1.13.26 - The Anthropic Mafia

Today's Talent Pool

Anthropic is raising $10b at a $350b valuation led by GIC and Coatue, as first reported by the WSJ and confirmed by Axios. axios.link/4qbFk85

1. Karina Nguyen in US (Stealth)
   1. Role: Member of Technical Staff; 1st Design Hire & Early Product Eng @ Anthropic (2 yrs)
   2. Other Experience: Member of Technical Staff @ OpenAI, ML Research @ Berkeley
   3. Description: Stealth since 12/25
   4. Site, Twitter, karinanguyen28@gmail.com
2. Nahom Seyoum in NYC (Potential Founder)
   1. Role: Research @ Anthropic (<1 yr)
   2. Other Experience: Founding Eng @ Conway (backed by KP and FRC), Researcher @ Yale
   3. Description: Yale class of '26
   4. Site
3. Noah Lebovic in SF (Potential Founder)
   1. Role: Member of Technical Staff @ Anthropic (<1 yr)
   2. Other Experience: Founder & CEO @ Toolchest (YC W22)
   3. Description: Left Anthropic in 2025 with no updates. LI status says "Bio and AI"
4. Jeeyoon Hyun in NYC (Potential Founder)
   1. Role: Member of Technical Staff @ Anthropic (1.5 yrs)
   2. Other Experience: Design Eng @ Scale AI, Resident & MS @ NYU
   3. Description: Left Scale on 3/25 with no updates
   4. Site, contact@jeeyoonhyun.com

5. Thomas Liao in SF (Founder @ Neoncoral)
   1. Role: Member of Technical Staff @ Anthropic (1 yr)
   2. Other Experience: Research Scientist @ Scale AI (2 yrs)
   3. Description: "AI consumer social"
   4. Funding: YC X25
   5. Site, Twitter, me@thomasliao.com
6. Anna Chen in SF (Potential Founder)
   1. Role: Member of Technical Staff @ Anthropic (2.5 yrs)
   2. Other Experience: Research Eng @ Vicarious AI & Quora, MEng @ University of Michigan
   3. Description: Left Anthropic on 2/24 with no updates
7. Lucy Yao in NYC (Stealth)
   1. Role: Product Ops @ Anthropic (<1 yr)
   2. Other Experience: Head of Growth @ Scale AI, Sr Manager of Product Ops @ DoorDash, BS @ Wharton
   3. Description: Stealth since 11/25
8. Azaila Mirhoseini & Anna Goldie in SF (Co-Founders @ Ricursive Intelligence) - Growth Lead
   1. Role: Member of Technical Staff - T8 @ Anthropic (1 yr)
   2. Other Experience: Sr Staff Research Scientist @ DeepMind and Google, PhD @ Rice
   3. Description: "A frontier AI lab enabling a recursive self-improvement loop between AI and the chips that fuel it."
   4. Funding: $35M Seed from Sequoia and Striker on 12/25
   5. Site
9. Stanislav Fort in SF (Co-Founder @ AISLE) - Venture / Growth Lead
   1. Role: Research Scientist & Member of Technical Staff @ Anthropic (1 yr)
   2. Other Experience: Research Scientist @ DeepMind, Resident @ Google AI, PhD & MS @ Stanford, BA @ Cambridge
   3. Description: "Organizations of all sizes use AISLE to autonomously discover and remediate critical vulnerabilities at superhuman speed and depth."
   4. Site, Twitter, stanislav.fort@gmail.com
10. Kelvin Yu in SF (Stealth) - Series A Lead
    1. Role: Policy @ Anthropic (<1 yr)
    2. Other Experience: Founding Eng & 1st FTE @ Zage (YC S21), Policy Advisor @ US House of Representatives, Investor @ In-Q-Tel
    3. Description: "Building infra to grow US industrial GDP."
    4. Funding: $7M Seed Floodgate, Ironspring Ventures, Neo, Steel Atlas on 10/25
    5. Site, Twitter
11. John Yan in SF (Founder @ Gutenberg)
    1. Role: Research Eng @ Anthropic (1 yr)
    2. Other Experience: SWE @ Meta
    3. Description: "Gutenberg uses cutting-edge interpretability techniques to understand and optimize your AI. Stop guessing how your models work, and start making them better, better."
12. Daniel Bentley in NYC (Potential Founder)
    1. Role: SWE Eng @ Anthropic (1 yr)
    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder & CEO @ Windmill Engineering (acquired by Docker), SWE @ Google & Twitter, BA @ Stanford
    3. Description: Left Anthropic in 2024 with no updates
    4. Twitter
13. Rune Kvist in SF (Co-Founder @ Artificial Underwriting Company) - Series A Lead
    1. Role: 1st Product & Commercial Hire @ Anthropic (1 yr)
    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder @ Momentum ($5M from OpenAI, Slack, Snowflake execs), BA @ Oxford
    3. Description: "Certify and insure AI agents. AIUC-1 is the 'SOC 2 for AI agents' — the world's first AI agent standard for security, safety, reliability."
    4. Funding: Raised $15M Seed from Nat Friedman, Emergence, and Terrain on 7/25
    5. Site, Twitter, runetybirkkvist@gmail.com