Vetted Founders

john emerson

Screened

Executive product and AI leader specializing in healthcare, public health, and EdTech

Boulder/Denver, CO15y exp

“Veteran healthtech product leader with a track record spanning consumer health, provider workflows, AI voice agents, and public-sector pilots. They have led both large-scale rebuilds and 0-to-1 products, including work tied to Healthline's $21M Series B, a major Healthgrades revenue platform overhaul, and AI healthcare operations products—while consistently emphasizing human-centered design and measurable outcomes.”

“ML/NLP practitioner and technical founder who built an AUP risk-scoring model at Bill.com using TF-IDF + SVD features with XGBoost, and previously created automated data-quality guardrails for a Global Equity Risk stacked ML model at Thomson Reuters. Recently built a RAG-based chatbot for PaymentJock’s Home Affordability Probability product using embeddings and a local vector database (FAISS/Chroma), improving answer quality through chunking rather than expensive fine-tuning.”

william chen

Screened

Executive game technology leader specializing in product innovation and live-service platforms

Los Angeles, CA27y exp

“Serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits who has previously raised several rounds and worked with accelerators. Currently building an AI-powered life simulation universe with prompt-based creation and a self-evolving persistent world, backed by completed market research and an MVP in development.”

“Former corporate retail leader (25 years) who recently launched a boutique consultancy and has already advised ~12 early-stage founders. Specializes in installing disciplined but lightweight operating systems across merchandising, inventory planning, and wholesale readiness—driving outcomes like +53% YTD growth for a D2C/wholesale apparel brand and rebuilding a NYC candy brand’s margin structure ahead of major wholesaler launches in 2026.”

“Former investment banker who built an AI hiring tech platform to automate early-stage undergraduate screening for investment banks, validated via discovery calls with heads of HR and tailored workflows to bank-specific recruiting needs. Strong 0-to-1 operator with a disciplined approach to problem selection, moat analysis, and lean go-to-market execution.”

Paul Baker

Screened

Director-level Video & Creative Producer specializing in branded storytelling and studio operations

Remote, CA15y exp

“Senior video editor/motion-focused post-production leader with 18+ years in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, including Creative Cloud 2025 AI tools and Dynamic Link workflows. Managed the Google Analytics YouTube channel for hundreds of videos over 6 years at Google, and has delivered brand-critical work for major enterprises (Google, Visa, Capital One, ServiceNow), including tight-turn executive-facing motion pieces.”

hemant jha

Screened

Executive Design & Innovation Leader specializing in product, strategy, and sustainable systems

Chicago, Illinois25y exp

“Product/system designer focused on ultra-clean, modular, customizable work/organization environments (e.g., making stations for studios and fabrication spaces). Emphasizes rules-based interaction models, restrained structural visual language, and hands-on field research/prototyping to embed industrial constraints (tolerances, load paths, safety) into intuitive, training-free user experiences.”

Conway Cheng Cheng

Screened

Executive transformation leader specializing in global risk architecture and financial services

Dallas, TX26y exp

“Advisory and financial-services professional with exposure to PE/VC boards, Big 4 strategic partnerships, and innovation labs, now exploring a commercialization venture via a venture studio model. Brings a structured approach to building new businesses—combining Design Thinking, feasibility testing, rapid prototyping, and SBIR-backed R&D strategy with cross-border market entry and enterprise modernization experience.”

“Game UI engineer with shipped experience on Paladins (Unreal Engine 3/C++), including an in-game store with automated grid-based recommendation layout and an inventory UI built for PC/PlayStation/Xbox/Switch. Emphasizes production readiness through clean separation of UI/data, strong documentation for engineering and content workflows, and memory-conscious UI patterns (pooled entries/paged navigation) for constrained platforms like Switch.”

“Engineering leader with deep hands-on experience across eCommerce, retail commerce, regulatory tech, and IP PBX systems, including building a no-code web application platform. Has managed organizations of up to 65 people while staying involved in architecture and production debugging, and cites measurable impact such as 50% efficiency gains, 100% productivity improvement, and 90% error reduction through partner/API remediation.”

Jourdan Smith

Screened

Executive UX design and research leader specializing in AI, voice, and digital commerce

Chicago, IL15y exp

“Product and UX leader with high-profile experience across Amazon Prime Wardrobe, Amazon Fashion, and Alexa smart home, plus consulting work for large enterprises like Hy-Vee. Particularly compelling for roles at the intersection of product, design, and AI: they’ve built zero-to-one consumer experiences, applied ML to reduce fashion returns, and led scalable UX systems across complex ecosystems while navigating heavyweight enterprise politics.”