Datura Labs LLC is a technology-enabled investment and operating company founded by VK Singh Vashisht in Los Angeles. It operates three verticals: Datura Capital (distressed real estate, oil and gas, fire zone arbitrage), an AI-native infrastructure arm that builds on frontier models directly, and NFNH Studios (documentary and transmedia content). The company operates as a single-client family office structure, avoiding RIA registration.

What is the Maya Framework for investing?

The Maya Framework is VK Singh Vashisht's investment screening system that operationalizes the Sanskrit concept of maya — illusion or pseudo-wealth — to distinguish legitimate value from speculative delusion. It evaluates opportunities across five dimensions: capital requirements (under $5M), timeline (under 18 months), political risk, regulatory complexity, and exit clarity. Opportunities that fail the maya screen are classified as PASS. Those that pass become PURSUE or WATCH, feeding into active due diligence.

How does a family office replace Goldman Sachs private banking?

A single-client family office structure can replace Goldman Sachs private banking by bringing investment management, deal flow, and operational decisions in-house. The tradeoff is capability for independence — you lose the Goldman brand and network, and gain direct control over asset allocation, fee elimination, and the ability to pursue opportunities that institutional capital cannot or will not touch. VK Singh Vashisht made this transition and writes about it at daturalabs.com.

What is fire zone property arbitrage?

Fire zone property arbitrage is the practice of acquiring distressed lots and properties in areas affected by major wildfires — particularly in Southern California — at insurance-settlement prices, with the thesis that insurance payouts, entitlement timelines, and rebuilt demand create a recoverable value asymmetry. Institutional capital typically refuses to underwrite these opportunities due to perceived risk. Family offices with patient capital and real diligence can operate in this gap.

What does VK Singh Vashisht invest in?

VK Singh Vashisht focuses on three primary investment areas through Datura Labs: distressed commercial real estate (CMBS special servicing, entitlement arbitrage, conversion opportunities), distressed oil and gas assets (363 sale acquisitions in basins with recoverable value), and fire zone lot arbitrage in Southern California. He also invests in early-stage AI and technology ventures. All investments must meet the Maya Framework criteria: under $5M capital requirement, under 18-month timeline to value realization, and clear exit strategy.

Los Angeles · Family Office · AI Infrastructure

Capital at the
threshold of
what comes next.

Q: What is dharmic capitalism?

Dharmic capitalism is VK Singh Vashisht's investment philosophy that integrates ancient Sanskrit principles of right action (dharma) with modern venture and investment discipline. It holds that the best long-term returns come from investing in alignment with one's values and a clear understanding of what constitutes genuine versus illusory wealth. It is not a philosophy — it is a system, encoded in screening tools and decision frameworks that Datura Labs uses to evaluate every opportunity.

VK Singh Vashisht writes on the intersection of artificial intelligence, distressed capital, and the human questions that survive every market cycle.

Read the writing

Three Operating Verticals

LA Arts District, Downtown

2026 Active Deal Flow

Writing Essays from the operating edge

Essay · Finance · Personal

Why I Fired Goldman Sachs

Twelve years of capital formation. One conversation that ended it. What Goldman Sachs private banking actually sells you, what it costs, and what I built instead when I walked out.

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Essay · Framework · Investment

The Maya Framework: Screening for Real Value

Sanskrit philosophy has a word for the illusion that masquerades as wealth. I built a screening system around it. Every investment I evaluate goes through the same five questions.

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AI · Venture · Thesis

The Wrapper Problem Is the Defining Failure Mode of This AI Cycle

Most AI startups are not building. They are wrapping. The distinction matters more than any valuation.

Jan 2026 8 min

Family Office · AI · Operations

What Family Offices Are Getting Wrong About AI

They are buying dashboards. They should be building infrastructure. The difference will compound for a decade.

Dec 2025 12 min

Distressed Capital · Real Estate · Thesis

Distressed Capital Is Patient Capital. Everything Else Is Tourism.

Institutional reluctance is not risk. It is the entry point. A framework for operating in the gap.

Nov 2025 9 min

Real Estate · Fire Zone · Arbitrage

The Case for Fire Zone Arbitrage: What the Palisades Fire Created That No One Is Talking About Yet

Insurance settlements, distressed lots, entitlement timelines, and the asymmetry that emerges when institutional capital refuses to underwrite what family offices can.

Nov 2025 10 min

Ventures Three verticals. One operating thesis.

Datura Capital

Distressed real estate, energy assets, and fire zone arbitrage.

Operating in the gap between institutional reluctance and recoverable value. Distressed commercial real estate, 363 sale oil and gas acquisitions, and fire zone lot arbitrage across Southern California. We go where the capital is patient and the diligence is real.

Distressed CRE Oil & Gas Fire Zone Family Office

Datura Labs AI

AI-native infrastructure for the post-AGI transition.

We build in-house on frontier models rather than paying enterprise SaaS licensing fees. Our architecture evaluates founders, surfaces deal flow, and automates the analytical layer — freeing capital allocation judgment for what machines cannot replicate.

AI Infrastructure LLM Architecture Physical AI Post-AGI

NFNH Studios

Filmmaking and content creation at the edge of story.

No Fear No Hate Studios operates at the intersection of documentary, narrative, and transmedia work. Content creation with a point of view — built for audiences who want to think, not just consume.

Film Documentary Transmedia Creator Economy

Questions What people ask most

What is the Maya Framework?

The Maya Framework is my investment screening system built on the Sanskrit concept of maya — illusion. Most "opportunities" are pseudo-wealth: they look like value creation but are really complexity, fees, and institutional momentum dressed up as returns. The framework asks five questions of every deal: Is the capital requirement under $5M? Is the timeline to value realization under 18 months? What is the political risk? What is the regulatory complexity? What is the exit? If a deal can't answer all five cleanly, it's maya. I pass.

Why did you fire Goldman Sachs?

Because what Goldman sells is access to Goldman — not returns, not counsel, not alignment. The private banking relationship is designed around asset retention and cross-selling, not wealth creation. When I started building the infrastructure to evaluate deals myself, I realized I was paying eight figures in fees for a brand name and a Rolodex I didn't need. I write about this in detail. The short version: when you can do the work better yourself, you should.

What is dharmic capitalism?

Dharmic capitalism is not a philosophy — it is a system. Dharma means right action: action aligned with truth, with what is actually real, rather than what is fashionable. Applied to investing, it means screening for real value creation over optically attractive returns, maintaining integrity in deal structure, and building enterprises that compound over decades rather than sprinting to a liquidity event. Every framework I use — the Maya Framework, the triage pipeline, the deal screening criteria — is dharmic capitalism operationalized.

How do I contact VK Singh Vashisht?

The best way to reach me is by email at vk@daturalabs.com. I read everything and respond to things that are specific, direct, and real. I am not on social media. If you want to know what I think, the writing is here. If you want to discuss a deal, an opportunity, or a collaboration — email me with the specifics.

What types of deals does Datura Capital pursue?

Datura Capital operates in three verticals: distressed commercial real estate (CMBS special servicing, loan-to-own, entitlement arbitrage), distressed oil and gas assets (363 bankruptcy sales, workover opportunities in basins with recoverable production), and fire zone lot arbitrage in Southern California (post-Palisades and Altadena). All deals must meet the Maya Framework criteria: under $5M capital deployment, under 18 months to value realization, and a clear exit. We do not do speculative land plays, early-stage technology investments, or deals where the thesis requires a market to move in our favor.

About Principal · Writer · Operator

VK Singh
Vashisht

Family Office Principal · Los Angeles

I run Datura Capital and Datura Labs out of the Arts District in downtown Los Angeles. Before this, I operated my family's natural gas vertical for twelve years — from 2010 through 2022 — in what most would describe as the worst environment for gas prices in a generation. That discipline is the foundation of everything I do now.

My investing thesis sits at the intersection of distressed assets, AI infrastructure, and the structural dislocations created when institutions move too slowly. I evaluate founders as whole people, not just pitch decks. I believe the wrapper problem is the defining failure mode of the current AI startup cycle. And I believe that human judgment, properly supported by AI, is an asymmetric advantage — not a limitation.

I write here because I am not on social media. If you want to know what I think, you come to my platform, engage with my work on my terms, and form your own view. That is the only arrangement that makes sense to me.