# Melisa Tokmak

> Melisa Tokmak is the founder and CEO of Netic, a San Francisco-based company building AI to manage customer interactions and revenue workflows for essential service businesses. Raised in Salihli, Turkey, she studied computer science at Stanford on a full scholarship and worked at Facebook, Instagram, and Scale AI before starting Netic in 2024.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Netic
- **Organizations:** Netic, Scale AI, Facebook, Instagram
- **Nationality:** Turkish
- **Education:** BS, Computer Science, Stanford University, UWC Mahindra College
- **Known for:** Built Scale AI’s government business and led enterprise and Document AI work., Founded Netic and raised $43 million in disclosed company funding by November 2025., Netic was included in Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2026 list.

## Career timeline

- **2012** — Lists first place in physics in Turkey’s TÜBİTAK National Project Competition on her public professional profile.
- **2013** — Arrived at Stanford on a full scholarship.
- **2017** — Graduated from Stanford with a computer science degree; subsequently worked in product management at Facebook and Instagram.
- **2019** — Joined Scale AI; served as chief of staff to Alexandr Wang and helped establish its government business.
- **2022** — Publicly appeared as general manager of Document AI at Scale AI.
- **2024** — Founded Netic, according to the company’s own published history.
- **2025-06** — Netic emerged publicly with $20 million in combined funding; Greylock led its seed round and Founders Fund led its Series A.
- **2025-11** — Netic announced a $23 million Series B led by Founders Fund, bringing disclosed funding to $43 million.
- **2026-10** — Shared the launch of Netic’s undergraduate gap-year engineering program.

## Achievements

- Built Scale AI’s government business and led enterprise and Document AI work.
- Founded Netic and raised $43 million in disclosed company funding by November 2025.
- Netic was included in Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2026 list.
- Publicly lists a 2012 first-place Turkish national physics competition award and a JRC prize from the EU Contest for Young Scientists.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — On October 14 she shared Netic’s gap-year program for undergraduate engineers, offering full-time work, salary, equity, and housing in San Francisco or New York.
- **2026-10** — COO Alliance republished an earlier interview with Tokmak as a Fan Favorite episode on October 6; this is an archival conversation, not a new Scale AI appointment.
- **2026-07** — Appeared on No Priors on July 31 to discuss AI for real-world services, product strategy, and hiring.
- **2026-07** — Netic appeared in Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups list on July 28.
- **2026-06** — Published Deriving the right decisions on June 29, describing five company decision principles.

## Links

- Website: https://www.netic.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mtokmak
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/melisatokmak

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/melisa-tokmak
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-26