Aiyesha Ma is a three-time founder, data scientist, and engineering leader who has worn many hats, from individual contributor to founding CTO, across startups from incubation through Series C. Her ventures include an NSF-funded attention detection platform and Nureon, while her roles have included engineering lead at Cisco Tetration and data scientist software engineer at OpsClarity (acquired by Lightbend) and ModCloth. With experience spanning founding, engineering management, and individual contributor roles, Aiyesha brings practical insight into the blurred boundaries of early-stage roles and how venture capital, customer deadlines, and technical realities collide in startup environments.