distributed-teams
(9)
Amar Bandaru Built a Career in the Machinery Behind the Moment
Before AI became a boardroom reflex, Amar Bandaru spent two decades doing the quieter work beneath it: building applications, leading distributed teams and translating technical possibility into something a client could use.
Sabrina Kelly
Sabrina Kelly is a people and talent leader who rose from technology recruiting to become President of Techstars, one of the world's largest startup accelerator and investment platforms. Over roughly a decade at Techstars she led People Operations globally, served as Chief People Officer, and built scalable HR functions across markets in the US and Europe. Earlier she recruited technical talent for names like Spotify, IAC, and Etsy in New York, and founded the HR function at CustomMade in Boston. She is known for an empathetic, direct, and pragmatic approach to building culture and managing distributed teams.
Oscar Mattsson
Oscar Mattsson is the founder and CEO of allwhere, a New York startup that handles the unglamorous physics of remote work: buying, shipping, tracking, and retrieving the laptops and gear that distributed teams scatter across the globe. A founding member of WeWork's enterprise business, he launched allwhere out of D.E. Shaw's venture studio in 2021 and brought it out of stealth in July 2022 with $9.5 million in seed funding. His bet is simple and stubborn - flexibility is permanent, and someone has to manage the hardware behind it.
Samuel Smith
Samuel 'Sam' Smith is the CEO of Gather, the spatial virtual-office platform for distributed teams. He joined in mid-2022 as a data scientist after falling for the product on an office visit, rose to Head of Data and Business Analytics, and was named CEO in April 2026 when founders Phillip Wang, Mohammed Kumail Jaffer and Jinen Kamdar handed over the reins. A Denver-based data person turned chief executive, he is steering an independent, non-venture-backed Gather back to its roots: spontaneous conversations, customizable rooms, pets, and the small delightful details that make remote work feel less remote.
Adam Harris
Adam Harris is the co-founder and CEO of Cloudbeds, the hospitality management platform he started in 2012 with Richard Castle after a sketchy reservation experience at a Brazilian pousada. From a back-of-the-napkin idea, he built Cloudbeds into a fully remote company of 700+ people across 40+ countries that powers tens of thousands of lodging properties in more than 150 countries. A former Wall Street investment banker turned serial entrepreneur, Harris has built and sold multiple companies, traveled to more than 51 countries, and is now steering Cloudbeds through the AI era while championing a no-office culture.
Dylan Serota
Dylan Serota is the CEO and Co-Founder of Terminal, a global tech talent marketplace that connects elite remote engineers with high-growth companies. After building a 100-person engineering team in Mendoza, Argentina during his time at Eventbrite, he co-founded Terminal in 2017 at the Atomic venture studio alongside Joe Lonsdale (Palantir co-founder) and Jack Abraham. Terminal has raised over $27M in funding including a $17M Series B led by 8VC, serves 100+ clients including Hims&Hers, iCapital, and Grindr, and is on track for nearly $50M in gross revenue. Serota took over as CEO in 2024 and has become a prominent voice on AI's impact on engineering talent and the future of distributed work.
Eishay Smith
Eishay Smith is the CEO and Board Member of Versatile, a construction technology company that puts AI-powered intelligence into cranes to give builders real-time visibility over production rates and project progress. A computer scientist by training, he co-founded Kifi (acquired by Google in 2016), led engineering at Netflix, LinkedIn, Wealthfront, and Carbon Health, before joining Versatile as CTO and GM in Israel - eventually taking the top job in early 2024. Based in Timrat, Israel, he runs a company that has raised $110.5M in funding and is redefining how construction sites are measured, managed, and controlled.
Sondre Rasch
Sondre Rasch is the Norwegian co-founder and CEO of SafetyWing, a Y Combinator-backed insurtech building a global social safety net for remote workers and digital nomads. Starting from a teenage web hosting business run through an online video game community, he studied economics at NHH Bergen, served as a sniper in the Norwegian Army, advised the Norwegian government on social policy, and co-founded Superside before launching SafetyWing in 2018. SafetyWing has raised $46.6M (including a $35M Series B in 2022) and generates over $34M in annual revenue serving tens of thousands of customers across 180+ countries. His ultimate ambition is to build 'a country on the internet' - a software-based welfare system and digital nation called Plumia.
Chike Agbai
Chike Agbai is the CEO and Founder of Azumo, a San Francisco-based nearshore software development company he launched in 2016 after nearly two decades on Wall Street advising over $100 billion in enterprise software transactions for clients like Oracle, Salesforce, and Dell. A Stanford Economics graduate, he pivoted from investment banking to entrepreneurship on the conviction that exceptional technical talent exists everywhere - not just in traditional tech hubs. Under his leadership, Azumo has grown to 110+ employees across 20+ countries in Latin America, earned a 4.9-star rating on Clutch, served 100+ clients including Facebook, Twitter, and Discovery Channel, and been recognized among the '10 Smartest Companies of the Year 2025.' He credits his grandfather's migration from Louisiana to Los Angeles in the 1930s as the spark behind his own entrepreneurial ambition.