Stealth Startup Spy #188
Ex-Duolingo execs launch EdTech startup with $13M funding led by Khosla Ventures, Ex-Meituan Mobike CEO debuts iOS Generative AI game, & Former Retool Head of New Products starts stealth startup
🚨Here’s the deal🚨This email has gotten too big. Exciting, but with more people following it, the edge diminishes. I’ve thought long and hard about what to do to preserve the value in the signals. I’m not sure about the final direction yet, but in the meantime I’ve been sending an email 48 hours earlier to a select group of paid subscribers. The feedback has been pretty positive so I’m going to open up the list for another 100 spots. To get signals early, Apply here!
In this issue of the Stealth Startup Spy, here is what we will uncover:
Ex-Duolingo executives launch EdTech startup with $13M in funding led by Khosla Ventures
Poolside competitor goes live, founded by Tiktok and Microsoft alumni
Former Head of New Products at Retool leaves to found stealth startup
Ex-President & CEO of Mobike at Meituan ($38.4B in Revenue) launches iOS Generative AI game
Ex-VP of Engineering at Instacart and Director of Engineering at Google is building in stealth mode
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
Eric Liu - Founder & CEO at Enjoy AI Town
🔎Featured Founder under stealth mode in StealthStartSpy#146
FounderDNA: Serial Founder
Prior Experience: Ex-President & CEO of Bike-Sharing at Meituan (Publicly Traded - $38.4B in Revenue), ex-Managing Director, Alibaba Language at Alibaba Group, Founder, One Cloud Technology and Zuodao (Sold to Alibaba Group)
Enjoy is an UGC-driven immersive AI experience, now in beta.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Gaming, AI Companion | Team Size: 11
Key Team Members: HQ Liu, ex-Team Lead at Games, AppLovin; Alvis Zhou, Lead Engineer, Alibaba Modelscape
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 11 months
Traction Under Stealth: On-boarding test users
William Dulude - Co-Founder & CEO at HappyPath
Prior Experience: Ex-Managing Director - Product at HUB, ex-Chief Product Officer at Clear Street, ex-Director of Electronic Trading Product at Galaxy Digital
Connect on: LinkedIn
HappyPath enables anyone to use natural language for automated testing, report generation and artifact creation.
HQ: New York, New York, United States
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 8
Latest Funding: $4M in Angel funding
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 11 months
Tom Garnett - Co-Founder & CEO at Refute
Prior Experience: Ex-General Manager of Labyrinth Intelligence at Ripjar, ex-Head of Business Development at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence
Connect on: LinkedIn
Refute is a technology company fighting disinformation, detecting and responding to campaigns at the speed of the attackers.
HQ: London Area, United Kingdom
Industry: Information Services | Team Size: 2
Co-Founder: Vlad Galu (Ex-Consulting CTO at 101 Ways, ex-CTO at GlobalSign, ex-Engineering Manager at Inmarsat)
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 11 months
Aymeric Zhuo - Co-Founder & CEO at Agemo
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree
Prior Experience: Ex-Technical Product Lead at Shift Lab, ex-Product Lead at sunday, ex-Senior Product Manager at TikTok, ex-Data Science Lead at Activision Blizzard Media
Connect on: LinkedIn
Agemo is developing AI systems that can reason about software at a fundamental level.
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 12
Co-Founder: Osman Ramadan (featured in SSS#40) Ex-Research Scientist at Shift Lab, ex-Microsoft
Latest Funding: $4M Seed Round on 11/2024
Key Investors: Firstminute Capital, Fly Ventures
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
Jorge Mazal - Co-founder & CEO at Outsmart College
🔎Featured Founder under stealth mode in StealthStartSpy#134
FounderDNA: Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Chief Product Officer at Duolingo, ex-Director of Product Management at Lucid Software, ex-Senior Product Manager at MyFitnessPal
Connect on: LinkedIn
Outsmart College aims to make higher education significantly more accessible and equitable, worldwide.
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 3
Co-Founders: Daniel Falabella (Ex-Duolingo, Dropbox and Lucid) , Gina Gotthilf - featured in SSS#173 (Ex-Duolingo, Tumblr)
Latest Funding: $13M Seed Round on 11/18/2024
Key Investor: Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed, Latitud, Karman Ventures
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 6 months
🕵️♂️Key Talent Going Under Stealth
Illuminating clues left behind by world class talent and influential innovators who just went into stealth mode
Jamie Cuff - Founder at Stealth
Driving innovation in a $300B sector with AI at the core. (twitter anoucement here)
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Prior Exit
Prior Experience: Ex-Head of Self-serve & New Products at Retool, Co-founder at Cheer (acquired by Retool), ex-Data Scientist at Sequoia
Connect on: LinkedIn or Twitter
HQ: New York, New York, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 8 months
Yuchen Wu - Founder at Stealth
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-VP of Engineering at Instacart, ex-Principal Engineer & Director of Engineering at Google, ex-Research Assistant at Northwestern University
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 month
Behtash Behin-Aein - Co-Founde/CEO at Stealth Mode Startup Company
Creating a new computing platform for core tasks in Generative AI (Ludwig Computing)
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: DARPA Activate Fellow, ex-Entrepreneurial Lead, Innovation Corps at National Science Foundation (NSF), ex-Senior Member of Technical Staff at GlobalFoundries, ex-Postdoctoral Fellow at Purdue University
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 years 6 months
Traction Under Stealth: Secured multiple prestigious grants and contracts, completed key R&D milestones in advanced computing technologies, and are now building the core team and preparing to scale with external funding.
Aman Bhatti - Co-Founder & CEO at Stealth Mode
Building in Digital Health
FounderDNA: Serial Founder
Prior Experience: Ex-CEO at Cumulus Neuroscience, ex-Senior Vice President at AliveCor, ex-Global Head, Digital Health & Medicinesat Sanofi, ex-GSK, ex-Novartis
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: Menlo Park, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
Dean Glas - Co-Founder & CEO at Stealth AI Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Prior Exit
Prior Experience: Ex-Co-Founder & CEO at SellX ($4M raised), ex-Co-Founder & CEO at GeoGif (acquired by TikTok)
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: New York, New York, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 11 months
Stay Stealthy,
Drake
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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 shine a light on the hidden world of stealth startups.