Cruce Saunders
Founder & CEO of Crawft, AI that shows companies what their team actually works on
About
I'm the founder and CEO of Crawft. It runs on company-owned Macs and writes a plain-English daily report on every employee: what they worked on and where the time went. I turned down an offer that valued it at $400,000.
At 13 my family went from a downtown condo to a converted garage and food banks. At 15, after a classmate threatened to shoot me, I found Alpha myself and became the first student in its history on a full scholarship.
Before Crawft, I pitched my Apple Watch running game, Ippo, first on a $1.7M Shark Tank-style show filmed three miles off Oahu, and won a $25,000 offer from Chris Camillo and Bill Perkins on air.
At Wharton's Innovation and Startup Culture program, I led my team as CEO and built our iPhone app, NestIQ, which won Best MVP out of about 100 students and is now on the App Store.
I build with teams of AI agents, run by a workflow system I designed: 4 iOS apps, 2 of them on the App Store, plus 2 Mac apps and 40+ web projects.
Experience
Built the entire product by directing AI agents, from the Mac app to the manager dashboards. In beta on Macs at Alpha, and demoed to investors and companies.
Project lead (internship), Synteq Digital
Built the company's first engine for finding new customers: AI agents research companies likely to need its computing, score each against a best-fit profile with dated evidence, and draft first emails a person approves. Presented it to leadership.
Apple Watch running game that rewards effort over pace, live on the App Store since February 2026.
Cast in four productions by the YouTube studio Alpha funded, with over $3M in combined production value.
At 16, ran sales and every client relationship for a film-marketing startup, including a ~$15,000 deal at SXSW with Kurt Ravenwood, producer of Hundreds of Beavers. After it was acquired for millions, turned down an $80,000 full-time offer to stay at Alpha.
My first startup, started at 15: an app where friends keep each other off social media, grown out of my research on teen habits. Testers' screen time dropped 48% on average and stayed down.
Founder & host, South Austin Games
Founded and hosted weekly board-game nights for about 20 people, with a 1,000+ member Meetup group and waitlists in the hundreds.
Education
High school, Class of 2027, Alpha School
AI-first private high school, on a full scholarship. 4.43 weighted GPA.
Honors
Best MVP, Wharton Global Youth
Out of ~100 students at Innovation and Startup Culture, which I attended on a full scholarship.
AP Scholar with Distinction
Five AP exams, all scored 4 or 5.
SAT 1520 superscore
1490 in a single sitting, 97th percentile.
QuestBridge College Prep Scholar
Selected for QuestBridge's national program for high-achieving students from low-income families.
College Board School Recognition Award
An award based on PSAT or AP performance.
Selected to pitch at First Look on April 3, 2025, one of four pitches I've made at Capital Factory.
Royal Anthropological Institute presenter
Presented my research on teen social-media habits at the RAI's 2024 Anthropology and Education conference, Senate House, London.
First full scholarship in Alpha School history
Funded personally by Joe Liemandt. Covers about $40,000 a year in tuition.
Skills
Designing AI agent systems, Directing AI agents, Product design, Sales, Pitching, Go-to-market, iOS and macOS apps, Cross-domain AI literacy