Azhar Khan — CEO

I’ve spent 25+ years building products across AI, computer vision, and edtech. Some succeeded. Some failed. All of them taught me the same lesson: Building the technology is rarely the hardest part. Knowing what to build and who you’re building it for is. That problem never goes away. Teams just keep guessing faster. After founding and scaling multiple startups and advising others through launch and growth, I kept seeing the same pattern: high-stakes product, pricing, and positioning decisions made on thin evidence, late signals, or internal consensus. That’s why we built LAILA. LAILA is the decision tool I wish I’d had earlier. It compresses market and customer validation into days, not months, so teams can move forward with defensible confidence instead of hope. With LAILA, teams can: • Validate ideas with AI-powered market research • Generate predictive, agentic audience insights in minutes • Test concepts, messaging, and creative before committing real budget or engineering time We work with CPG brands, agencies, founders, and accelerators who need clarity before launch, not post-mortems after. So far, LAILA has: • Reduced research cycles by ~90% • Helped brands and agencies pressure-test campaigns pre-launch • Supported accelerators in preparing startups for investor scrutiny Before LAILA, I’ve: • Co-founded Like.com (acquired by Google) • Co-founded Cubus (acquired by Sword Group) • Led Agnitus, an AI edtech platform used by 50,000+ K–5 students • Founded PhotoGAUGE, adopted by manufacturers across three continents Today, my focus is simple: helping teams make better decisions earlier, using AI where it actually matters. If you want to see how LAILA works in practice: Try it live: app.lailalabs.ai Or book: calendly.com/azhar-lailalabs/30min

Stackforce AI infers this person is a SaaS and AI product expert with extensive startup experience.

Location: San Francisco, California, United States

Experience: 31 yrs 1 mo

Skills

Ai Product Management
Market Research
Go-to-market Strategy
Early-stage Investing
Computer Vision
Ai Product Development
Product Development

Career Highlights

Founder of multiple successful startups.
Expert in AI-driven market research.
Proven track record in product strategy.

Work Experience

LAILA Labs

Founder & CEO (1 yr 6 mos)

Omnia Ventures

Partner (5 yrs 1 mo)

PhotoGAUGE

CEO (8 yrs 2 mos)

Agnitus

Founder and CEO (5 yrs 11 mos)

Playnomics (acquired by Unity3D)

Advisory Board (3 yrs 3 mos)

Flutter (acquired by Google)

Advisory Board (3 yrs 1 mo)

Cornell University

Advisory Board (16 yrs)

Regional VP, Cornell Engineering Alumni Association (22 yrs 3 mos)

Like.com (acquired by Google)

Co-founder and VP of Engineering (4 yrs 2 mos)

BuildOnline (acquired by CTSpace)

VP of Engineering (1 yr)

Cubus Corporation (acquired by CTSpace)

Co-founder and CEO (4 yrs 1 mo)

Autodesk

Software Engineer (4 yrs 9 mos)

Education

MS at Stanford University Graduate School of Business

BS at Cornell University

at Bai Virbaijee Soparivala (BVS) Parsi High School

Azhar Khan

CEO

San Francisco, California, United States31 yrs 1 mo experience

AI EnabledHighly Stable

Key Highlights

Founder of multiple successful startups.
Expert in AI-driven market research.
Proven track record in product strategy.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a SaaS and AI product expert with extensive startup experience.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Ai Product ManagementMarket ResearchGo-to-market StrategyEarly-stage InvestingComputer VisionAi Product DevelopmentProduct Development

Other Skills

Generative AICustomer InsightNo-Code Product BuildingTech EntrepreneurshipProject ManagementMarket Research & ValidationStartup StrategyB2B SaaSFundraising & Investor RelationsOperations ManagementVenture BuildingUser-centered DesignProduct StrategyOperational ScalingTeam Building

About

Experience

Laila labs

Founder & CEO

Oct 2024 – Present · 1 yr 6 mos · Dubai, United Arab Emirates · On-site

Most teams spend weeks fielding surveys, running focus groups or analyzing outdated data, only to realize they’re still guessing.
That’s why we built LAILA.
An Predictive Market intelligence platform that helps brands, agencies and research teams move from idea to validated insight—fast.
Instead of relying on gut feel, LAILA helps you:
→ Validate concepts instantly with predictive market research
→ Generate insights from 1,000+ synthetic personas in minutes
→ Test creative, messaging and positioning before you invest
We’ve helped creative agencies build stronger pitches, CPG brands launch with confidence and incubators support founders with real-time consumer intelligence—all without surveys, long timelines or expensive research vendors.
We’re not just building another research tool.
We’re reimagining how ideas get proven.
Check the Featured section to see LAILA in action.

Generative AIProduct DevelopmentMarket ResearchCustomer InsightNo-Code Product BuildingAI Product Management+5

Omnia ventures

Partner

Mar 2021 – Present · 5 yrs 1 mo · Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates

As a partner, I advice on:
→ Evaluating where and how capital is deployed
→ Providing product advisory and GTM (Go-To-Market) strategies
→ Helping founders align vision with execution
It’s a strategic role, focused on high-impact decisions that help early-stage startups grow faster, with the right foundation.

Early-Stage InvestingGo-to-Market StrategyStartup StrategyFundraising & Investor RelationsOperations ManagementVenture Building

Photogauge

CEO

Feb 2016 – Apr 2024 · 8 yrs 2 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

PhotoGAUGE is CV+AI driven system that automatically digitizes and inspects parts, creating massive new datasets and driving sweeping improvements in productivity, quality and traceability in industrial manufacturing. It is SaaS platform based on commodity cameras, AI and cloud computing. PhotoGAUGE's versatility is creating use cases that were not possible in the past such as automation of repetitive & mundane tasks and accurate 3D measurements at the point of need.

Computer VisionAI Product DevelopmentUser-centered DesignProduct StrategyOperational ScalingB2B SaaS

Agnitus

Founder and CEO

Jan 2011 – Dec 2016 · 5 yrs 11 mos · Palo Alto, CA

Agnitus provides an adaptive education solution for students in K through 5th grade for Mathematics, Language Arts & Science.

Playnomics (acquired by unity3d)

Advisory Board

Jan 2011 – Apr 2014 · 3 yrs 3 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

Playnomics is a predictive analytics and messaging platform helping mobile apps and free-to-play games to earn from players.

Flutter (acquired by google)

Advisory Board

Jan 2011 – Feb 2014 · 3 yrs 1 mo · San Francisco Bay Area

Flutter is a startup company that develops gesture recognition technologies.

Cornell university

2 roles

Advisory Board

Apr 2010 – Present · 16 yrs

Regional VP, Cornell Engineering Alumni Association

Jan 2004 – Present · 22 yrs 3 mos

Primary contact person for engineering alumni, representing their interests to CEAA, Engineering alumni office and the College of Engineering

Like.com (acquired by google)

Co-founder and VP of Engineering

Feb 2005 – Apr 2009 · 4 yrs 2 mos

Responsible for keeping Like.com up and running smoothly around the clock as well as overseeing Like.com's common technology services, including infrastructure, application management, product development, business intelligence (BI), search engine, web crawlers, SEO, merchant operations, feed processing, inventory operations and IT. Responsible for directing a clear infrastructure roadmap, driving execution across the data center, and pursuing new levels of site-up performance and business continuity.

Computer VisionProduct DevelopmentTeam BuildingTeam LeadershipLeadershipProduct-Market Fit

Buildonline (acquired by ctspace)

VP of Engineering

Jan 2004 – Jan 2005 · 1 yr

Planned, managed and executed the move and training of all product development and engineering operation from London, UK to Bangalore, India within a year.

Cubus corporation (acquired by ctspace)

Co-founder and CEO

Mar 1997 – Apr 2001 · 4 yrs 1 mo

Company got acquired by Bidcom. Presently operates as CTSpace.
Took it from an idea, to building the core product team and executive management team, raising capital, building core online collaboration product, deploying and selling the solution and then selling the company.

Autodesk

Software Engineer

Jun 1992 – Mar 1997 · 4 yrs 9 mos

Started out at Ithaca Software which got acquired by Autodesk. Worked on engineering teams doing 3D graphics for HOOPS, Heidi, AutoCAD R14, 3DStudio MAX R1, etc. Managed 3rd Party Developer's Program for AutoCAD, Heidi and 3D Studio MAX.