Stealth Startup Spy #115
Ex-Cloud Native CTO at Venafi, acquired for $1.2B, debuts security startup, Head of Growth Engineering at Patreon starts stealth AI/ML venture, & Former GM of Gusto launches AI powered HR for SMBs
Stealth Startup Spy is a data-driven newsletter for investors, journalists and tech enthusiasts interested in uncovering the next big move for key talent, real-time stealth company launches and technology advancements not in plain sight. We leverage the technology built at Gravity to track billions of data points to help you identify tomorrow's opportunities that are currently hiding in the shadows. These signals include tracking the inflows and outflows of talent who work at “Stealth Startups”, bios and profile changes to “building something new” and monitoring press releases to shine a light on the hidden world of stealth startups.
In this issue of the Stealth Startup Spy, here is what we will uncover:
Ex-Cloud Native CTO at Venafi (acquired by Thoma Bravo for $1.2B) launches a semi-stealth company focused on security in multi/hybrid cloud environments.
The ex-COO of Lydia, a French banking app unicorn, has made a significant pivot, now focusing on building in climate tech.
Head of Growth Engineering at Patreon leaves to co-found a stealth AI/ML startup.
Former GM of Gusto’s HR platform launches an AI powered HR person for SMBs
Ex-Head of Operations at Chief ($140M raised female-only leadership club) is building something new in stealth
And more…
Now let’s shine the spotlight… 💡💡💡
🕵️♂️Founders Coming Out of Stealth
Real-time updates from founders who debut what they’ve been working on under stealth mode
Upeka Bee - Founder & CEO at DianaHR
🔎Featured Founder under stealth mode in StealthStartSpy#78
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Head of HR Platform at Gusto, Founding Team Member at YesPath (Acquired), ex-Senior Software Engineer at Salesforce
Connect on: LinkedIn
DianaHR offers businesses an expert HR and Operations team to manage compliance, payroll, benefits, and back-office tasks
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Human Resources Services | Team Size: 4
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 6 months
Michael Haddad - Co-Founder & CTO at Konko AI
🔎Featured Founder under stealth mode in StealthStartSpy#76
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Director of Product & Data Science at Retain.ai, ex-Senior Product Manager at C3 AI, ex-Senior Vehicle Program Manager at Bird
Connect on: LinkedIn
Konko AI makes LLM-powered apps instantly and automatically high-performing, secure, reliable and cost-effective.
HQ: New York, New York, United States
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 5
Latest Funding: $700K Pre-Seed on 10/8/2023
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 11 months
Claire Lee - Co-Founder & CEO at Scritch
🔎Featured Founder under stealth mode in StealthStartSpy#69
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Machine Learning Engineer at Tesla, ex-Research Collaborator - Computational Psychiatry Group at IBM
Connect on: LinkedIn
Scritch empowers veterinarians to start, run, and grow their own practices.
HQ: Menlo Park, California, United States
Industry: Veterinary Services | Team Size: 2
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 9 months
Matthew Bates - Founder & CEO at Cofide Security
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder
Prior Experience: Ex-CTO - Cloud Native at Venafi (acquired by Thoma Bravo), ex-CTO at Jetstack, ex-Solutions Architect at MongoDB, ex-Senior Terminal Architect at Deutsche Telekom (UK)
Connect on: LinkedIn
Cofide is a new company focused on security, particularly in the realm of identity and Zero Trust security, especially in multi/hybrid cloud environments.
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Industry: Cybersecurity | Team Size: 1
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 7 months
Daniel Hensley - Co-Founder & CTO at Driver AI
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Co-Founder & Head of Engineering at Infinity AI, ex-Senior Software Engineer at Edge Analytics, ex-Manager of Software & MPI Scientist at Magnetic Insight, ex-Co-inventor & Owner at CoolCore Biomedical Technologies
Connect on: LinkedIn
Driver AI is a tool to explain millions of lines of code at a fraction of the cost and time of conventional technical discovery
HQ: United States
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 27
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 10 months
🕵️♂️Key Talent Going Under Stealth
Illuminating clues left behind by world class talent and influential innovators who just went into stealth mode
Henry Liu - Co-Founder at Attuned
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Vice President Of Engineering at Compass (NYSE: COMP), ex-CTO, Co-founder at Glide (acquired by Compass), ex-VP Engineering, Core Platform at Zenefits, ex-Director, Ad Platform Engineering at Boingo Wireless
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: Mountain View, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 10 months
Sagar Shah - Founder & CEO at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Co-Founder at Made Renovation (backed by Insight Partners, Founders Fund, Base10, Felicis Ventures, and others), ex-Product Development at Dacor, ex-Business Operations at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 8 months
Victor Jolly - Co-Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Masters Degree
Prior Experience: Ex-COO at Lydia (French banking app unicorn), ex-McKinsey & Company, ex-Strategy Analyst at ENGIE, ex-Deutsche Bank
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: France
Building a climate tech company.
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 12 months
Ashvini (Thammaiah) Rao - Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Head of Operations at Chief ($140M raised female-only leadership club), ex-Chief Operating Officer at Lawn Love, ex-Director of Operations at Handy HQ, ex-Director of Alliances at LexisNexis
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 3 months
Atish Das Sarma - Co-Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Former FAANG, Doctorate Degree
Prior Experience: Ex-Head of Growth Engineering at Patreon, ex-Head of Apple Cloud Machine Learning at Apple, ex-Data Science at Twitter, Co-Founder at DeepSie (acquihired by Twitter), ex-Ebay, ex-Google
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco Bay Area, United States
Building in the AI/ML space.
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 months
Stay Stealthy,
Drake
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