# Dexter Ligot-Gordon

> Dexter Ligot-Gordon is a California-born Filipino-American entrepreneur and Co-founder and CEO of Swarm, a GenAI consulting and implementation firm helping enterprises move AI projects from proof-of-concept to production. Before Swarm, he co-founded Kalibrr - the first Southeast Asian startup accepted into Y Combinator (W13) - and spent nearly a decade in public policy including serving as a UC Berkeley Student Regent. Swarm raised a $1.1M pre-seed round in November 2023 from Hustle Fund and Plug and Play.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Swarm
- **Organizations:** Swarm, Kalibrr, City and County of San Francisco, Insight Center for Community Economic Development, University of California Board of Regents
- **From:** California, United States
- **Nationality:** American (Filipino-American)
- **Education:** Political Economy of Industrial Societies, University of California, Berkeley
- **Known for:** UC Berkeley Student Regent at age 21, influencing major policy changes including green building standards, Co-founded Kalibrr - first Southeast Asian startup accepted into Y Combinator (W13, 2013), Built Kalibrr to revolutionize hiring in emerging markets by eliminating college degree requirements

## Career timeline

- **2002-2003** — UC Berkeley Student Regent - one of 26 voting board members overseeing 10 campuses and 3 National Laboratories; advocated for racial diversity, admissions equity, and Filipino-American Studies
- **2003-2012** — Principal Analyst, Mayor's Office of Economic & Workforce Development, City and County of San Francisco; also served as Program Manager at Insight Center for Community Economic Development and workforce policy consultant for state governors
- **2013** — Co-founded Kalibrr with Danny Castonguay and Paul Rivera; accepted into Y Combinator Winter 2013 - first Southeast Asian/Philippine startup in YC history
- **2013-2021** — Led product, design, and engineering at Kalibrr; built hiring platform that eliminated college degree requirements for emerging markets; achieved 4.9 Glassdoor rating
- **2020** — Co-founded Swarm with Jan Aaron Angelo Lee and Alexis Collado
- **2021** — Exited Kalibrr; focused full-time on Swarm
- **2023** — Swarm pivoted to GenAI consulting and implementation; raised $1.1M pre-seed from Hustle Fund and Plug and Play (November 2023)
- **2024-2025** — Scaling Swarm's enterprise AI deployment practice; serving clients including Cisco, Samsung, Amazon, IBM; building partnerships with AWS and NVIDIA

## Achievements

- UC Berkeley Student Regent at age 21, influencing major policy changes including green building standards
- Co-founded Kalibrr - first Southeast Asian startup accepted into Y Combinator (W13, 2013)
- Built Kalibrr to revolutionize hiring in emerging markets by eliminating college degree requirements
- Achieved 4.9 Glassdoor rating at Kalibrr through intensive learning culture
- Raised $1.1M pre-seed for Swarm from Hustle Fund and Plug and Play (November 2023)
- Swarm clients include Fortune 100 companies: Cisco, Samsung, Amazon, IBM, Hugging Face
- Built team with former CTOs from IBM, Crunchyroll, and Google and AWS Deep Learning leaders

## Latest updates

- **2023-11** — Swarm raised $1.1M pre-seed round led by Hustle Fund and Plug and Play
- **2023-11** — Swarm pivoted to focus on GenAI consulting and enterprise AI implementation
- **2024** — Building strategic partnerships with AWS and NVIDIA; planning OpenAI, Databricks, Snowflake, Zilliz partnerships
- **2025** — Scaling Swarm operations serving Fortune 100 clients across finance, healthcare, energy, and legal sectors

## Links

- Website: https://swarm.work
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ligotgordon
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/dexmarksthespot
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/ligotgordon

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/dexter-ligot-gordon
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-14