Stealth Startup Spy #130
Ex-Airbnb builds stealth online travel booking startup, French AI startup exits stealth with $30M seed funding, & Former Twitch VP launches gen AI platform for hyper-personalized demos
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:
French AI startup exits stealth with $30M seed funding; its founder and CEO previously worked at Nvidia, Apple, Tesla and Intel
Founder with prior exit to Snapchat unveils a social platform for coworkers
Airbnb’s Head of Commercial Strategy leaves to become CEO of a stealth online travel booking startup
Ex-VP of Engineering & Applied Science at Twitch debuts a platform to create and deliver hyper-personalized product demos using Gen AI
Founder of self-driving startup Voyage, acquired by Cruise, is building a new venture at the intersection of AI and computer graphics
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
Omar Javed - Co-Founder & CTO at PuppyDog
🔎Featured Founder under stealth mode in StealthStartSpy#83
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Former FAANG, Prior Exit
Prior Experience: Ex-VP of Engineering & Applied Science (Discovery) at Twitch, ex-Chief Scientist at ClipMine (acquired by Twitch), ex-Principal Scientist at SRI International
Connect on: LinkedIn
PuppyDog is a hyper-personalized demo platform that produces product demos tailored for each buyer's persona.
HQ: Palo Alto, California, United States
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 4
Latest Funding: Pre-Seed funding led by Andrew NG and AI Fund
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 9 months
Giles Goodwin - Founder & CEO at Fide
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Prior Exit
Prior Experience: Ex-Head of Content Product at Snap, ex-Co-Founder, CEO at Flite (acquired by Snap), ex-Chief SES Architect at Vignette, ex-Director of Engineering at Epicentric
Connect on: LinkedIn
Fide is building a social platform for coworkers to build genuine connections and lasting bonds.
HQ: Colorado, United States
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 8
Key Investors: NEA, General Catalyst
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 25 months
Lin Ling - Co-Founder & CEO at Modus
FounderDNA: Technical Founder
Prior Experience: Ex-Vice President, Business Operations at HashiCorp, ex-Director, Growth Marketing at SourceClear, ex-Growth Marketing Lead at Spigit, ex-Deloitte
Connect on: LinkedIn
Modus analyzes data across an organization to help leaders optimize their workforce and increase forecast accuracy.
HQ: San Diego, California, United States
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 1
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
Umair Mohammed - Chief Executive Officer at Nitro Commerce
🔎Featured Founder under stealth mode in StealthStartSpy#86
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Prior Exit
Prior Experience: Ex-Founder at Wigzo Technologies (acquired by Shiprocket), Founder at Pyxel Online, ex-Citibank India
Connect on: LinkedIn
Nitro offers the AI tools to fuel India’s e-commerce growth.
HQ: Gurugram, Haryana, India
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 18
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 9 months
Brijesh Tripathi - CEO & Co-Founder at FlexAI
🔎Featured Founder under stealth mode in StealthStartSpy#78
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Vice President, AXG at Intel, ex-Vice President, Hardware Engineering at Zoox, ex-Tesla, ex-Platform Architect at Apple, ex-NVIDIA
Connect on: LinkedIn
FlexAI is delivering universal AI compute by rearchitecting compute infrastructure at a system level.
HQ: Paris, France
Industry: Computers and Electronics Manufacturing | Team Size: 23
Latest Funding: $30M Seed Round on 4/24/2024
Key Investors: Alpha Intelligence Capital (AIC), Elaia Partners, Heartcore Capital, Frst Capital, Motier Ventures
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 8 months
🕵️♂️Key Talent Going Under Stealth
Illuminating clues left behind by world class talent and influential innovators who just went into stealth mode
David Holyoke - Founder & CEO at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder
Prior Experience: Ex-Head of Commercial Strategy at Airbnb, ex-Co-founder & President at Travel Leaders Corporate
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Working on a startup aimed at transforming online travel booking
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 months
Jason Kao - Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Technical Founder
Prior Experience: Ex-Head of Security Research and Solutions at CloudQuery, ex-Staff Security Engineer, Cloud at Praetorian, ex-Director, Cloud Security Architecture at Fidelity Investments, ex-Engineer, IT at Cisco
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: Durham, North Carolina, United States
Building a cloud data security startup.
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
Oliver Cameron - Co-Founder & CEO at Stealth
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Prior Exit
Prior Experience: Ex-VP, Product at Cruise, ex-Co-Founder & CEO at Voyage (acquired by Cruise), ex-VP, Product & Engineering at Udacity, ex-Co-Founder & CEO at Everyme (funded by Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, and Tencent)
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: Palo Alto, California, United States
Building at the intersection of AI and computer graphics.
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 10 months
Sean Gilfillan - Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Chief Marketing Officer at Viasat ($1B+ revenue company), ex-CMO for Boeing’s Strategy Function & VC Arm, Former US Diplomat/Army Strategist
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Building a solution to a problem faced by solo founders.
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
Thad Hwang - Founder at Something New
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Chief Product Officer at REPLICA, ex-Chief Product Officer at The Black Tux, ex-Director of Product Management at Lyft, ex-VP, Consumer Products at Slice, ex-Director of Product Management at eBay
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: Los Angeles, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 20 months
Stay Stealthy,
Drake
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