Vetted Founders

“Operations-focused leader specializing in rebuilding and scaling marketing/product/commercial operating models during rapid growth and leadership change. Known for implementing integrated quarterly planning, intake/resourcing, and KPI reporting systems that de-silo teams (including B2B enterprise, sales, and marketing) and create predictable execution, clearer decision rights, and scalable operating rhythms.”

Rom Manzano

Screened

Executive technical founder and full-stack engineer specializing in AI, SaaS, and FinTech

New York, NY15y exp

“Engineer coming out of a venture studio as it winds down, now seeking another zero-to-one environment with strong studio support and go-to-market playbooks. They show a thoughtful founder mindset centered on rapid shipping, design-partner validation, lean execution, and testing whether users will actually pay for a workflow-specific solution.”

Shailaja Domala

Screened

Executive product and AI leader specializing in data platforms and analytics

California, USA24y exp

“Engineering leader with deep experience at Visa building and modernizing large-scale analytics platforms, including refactoring legacy systems into globally available microservices on AWS. Combines hands-on technical judgment in architecture, search platform evaluation, and service reliability with management of distributed international engineering and data teams.”

Ananda Kanagaraj Sankar

Screened

Engineering Leader specializing in marketplace monetization, pricing, payments, and trust & safety

San Jose, CA14y exp

“Early-stage founder in the ideation phase who previously took a hackathon concept in digital accessibility from prototype to a scalable SaaS platform, validating with developers, government web teams, and accessibility experts; the product was selected for deployment by the Indian Government. Strong focus on MVP validation, leveraging AI/automation, and building with limited resources; requires visa sponsorship due to immigration status.”

“International development and consulting professional with experience spanning Deloitte, McKinsey, the World Bank, IFC, IDB, and the International Rescue Committee. She has led multi-million-dollar global programs, authored proposals and published research, operated in emergency relief settings across East Africa, and even launched her own startup—bringing a rare mix of strategy, finance oversight, field execution, and high-level stakeholder management.”

“Operator with consulting and startup experience who has led founder-level, zero-to-one initiatives across highly complex domains—from conceiving and launching an $80M, 80m maritime disaster-response vessel for Global Support & Development (Sergey Brin’s org) to acting as a cross-functional leader at Windfall Bio spanning regulatory, GTM, partnerships, and R&D. At Deloitte, owned the Omnia ESG software roadmap and drove >30% faster delivery through standardization/automation, and was tapped to train other managers on their operating cadence system.”

“Co-founded academic-index (10,000+ users) and built a full-stack Next.js 14 document upload + client-side OCR + Gemini-powered analysis pipeline with strong production reliability (custom monitoring, retries, quality gates) and measurable gains (accuracy ~94%→98.5%, failures down ~60%). Also owns end-to-end biometric data visualization and a data-driven brand/UX overhaul at pre-seed health/performance startup Absolute Rest, with a background running a multi-client dev studio (Zen Digital).”

Dexin Huang

Screened

Junior AI Engineer specializing in LLM systems, RAG, and full-stack automation

Guilford, CT1y exp

“Built and deployed an AI receptionist product for field-service businesses (HVAC/electrician), including real-time Jobber scheduling integrations and Twilio-based calling. Combines hands-on customer/operator shadowing with strong production engineering (queueing to handle API limits, rigorous testing/mocking, mirrored prod environment) and cross-layer troubleshooting, driving user adoption through review/override workflows.”

“Former VC and angel investor with board experience (Sand Hill Angels) who has raised money for their own companies and helped over two dozen companies prepare for fundraising and M&A. Strong fit for CEO roles in venture-backed environments given extensive capital markets and deal-prep exposure.”

Steve Palley

Screened

Executive product leader specializing in marketplaces, consumer products, and health-tech

Los Angeles, CA21y exp

“Product leader with a rare mix of zero-to-one marketplace building, AI product development, and mission-driven consumer experience work. Led the creation of StoryLoom at Pixelberry/Nexon as a 'Roblox for writers,' is currently building a privacy-conscious AI concierge for a first responder coaching marketplace, and previously co-founded ApplyMap to deliver free AI-powered college guidance for underserved students.”

“Entrepreneurial candidate building an AI startup focused on helping companies find product-market fit. They are already at MVP stage with 3 beta customers and are using A/B testing for validation, showing early traction and a hands-on approach to customer-driven product development.”

Estime Aristomene

Screened

Executive CTO specializing in regulated FinTech payments and AML

Dallas, TX21y exp

“Founder of two bootstrapped ventures—Brain Matched, a career tech platform, and AIqorx, a software/infrastructure company. Distinguishes themself as a builder focused on modular, scalable technical infrastructure that reduces technical debt and speeds execution, with a venture-studio mindset around creating shared tech stacks that give portfolio companies an advantage.”