# Eli Finkelshteyn

> Eli Finkelshteyn is the co-founder and CEO of Constructor, an AI-native product discovery and search platform for e-commerce. With a background in computational linguistics and natural language processing, he built Constructor over four years in stealth before launching in 2019. Today the company powers over 400 billion requests annually, counts Sephora, Under Armour, Gap, and REI among its clients, and has raised $91M in funding at a $550M valuation. Finkelshteyn's core belief: world-class search is a competitive moat, and no retailer should have to build it from scratch.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Constructor
- **Organizations:** Constructor
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (Triple Major: Math, Economics, Computer Science), Brandeis University, Master of Arts in Computational Linguistics, Brandeis University
- **Known for:** Built Constructor from 4 employees to powering 400+ billion requests annually, Landed Jet.com (Walmart-owned) as first enterprise client with just 4-person team, Achieved 233% year-over-year revenue growth as of 2021

## Career timeline

- **2010** — Software Engineer in NLP at FactSet Research Systems
- **2011** — Data Engineer at Tumblr, working on spam and phishing detection
- **2011** — Search Engineer at Shutterstock, developing search algorithms
- **2012** — Data Science consulting at BackPlane
- **2015** — Co-founded Constructor with Dan McCormick
- **2016** — Raised $1.1M Pre-Seed round
- **2017** — Raised $5M Seed round led by Zetta Venture Partners
- **2019** — Launched Constructor to market after 4 years of development; landed Jet.com as first enterprise client
- **2021** — Raised $55M Series A led by Silversmith Capital Partners; 233% YoY revenue growth
- **2024** — Raised $25M Series B led by Sapphire Ventures; valuation tripled to $550M

## Achievements

- Built Constructor from 4 employees to powering 400+ billion requests annually
- Landed Jet.com (Walmart-owned) as first enterprise client with just 4-person team
- Achieved 233% year-over-year revenue growth as of 2021
- Doubled revenue for three consecutive years
- 98.5% client retention rate across enterprise customer base
- Series B round was oversubscribed despite Constructor not actively fundraising
- Grew Constructor to $65.1M ARR with 619-person team
- Raised total of $91.1M in funding; company valued at $550M
- Clients include Sephora, Under Armour, Gap, REI, Bonobos, American Eagle, Target Australia, Birkenstock

## Latest updates

- **2024-06** — Constructor raised $25M Series B led by Sapphire Ventures, tripling valuation to $550M
- **2024-05** — Constructor launched AI Shopping Agent and expanded AI transparency features ('AI Glassbox')
- **2024-01** — Constructor achieved third consecutive year of doubled revenue

## Links

- Website: https://constructor.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-finkelshteyn
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/elifinkel
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/constructorio1

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/eli-finkelshteyn
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-26