This Week’s Talent Pools

Anduril, the defense tech giant led by Palmer Luckey, is raising around $4 billion at a $60 billion valuation led by a16z and Thrive Capital, Axios has learned from multiple sources.

  1. Jadon Smith in LA (Stealth)

    1. Role: Principal Engineer @ Anduril (3.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: CTO @ Mach Industries ($185M from Khosla, Bedrock, Sequoia), Co-Founder @ Arrivo (backed by Wavemaker), Propulsion Eng @ Lockheed Martin, Weapons Intelligence Analyst @ CIA, Stanford MS, MIT BS

    3. Description: Stealth since 9/24

  2. Xerxes Libsch in SF (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Chief Engineer / Lead Architect @ Anduril (5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Robotics Engineer of Autonomous Vehicles @ Uber ATG, Robotics @ Neuralink, Race Engineer @ Arrow McLaren IndyCar

    3. Description: “Drones that do crazy things”

  3. Mohith Mothukuri in SF (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Senior Mechatronics Engineer @ Anduril (2 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Founding MTS @ Physical Intelligence ($1B from Thrive, Lux, Sequoia, Khosla, Index), Spacecraft Engineer Intern @ Varda Space, Managing Partner @ Rough Draft Ventures, Engineering Fellow @ 8VC

    3. Description: Left Physical Intelligence in 2025 with no updates

    4. Contact: [email protected]

  4. Curt von Badinski in LA (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Chief Architect @ Anduril (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder & CTO @ Motiv Inc ($24M from KP —> acquired by Proxy), Venture Founder @ Eclipse, Sr. HW Dev Engineer @ Amazon Project Kuiper, Sr. ME @ Facebook

    3. Description: Left Anduril on 11/24 with no updates

  5. Matt Zipfel in LA (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Head of Mechanical Engineering @ Anduril (4.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Director @ SpaceX (14 yrs)

    3. Description: Left Anduril Jan 2025 with no updates

Replit, an SF-based development environment, raised $400m in Series D funding. Georgian led, joined by G Squared, Prysm Capital, 1789 Capital, YC, Coatue, a16z, Craft Ventures, QIA, Accenture Ventures, Databricks Ventures, Okta Ventures, Tether, Shaquille O'Neal, and Jared Leto. axios.link/4ruZU2Z

  1. Jassim Latif in SF (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: VP of Operations @ Replit (1.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: VP of Product Partnerships @ Glean, Co-Founder & COO @ Zipper ($6M Seed), Director of Product & Strategic Partnerships @ Slack, 4th FTE & Director of BD @ BitGo ($170M from Redpoint, Founders Fund), EIR @ Social Capital, Co-Founder & CEO @ Tiller (Seed from Social Capital), Business Analyst @ Google

    3. Description: Left Glean on 12/25

    4. Contact: Twitter

  2. Marcus Naughton in SF (Founder @ Arklow)

    1. Role: SWE @ Replit (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Founding SWE @ Bland AI ($65M from Emergence, Scale VP, YC), Founder & CEO @ Chatsight (backed by Entrepreneur First)

    3. Description: "Agent work is infinite, hardware is constrained. We help that work get done durably."

    4. Contact: Site, GitHub, Twitter

Vast, a four-year-old startup based in Long Beach, CA, that develops commercial space stations designed for microgravity research and manufacturing, raised a $300 million Series A round led by Balerion Space Ventures, with IQT, Qatar Investment Authority, Mitsui & Co., MUFG, Nikon, Stellar Ventures, Space Capital, and Earthrise Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $1+ billion. Tech Funding News has more here.

  1. Robert Wiggenhorn in LA (Stealth)

    1. Role: VP of Space Station Engineering @ Vast (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Director of Starlink Enterprise Engineering @ SpaceX

    3. Description: Stealth since 12/25

Zendesk is acquiring Forethought, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that develops AI software to automate customer service interactions. Terms were not disclosed. Forethought raised a total of $115 million from investors like Blue Cloud Ventures, NEA, Industry Ventures, Neo, Village Global, and Sound Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

  1. Volodymyr Lyubinets in SF (Stealth)

    1. Role: Founding Engineer & Engineering Manager @ Forethought (6.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: SWE @ Databricks, SWE @ LinkedIn, SWE @ Facebook, UWaterloo CS, ACM ICPC finals & regional champion, top 100 Putnam individuals in NA

    3. Description: CTO @ Stealth AI since 10/25

    4. Contact: [email protected]

  2. Colm Doyle in SF (CEO @ ContextRiver)

    1. Role: Co-Founder & CCO @ Forethought (7 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Director @ Autonomy, Director @ Blinkx

    3. Description: "Context River unifies and normalizes your enterprise data into AI-ready context, then serves it securely to applications and agents."

    4. Contact: Twitter

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