When it comes to building machines that must perform flawlessly—think rockets, autonomous vehicles, or nuclear reactors—there’s no room for “good enough.” Every element has to work under extreme conditions, and failure can come at a cost far greater than revenue. That’s exactly the realm that Karthik Gollapudi, Sift’s CEO, has spent his career navigating. On a recent episode of the Own Your Potential podcast, Karthik talks with host Peter Szczerba about the journey that led him from software engineering at SpaceX to founding Sift, a company built to tackle the complexities of modern machines.
Below, we dive into the podcast’s highlights—covering the roots of Karthik’s journey, his drive to solve mission-critical problems, and how Sift is carving a path to make sense of complexity in hardware systems.
From LEGO to Launches: Building with High Stakes in Mind
Karthik’s path to becoming CEO of Sift started in a familiar place for many engineers—building robots from LEGO in elementary school. However, it’s what came later that set him apart. At SpaceX, Karthik led the software team for the Dragon Capsule, a spacecraft tasked with human-rated missions to the International Space Station. This role exposed him to the pressure and precision required in mission-critical engineering: for instance, every component had to be “two-fault tolerant,” meaning the system must continue operating even if two faults occur. This rigorous approach wasn’t about risk aversion; it was about enabling exploration safely and predictably.
This idea of always being paranoid, of always anticipating the worst-case scenario, has been embedded into Sift’s DNA. For Karthik, observability goes beyond standard monitoring; it’s about surfacing risks before they become problems—a proactive approach that’s essential in complex systems with zero room for error.
The Motivation Behind Sift: When Machines Meet Software
The idea for Sift crystallized after Karthik witnessed the 2019 Boeing Starliner incident, where a software error left a spacecraft hundreds of kilometers from its intended orbit. This mishap highlighted a pressing issue: as machines get more complex, they’re also becoming software-dependent. Building and operating these systems now requires managing massive volumes of data, intricate hardware interactions, and a new level of risk mitigation.
“The Starliner failure showed me that as machines get more complex, failures are less about physical breakdowns and more about software—and it’s not just here. It’s happening in aerospace, automotive, rail, everywhere.” - Karthik
Karthik saw that observability—knowing the current and potential state of every part of a system—was essential for preventing such failures. Sift was built with this idea in mind, offering tools that simplify and automate data analysis, surface hidden risks, and give hardware and software teams a unified perspective on their machines. Today, Sift supports engineers across aerospace, transportation, and defense, among others, bringing the same fault-tolerant mindset Karthik honed at SpaceX to industries where precision is non-negotiable.
Scaling Complexity: Three Dimensions to Watch
Modern engineering isn’t just about technical complexity—it’s layered. Karthik outlines three core challenges Sift addresses:
- Machine Complexity: With modern machines, up to 50% of materials are software, and components are intertwined, creating a need for tools that unify hardware and software data.
- Organizational Complexity: For teams of thousands, collaboration tools must handle hardware-specific workflows. Software has Git, but for hardware, that kind of version control and collaboration framework doesn’t exist—yet.
- Fleet Complexity: Today’s machines aren’t isolated; they’re often part of vast networks, from autonomous railcars to satellite constellations. Handling telemetry and ensuring fault tolerance across these fleets is a major challenge.
Sift’s approach? Automate the grunt work to increase the frequency of testing and spot issues faster. By “automating understanding,” Sift lets teams focus on what matters most: learning and improving with each iteration.
The Power of AI with a Lean Team
In a world where AI is transforming workflows, Karthik sees AI as a tool to make lean teams more effective. Rather than replace people, AI amplifies capabilities, allowing Sift to stay nimble while managing complex operations. As Karthik points out, it’s not about hiring dozens of team members but about leveraging AI tools that enable each person to do the work of many. AI complements technical and operational roles across Sift, from marketing automation to the fine-tuned processes behind their observability tools.
In Karthik’s eyes, AI functions like a calculator—a force multiplier, not a replacement. Humans are still essential for the creativity and direction that drive projects, and while AI can handle the heavy lifting, expertise and strategic insight are irreplaceable.
What’s Next: Enabling Tomorrow’s Complex Machines
Karthik is betting that, in the next decade, Sift will be powering at least a single-digit percentage of the world’s complex machines—whether those are autonomous railcars, aircraft, or lunar rovers. To him, this is about more than scale; it’s about creating the foundational tools that make it possible to build and operate these machines without sacrificing reliability or safety. As Karthik envisions, observability won’t just be a tool for engineers; it’ll be a necessity for organizations tackling high-stakes challenges.
Sift’s tools are built to support engineers in any field where hardware meets software complexity. And Karthik is committed to pushing that mission forward, seeing Sift as the groundwork for a future where autonomous machines, spacecraft, and fleets of vehicles are all operable, efficient, and safe.
With the complexity of machines increasing, we have to find ways to manage the risk and surface it. For me, the best way to use my skills and knowledge was to solve this problem for the broader industry. - Karthik
The Takeaway: A Mission Worth Following
Karthik’s story is a powerful reminder of what’s possible when you take complexity head-on, not as a barrier but as an opportunity to solve some of the hardest problems facing engineers today. From a childhood with LEGOs to a career at SpaceX and now with Sift, he’s built a career on pursuing challenges most would avoid.
For engineers, product developers, and anyone interested in the demands of mission-critical fields, Karthik’s interview offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at tackling high-stakes problems head-on. Tune in to the full podcast for an unfiltered look at what drives Sift’s mission to support the future of machines.
