This Week’s Talent Pools

Physical Intelligence, an SF-based developer of AI software for robots, is in talks to raise around $1B at an $11B valuation from Founders Fund, Lightspeed and insiders Thrive Capital and Lux Capital, per Bloomberg.

  1. Mohith Mothukuri in SF (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Founding MTS @ Physical Intelligence (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Sr. Mechatronics Engineer & 1st SF FTE @ Anduril, Spacecraft Engineer @ Varda Space, 8VC Engineering Fellow

    3. Description: Left PI in 2025 with no updates

    4. Contact: [email protected]

Mistral AI, the French AI lab, has raised $830M in debt to build a new data center near Paris powered by Nvidia chips.

  1. Leocadia Barcena in Madrid (Stealth)

    1. Role: Engineering @ Mistral AI (2.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: AI Engineer @ Google DeepMind, Principal Engineer @ Sana, Engineering Manager @ Klarna, SWE @ N26, ESCP Master's, IE BS Computer Engineering

    3. Description: Stealth since 5/25

  2. Wendy Shang in NYC (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Research Scientist @ Mistral AI (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: MTS @ Character.AI, Research Engineer @ DeepMind, Vision SWE @ Meta, PhD @ University of Amsterdam

    3. Description: Left Mistral AI on 4/25 with no updates

    4. Contact: Site, Twitter

  3. Elaine Kim in UK (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Model Behavior Architect @ Mistral AI (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Model Teacher @ OpenAI, Business Ops Manager @ Correlation One, Stanford BA, Stanford Law

    3. Description: Left Mistral on 12/25. Status says "Coming soon"

  4. Marie-Anne Lachaux in France (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Founding Member & AI Research Engineer @ Mistral AI

    2. Other Experience: GenAI / FAIR Research Engineer @ Meta (co-developed first Llama models), Télécom Paris MEng, UCL MSc

    3. Description: Left Mistral 12/24

WHOOP, a Boston-based wearables maker, raised $575M at a $10.1B post-money valuation. Collaborative Fund led, joined by QIA, LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, 2PointZero Group, Mubadala, Abbott, Mayo Clinic, Macquarie Capital, Glade Brook, B-Flexion, IVP, Foundry, Accomplice, Affinity Partners, Promus Ventures, and Bullhound Capital.

  1. Jaime Waydo in US (Founder & CEO @ Curio Studio)

    1. Role: CTO @ WHOOP (2 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder & CTO @ Cavnue ($130M raised), Senior Director & Chief Engineer Autonomy @ Apple, Chief Engineer & Head of Systems Engineering @ Waymo, Co-Founder & Director of Engineering @ Translucent Medical, Lead Mechanical Systems Engineer @ JPL, UCLA MS, Montana State BS

    3. Description: "Interactive adventure reimagining how play, health, and technology come together"

    4. Contact: Site

Saronic Technologies closed $1.75B in Series D funding at a $9.25B valuation to advance autonomous maritime platforms. Kleiner Perkins led.

  1. Giovani "Gio" Del Nero Diniz in San Diego (Founder @ Unmanned Laboratory)

    1. Role: Naval Software Architect @ Saronic (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Marine Robotics System Architect @ Anduril, Principal Engineer @ Raytheon, MIT MS Naval Architecture

    3. Description: "Dedicated to the advancement of robotics and physical artificial intelligence"

  2. Gordy Sun in SF (Stealth)

    1. Role: SWE Intern @ Saronic (<1 yr, 8VC Fellow)

    2. Other Experience: Founder @ Lakonia (YC F25), Stanford BS CS & EE (class of '27)

    3. Description: Stealth since 12/25

Mercury, an SF-based fintech that made its name banking startups, is in late-stage talks to raise at over a $5B valuation. The company reportedly has ~$500M+ in revenue and serves over 200K startups.

  1. Michael Ducker in SF (CEO & Co-Founder @ Valet AI)

    1. Role: VP of Product Management @ Mercury (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Director Technical Strategy & Director PM @ Chime, GPM @ Twitter, CEO & Co-Founder @ Pinch (acquired by Chime), CEO & Co-Founder @ Blaide, PM @ Microsoft

    3. Description: "Enterprise infrastructure for AI coding agents — prompts as their only source code"

    4. Contact: Site, Twitter

  2. Alejandro Mesa in LA (Co-Founder & CTO @ Asset)

    1. Role: Head of Engineering Accounting @ Mercury (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Head of Engineering @ Teal.dev (acquired by Mercury), Director of Engineering @ InfluxData, Founding Engineer & Director of Engineering @ Rho AI (acquired by GM)

    3. Description: “Asset delivers embedded accounting to your platform’s SMB customers.”

    4. Contact: Site

  3. Andrew Burleson in Denver (Stealth)

    1. Role: Head of Engineering Banking @ Mercury (3.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder & CTO @ CoSell ($3M from SaaStr), Head of Engineering Statuspage @ Atlassian, Staff SWE @ Atlassian

    3. Description: "Taking a break, then starting something new"

  4. Rohan Desai in SF (Neo Scholar)

    1. Role: Infra Engineering Intern @ Mercury

    2. Other Experience: Neo Scholar, AI Researcher @ Harvey Mudd HOPE Lab, SWE Intern @ Ramp, Co-Founder & Tech Lead @ Unveil Inc, Co-Founder & CTO @ Vocatix, Founding Partner @ Crater Ventures

    3. Description: "Building world models to simulate human behavior."

    4. Contact: site, [email protected]

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