Stealth Startup Spy #333 - by Drake Dukes
Stealth Startup Spy #333
Former Galileo CEO launches an AI agent OS for regulated finance, DeepMind/OpenAI research leader enters stealth, & Stanford PhD and ex-SpaceX engineer builds modular electrified chemical reactors
Apr 23, 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 Galileo CEO and senior exec across Google Cloud, U.S. Bank, and Barclays is building an AI agent OS for regulated finance
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DeepMind, OpenAI, and Apple research leader enters stealth
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Stanford PhD and ex-SpaceX/NASA engineer builds modular electrified reactors to replace fossil-fuel-based chemical production
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Stanford Medicine PhD and former Google AI Healthcare Resident enters stealth
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Former Meta monetization and ranking AI leader enters stealth
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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
Naren Krishna - CEO & Co-Founder at Balerion
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Founding Engineer at Ponder, Software Engineer at Snowflake, ML Engineer at Determined AI, Undergraduate Researcher at Berkeley AI Research (BAIR)
Balerion is an end-to-end agentic AI platform purpose-built for mortgage loan manufacturing, enabling lenders to move loans through origination faster by identifying missing documents, resolving guideline gaps, and automating complex income analyses.
HQ: United States
Industry: AI/ML, FinTech, Mortgage Tech | Team Size: 2
Latest Funding: $6M Seed Round on 4/16/2026
Key Investors: Kleiner Perkins, Formation, BoxGroup
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 6 Months
Derek White - Founder and CEO at Primitive
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: CEO at Galileo Financial Technologies, VP Global FSI Cloud at Google, Chief Digital Officer at U.S. Bank, Chief Digital & Design Officer at Barclays, Global Head of Client Solutions at BBVA
Primitive is an AI agent operating system purpose-built for regulated financial institutions, enabling banks to deploy, govern, and measure AI agents at production scale with full auditability and compliance.
HQ: Utah, United States
Industry: AI/ML, FinTech, Enterprise Software | Team Size: 6
Key Investors: Fin Capital, Pelion Venture Partners
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 7 Months
Michael Maclennan - Co-CEO & Co-Founder at Arc
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: General Manager at Square Hardware, Manager at Bain & Company, MBA at Wharton Business School
Arc is a drive-thru voice AI platform purpose-built for e-commerce grade optimization.
HQ: United States
Industry: AI/ML, SMB Tech, Commerce | Team Size: 7
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 Year 8 Months
Raisa Litchfield - Co-Founder & CEO at Opsora Health
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Product Manager AI & Data at Microsoft, Software Engineering Intern at Google, Female Founder Circle AI Fellow at Pear VC
Opsora Health is an AI platform that coordinates pre-surgical workflows for hospitals, managing clearances, patient confirmations, and scheduling to ensure booked cases proceed on time.
HQ: United States
Industry: HealthTech, AI/ML, Surgical Operations | Team Size: 2
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 7 Months
Calvin H Lin - Co-Founder & CEO at Cosine
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Propulsion Associate Engineer at SpaceX, Power Electronics Engineer at Astranis, Research Intern at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University
Cosine is a Stanford spinout building electrified chemical reactors that deliver cheaper and cleaner chemicals compared to fossil fuel alternatives, with a modular, efficient, and fully reconfigurable design.
HQ: United States
Industry: CleanTech, Chemical Manufacturing, Deep Tech
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 5 Months
🕵️♂️Key Talent Going Under Stealth
Illuminating clues left behind by world class talent and influential innovators who just went into stealth mode
Ian Goodfellow - Co-Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Principal Scientist at DeepMind, Director at Apple, Research Scientist at OpenAI, Research Scientist at Google
Connect on:LinkedIn
HQ: United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 5 Months
Akshat Sharma - Founder & Builder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: MBA at University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Head of Product (Generative AI) at Google, Product Manager at Microsoft, Co-Founder at uphop.ai
Connect on:LinkedIn
HQ: United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 Months
Stylianos Serghiou - Founder & CEO at Stealth Startup
Building the AI-native operating system for proactive, longitudinal, evidence-based, and family-centered care.
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: PhD from Stanford University School of Medicine, AI Resident (Healthcare) at Google, VP Head of Clinical Data Science at Prolaio, Co-Founder and CSO at Publibee
Connect on:LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 Months
Nick Locascio - Founder at Stealth AI Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Co-Founder & CEO at Booth AI (YC W23), Director of Engineering at Standard Cognition, Machine Learning Engineer at Pinterest, Member of Technical Staff at DoorDash
Connect on:LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 Month
Dai Li - Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Director Monetization GenAI & RankingAI at Meta, Head of DS Ads ML & Experimentation at Facebook, Head of DS Trust & Safety at Airbnb
Connect on:LinkedIn
HQ: United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 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.