Scale AI Alumni Emerge as Silicon Valley's New Startup Mafia
Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang posted on October 26 a rundown of the "Scale MAFIA" — a roster of founders and executives who came out of Scale — calling it "the first true mafia of the modern tech era." This marks the formal rise of another influential "startup mafia" in Silicon Valley after the PayPal Mafia, with the network now spanning startups, investing, government, and frontier AI companies.
Confirmed
- Alexandr Wang himself explicitly framed the "Scale Mafia," calling it the first true Mafia of the modern tech era, and posted a long tribute to early colleagues who fought alongside him and have since scattered to start their own ventures.
- The founder lineup includes: Cognition (Steven K, Russell Kaplan), Modal (Akshat Bubna), Bun (Jarred Sumner), Netic (Melisa Tokmak), among others.
- Beyond founding companies, Scale alumni also hold executive roles at investment firms, in government, and at frontier AI companies.
- Wang recalled that Scale was one of the first companies to go all-in on the IOI and IMO competitions.
Why it matters
- As FinanceYF5's analysis points out, what makes Scale AI special isn't just that it gathered a group of smart people — it's that they were willing to truly commit and push hard things through to the end. Now they've left the same company one after another to found, invest, and lead across their fields, creating a network effect similar to the PayPal Mafia.
- If this network keeps expanding, the Scale crowd could become a major force shaping the next generation of AI startups, making their members' moves worth watching.
2026-10-26 ~ 2026-10-26 · 5 related posts
Primary sources
- [source] Scale AI's Alexandr Wang spotlights 'Scale Mafia' behind Cognition, Modal, Bun and more — alexandr_wang · 2026-10-26
- Alexandr Wang reflects on the Scale Mafia and its founder diaspora — samsja19 · 2026-10-26
- Scale AI early members form Silicon Valley's new 'Scale Mafia', says Alexandr Wang — FinanceYF5 · 2026-10-26
- Scale Mafia founders list: Cognition, Modal, Bun and more trace back to Scale AI — FinanceYF5 · 2026-10-26
- The 'Scale AI Mafia' takes shape: alumni now lead gov't, VC and AI companies — FinanceYF5 · 2026-10-26