About
James Heaney is CTO of Grade, a performance-based payroll API. He previously founded and exited a cryptography startup and a consumer mobile app called PrayScreen, and has experience in hardware engineering.
James Heaney @jvheaney
Not to say the quiet part out loud, but I've used $132K of tokens in the last ~7 days and it's cost me $400/mo The math ain't mathing
May 20, 2026 Β· β₯ 4
James Heaney @jvheaney
I am building engineering tools, agentic infra, AI tools, that are entire startups just to support my real actual business Investors passed on us in favour of investing in tools I have now built as side quests for the main juice There's a lesson in that
May 19, 2026 Β· β₯ 14 Β· β 1
James Heaney @jvheaney
I used to call my dad for SQL help, he was a wizard with it This was all before ChatGPT or Claude Now I never do, I don't have to One of those times was the last time I ever called him asking for SQL help Kinda crazy to think about
May 13, 2026 Β· β₯ 4
Founder, CTO at GradeYC W26
Intro paths
James went through Y Combinator (Winter 2026) β any YC alum in your network can reach them through the YC community.
Their group partner at YC was Brad Flora, General Partner at Y Combinator β the partner who ran Grade's batch and knows the company first-hand. YC profile β
In turn, James can intro founders to Grade's investors below.
Grade's investors Β· 1
Co-founders at Grade
