Saif Akhtar

About

Mechanical engineer turned revenue executive with 15+ years scaling startups, PE portfolios, and software agencies across the Bay Area and Asia. I build the revenue systems that make companies run — automated outbound pipelines, CRM-to-close workflows, partner operations, and AI-orchestrated GTM engines. Currently: Co-founder & COO at Horizon-Labs.co (AI-native software agency), and co-Founder & COO at SimplyHRA (ICHRA health benefits platform). Fractional GTM clients since 2019 have included PolymerSearch, Nostra.ai, FlairLabs (YC S22), DeltaLeafLabs.com, Avocore.com, and TheTalentGames.com. I've also built "Brain" — a 27-agent autonomous AI operating system that runs 17,500+ tasks/quarter across 5 business entities with zero manual intervention. It's currently powered by 8 different LLMs and an upgrade over Openclaw and Hermes. Open to fractional or part-time RevOps, GTM, and COO roles in the Bay Area.

Experience

• Co-Founder / COO · Horizon Labs05-01-2023

  Lead a 30+ engineer AI-native software agency delivering MVPs, marketplace builds, and AI integrations. Preferred devshop for Y-Combinator. Built sales pipeline to $35K avg MRR.

• Co-Founder & COO · SimplyHRA03-01-2024

  Co-founded an ACA-compliant ICHRA health benefits platform priced 40–60% below market ($29/employee vs. $55–$85 competitors). Built end-to-end product and revenue stack: employer onboarding, subscription management, healthcare enrollment, benefits management, and ACA reporting via APIs — reducing admin and customer success time by 70%.

• VP of Operations - Founding Team · Intellus.ai11-01-2022 – 11-01-2025

  Part of founding team building AI tools to cut enterprise AI, cloud & SaaS costs by >20% in 30 days. Designed operational playbooks and enterprise onboarding frameworks. Raised $350,000 from AWS and part of Stanford's StartX and Alchemist Accelerator.

• Chief of Operations · Planet N Group03-01-2016 – 11-01-2019

  Raised and managed a $7M PE portfolio (42 investments in fintech, healthtech, AI, e-commerce); grew collective value past $50M in 3 years. Co-founded 10xC.pk — Pakistan's first tech accelerator, 19 portfolio companies each receiving $10k-$25k pre-seed checks.

• Product Manager · OrionCKB (acquired by Tinuiti)08-01-2012 – 08-01-2014

  Managed $100K+/mo Facebook ad spend for clients including Palo Alto Networks, Thumbtack and The Body Shop. Scaled AUM from $0 → $40M in 2 years as employee #1.

• Founder - Fractional GTM & RevOps Consulting · StartupStudios.co11-01-2019 – 05-01-2023

  Ran a boutique fractional consulting practice for early-stage founders across GTM strategy, product ops, RevOps, and customer success. Clients included Delta Leaf Labs, Thrv.health, Founderslist.com, and TheTalentGames. Merged operations into Horizon Labs in 2023.

• Co-Founder & CEO · Spartups Accelerator10-01-2010 – 12-01-2015

  Grew a weekly meetup into a 6,000 sq ft startup incubator in San Jose. 22 graduates including YC and 500 Startups alumni. Won partnerships with Google, AWS, Microsoft, SJSU, and the City of San Jose.

• Community Director · F50.io / SV Entrepreneurs09-01-2014 – 12-01-2015

  Grew the Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs community to 23,000+ members. Produced the Funded! conference at Google I/O — 1,200 attendees with $50M+ invested on stage.

Education

• San Jose State UniversityBS, Mechanical Engineering
• Foundation Public School - Karachi, PakistanHigh School, A Levels - GCSE

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