3x founder

James Heaney

Helping companies pay creators globally and stay compliant

Co-founder

Grade· Winter 2026 🇺🇸 San Francisco, California, United States

in LinkedIn 𝕏 @jvheaney

2025Co-founder· Grade (YC W26)

Founder · since 2021

Company

Grade (YC W26)

Role

Co-Founder, CTO

current

Stage

—

no public source

Raised

—

no public source

Based

San Francisco, California, United States

current

Founder / co-founder — the company's markEmployee / research role

Source: LinkedIn work history

Profile coverage5 of 7 · missing posts, contact

Grade

API for performance-based payroll

Winter 2026

Experience

Career

Grade (YC W26)
Co-founder
Co-Founder, CTO · San Francisco, California, United States · 2025 – Present
2025
Founders, Inc.
Founder
Studio Founder and Engineer · San Francisco, California, United States · 2024 – 2025
2024
Midnight Innovations, Inc
Co-founder
Co-Founder, CTO · 2021 – 2022
2021
Sunnybrook
Software Engineer · Toronto, Ontario, Canada · 2019 – 2022
2019

Bio

2x exited founder and now the CTO of Grade, the API for performance based payroll. Previously, I built and exited my first cryptography startup for over $5M while still in school, built and exited a consumer mobile app PrayScreen, built a rocket engine in my garage, and moved to San Francisco with my cofounder over a year ago. Excited by the future of payroll for the new global workforce and AI agents.