Isaiah Granet
Co-Founder & CEO at bland
Reviewed Updated Aug 6, 2026This profile is AI-generated. If you spot an error, please help us fix it by sharing a URL to the correct information.
Co-founder and CEO of Bland, the San Francisco voice AI platform he started in 2023 (YC S23) that has raised $100M+ across seed through Series C, most recently a June 2026 round led by Dell Technologies Capital with Emergence, Scale, Y Combinator, and Max Levchin. Profiled as a founder-operator rather than an active investor — no verifiable personal angel portfolio.
Background
Isaiah N. Granet is the co-founder and CEO of Bland, a San Francisco voice AI platform for enterprise phone calls that he started in 2023 with Sobhan Nejad 12. He was born and raised in San Diego and holds computer science and economics degrees from Washington University in St. Louis 3. Before Bland he worked as an engineer at an early-stage startup, participated in Z Fellows, and went through Y Combinator with an earlier healthcare startup that later shut down 13. As a teenager he founded San Diego Chill, a nonprofit that teaches ice hockey to children with developmental disabilities and has raised more than $2.5 million; he remains involved at the board level 1. He was a 2016 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award recipient for that work 1.
Bland went through YC’s Summer 2023 batch and has since raised more than $100M across seed, Series A, Series B, and a June 2026 Series C led by Dell Technologies Capital 24. Emergence Capital led the Series B alongside continued participation from Scale Venture Partners, Y Combinator, and angel investors including Max Levchin 45.
Stated Thesis
Granet is not a publicly active angel investor and has not published an investment thesis. He is profiled here primarily as an operator whose founder perspective informs how he engages with other investors. On the founder-investor relationship he has said: “Never be shy to do what you have to do to win” 3, and on culture: “Say the ugly thing out loud” 3.
Inferred Thesis
No independent angel investing activity by Isaiah Granet was located across Crunchbase, press coverage, or public social channels as of August 2026. There is no verifiable portfolio from which to infer a thesis. This profile exists as a founder-operator entry linked to the Bland startup profile rather than as an active investor record.
Portfolio
No independently verified personal angel investments located. Any future check activity should be added here with a citation confirming Isaiah — not Bland the company — was the investor of record.
| Company | Year | Stage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~unknown | — | — | — |
In Their Own Words
On why he started building companies: “I didn’t get enough attention as a kid. So I had to do something that would let me get more” 3.
On seeing AI’s trajectory: “Oh, no, the world is going to change really, really fast” 3.
On competitive intensity: “Never be shy to do what you have to do to win” 3.
On team culture: “Say the ugly thing out loud” 3.
On how he evaluates opportunities: “What is the value? How do we provide it? That’s the fundamental formula for winning” 3.
On Bland’s product focus: “Most voice AI systems are built for simple interactions. We are focused on the calls that are hardest to automate” 4.
On end-user honesty: “We firmly believe in honesty and transparency for the end user…any form of deception isn’t acceptable” 1.
What Founders Say
No independently sourced founder testimonials found. Isaiah Granet has no public record of angel investing, so no portfolio founders exist to quote.
Sources
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Unite.AI, “Isaiah N. Granet, Co-Founder and CEO of Bland – Interview Series,” accessed August 2026. https://www.unite.ai/isaiah-n-granet-co-founder-and-ceo-of-bland-interview-series/↩↩↩↩↩
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Y Combinator, “Bland AI: The enterprise platform for AI phone calls,” accessed August 2026. https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/bland-ai↩↩
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Startup Fundraising (Alejandro Cremades), “Isaiah Granet On Raising Over $56 Million To Build A Specialized Platform For Creating, Deploying, And Scaling AI-Powered Voice Agents,” accessed August 2026. https://startupfundraising.com/library/articles/isaiah-granet↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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PR Newswire, “Bland Surpasses $100M Funding With New Series C to Advance Voice AI for Complex, High-Stakes Conversations,” June 16, 2026, accessed August 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bland-surpasses-100m-funding-with-new-series-c-to-advance-voice-ai-for-complex-high-stakes-conversations-302801583.html↩↩↩
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Bland, “Bland Raises $40M Series B to Transform Enterprise Phone Communications,” accessed August 2026. https://www.bland.ai/blogs/bland-raises-a-40m-series-b↩