Attending AI Infra Summit 5 · May 1, 2026 · Plug and Play Tech Center, Sunnyvale

The Operator
Advantage

Senior executives who have actually built it —
advising you on how to do it right.

Most AI consulting firms send smart generalists. We send the executives who spent decades designing, shipping, and operating the infrastructure and software you're about to bet your business on. The advice is different when the advisor has the scar tissue.

We will be at AI Infra Summit 5 on May 1st. If a partner referred you here, use the form below to introduce yourself and lock in a meeting.

Schedule a Meeting at the Summit Meet the Team ↓

Summit begins in

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What we are not Junior analysts with frameworks
What we are Former CPOs, founders, and infrastructure architects who have shipped the products and run the systems at scale
Who we serve Enterprises that need the substance of McKinsey or Accenture — with advisors who have actual operator credibility
What We Do

Two Practices.
One Firm.

Whether your priority is owning your AI compute or accelerating your AI strategy, our advisors have lived both sides of this problem from the inside.

Practice 1

Private AI Data Center
Design & Operations

For enterprises that need to own their AI compute — whether for sovereignty, compliance, latency, or total cost. We architect, procure, and stand up your private AI infrastructure end-to-end. Then we operate it as a managed service so your team focuses on outcomes, not uptime.

The problem we solve

Most enterprises focus on $/GPU-hour when evaluating AI infrastructure. Independent TCO analysis shows that's the wrong number. Downtime, debugging, networking tuning, and staffing overhead routinely add 15–60% to real cluster cost — before you've trained a single model. The teams who've operated these systems know where the waste hides. Yours doesn't yet.

20% goodput loss on large training workloads at self-managed clusters
1.6× higher TCO vs. expert-operated infrastructure for multimodal workloads
2–4 dedicated engineers just for tuning & debugging — at $200K+ each

Source: SemiAnalysis GPU Cluster TCO Study, April 2026

  • Facility, power & cooling design
  • GPU cluster architecture (NVIDIA, AMD, custom silicon)
  • Networking fabric, storage & observability
  • MLOps, inference optimization & lifecycle management
  • Ongoing managed operations — we've already paid the tuition
Path to Managed AI Infrastructure Service
Practice 2

Enterprise AI Adoption
Strategy & Execution

For businesses that must adopt AI — either to capture a new growth opportunity or to defend against AI-native competitors disrupting their market. We turn boardroom conviction into a working plan, and we can build the software if the strategy requires it.

The problem we solve

Most AI strategy engagements produce a slide deck. Ours produce a prioritized roadmap, a build-vs-buy decision, and where needed, working software — delivered by advisors who have previously shipped products at the scale you're aiming for.

  • AI opportunity & competitive threat assessment
  • Build / buy / partner analysis
  • Transformation roadmap with measurable OKRs
  • Vendor & architecture selection
  • Software development (product engagement, optional)
Path to Strategy Retainer or Product Development
This engagement is right for you if:
  • You are a CTO, CIO, or VP Eng evaluating private AI infrastructure
  • You are a CEO or CPO whose SaaS business faces an AI-native threat
  • You have a board mandate to "do something with AI" and need a credible plan
  • You need to move fast and cannot afford a multi-month strategy discovery phase
  • You are evaluating owned GPU infrastructure vs. hyperscaler and need a rigorous TCO comparison before committing
Not the right fit if:
  • You need a large team of generalist analysts
  • You are in early ideation with no committed budget
  • You prefer a low-cost offshore model over senior operator time
The Team

Operators First.
Advisors Second.

Every engagement is led by a principal who has held the job you're trying to succeed at. No bait-and-switch to junior staff after the proposal.

Sheryl Zhang
Sheryl Zhang
AI Strategy, Monetization & Growth
Docker ThoughtSpot Firewalla Linux Foundation Cisco · Juniper · Platina

Sheryl is a senior product and growth executive who partners with B2B SaaS companies to navigate AI disruption, redesign business models, and accelerate durable revenue growth. She brings 20+ years operating at scale — including $600M+ ARR product portfolios — combined with hands-on expertise in AI-native systems, monetization architecture, and product-led growth.

At Docker she leads company-wide monetization, growth, and data strategy. At ThoughtSpot she built the SaaS platform from zero and led the transition to a hybrid PLG + sales-led GTM — doubling revenue over three years. She co-founded Firewalla (consumer security, achieved PMF) and led ecosystem strategy at the Linux Foundation's Open Networking Foundation, partnering with Google, AT&T, and Tier 1 carriers.

She is not a conceptual advisor. She is an execution-oriented operator who drives measurable outcomes — connecting strategy to execution across product, engineering, sales, and marketing.

AI-native product strategy Monetization & pricing PLG & GTM transformation Agentic systems 0→1 platform launches
$600M+ ARR ownership · 2× SaaS revenue growth at ThoughtSpot · Hands-on LLM & agentic systems
Armando Pena
Armando Pena
Applied AI & Model Engineering
Inflection.ai RKS Digital Sony JPL / NASA

Armando is a serial founder and engineer who has spent 25+ years building at the frontier of emerging platforms — from one of the first mobile social networks (2M+ users, $3.5M raised) to computer vision, IoT, and AI/ML systems. His work consistently lands at the intersection of cutting-edge technology and production reality: not research for its own sake, but systems that ship and scale.

Most recently he was an AI Researcher at Inflection.ai — with direct exposure to frontier model research, large-scale training infrastructure, and the gap between lab capability and enterprise deployment. He co-founded RKS Digital to bring that depth to custom AI/ML, computer vision, and software development engagements. Earlier, he led technology at Sony (built Screenblast, a predecessor to YouTube), shipped flight software at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and built ML algorithms powering a medical computer vision platform.

He is not a theorist. He is a builder who has raised capital, hired teams, shipped products, and operated at scale across multiple technology cycles — which is precisely what enterprise AI adoption requires.

LLM & inference systems Computer vision & ML AI product development 0→1 engineering leadership Enterprise AI deployment
AI Researcher, Inflection.ai · JPL flight software · Sony · 3 venture-backed companies founded
Mark Yin
Mark Yin
AI Infrastructure Strategy & Business Development
Platina Systems Infinera Cisco Ciena

Mark is a seasoned technology executive with 25+ years spanning networking, optical transport, and AI infrastructure — including leadership roles at Cisco, Infinera (where he was VP of Marketing and helped launch the company and define its product line), and Ciena. He co-founded Platina Systems in 2014 to address the operational complexity of modern data center infrastructure, building products deployed at enterprises operating at petabyte scale.

His background gives him a rare vantage point: he understands both the silicon and the boardroom. He has advised ODMs and OEMs on product strategy across Asia, and brings deep relationships across the supply chain — NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom, and the ODM/OEM ecosystem — that translate directly into procurement leverage and faster time-to-production for clients building private AI infrastructure.

He is not an analyst mapping frameworks to your situation. He is an operator who has run P&Ls, launched products into market, and made the infrastructure bets that either paid off or didn't — which is the only way to give a board a credible investment case.

Silicon & optical networking DC infrastructure strategy Supply chain relationships Go-to-market & product launch Board-level business case
Co-founder & CEO Platina Systems · Inaugural VP Marketing Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) · 25 yrs networking & DC infrastructure

"The difference between a framework and a recommendation is having done it yourself. Every engagement we take starts from that premise."

— Mach3 Advisors
The Summit

AI Infra Summit 5
May 1, 2026

Hosted by IgniteGTM at Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, AI Infra Summit 5 brings together founders, operators, investors, and policymakers building the AI infrastructure layer — covering hardware-software intersections, GPU scaling, sovereign AI, and compute bottlenecks.

We are attending the full day. If a partner referred you to this page, use the form below to introduce yourself — we will coordinate a meeting at the venue or before the event if the timeline is urgent.

Friday, May 1, 2026 · 8:30 AM – 7:00 PM PT
Plug and Play Tech Center, Sunnyvale, CA
Full-day program · Evening networking reception 5:30–7:00 PM
View Official Event Page ↗
Summit Day Highlights
  • 8:30 AM Registration & Morning Networking Early conversations with builders and operators
  • 9:30 AM Technical Deep Dives GPU scaling, orchestration, hardware-software intersections
  • 11:00 AM Sovereign AI & Data Center Operations Private deployments, power and supply chain bottlenecks
  • 12:30 PM Lunch & Curated Roundtables Priority window for scheduled meetings
  • 2:00 PM Startup Demos & Afternoon Sessions Next-generation infrastructure showcases
  • 5:30 PM Evening Networking Reception Best meeting window — open through 7:00 PM

* Full agenda confirmed by IgniteGTM closer to the date

Track Record

What Operator Experience
Actually Looks Like

2×

ThoughtSpot SaaS revenue growth led by our AI strategy principal during her tenure as VP SaaS Business Lead

$600M+

ARR product lines managed by our enterprise AI advisor across Docker and ThoughtSpot product organizations

60%+

Infrastructure cost savings achieved for a professional sports league client through private cloud vs. public cloud — $10M+ over the deployment life

25 yrs

Infrastructure automation experience of our HPC partner, spanning high-frequency trading, large-scale Kubernetes, and data center patent-level work

"We chose [this approach] because it glues these parts together and enables us to scale out not only Ceph but also Kubernetes, to provide a robust and highly resilient platform in our two datacenters."

— Infrastructure client, professional sporting organization (50 PB, dual-site deployment)
Get in Touch

Meet Us at
AI Infra Summit 5

A partner referred you here because they thought the fit was real. Use this form to introduce yourself — your role, your challenge, and where you are in the decision process. We will review it before May 1st and confirm a meeting time at the venue.

If your situation is urgent, email us directly and we can speak before the event.

Available for meetings throughout the day. Priority slots at lunch and the evening reception (5:30–7:00 PM). Limited availability — first-come, first priority.

Direct contact

hello@mach3advisors.com

We respond within 24 hours. Your information is never shared with third parties.