Alex Ruber

Alex Ruber is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Candle, a consumer artificial intelligence and social application based in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 2024 as part of the Y Combinator Fall 2024 batch, the startup rapidly achieved 300,000 users and surpassed $1 million in annual recurring revenue within its first six months. Prior to launching Candle alongside former Twitter and Asana engineer Parth Chopra, Ruber led Encore, a habit-building technology platform that successfully raised $2 million in venture funding. His earlier technical career includes hardware and software roles as an iOS and Architecture Engineer at Apple, as well as a Flight Systems and Sequencing Engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ruber currently focuses on developing design-first consumer AI products and mobile applications that facilitate relationship building and personal habit formation.