Stealth Startup Spy #26
Stealth Startup Spy #26
Former Stock Exchange executive launches new investing app, Ex-Stripe engineer debuts sales copilot for closing more deals, & Oxford PhD is stealthily building a revolutionary AI accelerator hardware
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-Stripe Engineer launches real time sales copilot for closing more deals
Oxford PhD stealthily building revolutionary AI accelerator hardware
Ex-LinkedIn/Slack Engineer debuts software platform to deliver weather insights
Former executive at Tel Aviv Stock Exchange launches new investing app (currently in beta)
AI app store for developers and end users emerges from stealth
Ex-Software Engineer at Affirm is working on a new project 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
Gabe Villasana - Co-Founder at Zenfetch
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Ex-ML Engineer at Stripe, ex-Assistant Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute, ex Lyft, ex-MongoDB, ex-Amazon
Connect on: LinkedIn | Twitter
Zenfetch helps high-volume go-to-market teams increase close rate by prioritizing sales opportunities.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 2
Latest Funding: $500K Pre-Seed Round on 4/5/2023
Key Investor: Y Combinator
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 7 months
Youssef Benkirane - Co-Founder & CEO at Terraa
Prior Experience: Ex-General Manager at Zapp, Former Advisor at MakerDAO, Ex- Consultant at Bain & Company and Argon & Co
Connect on: LinkedIn
Terraa directly connects farmers with retailers, restaurants, and service providers in Africa using cutting-edge technology.
HQ: Casablanca, Morocco
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 8
Latest Funding: $1.5M Pre-Seed Round on 2/14/2023
Key Investors: FoodLabs, UM6P Ventures, Outlierz Ventures, Musha Ventures and Africa-centric DFS Lab
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 9 months
Sunil Nagaraj - Founder at Weathersight
Prior Experience: Ex-Staff Software Engineer at Slack and LinkedIn, Former Tech Lead and Manager at Moveworks, Ex-Engineer at Yahoo
Connect on: LinkedIn | Twitter
Weathersight, the modern software platform for discovering and contextualizing global weather trends
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 1
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 15 months
Elad Benbaji - Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Blink
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Masters Degree
Prior Experience: Ex-Director at Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Former Chairman at The TBA Tase Brokers Association, Ex-Visiting Lecturer at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Connect on: LinkedIn
Blink is a simple, clear and convenient investing app for everyone
HQ: Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
Industry: Financial Services | Team Size: 9
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 24 months
Taranjeet Singh - Founder at CookupAI
Prior Experience: OnDeck Fellow, Ex-Senior Product Manager at Khatabook, Ex-Senior Software Engineer at Enclusys
Connect on: LinkedIn | Twitter
Cookup is an AI app store for developers and end users. Developers can create, deploy, distribute and monetize their apps. End users can discover, search and use AI apps
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 1
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
Grady Burnett - Co-Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: VP at Bow Capital, ex-Co-CEO at Macondray Capital, ex-Chief Operating Officer at Flurry, Inc., ex-Facebook, ex-Google, Harvard MBA
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: Menlo Park, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
Zyon Wu - Co-Founder & CTO at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Ex-Senior Deep Learning Engineer at Cruise, ex-Lead Deep Learning Engineer at Magic Leap, ex-Research Intern at Google
Connect on: LinkedIn
Building AI generated guides and automation
HQ: Sunnyvale, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 21 months
Nicolas Garfinkel - Co-Founder & CTO at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Former Head of Product at HundredX, ex-Senior PM, Growth at Microsoft, ex-Program Manager at Amazon, ex-eBay
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: Seattle, Washington, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 6 months
Helen Hastings- Co-Founder & CTO at Stealth
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Senior Staff Software Engineer at Affirm, ex-NerdWallet, ex-Google, ex-VMware
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 10 months
Walter Goodwin - Co-Founder & CEO at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Ex-Applied Scientist: AI & Robotics at Amazon, ex-Associate at Oxford Science Enterprises, University of Oxford PhD
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: United Kingdom
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 5 months
Stay Stealthy,
Drake
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