Weekly Top Talent Pools
Focused Energy, a German laser-fusion developer, raised $240M in Series A from RWE, SPRIND, European Innovation Council Fund, and insider Prime Movers Lab.
Scott Mercer in SF (Potential Founder)
Role: CEO @ Focused Energy (2 yrs)
Other Experience: Founder & CEO @ Volta Industries ($200M+ raised, IPO via SPAC, acq by Shell)
Description: Left Focused Energy 8/25
Tenstorrent, a Toronto-based AI hardware company building AI accelerators and RISC-V processors, raised a $700M Series D — the largest AI hardware round in 2024. Partners include Hyundai, LG, Samsung. Previously raised $350M+ from Samsung, Bezos Expeditions, Eclipse Ventures.
Ljubisa Bajic in Toronto (CEO @ Taalas)
Role: Founder, CTO & President @ Tenstorrent (7 yrs)
Other Experience: Director IC Design/Architect @ AMD, Sr Architect @ NVIDIA, ASIC Design Manager @ AMD
Description: “Taalas is creating a platform for quickly turning any AI model into custom silicon. The resulting Hardcore Models are 1000x more efficient than their software counterparts.”
Baseten, a San Francisco AI inference infrastructure startup, is in talks to raise $1B at an $11B valuation, 2x+ from 3 months ago. Grew from $200M to $600M ARR in Q1.
Alex Gillmor in Boston (Potential Founder)
Role: Founding Engineer @ Baseten (2 yrs)
Other Experience: Founding Engineer @ Lateral, Staff SWE @ Ironclad, ML Eng @ Yelp, Brown MS CS
Description: Left Lateral 4/26
Fireworks AI, a San Francisco inference provider, is in talks to raise funding at a $15B valuation, up from $4B in October 2025.
Boyan Lin in SF (Potential Founder)
Role: SWE @ Fireworks AI
Other Experience: MTS @ xAI, Co-Founder & CTO @ Stealth, Engineering Lead @ Circle, EM @ Meta
Description: Left xAI 2026. "Build for the future"
Pax AI, a Brazilian public safety startup, raised $40M in seed funding led by Greenoaks and Benchmark.
Gabriel Salomão Cunha in São Paulo (Stealth)
Role: Founding Team MTS @ Pax AI (1 yr)
Other Experience: Full Stack SWE @ Nexforce
Description: “We are exploring how people truly learn, what drives lasting behavior change, and how technology can turn those insights into better educational experiences.”