A selective global research institute where young analysts produce primary-source economic intelligence — informing a founder-managed $100K live portfolio and funding education access worldwide.
Meridian is recruiting founding analysts across six regional desks. Each desk will be staffed with analysts embedded in the economies they cover — producing monthly intelligence that flows into the research process. Select a desk to explore its mandate.
The Signal Index is Meridian's proprietary framework for evaluating economic conditions across six regions and four signal dimensions. Once desks are staffed, this matrix will be updated quarterly by desk leads. The framework below shows how it will work.
Current ratings are illustrative — showing the analytical framework before founding analysts begin submitting intelligence. Hover any cell to read an example assessment note.
The five-stage process that will govern how Meridian analysts submit, review, and synthesize intelligence — including AI-assisted audit at stages 2 and 3. Click any stage to expand.
Young analysts living inside different economies observe signals that top-down models simply cannot see.Read the full model
Traditional investment research moves top-down: macro models, aggregated data, analyst reports written from financial capitals. Meridian inverts this. Our regional fellows will be embedded in the economies they cover — observing consumer behavior, infrastructure shifts, political mood, and local market dynamics from within.
That primary intelligence flows upward through a rigorous research process — including an AI-assisted review layer — before reaching the Investment Committee, which manages a real $100,000 founder-owned portfolio.
A share of annual portfolio gains will fund economic education access — closing the loop between market success and the communities our analysts call home.
Fellows submit structured monthly observations through the Ground-Truth Protocol. Primary-source intelligence — not secondary synthesis. Being built now.
The MRIS framework audits evidence quality, surfaces blind spots, and flags contradictions across desks. AI disciplines the process. Humans decide.
A founder-managed portfolio allocates capital informed by analyst research. Final investment discretion rests with the founding committee.
Every profitable quarter, 100% of gains go directly to economic education access programs — funding financial literacy and economic curriculum in the same regions our analysts call home. No partial allocation. No deferral. If we profit, it goes back.
This commitment is structural, not aspirational. Impact reporting is published each quarter with the same rigor as our research outputs.
Meridian uses AI as a research integrity layer — not as an oracle. The MRIS framework audits evidence quality, surfaces blind spots, and flags contradictions across regional desks. At no stage does AI produce investment conclusions, generate forecasts, or operate without human review.
The purpose of AI in our process is to make human analysts more rigorous — not to replace the local judgment that is Meridian's core competitive asset.
Try the Evidence Scorer ↓Regional fellows submit monthly observations through the structured Ground-Truth Protocol: what they observed, where, confidence level, local sources. No AI at this stage. The observation is purely human.
The MRIS Structure Engine formats raw analyst notes into the standard Meridian intelligence template. AI organizes only. It does not interpret, evaluate, or add information.
The Evidence Scorer analyzes every claim in the brief: is it supported by primary observation, secondary data, or assumption? Weak-evidence sentences are flagged for analyst review.
The Blind Spot Detector generates a structured critique: missing stakeholder perspectives, implicit assumptions, alternative explanations, and recommended follow-up questions.
The desk lead reads the original brief alongside the Evidence Audit and Blind Spot Review. They decide what to address, defend, or investigate further. The final brief is a human document.
The Signal Convergence Engine scans all six desk briefs simultaneously, identifying themes appearing across multiple regions. The Director of Research reviews convergences and determines which rise to Investment Committee attention.
Madhav Kumar reviews all research. MRIS outputs are visible as advisory annotations. No capital decision is made on AI recommendation alone. Final investment authority is founder-held.
Paste any investment thesis or analytical paragraph. The Evidence Scorer breaks down your sourcing quality, flags weak claims, and returns a structured evidence audit — the same tool Meridian analysts will use before submitting desk briefs. Try one of the examples to see it in action.
The Evidence Scorer is the first of five planned MRIS tools. Each addresses a specific research integrity problem. Tools are released as they reach production quality.
Audits any research text for evidence quality — breaking down sourcing types, flagging weak claims, and scoring overall analytical rigor.
Tool 01Reads a completed research brief and generates structured adversarial critique: missing perspectives, implicit assumptions, and questions a skeptic would ask.
Tool 02Scans all six desk briefs simultaneously and identifies themes appearing across multiple regions — surfacing potential macro signals from ground-level intelligence.
Tool 03Compares investment memos across desks and flags contradictions — forcing analysts to reconcile or explain divergent regional views before synthesis.
Tool 04Maps current portfolio positions against the latest round of desk research — identifying which positions are well-supported, underresearched, or contradicted by recent intelligence.
Tool 05MRIS tools are available to all founding Meridian fellows. Apply for the Founding Cohort to access the full suite as it launches.
Apply NowMeridian's AI principles are not a policy document — they are structural constraints built into how MRIS operates.
Meridian is a founding-stage institution. We are currently building the team, the research infrastructure, and the analyst network that will make this model work.
Young people living inside different economies observe signals that top-down models simply cannot see.
Meridian Institute was founded with a personal portfolio and a conviction: that the most valuable economic intelligence is not produced in financial capitals — it is observed on the ground, in the markets, neighborhoods, and institutions where economies actually operate.
The founding insight: a student in Nairobi observing mobile payment behavior, a fellow in Jakarta watching manufacturing floor conditions, an analyst in Warsaw tracking energy policy sentiment — these are not generic research contributors. They are primary-source observers in a way that no institutional analyst in New York can replicate.
We are building Meridian to harness that observational advantage — and to subject it to the same analytical discipline that top-tier institutional research demands, including AI-assisted evidence review through the MRIS framework.
We are at the beginning. The founding cohort is being recruited now. The research infrastructure is being built. The portfolio is live. We are publishing this openly because we believe the model is worth building in public.
We value what analysts observe directly over what they can summarize from existing reports. Meridian is a primary-source network first.
We target fewer than 5% acceptance. A commitment to research quality and organizational credibility — even at founding stage.
Research will inform a live portfolio. Analyst contributions will be tracked and attributed. The work is consequential, not theoretical.
AI makes our analysts more rigorous. It does not make decisions. Every capital allocation is a human judgment.
Madhav founded Meridian Institute and manages the live portfolio that underpins the network's research model. He holds final investment authority, designed the desk architecture, and leads development of the MRIS AI research framework. Based in Minneapolis.
David co-founded Meridian and leads strategy, operations, and organizational development. He oversees fellow recruitment, desk coordination, and the public-facing research program. Based in Minneapolis.
We are currently recruiting the inaugural cohort of regional analysts across all six desks. Up to 30 positions globally. Applications open through June 2026.
Apply NowMeridian's research archive is currently in formation. The framework below shows the kinds of intelligence our desks will produce once the founding cohort is in place. Reports will be published here as they are completed.
Our inaugural quarterly brief — a synthesis from SE Asia, South Asia, and Latin America desks examining the structural shift in global manufacturing and the investment implications across five sectors. In preparation.
All six regional desks are open for founding analyst applications. Each desk will be staffed with analysts embedded in the economies they cover, producing monthly intelligence briefs that flow into the MRIS review process and Investment Committee.
We are recruiting the inaugural Meridian cohort — fewer than 30 analysts globally across six regional desks. This is a founding position. You will help shape how the network works, not just join something that already exists.
We do not look for the most polished credentials. We look for people with genuine observational intelligence, intellectual rigor, and direct access to economies worth watching. Open to high school and university students worldwide. Founding fellows receive access to all MRIS tools as they launch.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 30-minute interview with the founding committee.
Meridian's research directly informs a real, founder-owned portfolio of approximately $100,000, managed exclusively by Madhav Kumar. Price data is pulled live from market feeds. Direct brokerage account integration is in progress — once connected, this page will reflect exact real-time holdings. Analyst research is mapped to portfolio positions — accountability is structural, not ceremonial.
Holdings are for illustrative purposes and represent the portfolio structure being built. Positions will update as research is formalized and capital is deployed. This is not investment advice or a solicitation.