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THE
FOUNDER
FILES
Welcome to The Founder Files—a dynamic directory of founders who are students/graduates/professors of MIT and Harvard and their startups. Explore a diverse range of innovative companies and discover the stories behind their creation.
Use the filters to sort startups by Industry or Country, and click 'Read the Interview' to dive into exclusive interviews with each founder.
If you want to be featureded on The Founder Files, kindly complete this form.
VISION
Find your next investment opportunity, partnership, career path, or source of inspiration here.
THE FOUNDER FILES
Welcome to The Founder Files—a dynamic directory of founders who are students/graduates/professors of MIT and Harvard and their startups. Explore a diverse range of innovative companies and discover the stories behind their creation.
Use the filters to sort startups by Industry or Country, and click "Read the Interview" to dive into exclusive interviews with each founder.
If you want to be featured on The Founder Files, kindly complete this form.
MYNDY
Mental Fitness Workouts for the Modern Mind
Location:
United States
Founded:
2020
Team Size:
1
Industries:
Health and Wellness
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About:
In today’s overwhelming landscape of mental wellness tools, it can be confusing, and downright frustrating to figure out what to use and when. MYNDY stands apart as the first-ever holistic solution that aims to address the pressing mental health challenges by incorporating daily wellness practices into users’ routines.
We’ve worked hard to bring together the best research in the world—from neuroscience, psychology (positive, performance, goal-setting), sociology, physiology (wellness, health, fitness), and beyond—into one daily Mental Fitness routine that helps you boost focus, energy, mood, and productivity in just 10 minutes a day.
Through a structured framework, MYNDY empowers individuals to proactively care
for their mental well-being, offering tools that support early intervention and build
long-term resilience. In the same way you go to the gym to work on your body on a regular basis to build wellness, the same goes for your mind. We’re focused on helping our members build long-term Mental Fitness habits that stick—so our model, plans, accountability teams and progress tracker are all built with this in mind.
MYNDY was born out of the idea to train the “corporate athlete” to optimize their mental fitness, however it goes beyond that as the platform is valuable for anyone looking to build a stronger mind.
Founders:
Lissy Alden, CEO & Founder -
S3 Markets
Tackling scope 3 emissions by scaling up decarbonized commodities via a book and claim system
Location:
United States
Founded:
2022
Team Size:
2
Industries:
Climate, Marketplace, Sustainability
About:
S3 Markets provides revenue subsidies to low-carbon commodity producers in the highest emitting, hardest-to-abate sectors of the global economy (cement, steel, ammonia) so they can compete head on with incumbent commodity producers, displacing dirty, outdated modes of production.
Founders:
Saman Baghestani, CEO
Michael Raynor, CPO
Wizest
Investing with guidance
Location:
United States
Founded:
2019
Team Size:
5
Industries:
Finance, Financial Services, Technology, Personal Finance
About:
Many people, like young professionals, women and minorities struggle with financial stress and first steps in wealth building: lack of knowledge, support, and affordable solutions to save and invest. To help them and answer the questions “how to do?” and “where to start?”, Wizest is a collaborative and hybrid digital/human solution that makes saving and investing simple and accessible to all.
- Wizest is an SEC Registered Investment Advisory firm, with bank level security and funds protected up to $500,000 (SPIC insured).
- Users can follow and invest in vetted financial experts by replicating their portfolios. The process is transparent and builds financial literacy along the way.
- High-interest savings offering great interest and excellent protection. Funds are safeguarded up to $5,000,000 (FDIC insured).
- Wizest is led by a diverse team of banking, finance and technology experts. Also, we have the backing of industry leaders like Karl Roessner (CEO, Vestmark & E*Trade), Mike Linton (CMO, eBay, BestBuy,…), APEX Clearing (backend provider for Ally, Betterment, Robinhood…), and top VCs like Aperture VC.
Wizest puts financial success within reach via a simple subscription model. It is accessible to individual consumers, or via partnerships with employers, as well as financial institutions. Examples among our first partners are the NBA team Cleveland Cavaliers, offering Wizest to their employees, or MassMutual, where we are working to launch a pilot in the next few months.
Founders:
Axel Thibon, CEO
William Estoque, CTO
Lazaro Gonzalez, CMO
Rafael Vallina (Sloan MIT MBA 2012), CPO
Jeffrey Memnon, Head of Investments
Tiba Biotech
We deliver
Location:
United States, Australia
Founded:
2018
Team Size:
3
Industries:
Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology
Karl Ruping
CEO
MIT & Harvard
Associate, Harvard University Asia Center (Present); Research Fellow, MIT Course 6 (1998-2006); Affiliated with MIT.nano (present)
About:
Tiba emerged from MIT and the Whitehead Institute in 2018 after five years of government sponsored research to advance a patented RNA delivery platform for vaccines and therapeutics. We have attracted a number of US grants for both vaccines (NIH SBIRs) and therapeutics (BARDA EZ-BAA). We have also secured international funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI) and an Australian government contract to develop emergency-use livestock vaccines against high-risk viral threats. These accomplishments have also led to a number of publications, including:
Dendrimer-RNA nanoparticles generate protective immunity against lethal Ebola, H1N1 influenza, and Toxoplasma gondii challenges with a single dose
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27382155/
An RNA nanoparticle vaccine against Zika virus elicits antibody and CD8+ T cell responses in a mouse model
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28325910/
Route of self-amplifying mRNA vaccination modulates the establishment of pulmonary resident memory CD8 and CD4 T cells
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36459542/
Founders:
Karl Ruping, CEO
Christian Mandl, Chief Science Officer,
Jasdave "Jas" Chahal, Chief Scientist,
DiffraQTion
See Further, Understand Deeper
Location:
United States
Founded:
2023
Team Size:
2
Industries:
Research and Development (R&D), Robotics, Defense, Biotechnology, Hard Tech, Life Sciences, Medical Devices, Pharmaceuticals
Johannes Galatsanos-Dück
CEO, Co-Founder
MIT
MIT Sloan Fellow 24', SM in Management of Technology (MoT)
About:
We are building the next generation of super-resolution microscopes & telescopes allowing breakthrough discoveries in Biology, Pharmaceuticals, and Space.
Drug Discovery and diagnostics rely on highly magnified and fast-captured images of biological processes.
Super-resolution microscopy is overcoming the physical boundaries of lenses, the diffraction limit. The discovery of the first super-resolution technique, STED, was awarded with the 2014 nobel prize.
Current best-in-class methods of Super-Resolution Imaging go to depths of several nm, but are too costly and can harm the sample in different ways.
We intend to change that with affordable add-ons to widefield, confocal and super-resolution microscopes, giving a significant increase of magnification and temporal resolution without harming the sample.
Our technology was developed in partnership with DARPA and NASA for high-precision space situational awareness. It is intended to fit into the Habitable Worlds Observatory, the successor to the James Webb and Hubble space observatories, dedicated to finding exoplanets that can support life. We will bring the same technology to microscopes, allowing us to unlock the secrets of life.
We are pursuing modal imaging at the quantum limit of resolution, for passive imaging with incoherent light, of scene features of size far below the Rayleigh resolution limit. We attain the fundamental quantum limits in the regimes when conventional imaging techniques struggle, using pre-detection spatial mode sorting, including adaptive techniques.
Founders:
Johannes Galatsanos, CEO
Prof. Saikat Guha, CSA
Soum
Buy & Sell with Convenience, Trust, and Ease
Location:
Saudi Arabia
Founded:
2021
Team Size:
3
Industries:
Sustainability, e-Commerce
About:
Soum is an online marketplace on a mission to transform how people in the MENA region buy and sell items online by offering convenience, trust, and ease. We aim to create a secure ecosystem where users can effortlessly trade goods while building trust through innovative tools and exceptional service.
We launched in 2021 in Saudi Arabia, focusing on second-hand electronics, addressing the common challenges of unreliable listings, and limited access to quality pre-owned items. By providing a streamlined, user-friendly platform with features like verified listings and secure payment options, we have solved critical pain points for both buyers and sellers.
Today, Soum caters to a broad audience, including tech-savvy millennials, budget-conscious families, and collectors. With a rapidly growing customer base, we’ve expanded into new verticals, such as used cars and collectibles, to meet diverse needs.
Our platform has facilitated hundreds of thousands of transactions across 150+ locations in KSA, achieved over 5 million app downloads, and ranked as the 10th most downloaded e-commerce app in the country in 2023. We’re continuously innovating to redefine online marketplaces in the region.
Founders:
Bader Almubarak, Co-Founder & CEO,
Fahad Albassam, Co-Founder & CGO,
Fahad Alhassan, Co-Founder & COO,
Dyle
Get Dyle'd In
Location:
United States
Founded:
2024
Team Size:
2
Industries:
e-Commerce, SaaS (Software as a Service), Sales Enablement, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity
Oisín O'Sullivan
CEO
MIT & Harvard
MBA MIT 2025 & Cross Registration MBA Student, Harvard Business School 2024-2025
About:
Dyle manages companies SMB Customers, by leveraging product usage insights & generating sales opportunities, to drive Net Revenue Retention, [and] reduce Churn to scale A/M's portfolio Mgt by 5x
Churn rates are 5x higher across SMB Customers vs Enterprise Customers, and Net Revenue Retention is 108% vs 128 % between SMB & Enterprise Customers. The problem is that Account Managers can't manage more than 35 accounts effectively per year, and AM/s need to be managing at least $2M in ARR. A Typical SMB account is worth about $10k in ARR. As a result, AM's need to manage over 200 SMB accounts to break even, and that's not possible.
Dyle takes the hard work out of Account management for Account managers to be able to manage over 200 SMB accounts at scale, by providing product usage insights, generating sales opportunities and owing [owning] these opportunities until they are closed by the Dyle AI agent.
Founders:
Oisín O'Sullivan, CEO,
Eugene Sokolov, CTO,
Francis
Consolidation and Financial planning
Location:
United States, Denmark
Founded:
2022
Team Size:
4
Industries:
Finance, Information Technology (IT), SaaS (Software as a Service)
About:
Our mission is to enhance how companies manage and collaborate on their finances. Specifically, Francis is used for consolidation, financial planning, and reporting. Our vision is for all mid-sized and larger companies to have fully automated, integrated financial models that empower their business.We serve small finance teams that manage groups of 1-15 entities and who wants to do more.
Founders:
William Pontoppidan, CEO,
Sune Gynthersen, CTO,
nurtur
pioneering prevention of postpartum depression
Location:
United States
Founded:
2024
Team Size:
6
Industries:
Healthcare, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Health and Wellness
About:
nurtur is a digital health startup pioneering the prevention of postpartum depression (PPD) using AI-powered technology and clinically validated protocols. Our mission is to address the 85% of maternal mental health disorders that currently go undiagnosed and untreated due to the reactive nature of today’s healthcare system.
nurtur’s AI platform identifies at-risk mothers before symptoms appear, guiding them through self-directed therapy and providing ongoing mental health monitoring. We alleviate the burden on OBGYN clinics, which often struggle to address mental health within short appointment windows, by offering a fully managed mental health solution covered by insurance through the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM).
Founders:
Kristen Ellefson, CEO
Bindu Chanagala, CPO
NetaCarbon
Workflow solution for bespoke high-quality carbon projects investments.
Location:
United States, Mexico
Founded:
2023
Team Size:
2
Industries:
Climate, Sustainability, SaaS (Software as a Service), Environmental
Maria del Mar Velasco
Co-founder
MIT & Harvard
Maria del Mar Velasco, MBA graduate at MIT Sloan School of Management 2023
Grace Lam, MBA graduate from the Harvard Business School and MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School (joint degree) 2024
About:
Our mission is to mobilize investments into projects that protect and preserve the planet. The voluntary carbon market's projected growth from $2 billion to $50 billion by 2030 presents a significant opportunity. To unlock this growth, sustainability officers need the power, budget, and best tools to take actionable steps towards reaching their goals. Additionally, corporate buyers need alternatives to mitigate reputational risks when purchasing off-the-shelf carbon credits. On the other hand, project developers lack financing to get their projects off the ground. Limited funding and intermediaries present significant hurdles to launching carbon projects.
NetaCarbon’s solution rebuilds trust in the carbon market by enabling corporate buyers to be the creators and financiers of high-quality carbon projects. Pre-financing not only serves as an effective climate finance solution and enables carbon projects to get off the ground, but it also strengthens brand narratives and can drive top line growth.
Our initial users are sustainability officers of mid-sized corporate companies with climate goals. Depending on organization structure, commercial or finance teams could be our users as well. We expect our users to be based in the US and carbon project developers to be mainly in LatAm (also where we have the deepest relationships in our networks and makes more sense for our customers due to the proximity in their value chains). However, we anticipate expanding globally as sustainability initiatives gain momentum worldwide.
Founders:
Maria del Mar Velasco, Co-founder,
Grace Lam, Co-founder,
Quipu
AI to democratize access to capital for microbusinesses
Location:
Colombia
Founded:
2019
Team Size:
4
Industries:
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Financial Services
About:
At Quipu, our mission is to unlock access to capital to unbanked and underbanked microbusinesses across Latam. We do this by developing disruptive AI based credit scores based on alternative and unstructured data. We've underwriten over 15,000 loans to 12,000 clients using our technology since 2022. Our lending customers are individuals who have a business and are unbanked or underbanked, are largely informal and 90% of them are rejected by traditional banks. Our scoring as a service customers are micro finance institutions, banks, fintechs, credit coops.
Founders:
Juan Constain - COO/CPO
Mercedes Bidart - CEO
Viviana Siless - CTO
Eduardo Carrasquilla - CFO
Zero 2 Infinity
Purveyors of Elevation
Location:
Spain
Founded:
2009
Team Size:
1
Industries:
Aerospace, Sustainability, Transportation, Travel and Tourism
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