TIME100 AI 2026 · Innovators
Brendan Foody
Co-founder and CEO, Mercor
His startup Mercor pays over 30,000 contractors more than $1.5 million a day, combined, to help train AI.
- Born
- Not published
- Now
- Co-founder and CEO, Mercor
- Studied
- Georgetown University
Interesting facts
- Connection
Started Mercor with Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, high school friends from the Bellarmine College Preparatory speech and debate team.
en.wikipedia.org - Detour
Mercor began by using AI to interview freelance programmers in India and match them with US companies, before pivoting to supplying experts to train AI.
en.wikipedia.org - Connection
Mercor has hired Larry Summers for economics, Cass Sunstein for law and Eric Topol for medicine as expert contributors.
conversationswithtyler.com - First
At 22 he was the youngest guest ever on the Conversations with Tyler podcast.
conversationswithtyler.com - Numbers
Mercor reportedly took in $614 million in gross revenue in the first half of 2026, 70% more than in all of 2025.
time.com
Career
- MercorCo-founder and CEO2023 to now
- SerosFounder and CEO2022
Education
- Attended, left without a degree, Economics, Georgetown University