Stealth Startup Spy #155
Stealth Startup Spy #155
Former Techstars Seattle MD launches AI platform for brand asset creation, ex-Capital One Labs PM tackles safer AI deployment, & Canva VP leaves to become CEO of a stealth company
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-Capital One Labs PM launches company to help engineers rapidly deploy safer AI agents by streamlining testing and evaluation
Canva VP and Global Head of Business Marketing leaves to become founder and CEO of a stealth startup
Former Head of Application Infrastructure at Snap (9-year tenure) builds in stealth mode
AI startup co-founded by former Silicon Labs CEO emerges from stealth
Former Techstars Seattle Managing Director launches an AI-powered platform for brand asset auditing and creation
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
Jerry Wu - Co-Founder & CEO at Halluminate
FounderDNA: Top 10 University, Serial Founder
Prior Experience: Product Manager at Capital One Labs, Ex-Machine Learning Researcher at Cornell
Co-Founder: Wyatt Marshall (Ex-Data Engineer at MediaWallah, Ex-Software Engineer at Silq)
Halluminate (backed by Alchemist Accelerator and Antler) empowers AI engineers to ship safer AI agents faster with their product to build, manage, and deploy custom model-as-a-judge systems.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 2
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
Traction Under Stealth: Pivoted during stealth, launched a new product early July. In <3 weeks, gained significant traction. Now piloting with engineers at AI agent startups (ex. Harvey, RogoData, Stripe). Angel round closed. Pre-seed opening mid-August.
Tyson Tuttle - Founder & CEO at Circuit
🔎Featured Founder under stealth mode in StealthStartSpy#144
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Chief Executive Officer at Silicon Labs (27-year tenure)
Connect on: LinkedIn
Circuit aims to build the world’s most trusted and impactful AI solution.
HQ: Austin, Texas, United States
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 39
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 5 months
Yunus Emre - CTO & Co-Founder at Spacture AI
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Ex-Machine Learning at Meta, ex-Machine Learning at Google, ex-Algorithm Engineer at Intel, ex-Performance Architect at Apple
Connect on: LinkedIn
Spacture is a one-stop solution to detect shoplifting, manage watchlists, monitor employee efficiency and get analytics with seam.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 8
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 11 months
Marius Ciocirlan - CEO & Co-Founder at MarkOS
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Prior Exit
Prior Experience: Ex-Managing Director at Techstars Seattle, ex-Co-Founder & CEO at ShareGrid (Acquired by Backstage), ex-Senior Product Designer at Groupon
Connect on: LinkedIn
Co-Founders: David Dawson (co-founder of recycling startup Ridwell), and Wesley Yun (former head of design at Asana)
MarkOS is developing software that uses AI to continuously audit a company’s brand assets such as photos, videos, text, and more.
HQ: Seattle Washington, United States
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 3
Latest Funding: $4M Pre-Seed Round on 07/2024
Key Investors: Ludlow Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Ascend, Breakers, Plug and Play Tech Center, Four Acres Capital
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
Jad Naous - Founder & CEO at Grepr
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Chief Product Officer at Imply ($215M raised), ex-Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, ex-Director of Architecture at AppDynamics, Stanford PhD
Connect on: LinkedIn
Grepr aims to transform observability and reliability, using real-time ML to boost signal-to-noise ratios and help engineers resolve performance problems fasters.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Data Infrastructure and Analytics | Team Size: 10
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 17 months
🕵️♂️Key Talent Going Under Stealth
Illuminating clues left behind by world class talent and influential innovators who just went into stealth mode
Amrita Murali - Founder & CEO at Stealth
FounderDNA: Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-VP, Global Head of Business Marketing at Canva, ex-Head of B2B Marketing at Adobe, ex-Director, Marketing at Gartner
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 months
Gregory Bates - CTO & Co-Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Prior Exit
Prior Experience: Ex-VP of Engineering, Artificial Intelligence at The Coca-Cola Company, ex-CTO at AMP LLC (Acquired by AT&T), ex-Cisco
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 3 months
Raghu Dhara - CEO & Co-Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Director of Data Science at Motive, ex-Co-Founder and CEO at Boltzmann, Harvard alum
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 29 Months
Allen Zhao - Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Senior Hardware Engineer at X, the moonshot factory, ex-Research Engineer at Nissan Research Center (Silicon Valley)
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
Kamran Tirdad - Founder at Stealth
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Ex-Head of Application Infrastructure at Snap (9 year tenure), ex-Software Engineer at Amazon
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: Seattle, Washington, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 10 months
Stay Stealthy,
Drake
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