Mercor

San Francisco, CaliforniaFounded 2023

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Mercor connects human expertise with leading AI labs and enterprises to train frontier AI models. The company unlocks human potential in the AI economy by matching elite talent with AI development work, enabling professionals to teach machines judgment, nuance, and taste.

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Founding Story

Mercor was founded in January 2023 by three childhood friends who met through high school debate competitions. Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha first met at age 10 while competing in elementary school debate tournaments, and all three competed together on their high school debate team. All three founders are Thiel Fellows who dropped out of college (Harvard and Georgetown) to pursue the venture. The company originally started with the mission of matching engineers in India with U.S. companies looking for freelance coders. They built an AI-powered recruiting platform using AI avatars to conduct interviews. This led them into the data labeling industry, where they began pairing expert-level contractors including lawyers, PhDs, consultants, and doctors with AI labs like OpenAI to train models. The company began 2024 operating out of an apartment with no US employees and only seed-stage companies as customers, but rapidly scaled to become one of the fastest-growing companies in Silicon Valley history.

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Leadership

Founders

Brendan Foody

CEO and co-founder. 22 years old (as of 2025), Bay Area native, son of software engineers. His mother worked for Meta's real estate team and his father founded a graphics interface company. At age 16, he started a business charging friends for promotions on Amazon Web Services. Harvard dropout, Thiel Fellow, Georgetown University attendee (economics major). Met co-founders through high school debate team. Previously built a cloud services consultancy with Adarsh Hiremath. Featured on Forbes 2025 Under 30 list. Became one of the world's youngest self-made billionaires at age 22.

Adarsh Hiremath

CTO and co-founder. 22 years old (as of 2025), Indian-American, Bay Area native, son of software engineers. Attended Harvard University for two years before dropping out after sophomore year. Thiel Fellow. Conducted labor market research for Larry Summers while at Harvard. Met Surya Midha at age 10 competing in elementary school debate tournaments, later met Brendan Foody in high school debate. Previously built a cloud services consultancy with Brendan Foody. Featured on Forbes 2025 Under 30 list. Became one of the world's youngest self-made billionaires at age 22.

Surya Midha

COO and Board Chairman. 22 years old (as of 2025), Indian-American, Bay Area native, son of software engineers. Harvard dropout and Thiel Fellow. Initially pursued international relations at Georgetown University. Met Adarsh Hiremath at age 10 competing in elementary school debate tournaments, later met Brendan Foody in high school debate. Background in removing friction for global staffing. Featured on Forbes 2025 Under 30 list. Became one of the world's youngest self-made billionaires at age 22.

Executive Team

Brendan Foody

Co-Founder and CEO

22-year-old Bay Area native, Harvard/Georgetown dropout, Thiel Fellow, Forbes Under 30. Previously built cloud services consultancy. Son of software engineers, started AWS promotions business at 16.

Adarsh Hiremath

Co-Founder and CTO

22-year-old Indian-American, Harvard dropout (2 years), Thiel Fellow, Forbes Under 30. Conducted labor market research for Larry Summers. Previously built cloud services consultancy with Foody.

Business Model

Revenue Model

Commission-based and cost-plus model. For direct talent placements, charges 30% recruiting/placement fee. For AI training and expert tasks, uses cost-plus hourly margin with a fixed percentage added to hourly rates paid by AI labs. Generates revenue through hourly finders' fees for contractor work. Pays contractors $60-200+ per hour (average $95/hour) and adds margin on top.

Pricing Tiers

Talent Placement

30% placement fee

One-time fee for direct recruiting and permanent placements

Expert Contracting

Cost-plus hourly margin

Fixed percentage margin on hourly rates ranging from $60-200+ per hour (average $95/hour paid to experts)

Private company, not publicly traded. No announced IPO plans. Recent $350 million Series C (October 2025) suggests IPO unlikely until 2027 at earliest. Pre-IPO shares available to accredited investors on platforms like Hiive (estimated price $716.76 per share as of February 2026).