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University of California, Santa Cruz alumni who just went stealth

10 University of California, Santa Cruz alumni started a company in stealth in the last 15 weeks.

University of California, Santa Cruz
Showing 10 of 10 founders

Michel Susai

Founder Chief Architect & CEO
Left
AI Infrastructure Research
Researcher
Before that
Went stealthOct 2026
Work
  • Researcher at AI Infrastructure Research2024-2026 · left Sep 2026
  • Founder CEO at NebulaConnect, Inc2018-2023
  • Startup Mentor at Vission Factory2013-2018
  • Founder CEO at VMware2004-2012
  • Founder & Chairman of Board at NetScaler1997-2003
  • Chief Architect, Head of Internet clustering, CTO's Office, at Sun Microsystems1996-1997
Education
  • University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Harvard University
  • Pune Institute of Computer TechnologyBE

Nathan Yoho

Founder
Left
Sugar Bowl Resort
Ski Technician/ Retail/ Salesperson
Before that
Went stealthSep 2026
Work
  • Ski Technician/ Retail/ Salesperson at Sugar Bowl Resort2020-2020 · left Mar 2020
  • Undergraduate Student Researcher at Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics2022-2024
  • Ski Coach at Sugar Bowl Ski Team and Academy2020-2020
Education
  • University of California, Santa CruzBS
  • Rugby School

John Stewart

Founder
Left
Graphstax
Vice President Of Engineering
Before that
Went stealthAug 2026
Work
  • Vice President Of Engineering at Graphstax2020-2021 · left Mar 2021
  • Team Lead - Enterprise Tools at MongoDB2018-2020
  • VP of Engineering / Director of Engineering at Kyndi2015-2018
  • Principal Member of Technical Staff at Oracle2004-2015
Education
  • University of California, Santa CruzMS
  • University of California, Santa CruzBachelor's

Andrew Smith

Founder
Left
Allen Institute
Research Analyst II
Before that
Went stealthAug 2026
Work
  • Research Analyst II at Allen Institute2023-2024 · left Dec 2024
  • Software Engineer 2 (L62) - IoT Edge Observability at Microsoft2019-2024
  • Undergraduate Researcher at University of Virginia2018-2019
  • Software Engineering Intern at Capital One2018-2018
  • Full Stack Developer at The Cavalier Daily2018-2018
  • Data Science Intern at PRA Group (Nasdaq: PRAA)2017-2017
  • Software Development Intern at xTuple2016-2016
Education
  • University of California, Santa CruzPhD
  • University of VirginiaBS
  • Norfolk Academy

Alex Groves

Founder
Left
Meta
Data Scientist
Before that
Went stealthAug 2026
Work
  • Data Scientist at Meta2020-2026 · left Jul 2026
  • Senior Data Scientist at Branch International2019-2020
  • Head of Data Science at Mason Finance2018-2019
  • Member Of Technical Staff at Datacoral Inc2016-2018
  • Data Scientist at CreativeLive2014-2016
  • Fellow at Insight Data Science2014-2014
  • Postdoc at ECARES, Université Libre de Bruxelles2012-2014
Education
  • University of California, Santa CruzBA
  • UC BerkeleyBS
  • Duke UniversityPhD

Taylor Kergan

Co-Founder
Left
Conscium
Research Engineer
Before that
Went stealthAug 2026
Work
  • Research Engineer at Conscium2025-2026 · until Aug 2026
  • Graduate Student Researcher at University of California, Santa Cruz2024-2026
  • Student Researcher at University of Calgary2021-2024
  • Aerodynamics Team Member at UCalgary Racing2019-2021
  • Stress Intern at TC Energy2020-2021
  • Airframe Team Lead at Student Organization for Aerospace Research2017-2018
Education
  • University of California, Santa CruzPhD
  • University of CalgaryMaster's
  • University of CalgaryBS

Mike Jimenez

Co-Founder
Left
Concept Labs
Chief Technology Officer
Before that
Went stealthJul 2026
Work
  • Chief Technology Officer at Concept Labs2021-2023 · left Dec 2023
  • CTO at The Crown League (Acquired by Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Co.)2018-2019
  • Principal at Plan B LLC2017-2018
  • CTO at Keaton Row2014-2017
  • CTO & Co-Founder at Bionic Panda Games2010-2013
  • VP of Engineering at Serious Business2008-2010
  • Sr. Director of Engineering at BitTorrent, Inc.2007-2008
Education
  • University of California, Santa CruzBS

Pablo Gonzalez

Founder, CPTO
Left
Powin
EVP, CPTO
Before that
Went stealthJul 2026
Work
  • EVP, CPTO at Powin2021-2025 · left Jun 2025
  • SVP Engineering at Astra2019-2022
  • Vice President of Engineering at Apple2017-2019
  • Dir/VP Engineering, and MES Systems at Tesla2013-2017
Education
  • University of California, Santa CruzBS
  • UC DavisPhD
  • UC DavisMS

Gianmarco Mazzella

Founder, AI Infrastructure
Left
AfterQuery Experts
Software Engineer
Before that
Went stealthJul 2026
Work
  • Software Engineer at AfterQuery Experts2026-2026 · until Jul 2026
  • Engineering Intern at Wayframe2026-2026
  • AI Research Fellow at Handshake2025-2026
  • Lead Back End Developer at Autsai2025-2026
  • Web Communications Specialist at Smarter Balanced2025-2025
  • Computer Science and Math Tutor at Berkeley City College2025-2025
  • Business Analytics Intern at Atlantic Technologies2022-2022
Education
  • University of California, Santa CruzBS
  • Berkeley City College
  • ITT-LSSA Ettore Molinari

Elise Lee

Co-founder
LeftNot listed
Before thatNone listed
Went stealthJul 2026
Education
  • University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Cornell UniversityBS
  • Shanghai American School

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.