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
Tom Watson
Founder/CTO·Hessian
PRIMARY INFO
RoleFounder/CTO
Team size3
BatchSpring 2026
LocationSan Francisco, United States
Company statusActive
StageEarly
BIO
Tom, co-founder and CTO of Hessian – leads technical direction and engineering of the platform which Hessian runs on. Previously at GoCardless, he was part of a team which migrated the core payments database to a more scalable provider live with zero downtime, on a system processing over £1B on peak days. Prior, spent 2 years at CMC Markets building a 0-to-1 retail trading app for US investors. BSc in CS from Durham University, where his team won the IBM prize for shipping a production CMS.
Ex-company, school and discipline below are derived from this bio. Nothing is inferred when the bio is missing.
BACKGROUND
No notable employer or school mentioned in the bio.
Credentialsnone mentioned
DisciplineEngineerKeyword match from the bio text, not a classifier.
TRACK RECORD
First YC company on record
COMPANY CONTEXT
HessianForward-deployed AI Agents
