# Prayag Narula

> Prayag Narula is the Co-Founder and CEO of Marvin (HeyMarvin), an AI-native customer insights platform that centralizes, analyzes, and shares qualitative research data for product and UX teams. A researcher-turned-entrepreneur, he previously co-founded LeadGenius (Y Combinator W2011), which raised over $30 million and grew to hundreds of employees before he stepped down to return to his roots in user-centric design. With a graduate research background spanning UC Berkeley's School of Information and Helsinki's Ubiquitous Interaction Group, Narula built Marvin alongside his brother Chirag Narula in 2020 — this time with AI baked in from the ground up. The platform now serves 4,000+ teams and 13,000+ users, including 10 Fortune 100 companies.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Marvin (HeyMarvin)
- **Organizations:** Marvin (HeyMarvin), LeadGenius, UC Berkeley School of Information, Y Combinator
- **From:** India
- **Nationality:** Indian-American
- **Education:** Master of Information Management and Systems (MIMS), UC Berkeley School of Information, B.E., Information Technology, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT), University of Delhi, Accelerator Program (W2011 batch), Y Combinator
- **Known for:** Co-founded LeadGenius (Y Combinator W2011), raising $30M+ and growing to hundreds of global employees, Co-founded Marvin (HeyMarvin) — the first AI-native research repository built with AI from day one, Secured $3.8M pre-seed investment from Sam Altman's Apollo Projects and Fuel Capital for Marvin

## Career timeline

- **2006** — Internship at Gemalto
- **2007** — Research Intern at Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan
- **2007-2009** — Development Engineer at KritiKal Solutions (Embedded Systems)
- **2009-2010** — Researcher at Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (Ubiquitous Interaction Group, Finland)
- **2010-2011** — Graduate Student Instructor at UC Berkeley School of Information
- **2011** — Co-founded MobileWorks (later LeadGenius) with Anand Kulkarni and Dave Rolnitzky; accepted to Y Combinator W2011
- **2011-2018** — CEO of LeadGenius; raised $25M+ in venture funding, grew to hundreds of employees worldwide
- **2012** — Published 'MobileWorks: Designing for Quality in a Managed Crowdsourcing Architecture'; received MIMS from UC Berkeley
- **2018-2020** — Transitioned from CEO to Chairman of the Board at LeadGenius
- **2020** — Co-founded Marvin with his brother Chirag Narula
- **2022** — Launched Marvin publicly with $3.8M pre-seed round led by Apollo Projects (Sam Altman) and Fuel Capital
- **2025** — HeyMarvin reports 400% revenue growth, 4,000+ teams, 13,000+ users; raises additional $10M debt round from Triple Point Capital

## Achievements

- Co-founded LeadGenius (Y Combinator W2011), raising $30M+ and growing to hundreds of global employees
- Co-founded Marvin (HeyMarvin) — the first AI-native research repository built with AI from day one
- Secured $3.8M pre-seed investment from Sam Altman's Apollo Projects and Fuel Capital for Marvin
- HeyMarvin achieved 400% revenue growth in one year
- Grew Marvin to 4,000+ teams and 13,000+ users including 10 Fortune 100 companies
- Forbes Technology Council member
- Published 12+ peer-reviewed research papers in HCI, AI, UX, Crowdsourcing, and Computer Networks
- Researcher at Helsinki Institute for Information Technology in the Ubiquitous Interaction Group

## Latest updates

- **2025-06** — HeyMarvin announces 400% revenue growth and appoints new CRO
- **2025-05** — Prayag spoke at UXDX USA 2025 in a live podcast session titled 'From Research to Reinvention'
- **2025-03** — HeyMarvin secures $10M debt round from Triple Point Capital
- **2022-02** — Marvin publicly launched with $3.8M pre-seed funding

## Links

- Website: https://heymarvin.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prayagnarula
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/prayagn
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prayagn/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/prayag-narula
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-11