Ali Haghani

Ali Haghani is co-founder and CEO of Circleback, a San Francisco company whose AI notetaker writes meeting notes, pulls out action items, and runs automations after calls on Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and in person. He started it in 2023 with Kevin Jacyna, a fellow University of British Columbia graduate.

Support Bots at Stripe and Ad Tests at Twitter

Haghani studied in UBC's combined Business and Computer Science program, according to the university's computer science department. His Y Combinator profile says he worked on ads and experimentation at Twitter, building a system for A/B testing ad campaigns on the platform.

He then moved to Stripe as an engineer, where, the profile says, he led the first integration of large language models into support experiences and cut operating costs by more than $2 million a year.

Two Accelerators in a Year

UBC reported in March 2024 that Circleback received $125,000 from the Neo Accelerator in 2023 and then $500,000 when it joined Y Combinator's Winter 2024 batch. “Extraordinary outcomes boil down to doing extraordinary work at an extraordinary pace,” Haghani told the department, adding that founders should “talk to people to make sure you're solving a real problem.”

A Small, Profitable Team

TechCrunch reported in August 2026 that Circleback has been profitable since raising a $2.5 million round in 2024 and runs with about eight people, as it added a free plan to bring in more users. In August 2026 Y Combinator also published a talk by Haghani on why companies should record more of their meetings.