Tom Nakata

Tom Nakata (Tomofumi Nakata) is the co-founder and CEO of Qlay, a San Francisco AI startup he built after stints at McKinsey, J.P. Morgan, and Disney and a Harvard statistics degree. Qlay began as a generative-AI consumer-sentiment engine and pivoted into AI-powered interview proctoring - eye-gaze tracking, speech-cadence analysis, and multi-camera monitoring that catches AI-assisted cheating in remote technical interviews. Raised across Singapore, Tokyo, and California, Nakata describes his team as 'a shark that never stops,' chasing authenticity and measurable impact while sourcing engineering talent across Africa, Vietnam, and beyond.