Outship was founded by Saner Cakir, Kayla Lee in 2025.

Who are Outship's investors?

Outship's investors include Treeo VC, Y Combinator.

Where is Outship headquartered?

Outship is headquartered in San Francisco, US.

Outship

San Francisco, US · Founded 2025 · 3 employees · 2 known investors

Outship is a recruiting platform that evaluates engineers by observing how they use AI coding tools to complete tasks, analyzing their problem-solving approach and decision-making process alongside the resulting code.

Also known as Trace

AI & Machine Learning Enterprise Software HR Tech Artificial Intelligence B2B RecruitingUnited States of AmericaAmerica / Canada

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W25)

Outship was founded in 2025 by Saner Cakir and Kayla Lee.

Saner Cakir in 𝕏Founder & CEOSaner Cakir worked on robot learning research at UC Berkeley before founding Outship, a platform for hiring engineers based on their AI tool usage patterns.

Kayla Lee inFounder & COOKayla Lee has worked on natural language processing research at Berkeley AI Research and now leads Outship, a platform focused on engineer hiring.

Investors · 2

Treeo VCSan Francisco

Y CombinatorSan Francisco · $500K

Founder mafia

2 people who came through Outship went on to found or lead other companies.

Saner CakirFounder & CEOFounded Trace Kayla LeeFounder & COOFounded Trace

In the news

Outship 🚀 | 👨‍💻 Hire amazing engineers by seeing how they use AIycombinator.com · Mar 2026

Frequently asked questions

What does Outship do?: Outship is a recruiting platform that evaluates engineers by observing how they use AI coding tools to complete tasks, analyzing their problem-solving approach and decision-making process alongside the resulting code.
Who founded Outship?: Outship was founded by Saner Cakir, Kayla Lee in 2025.
Who are Outship's investors?: Outship's investors include Treeo VC, Y Combinator.
Where is Outship headquartered?: Outship is headquartered in San Francisco, US.