Fundraising Fox

Derek Ye

Founder

Founder at Maximal

San Francisco, California, United States

FoundedMaximal · YC

About

Derek Ye previously served as tech lead at Amazon and founding engineer at Arpeggi Labs, an a16z-backed startup. He was a National Merit Scholar at USC.

LinkedIn ↗

Founder at MaximalYC S25

Intro paths

YC

Derek went through Y Combinator (Summer 2025) — any YC alum in your network can reach them through the YC community.

GP

Their group partner at YC was Diana Hu, General Partner at Y Combinator — the partner who ran Maximal's batch and knows the company first-hand. YC profile ↗

→

In turn, Derek can intro founders to Maximal's investors below.

Maximal's investors · 1

Y Combinator

Co-founders at Maximal

LRLeeds Rising
Leeds RisingFounder

Experience

  1. MaximalCo-Foundercurrent2025 — present
  2. AmazonSoftware Engineer2022 — 2025San Francisco, California, United States
  3. Kits.AISoftware Engineer2021 — 2022San Francisco, California, United States
  4. WorkdaySoftware Engineer2020 — 2021San Francisco Bay Area
  5. Eli Lilly and CompanyBioinformatics Engineer2018San Diego

Education

  1. Y CombinatorS25
  2. University of Southern CaliforniaBachelor of Science - BS, Computer Science and Business
  3. Torrey Pines High School

Skills & more

Apollo GraphQLReact NativeNode.jsAmazon Web Services (AWS)JavaPyTorchNext.jsReact.jsPython (Programming Language)Microsoft Office2C++3JavaScript2
+10 moreJSXLinuxHTMLCascading Style Sheets (CSS)TypeScriptInfrastructureEngineeringCloud InfrastructureObject-Oriented Programming (OOP)Public Speaking

From Derek's professional profile.

Same school

Also attended Y Combinator1,464

Akshat GoenkaInvestor at Moonfire VenturesJon XuGeneral Partner at Y CombinatorTed ChaiAssociate at Scale Venture PartnersLeo LuInvestor at Foundation CapitalMaroof AhmedFounder at Octopus VenturesYusuf SherwaniCo-Founder and CEO at Pelago; a Londoner living in New York City

+ 1,458 more

Also attended University of Southern California376

Shaun MaguirePartner at Sequoia CapitalDamir BecirovicInvestor at Index VenturesVojtech HornaInvestor at Index VenturesNatalie VaisInvestor at Spark CapitalErica BresciaManaging Director at Redpoint VenturesDylan PearcePartner at Greycroft

+ 370 more

Also attended Torrey Pines High School6

Brigitte BonebrakeAssistant Controller at Lerer HippeauJackie PlashkesInvestor at Side Door VenturesNathan LianStrategic Advisor, Strategic Finance & GTM at Asymmetric Capital PartnersTy McGuirePartner at Black Mountain Investment GroupEric GuanHead of Token Economics at SuperlayerKalyani RamadurgamFounder at Kobalt Labs

Shared employers

Also worked at Maximal1

Leeds RisingFounder at Maximal

Also worked at Amazon356

Dave MunichielloInvestor at GV (Google Ventures)Viswa SankaranarayananVenture Partner at Monta Vista CapitalAlessandro De BenedettiAssociate at NorthzoneScott JacobsonManaging Director at Madrona Venture GroupBill RichterCEO of Qumulo and venture partner at MadronaEduardo BlasiAnalyst at Inveready Technology Investment Group

+ 350 more

Also worked at Workday39

Mike SpeiserManaging Director at Sutter Hill VenturesJob SimonVenture Partner and CTO at Monta Vista CapitalHemamAdvisor at Clear VenturesMike ArpaiaComputer scientist working on machine learning and data infrastructureAndy LeaverOperating Partner at Notion CapitalShashank SaxenaInvestor at Sierra Ventures

+ 33 more

Also worked at Eli Lilly and Company69

David MollerInvestor at Third Rock VenturesJesper GromadaInvestor at Third Rock VenturesMark LevinRetired Founding Partner at Third Rock VenturesRhonda PachecoPresident, U.S. Business Unit and U.S. Country Head at Takeda VenturesCarlos PayaVenture Partner at Ysios CapitalKjersti FrognerInvestor at Almi Invest

+ 63 more