Founder Directory
Built by Keitoto
Founders8
Known for these resultsRole38%Role is parsed from founder titles in yc.db. Known for 38% of these rows — the rest have no title at all, mostly 2019–2023. Those rows stay in the result and are counted as Unknown, never as No.Bio75%Bio coverage: 75% of these founders have a bio on their YC profile. Every bio-derived facet (ex-company, school, credentials, discipline) is Unknown for the rest.Ex-company38%Ex-company is matched from bios with employment context (ex-, formerly, worked at). 38% of these rows have at least one match.School50%School is matched from bios, case-sensitive for acronyms. 50% of these rows have at least one match.
- Damian Szumski@zaxrevFounder/CEO · SkymerseS26Industrials · San Francisco
- Will Nida@willnida0Founder/CTO · Forerunner AIF24Industrials · San Francisco
- Yash KadadiFounder/CEO · Forerunner AIF24Industrials · San Francisco
- Tim Qin@timtqinFounder · RoameS23Consumer · San Francisco
- Zi LiuFounder · RoameS23Consumer · San Francisco
- Laurence Fornari@FornariLaurenceFounder · SkyLightsS16Consumer · San Francisco
- Azim BarodawalaFounder · VolantioW09B2B · Atlanta
- Fenn BaileyFounder · VolantioW09B2B · Atlanta
FOUNDERROLEBATCHINDUSTRYLOCATIONTEAMX_url
Damian SzumskiSkymerseFounder/CEOSummer 2026IndustrialsSan Francisco, United States—https://x.com/zaxrevWill NidaForerunner AIFounder/CTOFall 2024IndustrialsSan Francisco, United States2https://x.com/willnida0Yash KadadiForerunner AIFounder/CEOFall 2024IndustrialsSan Francisco, United States2—Tim QinRoameFounderSummer 2023ConsumerSan Francisco, United States2https://x.com/timtqinZi LiuRoameFounderSummer 2023ConsumerSan Francisco, United States2—Laurence FornariSkyLightsFounderSummer 2016ConsumerSan Francisco, United States5https://x.com/FornariLaurenceAzim BarodawalaVolantioFounderWinter 2009B2BAtlanta, United States19—Fenn BaileyVolantioFounderWinter 2009B2BAtlanta, United States19—
Showing 1–8 of 8 founders
Zi Liu
Founder·Roame
PRIMARY INFO
RoleFounder· not in title
Team size2
BatchSummer 2023
LocationSan Francisco, United States
Company statusActive
StageEarly
BIO
Zi (CTO) ran all of Airbnb’s encryption services, creating and managing billions of cryptographic requests from payments vaulting to healthcare data. He started his career in Machine Vision AI processing at the Department of Defense in Oak Ridge. Zi studied computer science at Dartmouth.
Ex-company, school and discipline below are derived from this bio. Nothing is inferred when the bio is missing.
BACKGROUND
Credentialsnone mentioned
DisciplineEngineerKeyword match from the bio text, not a classifier.
TRACK RECORD
First YC company on record
COMPANY CONTEXT
Roame
Flight search engine using credit card points and miles
Co-foundersTim Qin@timtqin
