# Enrico Toniato

> CTO @ Manufact (YC S25) | Ex Tech Lead @ IBM Research Zurich | MSc Robotics, ETH Zurich

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/enrico-toniato
- GitHub: https://github.com/tonxxd
- Website: https://enrico.tonia.to
- CV (PDF): https://enrico.tonia.to/cv

## Summary

Robotics engineer, then AI researcher, now startup CTO. Started coding at 14, sold my first product at 18. Leading mcp-use (9k+ stars) at Manufact (YC S25). Previously spent 4 years at IBM Research Zurich, where I led a 25-person team building LLM-powered data tools and published at NeurIPS and VLDB. I like shipping things that work. 60+ countries visited. Expert in tennis double faults.

## Experience

### CTO — Manufact / mcp-use (YC S25) | San Francisco / Zurich | Nov 2025 – Present

- Leading engineering for the mcp-use open-source SDK and cloud platform for MCP servers and ChatGPT Apps (9.3k GitHub stars, 1.1k forks, 5M+ downloads, 40+ contributors)
- Architecting deployment infrastructure used by enterprise teams at NVIDIA, NASA, SAP, and IBM
- Co-organized the ChatGPT / MCP Apps Hackathon at Y Combinator SF (Feb 2026), sponsored by OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cloudflare
- Driving product strategy and developer relations, growing adoption to 20% of US Fortune 500

### Tech Lead, Data & AI Research — IBM Research Zurich | Zurich, Switzerland | Jan 2024 – Nov 2025

- Led FlowPilot team of 25 researchers and engineers: an LLM-powered system for enterprise data integration combining text-to-SQL, text-to-Python, and text-to-chart capabilities
- Presented FlowPilot at NeurIPS 2023 (New Orleans) and VLDB 2023 (Vancouver); invited talk at UC Berkeley 2024
- Developed UX/UI for IBM Quantum Safe Advisor, a cryptographic compliance tool featured in Forbes
- Led Kubernetes Katamaran (project lead): distributed virtual clusters across clouds for on-demand ML workloads
- Filed patent on context-aware cryptographic inventory (#P202300423US01)
- Won Best of IBM 2023 award for contributions to AI, Quantum Safety, and Data Management

### Research Engineer, Data & AI Research — IBM Research Zurich | Zurich, Switzerland | Jan 2022 – Jan 2024

- Core team member for Pathfinder, IBM's metadata management system for enterprise compliance assessment
- Developed SurvBoard, an interactive benchmarking leaderboard for multi-omics cancer survival ML models
- Published research at ACM Middleware 2022, BioRxiv 2022, and Energy Informatics 2021
- Built scalable data pipelines and LLM fine-tuning infrastructure for enterprise NLP applications

### CTO — Layne | Zurich, Switzerland | Feb 2020 – Aug 2021

- Designed and led technology strategy for a Zurich-based mobility startup
- Built AI-powered license plate detection and anonymization pipeline using OpenCV and deep learning
- Developed internal CRM and big data exploration platform on Google Cloud (BigQuery, GCP)

### Software Developer (MSc Thesis) — ABB (Hitachi Power Grids) | Baden, Switzerland | Sep 2020 – Feb 2021

- Optimized charging schedules for large electric bus fleets using integer linear programming with novel constraint design. Published in Energy Informatics 2021.

### Lead Software Engineer — Kaymacor S.R.L. | Verona, Italy | Jan 2017 – Jan 2020

- Architected cloud application for ORC cogenerators: real-time telemetry collection (Modbus/PLC), predictive maintenance, and remote monitoring dashboard.

### Full-Stack Developer (Independent) — Various clients incl. Take. | Milan, Italy | Sep 2015 – Feb 2016

- Built web applications and interactive interfaces for private clients and consulting firms.

## Open Source & Community

- **mcp-use SDK**: Lead maintainer of the open-source MCP framework (9.3k stars, 1.1k forks, 40+ contributors). TypeScript & Python SDKs used by 20% of US Fortune 500.
- **YC Hackathon**: Co-organized ChatGPT / MCP Apps Hackathon at YC SF (Feb 2026). Sponsors: OpenAI, Anthropic, Cloudflare.
- **Mockuper.net**: Founded at age 16. Mockup tool for designers; exited with a six-figure sale to a New York-based company in 2018.

## Publications

- **Toniato, E.** et al. *FlowPilot: An LLM-Powered System for Enterprise Data Integration.* NeurIPS Expo, 2023.
- **Toniato, E.**, Mehta, A. et al. *Peak Load Minimization of an E-Bus Depot.* Energy Informatics, 2021.
- Chan, R., ... **Toniato, E.** et al. *Adapting LLMs for Structured Natural Language API Integration.* EMNLP, 2024.
- Bauer, D., ... **Toniato, E.** et al. *Revisiting Data Lakes: The Metadata Lake.* ACM/IFIP Middleware, 2022.
- Wissel, D., ... **Toniato, E.** et al. *SurvBoard: Benchmarking for Multi-Omics Cancer Survival Models.* Briefings in Bioinformatics, 2025.
- Fuchs, K., ... **Toniato, E.** et al. *Effects of Digital Food Labels on Healthy Food Choices.* Nutrients, 2022.

## Selected Talks

- **MCP Dev Summit 2026** — The Self-Improving MCP Server: Agents in a Live Development Loop (New York)
- **NeurIPS 2023** — FlowPilot: LLMs for Enterprise Data Integration (New Orleans)
- **VLDB 2023** — LLMs for Enterprise Data Integration (Vancouver)
- **UC Berkeley 2024** — Multi-Cloud Fine-Tuning Pipelines for Text-to-SQL (San Francisco)

## Education

- **MSc Robotics, Systems & Control** — ETH Zurich (2019–2021) — Thesis grade: 6/6, GPA: 5.75/6
- **BSc Automation Engineering** — Politecnico di Milano (2016–2019) — Degree grade: 110/110, Top Freshmen Award 2019

## Technical Skills

- **AI / ML**: PyTorch, LangChain, OpenAI APIs, Hugging Face, LLMs, RAG, NLP, Computer Vision
- **Frontend**: React, Next.js, TypeScript, React Native, CSS/SASS, WebGL
- **Backend**: Python, FastAPI, Node.js, REST APIs
- **Data**: Spark, Kafka, Airflow, SQL, MongoDB, BigQuery, Neo4j, Redis
- **Cloud & DevOps**: AWS, GCP, IBM Cloud, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm
- **Leadership**: Team management (25+), cross-functional collaboration, client-facing research, event organization

## Awards & Patents

- **Best of IBM 2023** — For contributions to projects in AI, Quantum Safety, and Data Management
- **Top Freshmen 2019** — Based on average grade of freshmen at Politecnico di Milano
- **Patent** — Context-Aware Cryptographic Inventory (#P202300423US01)