Home / Founders / Raphael Ouzan
Ouzan watched gig platforms stall at simple tasks while FAANG alumni wanted autonomy, so he built A.Team to assemble whole product squads for company missions instead of filling single job reqs.
Raphael Ouzan is founder and chief executive of A.Team, a network that matches companies with teams of independent engineers, designers and product managers for product missions. He co-founded the company in early 2020 with Kobi Mastri and is based around New York.
Seeing Gig Work Stop Short of Real Product Teams
He and Mastri launched A.Team after watching freelance marketplaces work for simple tasks but fail when companies needed multi-skilled product squads. "Solving problems that matter requires a team of diverse skill sets," Ouzan told TechCrunch when the company emerged from stealth. Early demand spiked as tech layoffs pushed senior builders to seek autonomous project work.
Coming Out of Stealth With TeamGraph
In May 2022 A.Team announced roughly $60 million in funding and described TeamGraph, a system that recommends whole teams for missions using work history and behavioral signals rather than ranking individuals for job posts. Investors included Insight Partners and firstminute Capital, with participation from operators tied to Upwork and Fiverr, according to TechCrunch. Ouzan said customers already included names such as McGraw Hill and The Economist.
Selling Missions Instead of Headcount
The A.Team about page frames the company around the idea that teams matter more than lone gigs, with Ouzan as founder and CEO and Mastri as founder and COO. A.Team markets itself to companies that need senior product builders without locking them into permanent headcount, and to builders who want to choose missions rather than wait for a single employer.
