Batch: Achievements
- Founded Parse, a mobile infrastructure platform, which was acquired by Facebook for $85 million
- Led the Parse and Platform teams at Facebook, running Parse as a subsidiary post-acquisition
- First employee at Y Combinator W10 startup Etacts, later acquired by Salesforce
- Early employee at Ooyala, gaining extensive startup experience
- Investor and mentor in early-stage startups through Y Combinator and Matrix Partners
- Contributed to open source projects like Vimium to improve web browsing
About Ilya Sukhar
No cap, here’s what’s up with Ilya Sukhar – this guy’s a straight-up legend in the startup world. So, he’s a YC alum from the S11 batch, which already says he’s got some serious chops. But what really makes him stand out? His process is like the ultimate hustle story.
He grew up in the Bay Area, but he’s actually an immigrant from the USSR. Dude came here, studied CS and Operations Research at Cornell, and jumped right into tech. His first big move was at Ooyala, then he was the first employee at Etacts, which was part of YC W10 and got snapped up by Salesforce. Basically, he’s been in the trenches from day one, learning the game.
Then, he co-founded Parse – and this is where he really crushed it. Parse was a mobile infrastructure platform for devs, making app building way easier. It was the real deal in the mobile dev scene. Facebook saw that and scooped it up in 2013 for $85 million. That’s no small fries, man. Ilya stayed on at Facebook, leading the Parse and Platform teams, running that as a subsidiary for years after the buyout.
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Talk to herWhat does that tell ya? The guy’s got the vision to build something super useful, then knows how to sell it and keep it running smoothly inside a giant like Facebook. That’s some advanced stuff. But he didn’t stop there. After all that, he jumped into investing. Now he’s a General Partner at Matrix Partners, focusing on deep tech, developer tools, and fintech, mainly leading Seed and Series A rounds in the US and Canada. Plus, he’s been an angel investor in companies like GitLab, Airtable, Scale AI, and Applied Intuition. Basically, he’s got his finger on the pulse of the future trend.
He’s also been a part-time mentor at YC, so he’s giving back and shaping the future founders. And he’s not just about the tech hustle – he’s into open source, contributing to projects like Vimium, making the web a little better for everyone.
So, what’s the story here? Ilya’s process is all about starting from humble beginnings, jumping into the deep end with no fear, building real products that change the game, then turning around and investing in the next generation of startups. His motivation? To push tech forward, support founders, and keep crushing it. This guy’s the ultimate example of what it means to hustle, innovate, and give back, all while staying super grounded.
No Cap, Ilya Sukhar’s the kind of dude you wanna watch – he’s been there, done that, and still got plenty of fire left.
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