Stealth Startup Spy #317 - by Drake Dukes
Stealth Startup Spy #317
UC Berkeley AI PhD builds self-learning robots that master physics, Former GitLab CTO redesigns version control & Former 8VC and Harvard Robotics alum launches stealth startup
Feb 26, 2026
🚀 We just launched a new newsletter — Company Launch Tracker.
We’re tracking company launches as they happen and surfacing the most interesting new founders and startups (yes, all outside of this stealth activity too). If you want to stay ahead of the curve, this is where you’ll find them first.
Right now we’ve got 5 subscribers: my wife, my mom, and that high school buddy who won’t stop pitching me his app. Be smart like them and get in early 👇
We run a live feed inside Gravity that tracks founders entering stealth and companies quietly exiting it.
What you’re reading here is about 1% of the stealth activity we pick up. The full tracker updates in real time as things change and new activity emerges.
If you want earlier access to everything, book some time with us to stay ahead.
In this issue of the Stealth Startup Spy, here is what we will uncover:
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Former GitLab Global Field CTO builds a distributed version control system redesigned from the ground up for scalable, secure human and AI collaboration
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Former Tesla AI engineer and LinkedIn data scientist launches a stealth venture
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Former Member of Technical Staff at both OpenAI and xAI launches a stealth startup building the future of intelligent systems
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UC Berkeley AI PhD and DeepMind alum builds self-learning robots that master physics
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Former 8VC and Harvard Robotics alum launches stealth startup
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And more…
Now let’s shine the spotlight… 💡💡💡
🕵️♂️Founders Coming Out of Stealth
Real-time updates from founders who debut what they’ve been working on under stealth mode
Lee Faus - Co-Founder & CEO at Atomic Software
FounderDNA: Technical Founder
Prior Experience : Ex-Global Field CTO at GitLab, ex-CTO at Cloud Nine Partners, ex-Field CTO at Armory.io, ex-Platform Solutions Architect, Partner Programs at GitHub, ex-Principal Architect - Online Services at Red Hat
Atomic is a distributed version control system built from the ground up for human and AI collaboration. Atomic is a more scalable, secure, and AI-friendly evolution of Git, built for the future of collaborative software development.
HQ: United States | Remote
Industry: Software Development
Latest Funding: $2.5M Pre-Seed Round on 1/1/2026
Key Investors: Vermilion, Slow and IrregEx
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 3 months
Vahid Kazemi - Founder at Reinfors
🔎 Featured Founder under stealth mode inStealthStartupSpy#313
FounderDNA: Former FAANG, Top 20 University,Masters Degree, Doctorate Degree
Prior Experience: Ex-Member of Technical Staff at xAI, ex-Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI, ex-Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Apple, ex-Engineering Manager at Pinterest
Reinfors is a stealth mode startup building the futures of intelligent systems.
HQ: Palo Alto, California, United States
Industry: Software Development
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 month
Matt Vail - Co-Founder & CEO at Vye Health
🔎 Featured Founder under stealth mode inStealthStartupSpy#284
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Prior Exit, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Chief Technology Officer at Datavant, ex-CPTO | Co-founder at Precision AgriTech (acquired by 80 Acres), ex-Director of Product Development (acquired by EY) at NOVUMED Life Science Consulting & Advisory
Vye Health is developing an AI-native health management experience and marketplace that connects clients focused on integrative health with functional medicine physicians who deliver proactive and personalized whole-body care.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 5 months
Will Patterson - Co-Founder & CEO at Genera
🔎 Featured Founder under stealth mode inStealthStartupSpy#276
FounderDNA: Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Head of New Product Integration at Clari, ex-Lecturer at Stanford University, ex-Senior Strategist at Jump Associates
Genera eliminates the biggest bottlenecks to live revenue by automating customer discovery and offloading painful configuration to agents.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 6
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 13 months
Pulkit Agrawal - Co-Founder at Eka Robotics
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Associate Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ex-Advisor at AI Foundry, ex-Co-Founder at SafelyYou, AI PhD from UC Berkeley , ex-Research Intern at DeepMind
Eka is building robots that master physics via self-learning.
HQ: United States
Industry: Robotics Engineering | Team Size: 2
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 14 months
🕵️♂️Key Talent Going Under Stealth
Illuminating clues left behind by world class talent and influential innovators who just went into stealth mode
Liza Ghosh - Co-Founder & at Stealth Mode
FounderDNA : Technical Founder, Masters Degree
Prior Experience : Ex-Senior ML at EY, ex-AI Engineer at Tesla, ex-Software Engineer, Data Science at LinkedIn, ex-Data Scientist at Fractal
Connect on:LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 7 months
Arun Soni - Co-Founder at Stealth
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Former FAANG
Prior Experience : Ex-Founding Software Engineer at Bedrock Security, ex-Software Engineer at Affirm, ex-Software Engineer at Facebook
Connect on:LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 months
Francesco Gatti - Co-Founder at Stealth AI Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Prior Exit
Prior Experience : Ex-Co-Founder & CEO at Opensend, ex-Chief Digital Officer at Herb, ex-Chief Product Officer at Grata, ex-Founder at Burrata House (acquired by Planet Hollywood)
Connect on:LinkedIn
HQ: Miami, Florida, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 months
Manoj Krishnan - Co-Founder & CTO at Stealth AI Startup
FounderDNA : Technical Founder, Former FAANG, Doctorate Degree
Prior Experience : Ex-Principal Engineer, AI Ifra at Google, ex-Engineering Lead at Meta, ex-Engineer at VMware R&D
Connect on:LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 month
Nestor Tkachenko - Building at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA : Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Top 10 University
Prior Experience : Former 8VC (Incubation and Investment Team), ex-CTO at Easy Eats, Harvard Robotics
Connect on:LinkedIn
HQ: United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 5 months
🚨Here’s the deal 🚨This email has gotten too big. Exciting, but with more people following it, the edge diminishes. I’ve thought long and hard about what to do to preserve the value in the signals. I’m not sure about the final direction yet, but in the meantime I’ve been sending an email 48 hours earlier to a select group of paid subscribers. The feedback has been pretty positive so I’m going to open up the list for another 100 spots. To get signals early, Apply here!
Stay Stealthy,
Drake
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Stealth Startup Spy is a data-driven newsletter for investors, journalists and tech enthusiasts interested in uncovering the next big move for key talent, real-time stealth company launches and technology advancements not in plain sight. We leverage the technology built at Gravity to shine a light on the hidden world of stealth startups.