Vetted Director of Engineerings

Neha Baadadmath

Screened

Executive Software Engineering Leader specializing in Trading, Payments, and FinTech platforms

Phoenix, AZ18y exp

“Entrepreneurially minded operator with experience in trading-platform environments who prototyped a vector-database layer to generate contextual incident narratives and reduce MTTR/escalations. Also building a non-tech venture: luxury wine distribution into India and broader Asian markets, sourcing directly from wineries with a Master of Wine and planning tier-1 launch via restaurant-owner connections while navigating complex import duties and licensing.”

Kyle Bashy

Screened

Executive Engineering Leader specializing in cloud security platforms and enterprise applications

Remote, USA22y exp

“Owner and service provider of an IT practice exploring a transition into startup founding. Has spent ~15 years researching the VC/studio/accelerator landscape and evaluates new ideas through forecasting and stakeholder conversations, with a current focus on improving prospecting and qualified lead generation.”

“Co-founded a Digital Loss Prevention (DLP) startup and raised $6M in seed funding by showcasing a controlled, laptop-based technology demo. Post-funding, drove MVP planning and execution by sequencing operations and assembling a team to build an appliance MVP, using an iterative build/evaluate/visualize approach.”

Shruti Krishnagiri

Screened

Executive Engineering Leader & Technical Founder specializing in AI automation platforms

San Francisco Bay Area, California20y exp

“Founder/CTO who built and shipped a consumer subscription-bundling platform end-to-end (architecture, implementation, testing) and scaled it to thousands of customers and major partners. Previously led a major reliability overhaul at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for a Google-Docs-like ed-tech product—boosted observability, introduced incident management, and migrated to a Docker-based scalable architecture. Heavy user of AI tools (Cursor/Claude) for development, testing, and code review, with a strong bias toward lightweight, fast-moving execution.”

“Brazil-based startup CTO who raised $3M and spent 5 years building an agri-fintech credit origination tool for farmers, including going through Y Combinator and fundraising via Demo Day and Brazilian VCs. Ultimately shut the company down due to market shifts (rising interest rates and farmer delinquency), demonstrating pragmatic judgment and deep exposure to credit-market dynamics.”

Blake Thomas

Screened

Director-level Engineering Leader specializing in AI and EdTech platforms

San Mateo, CA21y exp

“Has been on the receiving end of a VC investment and took responsibility for significant parts of the diligence process, drawing parallels to hands-on work with security compliance and auditors. Approaches entrepreneurship and idea selection with a structured framework (leverage, resources/runway, passion) and a sustainability-first mindset around risk and personal/family well-being.”