Today’s Talent Pools

Exa, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that develops AI-powered search tools, raised a $250M round at a $2.2B valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz. Triple the valuation of its September round.

  1. Kudzo Ahegbebu in SF (Potential Founder)

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

    2. Other Experience: MTS @ xAI, MTS @ OpenAI, SWE @ Facebook, SWE @ Genentech, Purdue Aerospace Engineering & Physics

    3. Description: Left xAI 11/25

  2. Alex G. in SF (CEO @ Pantograph PBC)

    1. Role: CEO @ Exa (1.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: CEO @ San Francisco Compute Company ($52M from DCVC, Wing, Alt Capital), Research Intern @ Uber AI Labs, Columbia BS Math

    3. Description: "Building general purpose robots"

  3. Thais Castello Branco in SF (Stealth)

    1. Role: Founding Head of Strategy & Marketing @ Exa (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder & CPO @ Creio, VP Growth & Marketing @ Hubla

    3. Description: "On a mission to end AI slop"

  4. Shubhang Kandiraju in SF (Founder @ Isometry AI)

    1. Role: Product @ Exa (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Product Lead Sonar API @ Perplexity, Brown BS+MS CS

    3. Description: "Agents for pharma backend workflows"

    4. Funding: Backed by Collaborative Fund.

  5. Ira Bodnar in SF (Co-Founder @ Ryze AI)

    1. Role: Head of Growth @ Exa (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Consultant @ McKinsey, Analyst @ Credit Suisse, Analyst @ BCG

    3. Description: "AI that runs your paid ads"

  6. Dhash Shrivathsa in Cambridge (Potential Founder)

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

    2. Other Experience: CEO @ Radix Labs (YC 2017)

    3. Description: Left Exa 12/25

  7. Anish Palakurthi in Austin (Potential Founder)

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

    2. Other Experience: FTE # 2 & Head of GTM @ Boundary (YC W23), Undergraduate Researcher @ Google DeepMind, SWE @ Jump Trading

    3. Description: UT Austin CS class of ‘26

Modal, a San Francisco-based AI infrastructure startup that helps companies access chips for inference and test AI-generated code, raised a $355M Series C at a $4.65B valuation. Redpoint Ventures and General Catalyst led, with Accel and Menlo Ventures. Annualized revenue ~$300M, up from $60M in September.

  1. Advay Pal in US (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: FTE #19 & Forward Deployed Engineer @ Modal (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: FTE #90 & SWE @ Applied Intuition, Adjunct Lecturer @ Stanford, SWE Intern @ Nuro, SWE Intern @ Twitter, SWE Intern @ Apple, Stanford MS CS

    3. Description: Left Modal 2025

    4. Contact: [email protected], Site

  2. Vishaal Ram in SF (Co-Founder @ Composer)

    1. Role: MTS @ Modal (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Research Engineer @ Fundamental Research Labs, Researcher @ MIT CSAIL, MIT BS CS

    3. Description: "Browser agents."

    4. Contact: [email protected], Site

  3. Michelle Wei in SF (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: MTS @ Modal (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: MTS @ Etched, Undergraduate Researcher @ MIT CSAIL, Jane Street FTTP, MIT PRIMES Researcher, USA EGOI (math olympiad)

    3. Description: MIT class of 2027

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