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← All stealth founders

Ex-NASA founders who just went stealth

16 founders who worked at NASA started a company in stealth in the last 1783 weeks.

Ex-NASA
Showing 16 of 16 founders

Karunakar E

Founder
Left
NASA
NASA Space Apps Challenge 2024 & Artificial Intelligence for Life in Space (AI4LS) AWG member
Before that
Went stealthOct 2026
Work
  • NASA Space Apps Challenge 2024 & Artificial Intelligence for Life in Space (AI4LS) AWG member at NASA2024-2024 · left Oct 2024
  • Brain-computer interfaces & Neurotechnology Spring School 2026 X BR41N.IO Hackathon at g.tec medical engineering GmbH - NEVER STOP RECORDING2025-2026
  • NFL Big Data Bowl 2026 Prediction Competition-Spatio temporal Predictive Modeler (AI/ML) at National Football League (NFL)2025-2026
  • Brain to text Challenge-Brain-computer interface X Google DeepMind Research NeurIPS Competition at University of California, Davis2025-2026
  • IBM AI Experiential Learning Lab X Agentic AI Hackathon with IBM watsonx Orchestrate at IBM2025-2025
  • Bank of India (BOI) FinTech & Cybersecurity Hackathon IIT Hyderabad at Bank of India2025-2025
  • IBM TechXchange 2025 watsonx Hackathon at IBM2025-2025
Education
  • JNTUH College of Engineering HyderabadBTech

David Lin

Founder
Left
NASA
Data Science Researcher
Before that
Went stealthOct 2026
Work
  • Data Science Researcher at NASA2020-2020 · left Aug 2020
  • Software Developer III at Paycom2025-2026
  • Software Engineer at S&P Global2024-2024
  • Athletics Referee at Rice University2023-2024
  • Product Developer / Manager at RiceApps2021-2024
  • Software Developer / Data Analyst at Calpine2023-2023
  • Live Instructor at Rice University2022-2022
Education
  • Rice UniversityBachelor's
  • Yonsei University

Brian Tong

Founder
Left
NASA
Completion of NASA Mission Concept Academy
Before that
Went stealthSep 2026
Work
  • Completion of NASA Mission Concept Academy at NASA2023-2024 · left Feb 2024
  • Engineering Program Management Intern at Apple2025-2026
  • Module Engineer Intern at Intel2025-2025
  • Undergraduate Student Researcher, Razdan Group at University of California, Berkeley2024-2025
  • Member at AIChE - UC Berkeley Chapter2024-2025
  • Vice President of Peer Friendship, Phi Theta Kappa Society, Beta Nu Eta Chapter at Citrus College2023-2024
  • Student Assistant, Physical and Health Science Department at Citrus College2023-2023
Education
  • UC BerkeleyBS
  • Citrus College
  • Diocesan Boys' School

Maruchi Kim

Co-Founder and CEO
Left
NASA
Scientific Programmer
Before that
Went stealthSep 2026
Work
  • Scientific Programmer at NASA2010-2011 · left May 2011
  • XR Audio Software Engineer at Google2022-2026
  • PhD Researcher, AI Wearables at University of Washington2019-2025
  • Audio Products Firmware Engineer at Apple2016-2022
  • Hardware Engineer at Automatic Labs2015-2016
  • Co-Founder and Team Lead at Two Cents (twocentsaday.com)2014-2016
  • Web Design Team Lead and Advisor at Innovative Design2012-2015
Education
  • University of WashingtonPhD
  • UC BerkeleyBS

Azan Patel

Startup Founder
Left
NASA
NASA Accelerator
Before that
Went stealthLaunched Decode Neuro
Work
  • NASA Accelerator at NASA2024-2025 · left May 2025
  • Engineer at NEXT Diagnostics, Inc.2024-2026
  • Manufacturing Design Engineer - Optimus at Tesla2026-2026
  • Clinical Researcher - Quarter at Aggie Square at UC Davis Health2025-2025
  • Neural Researcher @ Z-Lab at University of California, Davis2025-2025
  • I-Corp at National Science Foundation (NSF)2025-2025
  • Accelerator Champion [S25] at Plasma at UC Davis2025-2025
Education
  • UC DavisBS
  • Georgia TechBachelor's
  • College of Marin

Adam S. C.

Founder
Left
NASA
Deputy Program Manager of the Communications Support Services Center (CSSC)
Before that
Went stealthSep 2026
Work
  • Deputy Program Manager of the Communications Support Services Center (CSSC) at NASA2009-2013 · left Aug 2013
  • Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at FinStrat Management2025-2026
  • Advisory Board Member at onHue2023-2026
  • President, AmenityLinc at The Amenity Collective2020-2024
  • Investor & Advisor at CareerGig2020-2021
  • Senior Manager, Digital Strategy and Experience at TEKsystems2019-2020
  • Senior Digital Strategist at Brown Advisory2014-2018
Education
  • The Johns Hopkins UniversityMBA
  • Full Sail UniversityBS
  • Full Sail University

Elif Ozdemir

Founder
Left
NASA
Rock & Roll
Before that
Went stealthSep 2026
Work
  • Rock & Roll at NASA2025-2026 · until Oct 2026
  • Founder at The Bridge2026-2026
  • NVIDIA Developer Program at NVIDIA2026-2026
  • Emergent Ventures Grantee at Mercatus Center at George Mason University2026-2026
  • Founder at Sohao Space2026-2026
  • NASA Space Apps Ankara Team Leader at NASA International Space Apps Challenge2025-2025
  • Honorary Reporter at Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism2024-2024
Education
  • International Space University
  • Ankara ÜniversitesiBS
  • Sınav Eğitim Kurumları

Prathit Ray

Co-Founder
Left
NASA
Electrical Systems Engineer
Before that
Went stealthSep 2026
Work
  • Electrical Systems Engineer at NASA2024-2024 · left Aug 2024
  • Founder at Stalk2026-2026
  • Founder at Ray & Co. Risk Advisors2024-2026
Education
  • Harvard Business SchoolMBA
  • Penn State University

Rowand Zara

Co-Founder & CEO
Left
NASA
NASA HUNCH
Before that
Went stealthAug 2026
Work
  • NASA HUNCH at NASA2024-2025 · left Jun 2025
  • IREC at University of Maryland2025-2026
  • Thermal Engineering Intern at VERTEX AEROSPACE, LLC2024-2024
Education
  • University of MarylandBachelor's

Joseph Kouadio

Founder, CEO
Left
NASA
Solutions & Technical Innovation Deployment - NASA
Before that
Went stealthAug 2026
Work
  • Solutions & Technical Innovation Deployment - NASA at NASA2024-2025 · left Jan 2025
  • Co-Founder, CTO at Cortif Technologies2025-2026
  • Co-Founder at Lumi2024-2026
  • Co-Founder at Zof AI2025-2025
  • Instructor at University of California, Berkeley2024-2025
  • Young Professionals Director at UNA-USA East Bay2023-2024
  • Board Member at International House at UC Berkeley2023-2024
Education
  • Stanford University
  • UC BerkeleyMaster's
  • University of St.GallenBachelor's

Ahmed Mehrez

Founder
Left
NASA
Automations Engineer
Before that
Went stealthAug 2026
Work
  • Automations Engineer at NASA2022-2022 · left Aug 2022
  • Co-Founder and CTO at Storke2025-2026
  • Entrepreneur in Residence at Redwood Founders2025-2025
  • Co-Founder at Storke2025-2025
  • STEM Team Member at Qsium2024-2025
  • Founding Automations Engineer at Sophos Education2024-2024
  • Top 5 Nationalist at The British Physics Olympiad2022-2022
Education
  • Kings Monkton SchoolGCSE
  • University of CambridgeBA
  • Queens'​ College, CambridgeBA

Jairo Reynoso

Founder
Left
NASA
PRANDTL Team Lead
Before that
Went stealthJul 2026
Work
  • PRANDTL Team Lead at NASA2022-2023 · left Feb 2023
  • Research Assistant at Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab - Stanford University2026-2026
  • Research Assistant at Stanford CamLab2025-2026
  • Recruitment Chair at Stanford. Cardinal Free Clinics2024-2025
  • MCHRI DRIVE Scholar at Stanford University2024-2024
  • Mountain Desert Economic Partnership Council Member at Mountain Desert Career Pathways2022-2023
  • Biomedical Engineering Research Intern at USC Viterbi School of Engineering2023-2023
Education
  • Stanford UniversityBS
  • Victor Valley College
  • Caltech

Kasper Janehag

Founder & CTO
Left
NASA
Aeronautical Engineer, Aeromechanics Laboratory
Before that
Went stealthJul 2026
Work
  • Aeronautical Engineer, Aeromechanics Laboratory at NASA2017-2017 · left Jun 2017
  • Principal Machine Learning Engineer I at McKinsey & Company2021-2026
  • Data Scientist at Stockholm Exergi2019-2021
  • Data Scientist at GKN Aerospace2017-2019
  • Teaching Assistant - AA210 Engineering statics at University of Washington2016-2016
Education
  • University of WashingtonMS
  • Chalmers University of TechnologyBS

Ansh Mishra

Co-Founder
Left
NASA
Senior Computer Aided Design Designer for AIAA/NASA project
Before that
Went stealthJul 2026
Work
  • Senior Computer Aided Design Designer for AIAA/NASA project at NASA2026-2026 · left May 2026
  • Computer Aided Design Design Engineer at AIAA2026-2026
  • Student Researcher at AIAA2025-2026
  • Computer Aided Design Operator at National Space Society2026-2026
Education
  • Alliance Academy for Innovation

Eric S.

Founder
Left
NASA
VAST Scholar
Before that
Went stealthApr 2026
Work
  • VAST Scholar at NASA2009-2010 · left Sep 2010
  • Engineer at True Anomaly2026-2026
  • ¬ Engineer at Capital One2024-2025
  • Engineer at Missile Defense Agency2021-2024
  • Engineer at United States Department of the Navy2015-2024
  • Test Subject at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)2020-2020
  • Certified Lifeguard at Kings Dominion2011-2011
Education
  • Virginia TechBS

Shalvi Bhambare

Co-Founder and Marketing Manager
Left
NASA
Program
Before that
Went stealthJan 2023
Work
  • Program at NASA2025-2025 · until Aug 2025
  • Communications Director at Model United Nations2025-2026
  • Secretary at Business Professionals of America2025-2026
  • Outreach and Social Media Coordinator at Business Professionals of America2024-2025
  • Club Member at Model United Nations2023-2025
  • Executive Board Member at Key2Finesse2024-2025
  • Club Member at Business Professionals of America2023-2024
Education
  • Schoolcraft College
  • Columbia University
  • Michigan State University

Built on Crustdata. Build your own.

Crustdata tracks hundreds of millions of professional profiles. This directory is one saved search: "current title includes founder, current company is Stealth", re-run every week. Point the same search at your own market.

Get an API key 
# the one request behind this page
curl https://api.crustdata.com/watch/person/search \
  -H "authorization: Bearer $CRUSTDATA_KEY" \
  -H "x-api-version: 2025-11-01" \
  -d '{
    "filters": { "op": "and", "conditions": [
      { "field": "experience.employment_details.current.company_name",
        "type": "[.]", "value": "stealth" },
      { "field": "experience.employment_details.current.title",
        "type": "(.)", "value": "founder" }
    ]},
    "fields": ["basic_profile", "experience", "education"],
    "config": { "trigger": { "type": "interval", "every_hours": 168 } }
  }'
# [.] = exact phrase, (.) = all words. Each week it returns only the new matches.

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About this list

What "stealth" means here: the person's current job is a founder title (Founder, Co-Founder, Founder & CEO…) at a company listed as "Stealth", "Stealth Startup" or similar, because they haven't announced it yet.

Where it comes from: public professional profiles, via the Crustdata API. A new search runs every week and adds whoever newly matches. Profiles can take a few weeks to show up, and start dates are by month.

The company on each row is the most recent job before going stealth, with the title they held there. Where we can, we skip internships, advisor seats and freelance stints. On a "former employer" page it shows the job at that employer instead. Click a row for their full work history and education.