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Ex-SpaceX founders who just went stealth

12 founders who worked at SpaceX started a company in stealth in the last 1783 weeks.

Ex-SpaceX
Showing 12 of 12 founders

Laya Mathikshara

Co-Founder, Valcedia
Left
SpaceX
Artist
Before that
Went stealthNov 2026
Work
  • Artist at SpaceX2022-2022 · left Jan 2022
  • Collaborator at HUGO BOSS2023-2023
  • Collaborator at PwC2022-2022
  • Contributor at Stanford Blockchain Club2022-2022
Education
  • UC BerkeleyBachelor's
  • The International School Bangalore

Zeke DeSantis

Founder
Left
SpaceX
Structures Engineer II
Before that
Went stealthOct 2026
Work
  • Structures Engineer II at SpaceX2016-2021 · left Dec 2021
  • Intern at Fluke Corporation2015-2015
Education
  • Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Eduardo Velazquez

Co-Founder and CTO
Left
SpaceX
Sr. Manager, Human Landing Systems Engineering
Before that
Went stealthOct 2026
Work
  • Sr. Manager, Human Landing Systems Engineering at SpaceX2011-2022 · left Mar 2022
  • Pd.D. Candidate, Graduate Student Researcher at UC San Diego2005-2011
  • Undergraduate Student Researcher at San Diego State University2004-2005
Education
  • UC San DiegoPhD
  • UC San DiegoMS
  • San Diego State UniversityBS

Sharan Nayak

Co-Founder
Left
SpaceX
Software Engineer
Before that
Went stealthOct 2026
Work
  • Software Engineer at SpaceX2023-2026 · left May 2026
  • Co-Founder at OOJU2026-2026
  • Graduate Co-op at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory2021-2023
  • Senior Professional Staff - Algorithm Developer at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory2016-2018
  • Software Engineer at Garmin2012-2016
  • Avionics Intern at Sikorsky2011-2011
  • Environmental Support Technician at Global Environmental Solutions, Inc.2009-2010
Education
  • University of MarylandPhD
  • University of MarylandMaster's
  • Georgia TechMS

Brian Baumgartner

CEO & Co-Founder
Left
SpaceX
Instrumentation Engineer
Before that
Went stealthSep 2026
Work
  • Instrumentation Engineer at SpaceX2014-2016 · left Dec 2016
  • General Manager, Americas at Connected Farms2026-2026
  • Head of Product at Parallel2025-2026
  • Head of Product at Bonsai Robotics2023-2025
  • Product at Applied Intuition2023-2023
  • Senior Manager, Technical Product Management - Planning & Controls at Cruise2022-2022
  • Senior Manager, Product Management - Autonomy Capabilities, Robotics, Performance, & Remote Assist at Aurora2021-2022
Education
  • UC San DiegoBS
  • Harvard Business School

Nicholas C.

Co-Founder
Left
SpaceX
Lead Business Systems Analyst & Product Responsible Engineer
Before that
Went stealthAug 2026
Work
  • Lead Business Systems Analyst & Product Responsible Engineer at SpaceX2017-2019 · left Jan 2019
  • Senior Product Manager at Saronic Technologies2025-2026
  • Sr. R&D Product Manager at Anduril Industries2023-2025
  • Software Engineering Manager at PwC2019-2023
  • Interview Coach at Candorful2019-2023
  • Founder at Cianciara Ventures2019-2023
  • Software Engineering Manager at PwC2019-2022
Education
  • University of LondonBS
  • Free Code Camp
  • Elon UniversityBS

Suman Sherwani

Co-Founder
Left
SpaceX
Avionics Integration and Operations Engineer
Before that
Went stealthJul 2026
Work
  • Avionics Integration and Operations Engineer at SpaceX2021-2023 · left May 2023
  • Technical Project Manager at Rocket Factory Augsburg - RFA2024-2025
  • NASA Contractor - Project Manager and Systems Engineer at University of Iowa2018-2021
  • Software and Electrical Engineering Co-op at Collins Aerospace2017-2018
  • Product Specialist at Tesla2015-2016
Education
  • ETH ZürichMS
  • University of IowaBachelor's
  • Andøya Space Center

Mo Akbar

Founder
Left
SpaceX
R&D
Before that
Went stealthJul 2026
Work
  • R&D at SpaceX2022-2023 · left Jan 2023
  • Applied AI Team Lead / FDE at P-1 AI2025-2026
  • Chief Engineer at Anduril Industries2024-2025
  • FDE at Vannevar2023-2024
  • Senior Data Scientist and Machine Learning Engineer, Team Lead at STR2021-2022
  • Data Science Intern at Hypergiant2020-2021
  • Software Developer at University of California, Riverside2015-2020
Education
  • University of California, RiversideBS

Richard B.

Co-Founder
Left
SpaceX
Software Engineer - Constellation GNC
Before that
Went stealthLaunched Embodied Machine Intelligence
Work
  • Software Engineer - Constellation GNC at SpaceX2021-2025 · left Aug 2025
  • Research Engineer at 1X2025-2026
  • Research Engineer at Arc Institute2025-2025
  • AI Research Fellow - Robotic Surgery at Caltech2020-2022
  • Software Engineer - Autopilot at Tesla2020-2021
  • Investment Associate at Bridgewater Associates2020-2020
  • Software Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory2018-2019
Education
  • CaltechBachelor's

Chris Covert

Founder
Left
SpaceX
Associate Engineer
Before that
Went stealthJul 2026
Work
  • Associate Engineer at SpaceX2018-2018 · left Sep 2018
  • Product Director, Ecosystem & Partnerships at Life3602026-2026
  • Sr. Director of Product, Experiences at Inworld AI2024-2025
  • Director, GIS Team Lead - Gaming, Exercising, Modeling, and Simulation at Microsoft2020-2024
  • AI/ML Engineer + Technical Strategist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory2019-2020
  • Cognitive Autonomy Engineer at Penn State University2015-2017
  • Attache at Covarus, LLC2013-2015
Education
  • Stanford UniversityMS
  • Penn State UniversityBS

Marko Elez

Co-Founder & CTO
Left
SpaceX
Software Engineer II
Before that
Went stealthJul 2026
Work
  • Software Engineer II at SpaceX2020-2023 · left Dec 2023
  • Advisor at United States Federal Government2024-2026
  • Member of Technical Staff at xAI2024-2025
  • Software Engineering Intern at Amazon2020-2020
Education
  • Rutgers UniversityBS

Akash C.

Co-Founder
Left
SpaceX
Starship Launch Engineering
Before that
Went stealthDec 2025
Work
  • Starship Launch Engineering at SpaceX2021-2021 · left Apr 2021
  • Senior Engineer at Vivodyne2024-2025
  • Venture Partner at Contrary2021-2024
  • Engineer at Vivodyne2022-2024
  • Mechanical Engineering - Design at Anduril Industries2022-2022
  • New Programs Engineering at Tesla2021-2021
  • Manufacturing Engineer at Redwood Materials2020-2020
Education
  • University of PennsylvaniaMS
  • University of PennsylvaniaBE

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.