a rare combination of elite academic research and hands-on AI engineering to the fintech space.

Prior to Conviction, Aria interned at Kitware Inc. in R&D and completed a research internship at the Research Science Institute (RSI), collaboratively sponsored by CEE and MIT, building a strong foundation in applied AI and software systems.

Conviction, backed by Y Combinator, enables users to describe a trading thesis in natural language, backtest it against historical data, and deploy AI agents that monitor SEC filings, news, earnings, and social signals to execute trades autonomously.