Horizon visual consistency v2
Horizon final-review consistency layer
§ About · Horizon Labs · Founded 2019

Engineers who've built, shipped,
and exited startups ourselves.

Not a staffing shop. Not an offshore farm. Three founders who've held a runway, made payroll, and shipped software under real pressure — and built a team around that standard.

60+
products shipped
2019
founded
5
exits from 0→1
10+
MAANG + YC engineers
5.0
Clutch rating
§ Origin

From a Y Combinator exit
to 30+ products shipped.

Sinan and Serdar met in high school in Turkey. Sinan moved to the United States in 2019 when his startup Cuboh was accepted into Y Combinator. Serdar managed a distributed engineering team from Istanbul — the model that would become Horizon Labs.

After Sinan's exit from Cuboh, they formalized what they'd already been doing informally: senior-grade engineering for founders who couldn't afford full-time US engineers, but couldn't afford bad software either. Saif Akhtar joined in 2022 to run customer success and operations, bringing startup operator experience from San Jose's founding community.

Since then: 30+ products shipped across fintech, marketplaces, AI, embedded systems, and healthcare. Four YC-backed teams. A 5.0 rating on Clutch. The model works because leadership has sat at the same table you're at — and the engineering actually ships.

Founded2019 · San Jose, CA + Istanbul, TR
CatalystCuboh (YC S19) — restaurant delivery operations
ModelUS-led leadership · Istanbul delivery team
Saif joins2022 · COO, customer success + operations
Products30+ shipped across 8 industries
YC clients5 products scaled from 0 to acquisition
OfficesSan Jose CA · Irvine CA · Istanbul, TR
Contactinfo@horizon-labs.co · +1 (408) 320-6261
§ Team · 6 people

The people behind 30+ products.

Senior engineers, a delivery lead, a PM, and a designer. No juniors on client work.

SS
Sinan Sari
CEO / Co-founder
Irvine, CA

Co-founder of Cuboh (YC S19). Senior engineer at Tasso and Oscar Health. Moved to the US for Y Combinator in 2019.

SP
Serdar Pehlivan
CTO / Co-founder
Istanbul, TR

Math Olympiad medalist. PhD Computer Engineering, UConn. Former Vice Dean of Engineering at Zirve University.

SA
Saif Akhtar
COO
San Jose, CA

Early employee, co-founder, and investor across multiple startups. Founding team at Cresance and Intellus.ai.

GB
Gorkem Bendin
Delivery Lead
Istanbul, TR

9+ years full-stack, mobile, and embedded. Leads sprint delivery and technical oversight across all engagements.

EN
Esra Nur
PM / Engineer
San Antonio, TX

Bridges client requirements with engineering. CS at Bilkent, Master's in Graphic Design at Istanbul Arel.

BM
Basmah Masood
UI/UX Designer
San Jose, CA

10+ years in photography, videography, and product illustration. Social Sciences, IBA Pakistan.

§ How we work

Six principles we don't compromise on.

These aren't values from a brand deck. They come from shipping software under real constraints.

01
Start small

Launch the minimum viable version. Prove the assumption before building the feature.

02
Talk to users

Ship, measure, iterate. Data beats intuition — including ours.

03
Prefer boring tech

Reliable, well-documented, proven at scale. Novelty is a tax on delivery.

04
Leave it better

Clean code, documentation, handoff training. You own everything after we hand it off.

05
Spend like it's yours

Fixed-price estimates. Transparent trade-offs. No billing-hour incentives.

06
Post-contract support

6-month code warranty. Long-term partnership, not a single engagement.

SOC 2
Type I · 2026 Q1
NIST 800-53
SDLC aligned
US-law
IP protection · NDA ready
Warranty
6-month code guarantee
Delivery
US-led · CA + Istanbul

Ready to talk about your project?

Book a scoping call. We'll scope, price, and start within 2 weeks of agreement — no lengthy onboarding.