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Jean-Denis Greze

CTO of Plaid and experienced technology executive

Jean-Denis Greze is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Plaid, a prominent fintech company that provides a data network for financial services.1 Here's an overview of his background and career:

Professional Experience

Jean-Denis joined Plaid in March 2017 as Head of Engineering and was promoted to CTO in May 2021.2 Prior to Plaid, he held notable positions including:

  • Director of Engineering at Dropbox (2013-2017)
  • Engineering at Applied Academics LLC (2010-2013)
  • Associate at Sullivan & Cromwell (2007-2008)

Education

Jean-Denis has a strong educational background:

  • JD from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude)
  • MS in Computer Science from Columbia University
  • BS in Computer Science from Columbia University (with academic honors)

Other Roles and Interests

  • Co-investor at ASDF Ventures
  • Advisor for Applied Academics LLC
  • Angel investor in various startups

Personal

Jean-Denis lives in San Francisco with his family. He has lived in various cities around the world, including Boston, Chicago, Lausanne, Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Santiago, and Shanghai.4

Leadership Philosophy

As CTO at Plaid, Jean-Denis focuses on:

  • Scaling engineering teams and optimizing for impact
  • Encouraging employee mobility within the organization
  • Emphasizing privacy engineering and security
  • Building a culture of ownership

Jean-Denis is known for his insights on engineering leadership, team building, and the future of fintech.3 His LinkedIn username is jeandenisgreze.2

Highlights

Feb 25 · twitter

We thought we knew how people would use Town. We were wrong—in the best way.

When we launched our beta, we had a handful of workflows we thought would be useful. Inbox management, morning briefings, basic scheduling.

Then we watched what people actually did.

Users started building workflows we hadn't anticipated. Automating deal pipelines. Tracking competitive moves. Filing contracts. Running weekly status reports across entire teams. Turning user feedback into PRDs. And yes… putting documents together for their taxes.

The best part? These weren't power users with engineering backgrounds. These were ops leads, recruiters, coaches, real estate agents, business owners, founders... People who saw a pain point in their day and said "my assistant should handle this."

So we did something simple. We took some common patterns and turned them into templates. Over 20 now, with more coming. My favorites: competitive intel (https://t.co/U2rsbEKAiB) and we user research (https://t.co/mwY71FixyO).

And even better we’ve made it trivial for users to share their workflows with others. Now anyone can show off their clever life hacks with their coworkers, friends, or really anyone who would benefit.

This is what I love about building Town. We're not prescribing how you should work. We're watching how you actually work and making it easier to replicate.

We've seen some seriously creative workflows from early beta users. We'll be sharing our favorites from users soon -- stay tuned.

Feb 24 · twitter

I love the claw, but Elon’s not wrong here. It’s why we’ve focused on privacy, security, and safety from day 1 at @TownAI while making sure the product is powerful enough to automate much of work!

Sep 26 · podcasts.apple.com
Jean-Denis Greze, Plaid CTO – - Fintech Leaders - Apple Podcasts
Sep 26 · youtube.com
Jean Denis Greze, Plaid CTO - LLMs Are Revolutionizing ... - YouTube
Jean Denis Greze, Plaid CTO - LLMs Are Revolutionizing ... - YouTube
Aug 4 · youtube.com
How I Became CTO of Plaid -- Jean-Denis Greze - YouTube
How I Became CTO of Plaid -- Jean-Denis Greze - YouTube
Jun 16 · Axios
Flexpa sows $8.5M seed for health data sharing - Axios
Jan 27 · TechCrunch
Subscript wants to rid the world of subscription revenue metric spreadsheets - TechCrunch

Related Questions

What are Jean-Denis Greze's key achievements at Plaid?
How did Jean-Denis Greze transition from Dropbox to Plaid?
What are Jean-Denis Greze's investment interests at ASDF Ventures?
How has Jean-Denis Greze influenced Plaid's engineering culture?
What challenges has Jean-Denis Greze faced as CTO at Plaid?
Jean-Denis Greze
Jean-Denis Greze, photo 1
Jean-Denis Greze, photo 2
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Experience

CTO at Plaid since May 2021
Head of Engineering at Plaid (March 2017 - May 2021), Director of Engineering at Dropbox (April 2013 - March 2017), Advisor at Applied Academics LLC (2019 - Present), Investor at ASDF Ventures (2008 - Present), Associate at Sullivan & Cromwell (2007 - 2008) in Paris Area, France and Engineering roles at Applied Academics LLC (August 2010 - March 2013) in New York

Education

JD, Law, Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law School (2004 - 2007), MS in Computer Science from Columbia University (2001 - 2003), BS in Computer Science from Columbia University (1996 - 2000)

Location

San Francisco Bay Area