This Week’s Talent Pools

Plaid, a 13-year-old San Francisco-based fintech that connects apps to users’ bank accounts for payments and data verification, was valued at $8 billion in an employee share sale, up from $6.1 billion last year but still about 40% below its $13.4 billion 2021 peak. TechCrunch has more here.

  1. John Backus in SF (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: CTO of Cognito @ Plaid (4 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder & CTO @ Cognito (Khosla, LSVP, YC —> acquired by Plaid for $250M), Stanford CS (dropped out)

    3. Description: Left Plaid on 2/26

    4. Contact: Site, Twitter

  2. Niko Karvounis in NYC (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Head of Developer Platform @ Plaid (3.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder & CEO @ fabric.ai (First Round Capital, BoxGroup, Abstract), Co-Founder & CPO @ Quovo ($35M from F-Prime, FinTech Collective —> acquired by Plaid for ~$200M), Interim CPO @ Headway ($321M from Spark, a16z, Thrive Capital), MBA @ Harvard, MSc @ Oxford, BA @ Harvard

    3. Description: Left Headway on 2/25

  3. Edmund Loo in SF (Stealth)

    1. Role: Early SWE @ Plaid (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Founder @ Vira ($6M raised), Founding SWE @ Neeva ($78M from Sequoia, Greylock —> acquired by Snowflake)

    3. Description: Working on something new per site

    4. Contact: Site

  4. Mike DeFeo & Michael Troute in SF (Co-Founder @ Finform)

    1. Role: PM & SWE @ Plaid (4.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder & CEO @ Basis (8VC and Menlo); Senior SWE @ Basis, SWE @ Vanta, BS Computer Science @ Stanford

    3. Description: “Your portfolio is worth more. Finform finds the NOI that your property managers won't.”

    4. Contact: [email protected]

  5. Manny Gundampalli in SF (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: SWE @ Plaid (2.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder & CTO @ Tarsal ($7M from Abstract, YC —> acquired by Monad)

    3. Description: Left Tarsal 12/25

  6. Pete Tiwari in Chicago (Stealth)

    1. Role: Product Lead @ Plaid (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: CPO @ Kin Insurance ($450M+ raised @ $2B from QED, Activate Capital), Head of Digital Product Management @ Marcus by Goldman Sachs, Product Leader @ Amazon

    3. Description: Stealth since 9/25

    4. Contact: [email protected]

Mach Industries, a defense manufacturing startup building the industrial base for autonomous warfare, is raising a $200M Series C per Arfur Rock.

  1. Jadon Smith in LA (Stealth)

    1. Role: CTO @ Mach Industries (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder @ Arrivo (backed by Wavemaker), Senior Engineer @ SpaceX, Propulsion Eng @ Lockheed Martin, Weapons Intelligence Analyst @ CIA, Stanford MS, MIT BS

    3. Description: Stealth since 9/24

WorkOS, a platform that lets developers add enterprise features like single sign-on (SSO) and directory sync to apps, has raised $100 million in Series C financing, valuing the company at $2 billion. The round was led by Meritech and Sapphire, with participation from Audacious, Craft, Abstract, Greenoaks, and others. Company announcement.

  1. Gleb Polyakov (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Co-Founder & Former CEO @ Nylas (WorkOS Founder’s previous startup; $160M from Spark, 8VC, Tiger)

    2. Other Experience: Georgia Tech Physics

    3. Description: Stepped down from CEO on 12/24 with no updates

  2. Christine Spang (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Co-Founder & Former CTO / CEO @ Nylas (WorkOS Founder’s previous startup; $160M from Spark, 8VC, Tiger)

    2. Other Experience: Principal Dev @ Oracle, MIT CS

    3. Description: Stepped down from CEO on 9/25 with no updates

    4. Contact: Twitter, [email protected]

  3. Aditya Kajla & Karan Kajla (Founder @ Radial)

    1. Role: Eng Manager @ WorkOS (1.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder & CEO @ Warrant (YC S21 —> acquired by WorkOS), Eng Manager @ Lyft & Medallia

    3. Description: “Deliver world-class customer experience at scale with AI.”

    4. Contact: Site, Site 2, Twitter, Twitter 2

  4. Tom Macie in Seattle (Stealth)

    1. Role: SWE @ WorkOS (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: MTS @ Anthropic, Founding Engineer of Search & EMEA Money @ Stripe, SDE II @ Microsoft, SWE @ Lockheed Martin (DARPA)

    3. Description: Stealth since 9/25

Flux, an electronics vibe-coding startup, raised $27m in Series B funding. 8VC led, joined by Bain Capital Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Outsiders Fund. axios.link/46pnXsM

  1. Lance Cassidy in SF (Stealth)

    1. Role: Co-Founder & COO @ Flux (6.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Founder & CEO @ DXLab Design

    3. Description: Left Flux on 2/26 with no updates

    4. Contact: Twitter

  2. Christian Blank in SF (Co-Founder @ Eigenly)

    1. Role: Co-Founder & CTO @ Flux (3 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Sr Eng Manager @ Forward, Sr SWE @ Apple

    3. Description: “An eigenvector is the one direction that doesn't warp when everything around it transforms. It doesn't resist change. It's what change can't distort. We believe your relationship with technology should work like that. Grounded in first principles. Built on coherence. True to your direction — no matter what shifts around you.”

Encord, an SF-based physical AI data infrastructure company, raised $60m in Series C funding. Wellington Management led, joined by YC, CRV, N47 Crane Venture Partners, and Harpoon Ventures. axios.link/3ZUO4UN

  1. Leeho Lim in US (Stealth)

    1. Role: Co-Founder & CTO @ Encord (2 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Oxford MS, University of Chicago BS

    3. Description: EIR @ Macho Partners since 2024

  2. Javier Leguina in London (Stealth)

    1. Role: 1st MLE @ Encord (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Founding Eng @ Model ML (backed by YC & LocalGlobe), Co-Founder @ Engraph, UCL MS, Imperial College of London MEng

    3. Description: Stealth since 8/25

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