Fundraising Fox

Jean Kaddour

Founder

Founder at Sagaland

London, England, United Kingdom

FoundedSagaland · YC

About

Jean Kaddour holds a PhD in machine learning from University College London.

LinkedIn ↗X / Twitter ↗
Latest on 𝕏

Jean Kaddour @jeankaddour

Link: https://t.co/Dt6QwfWn39

Jul 16, 2026 · ♥ 3 · ⇄ 1

Jean Kaddour @jeankaddour

CISPO outperforms GRPO/DAPO by capping a token's IS weight instead of zeroing out its update, so rare "fork" tokens ("Wait", "However") keep contributing gradient across updates. Using CISPO, @lorenz_wlf reaches a new Sokoban Speedrun record; for the first time under 20min!! https://t.co/VoJw6HxU95

Jul 16, 2026 · ♥ 43 · ⇄ 7

Jean Kaddour @jeankaddour

New Sokoban Speedrun Non-LLM record in 12m 38s by @srijanyaham, cutting 2m 04s (14%) from the previous record. It replaces the conv encoder with 3×3 shift mixing packed into a single dense GEMM, then adds two rounds of mean/max global pooling. https://t.co/7GXg8rqTIx

Jul 13, 2026 · ♥ 7 · ⇄ 2

Founder at SagalandYC W24

Intro paths

YC

Jean went through Y Combinator (Winter 2024) — 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 Sagaland's batch and knows the company first-hand. YC profile ↗

→

In turn, Jean can intro founders to Sagaland's investors below.

Sagaland's investors · 1

Y Combinator

Co-founders at Sagaland

SPSrijan Patel
Srijan PatelFounder

Experience

  1. Google DeepMindResearch Scientistcurrent2026 — presentLondon Area, United Kingdom
  2. SevnAICo-Founder2025 — 2026London Area, United Kingdom
  3. Reka AIResearch Intern2022 — 2023Greater London, England, United Kingdom
  4. BCG GAMMAData Scientist2019

Education

  1. UCLPhD2020 — 2025
  2. Y CombinatorW24
  3. Seoul National UniversitySemester Abroad, Computer Science
  4. Imperial College LondonMaster of Science - MS, Advanced Computing

Founder mafias

Y Combinator mafia8,668

Also came through, then founded or led a company.

Sam AltmanPresidentFounded LooptFred EhrsamYC Summer 2012Founded CoinbaseMatt HuangYC Winter 2011Founded HotspotsTrae StephensYC Winter 2022Founded PursuitDelian AsparouhovYC Summer 2014Founded Nightingale +1Justin KanYC Winter 2018Founded Rye +3

+ 8,661 more

Imperial College London mafia119

Also came through, then founded or led a company.

Nessan BerminghamDoctor of Philosophy - PhDFounded Korro Bio +1Slava SolonitsynMBAFounded No Cap +1Barnaby MaletPhDFounded machine0 +1Ali AttarMaster’s DegreeFounded Lightberry +1Saurav MitraMaster’s DegreeFounded Okibi +1Marvin Abdel-MassihMaster of ScienceFounded Uplane +1

+ 112 more

UCL mafia73

Also came through, then founded or led a company.

Nessan BerminghamDoctor of Philosophy - PhDFounded Korro Bio +1Gustavo GorensteinMaster of Science (M.Sc.)Founded bxblue +1Radu MaziluBachelor of Science (BSc)Founded PermitPortal +1Nodar DaneliyaFounded Shuttle +1Sam CashEngineering + ManagementFounded REALTECH conference,Mingguang HePhDFounded Optain Health

+ 66 more

Google Deepmind mafia17

Also came through, then founded or led a company.

Philipp PfeiffenbergerSenior Staff Software EngineerFounded DeluuxWill WhitneyResearch ScientistFounded AudoboxAli ÇevikGroup Product ManagerFounded VizeraLabsRohan DoshiSenior Product ManagerFounded Penguin AIYulong LiuResearch EngineerFounded GreenTallyRaj KadiyalaSoftware EngineerFounded Laminar

+ 10 more

Seoul National University mafia7

Also came through, then founded or led a company.

John S. KimComputer ScienceFounded SendBirdJoseph LeeBachelor of Business Administration - BBAFounded SynclyAndrew ChungBachelor's degreeFounded TypaJunyoung ParkBachelor's degreeFounded TypaJohn JeongBachelor of Science - BSFounded CharDan HanBSFounded Aleph Lab

Same school

Also attended UCL344

André DuboisInvestor at Index VenturesFrédérique DameInvestor at GV (Google Ventures)Jonas VetterleInvestor at Moonfire VenturesMarie FerriInvestor at DaphniElena PantaziPartner & Head of Platform at NorthzoneGiovanni MariggiInvestor at Medicxi

+ 338 more

Also attended Y Combinator2,000

Leo LuInvestor at Foundation CapitalMaroof AhmedFounder at Octopus VenturesJustin SwartPartner at Bitkraft Esports VenturesVictor SantosVictor Scout at One Way VenturesSwapnil JainCEO, Observe.AI at EMERGENT VENTURESChase AdamPartner at Very Serious Ventures

+ 1,994 more

Also attended Seoul National University54

Byung Geon Rhee, PhDHead of Advisory Board at Adelphi Ventures Management, LlcKiha LeePartner at SazzeOhsang KwonPartner at SazzeUkjin (Jay) KwonPrincipal at SazzeJiwon KangExecutive Director, Head of Investor Relations at The Spartan GroupIn Joon HwangManaging Partner / CEO at Z Venture Capital

+ 48 more

Also attended Imperial College London432

Deji SasegbonVP, Platform & Portfolio Operations at EchoVC PartnersMadison LenormandInvestor at DaphniPauline BoucherInvestor at DaphniLoubaba El AyoubiInvestor at NorthzoneGiovanni MariggiInvestor at MedicxiFrancois PrinslooInvestor at Medicxi

+ 426 more

Shared employers

Also worked at Google DeepMind43

Jeff RoseAdvisor at AI CapitalVishal MainiFounder & Managing Partner at Mythos Ventures Management, LlcChris WatkinsHead of Data & Analytics at Asymmetric Capital PartnersBeliz GunelExperts | Advisor at 212Steve CrossanVenture Partner at firstminute capitalRoy TimorPrincipal AI Engineering Manager at 25Madison

+ 37 more

Also worked at SevnAI1

Srijan PatelFounder at Sagaland

Also worked at Reka AI2

Daniel MuletPartner at Radical VenturesRob ToewsPartner at Radical Ventures

Also worked at BCG GAMMA8

Sylvain DurantonManaging Director & Senior Partner; Global Leader, BCG X at The Boston Consulting GroupOlivier BouffaultManaging Director & Senior Partner; Global Leader, Operations Practice at The Boston Consulting GroupVladimir LukicManaging Director & Senior Partner; Global Leader, Tech and Digital Advantage Practice at The Boston Consulting GroupFranziska SchellerAssociate Data & AI Strategy at VidiaFredrik BlomInvestor at A1 Ecom GroupClaire GouzeFounder at nao Labs

+ 2 more