Stealth Startup Spy #21
Web3 startup exits stealth with $1.1M pre-seed funding, Ex-Twitter Engineer goes incognito for stealthy new project, & Ex-Google/McKinsey alum debuts AI energy surveyor platform (waitlist only)
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:
Former Twitter Engineering Manager goes incognito for stealthy new project
Doordash-inspired sustainable fashion marketplace exits stealth, offers 2-hour delivery
Ex-Google/McKinsey alum debuts AI energy surveyor platform (waitlist only)
Web3 startup exits stealth with $1.1M pre-seed funding
Former Engineering Lead at Google and Amazon is building in stealth mode
Waitlist opens for AI-powered personal assistant that adapts to any software product
Ex-Meta Engineer is building an AI-powered product 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
Francois Le Nguyen - Co-Founder & CEO at Staging Labs
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Masters Degree
Prior Experience: Former General Manager at Entrepreneur First
Connect on: LinkedIn | Twitter
Staging Labs makes crypto safe & easy to use.
HQ: Miami, Florida, United States
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 3
Latest Funding: $1.1M Pre-Seed Round on 3/15/2023
Key Investors: The General Partnership, Flourish Ventures, NGC Ventures, AlphaGrep, Gaingels
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 11 months
Matt Goodridge - Co-Founder at Kestrix
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Ex-Google Product Manager, Ex-McKinsey, Ex-Vodafone
Kestrix takes the guess work out of retrofit planning to drive the built environment's climate transition
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 2
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
Prasanna Thengodkar - Co-Founder at Potato Electric
FounderDNA: Technical Founder
Prior Experience: Ex-Senior System Engineer at 2getthere, Ex-Vehicle Architect
Connect on: LinkedIn
Potato Electric builds a highly optimized charging network for Light EVs (e-bikes, e-scooters, mopeds.
HQ: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 2
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 10 months
Amr El-Shimi - Co-Founder & CTO at Dropshop
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Director of Product Management at Sakara Life, Plated and Hudson's Bay Company, ex-Zalando, Intuit, Comcast
Connect on: LinkedIn
Dropshop is a local online marketplace enabling customers to shop sustainably from fashion retailers with 2-hour delivery
HQ: New York, New York, United States
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 4
Latest Funding: Seed Round on 10/05/2022
Key Investor: Plug and Play Tech Center
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 8 months
Chris Naco - Co-Founder & CTO at UserLove
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder
Prior Experience: Former Financial Analyst at ARPU Research Labs, Co-Founder at Copilot (raised Seed), ex-Associate at Macquarie
Connect on: LinkedIn
UserLove uses AI to build a personalized assistant for any software product.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 1
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 5 months
🕵️♂️Key Talent Going Under Stealth
Illuminating clues left behind by world class talent and influential innovators who just went into stealth mode
Yaxiong Zhao - Founder & CEO at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Founding Engineer at Pixie ($9.2M raised), ex-Google Engineering Lead, ex-Amazon Software Engineer
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
Honglei Liu - Co-Founder at Stealth Mode
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Ex-Twitter Engineering Manager. Ex-Head of ML at Fast (acquihired by Affirm). Ex-Meta
Connect on: LinkedIn | Twitter
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 3 months
Seung W. Lee - Co-Founder & CTO at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Ex-Meta Engineering Manager. Ex-Uber, Microsoft
Connect on: LinkedIn
Building an AI-powered product
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 12 months
Guy Gur-Ari - Co-Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Ex-Google Research Scientist. Weizmann Institute PhD. Stanford Postdoctoral Fellow
Connect on: LinkedIn | Twitter
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
Subu Biswas - Co-Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Former FAANG
Prior Experience : Ex-Airbnb Engineering Manager. Ex-Microsoft
Connect on: LinkedIn | Twitter
Building something new with generative AI.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 3 months
Stay Stealthy,
Drake
Thank you for reading. If you liked it, share it with your friends, colleagues and everyone interested in staying ahead of the hidden developments in tech. Subscribe below and follow us Twitter to never miss a company operating under stealth again.