About the founder
Alex Circei is measuring engineering in the AI era.
CEO and co-founder of Waydev, the AI-native engineering intelligence platform trusted by Fortune 500 companies including American Express, Dropbox, Caterpillar, and PwC. Y Combinator W21 alum. Forbes Technology Council member. Seven-time Ironman finisher.
9Years
G2 Market LeaderSoftware Engineering Intelligence, Spring & Summer 2026
Recognized by GartnerSoftware engineering intelligence category
USPTO PatentGit analytics technology
SOC 3 CompliantEnterprise security from day one
A founder who has been through it all.
Alex is the kind of founder who has been through it all: building, scaling, failing, learning, and doing it again. He started Waydev in 2017 and bootstrapped it to profitability before going through Y Combinator in the W21 batch, a path very few enterprise SaaS founders take.
Before Waydev, Alex spent nearly two decades in tech. He started companies and wore every hat you can think of, from sales to product to operations, and learned the hard way what it takes to build something that lasts. That journey shaped his core belief: good teams don’t need to be micromanaged, they need the right signals to do great work.
“Too many tools measure what developers do, but not how they work together. I wanted to fix that.”
That thesis became the WAY Framework and the AI ROI platform that Fortune 500 engineering organizations use today to answer the hardest question in software: is AI actually making our teams better?
Trusted by engineering leaders at
American Express
Dropbox
Caterpillar
PwC
+30% productivity
“We’re already seeing that in the past three months productivity has gone up 30%.”
Alex SoloDirector of Engineering, SovosFull visibility
“I like that Waydev gives me a bird’s eye view of my engineering team’s efficiency and productivity.”
Susheel DaswaniHead of Engineering, Citi VenturesNine years of building forward.
Waydev has evolved from a Git analytics tool into an end-to-end engineering intelligence platform spanning delivery, health, planning, automation, and custom analytics. Every chapter of that evolution was shaped by the same engineering data the platform now turns into decisions for its customers.
2017Founded and bootstrapped to profitability
W21Y Combinator batch, one of the first Romanian founders accepted
2026Market Leader in Software Engineering Intelligence on G2
From 13 Y Combinator applications to the Ironman finish line.
Alex didn’t take shortcuts. It took 13 applications before he was accepted into Y Combinator, making him one of the first Romanian founders to get in. He wrote about that journey in TechCrunch.
That same persistence shows up in everything he does, whether it’s leading a product launch or crossing the finish line of an Ironman triathlon. He has completed seven, including Ironman California in 2023.
13YC applications before acceptance
7Ironman triathlons completed
~20Years building in tech
A voice shaping how engineering is measured.
Alex’s work focuses on a single thesis: engineering performance in the AI era can’t be measured with yesterday’s metrics. Lines of code and velocity charts don’t tell you whether AI is compounding your team’s output or just inflating it.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Alex Circei?
Alex Circei is the CEO and co-founder of Waydev, an AI-native engineering intelligence platform headquartered in San Francisco. He is a Y Combinator W21 alum, Forbes Technology Council member, and a published contributor at TechCrunch, Forbes, and HackerNoon.
What is Waydev?
Waydev is a software engineering intelligence platform that helps engineering leaders measure AI adoption, impact, and ROI. It is used by Fortune 500 companies including American Express, Dropbox, Caterpillar, and PwC, and holds a USPTO patent for Git analytics.
When did Alex Circei found Waydev?
Alex started building Waydev in 2017 and bootstrapped the company to profitability before joining Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 batch.
How can I contact Alex Circei?
You can connect with Alex on LinkedIn or reach the Waydev team through the contact page.
See what Alex and the Waydev team have built.
Measure AI adoption, impact, and ROI across your engineering organization.
