Specter Monitor is a data-driven newsletter for investors interested in learning about the latest market trends, signals, and opportunities. Our audience includes some of the most legendary VC investors in the world. We’ll work hard to bring you actionable insights into what’s happening in today’s markets while celebrating data-driven wins and predictions. ✨
From Engineering to Investing: Essence VC's Data-Powered Approach
Discover how Essence VC enhances their early-stage investment strategy with Specter’s powerful talent insights. Tim Chen, founder of Essence, uses Specter to swiftly identify top technical founders, track emerging startups, and streamline sourcing with precision—accelerating their mission to support innovative infrastructure ventures.
🔮 Talents of the Week
Specter monitors real-time global talent movements to spot investment opportunities before anyone else.
🪄 Predicted: Kirill Avery (US, 2023): Founder and CEO at Human
Advantage on Latest Funding Round: 257 Days
Description: Human is an AI safety lab developing a decentralized trust infrastructure that ensures AI agents remain verifiably aligned with human intent.
Prev. Experience: Kirill Avery is the Founder and CEO of Human, an AI safety lab he launched in 2023 to build trust infrastructure for distinguishing humans from AI agents. Previously, he founded Lalabox (YC W21), a live-stream shopping platform that reached the App Store Top 15 in the US. At just 16, Avery co-created Clever, a viral social app that amassed 15 million users in nine months. He also worked as an iOS Engineer at VK.com, focusing on business and experimental products. Avery is a Y Combinator alumnus and has been recognized as a WWDC19 Scholarship Winner and Pioneer.app winner, showcasing his talent for building innovative consumer products and tackling complex technological challenges.
Total Funding: $7.3M / $7.3M Latest Pre-Seed on 02-2025.
Notable Investors: Brett Gibson, HF0 Residency, Hummingbird Ventures, James Tamplin, Pioneer Fund, Sheridan Clayborne, Soma Capital, Spearhead, Val Vavilov, Libermans Co.
👻 Opportunity: Jack Chua (US, 2024): Co-Founder and CEO at Stealth Startup
Prev. Experience: Jack Chua is the Co-Founder and CEO of a stealth startup, a role he has held since January 2024. Previously, he served as Director of Data Science for Advertiser Products at Meta, where he led an analytics organization of 35 supporting large-scale ads and monetization products. Chua also held leadership roles at Snap Inc. as Head of Marketing and Growth Data Science and at EF Education First as Executive Vice President of Digital Marketing. Earlier in his career, he led AI Labs at Expedia Group and was Head of Data for Hotwire, focusing on machine learning platforms and marketing optimization. Chua holds an M.S. in Computational Science and Engineering from Georgia Tech and a B.S. in Mathematics, Statistics, and Economics from the University of Chicago. His expertise spans machine learning, data science, and building scalable analytics teams.
🎱 Strategic Signals
Specter analyzes the online and social activity of leading investors and industry insiders to predict upcoming funding rounds and acquisitions.
🪄 Predicted: Tido Carriero (US, 2022): Co-Founder and CEO at Koala
Advantage on Latest Funding Round: 383 Days
Description: Koala is a customer intent platform that helps sales teams identify and prioritize leads.
Prev. Experience: Tido Carriero is the Co-Founder of Koala, a position he has held since January 2022. Prior to founding Koala, he was Chief Product Development Officer at Segment, where he played a pivotal role in scaling the company from its early days through its $3.2B acquisition by Twilio. At Dropbox, Carriero managed 170 engineers across multiple teams, including Dropbox for Business and core product development, and was instrumental in launching Dropbox for Business. Earlier in his career, he was an early member of Facebook's Ads engineering team, where he contributed to building foundational B2B products. Carriero holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Harvard University and has extensive experience in engineering leadership, product development, and scaling high-growth companies.
Total Funding: $15M / $15M Latest Series A on 02-2025.
Notable Investors: Afore Capital, HubSpot Ventures, Recall Capital, ASDF Ventures, Revelry Venture Partners.
👻 Opportunity: Reza Nourai (US, 2024) Co-Founder and CTO at OpenInfer
Description: OpenInfer provides an Al engine for developers to create intelligent agents and workflows that run on any hardware.
Prev. Experience: Reza Nourai is the Co-Founder and CTO of OpenInfer, a position he has held since November 2024. Previously, he served as Technical Director at Roblox, focusing on generative AI R&D and inference performance optimization. Prior to that, Nourai was a Graphics Architect at Meta, where he worked on XR rendering technologies, including cloud rendering and 3D reconstruction. He also led the graphics team at Magic Leap, developing APIs and pipelines for the Magic Leap One. Earlier in his career, he was Principal Tech Lead for PC Graphics at Oculus VR and spent over eight years at Microsoft working on Xbox operating systems and DirectX 12. Nourai holds a degree from The Ohio State University and has extensive expertise in graphics architecture, AI optimization, and cutting-edge rendering technologies.
🍒 Cherry-Picked Companies
Specter tracks the performance of millions of companies and identifies the ones who are likely to increase in valuation.
🪄 Predicted: Christian Iacullo (APAC, 2023) Co-Founder and CTO at Index
Thomas Paul MannCo-founder & CEO at Raycast
6 Months Growth: Web: 215.7%; Team: 33.3%; Social: 242.3%
Description: Index is a product management tool that integrates seamlessly with Linear, allowing teams to collect ideas, manage feedback, and build structured roadmaps.
Total Funding: $2.6M / $2.6M Latest Seed on 02-2025.
Notable Investors: Dave Fowler, Jay Simons, Zac Altman, Blackbird Ventures, Y Combinator, Max Marchione, Bain Capital Ventures, Thomas Mann, Alex Zaccaria.
👻 Opportunity: Alan Zabihi (US, 2023) Founder & CEO at Superagent
6 Months Growth: Web: 46.6%; Team: -33.3%; Social: 5.5%
Description: Superagent is a workspace for AI agents that autonomously learn, perform complex work, and collaborate with humans.
Total Funding: $500k / $500k Latest Pre Seed on 02-2024.
Notable Investors: Eight Capital, Y Combinator.
That’s all for this edition of Specter Monitor!
Stay tuned for the next updates and feel free to share with your friends.
