Stealth Startup Spy #268
Confluent CTO & Google BigQuery exec enters stealth, Joby, Xwing & LTA Research alum launch autonomous cargo aviation startup, & Dolby Imaging veteran builds foundation for spatial video
If you want your own startup, your portfolio company, or just a rockstar team to get featured in front of our audience of 25K+ investors, submit it here to be considered.
In this issue of the Stealth Startup Spy, here is what we will uncover:
Aerospace veterans from Joby, Xwing, and LTA Research are pioneering rugged, long-range autonomous aircraft for cargo logistics at scale
Former Confluent CTO and Google BigQuery leader is back in stealth
Ex-Apple & Patreon exec launches AI Chief of Staff for revenue teams
Former Microsoft Copilot engineer and Pear VC fellow is now in stealth
Ex-Dolby Imaging Director is developing the core tech for immersive, holographic video experiences across platforms.
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
Arthur Dubois - Co-Founder & CEO at Grid Aero
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Prior Exit, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-VP of Engineering at Xwing (acquired by Joby), ex-Director at Kitty Hawk, ex-Head of Structural Integrity at Joby Aviation, Stanford & McGill aero research
Grid Aero is pioneering the future of autonomous cargo logistics with rugged, long-range aircraft built for scale and resilience.
HQ: San Leandro, California, United States
Industry: Aviation and Aerospace Component Manufacturing | Team Size: 16
Co-Founder: Chinmay Patel (Ex-Director of Systems Engineering at LTA Research, Stanford Aero/Astro) - connect via email
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 15 months
Ceren Koca - Co-Founder & CEO at HumanTruths
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: EiR at Harvard Innovation Labs, ex-Principal Strategy & Insights Lead at Google, ex-Advisor at UNFPA & Irrational Labs
HumanTruths is a behavioral AI platform that uses AI voice agents to capture real stories and emotional insights from hard-to-reach communities - turning them into real-time, actionable data.
HQ: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 2
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 5 months
Vincent Park - Co-Founder & CEO at Scoop
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Product Manager at Persona, ex-Product Manager at Dropbox, ex-Founding Engineer at Bedrock Analytics, ex-Software Engineer at Viglink
Scoop is accelerating product innovation & compliance with AI-Native Intelligence for CPGs.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 2
Co-Founder: Jay Kwon (Ex-Senior Software Engineer at Google, ex-Bioinformatics Engineer at Corestem, ex-Developer at ChunLab, UPenn & Genentech bioinformatics)
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 months
Atish Das Sarma - Co-Founder at Aida
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Ex-Head of Growth Engineering at Patreon, ex-Head of AI, Apple Cloud Services at Apple, ex-Data Science at Twitter, ex-Staff Research Scientist at eBay, ex-Research Scientist at Google
AIDA is the AI Chief of Staff built for revenue teams.
HQ: Palo Alto, California, United States
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 17
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 19 months
Chaitanya Atluru - Co-Founder & CEO at Aina Tech
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree
Prior Experience: Ex-Director Imaging Research and Engineering at Dolby Laboratories, ex-Principal Architect at Atria Logic
Aina Tech is building the foundation for spatial video - enabling a future where all content, from YouTube to Netflix, becomes immersive and holographic.
HQ: United States
Industry: Technology, Information and Media | Team Size: 5
Latest Funding: $1M Pre-Seed Round on 8/1/2025
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 20 months
🕵️♂️Key Talent Going Under Stealth
Illuminating clues left behind by world class talent and influential innovators who just went into stealth mode
Julia Weingart - Co-Founder & CTO at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Senior Platform Engineer on Microsoft Copilot at Microsoft AI, ex-Pear VC fellow, ex-Software Engineer on Application Insights Ingestion Service at Microsoft, ex-Software Development Engineer at Zillow
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 3 months
Jason Sun - Building in Stealth
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Global Supply Manager at Apple, ex-Knowledge Analyst at McKinsey & Company, ex-Supplier Industrialization Engineer Intern at Tesla
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 month
Naman Kapasi - CEO at Stealth
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Top 10 University, Prior Exit
Prior Experience: Investor at Big Brain Holdings, Managing Partner at Berkeley AI Group, ex-ML Research Scientist at Adobe, ex-Software Engineer at Amazon, ex-Co-Founder at Kalder
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: New York, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 month
Chad Verbowski - CEO at Stealth
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Ex-CTO at Confluent, ex-Head of BigQuery Engineering at Google, ex-Software Architect at Microsoft, ex-Sr. Director of Hadoop, Data Mining, and Infrastructure (HDMI) at eBay
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 6 months
Jayme Huber - Co-Founder at Stealth
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Director of Product Management at Wayfair, ex-Case Team Leader at Bain & Company, Harvard MBA, ex-Engineer at Whirlpool
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
🚨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!
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 on X / Twitter to never miss a company operating under stealth again.
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.