Founder Directory
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Founders3
Known for these resultsRole100%Role is parsed from founder titles in yc.db. Known for 100% 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.Bio100%Bio coverage: 100% 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-company67%Ex-company is matched from bios with employment context (ex-, formerly, worked at). 67% of these rows have at least one match.School67%School is matched from bios, case-sensitive for acronyms. 67% of these rows have at least one match.
- Bao NguyenFounder/CEO · HessianX26B2B · San Francisco
- James SmithFounder/COO · HessianX26B2B · San Francisco
- Tom WatsonFounder/CTO · HessianX26B2B · San Francisco
FOUNDERROLEBATCHINDUSTRYLOCATIONTEAMX_url
Bao NguyenHessianFounder/CEOSpring 2026B2BSan Francisco, United States3—James SmithHessianFounder/COOSpring 2026B2BSan Francisco, United States3—Tom WatsonHessianFounder/CTOSpring 2026B2BSan Francisco, United States3—
Showing 1–3 of 3 founders
James Smith
Founder/COO·Hessian
PRIMARY INFO
RoleFounder/COO
Team size3
BatchSpring 2026
LocationSan Francisco, United States
Company statusActive
StageEarly
BIO
James, co-founder and COO of Hessian – leads forward-deployed engagements: customer relationship, system design, shipping AI pipelines to production. Previously five years at Bloomberg building a data platform processing billions of observations for financial firms, including entity-disambiguation AI pipelines, then DRW building data infrastructure and pipelines for commodities trading desks. CS at Durham University (top of year); awarded three scholarships from the University of Cambridge.
Ex-company, school and discipline below are derived from this bio. Nothing is inferred when the bio is missing.
BACKGROUND
Credentialsnone mentioned
Disciplinenot detectedKeyword match from the bio text, not a classifier.
TRACK RECORD
First YC company on record
COMPANY CONTEXT
HessianForward-deployed AI Agents
