Pranab Krishnan

CTO and Co-Founder

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Pranab Krishnan is a technology entrepreneur, machine learning researcher, and co-founder & CTO of Zeal, a staffing operations platform that makes it easier for staffing companies to onboard, pay, and bill. Based in San Francisco, Pranab leads Zeal’s technical vision, oversees the engineering team, drives product architecture, and ensures the platform scales to support high-volume staffing operations. Prior to Zeal, Pranab worked in machine learning engineering at MITRE and as a bioinformatics fellow at the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). He also served as a data analyst at The Wharton School. He is a Y Combinator alumnus through Zeal’s inclusion in the YC Summer 2019 cohort. Under his technical leadership, Zeal has secured $30M in funding. Beyond his day job, Pranab engages with the broader fintech and startup community, shares insights on product engineering and embedded finance, and contributes to discussions around scalable infrastructure, compliance automation, and fintech innovation.

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Education

BS, Computer Science, University of Pennsylvania

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Expertise

Software Engineering, Product Management, Entrepreneurship, Leadership

Blogs by

Pranab Krishnan

Product Update: July 2025

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Product Update: July 2025

Product Update: June 2025

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Product Update: June 2025

New and Improved Tax Setup Page

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New and Improved Tax Setup Page

Dig Into The Details with Disbursement Statuses

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Dig Into The Details with Disbursement Statuses

Manage International Contractors Without Missing a Step

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Manage International Contractors Without Missing a Step

Consistency is Key — Introducing Zeal’s Job Queue Webhook

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Consistency is Key — Introducing Zeal’s Job Queue Webhook

Sharing Zeal’s Changelog

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Sharing Zeal’s Changelog

Zero Penalties with Zeal's Zero Wage Filing Feature

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Zero Penalties with Zeal's Zero Wage Filing Feature

Engineering Culture @ Zeal

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Engineering Culture @ Zeal

Keep Organized with Employer Documents and Updated Filing Statuses

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Keep Organized with Employer Documents and Updated Filing Statuses

Support your Savers with New Deduction Types at Zeal

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Support your Savers with New Deduction Types at Zeal

Build with Clarity and Flexibility — Introducing Custom Names for Earning Components

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Build with Clarity and Flexibility — Introducing Custom Names for Earning Components

Harness Deposit Schedules at Any Rate with Accelerated Payments

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Harness Deposit Schedules at Any Rate with Accelerated Payments

Aggregate your Data with YTD and QTD APIs

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Aggregate your Data with YTD and QTD APIs

Upload and View With Ease—Zeal’s Revamped ID Verification Flow

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Upload and View With Ease—Zeal’s Revamped ID Verification Flow

Preview Check Data

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Preview Check Data

Increase Employer Flexibility with Editing in the White-label

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Increase Employer Flexibility with Editing in the White-label

Pay Your Way with Commodity Wages

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Pay Your Way with Commodity Wages

Launch your Payroll Product Faster Using Zeal’s Tax Page Component

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Launch your Payroll Product Faster Using Zeal’s Tax Page Component

Streamline Payroll Reporting with the Reports API

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Streamline Payroll Reporting with the Reports API

Making Taxes Less Taxing

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Making Taxes Less Taxing

The Deductions API — Helping Deduce the Best Deductions

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The Deductions API — Helping Deduce the Best Deductions

Improve Employee Onboarding with Tooltips

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Improve Employee Onboarding with Tooltips

Never Miss a Tax ID Again With Alerts

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Never Miss a Tax ID Again With Alerts

Save Time With Pre-Filled Documents

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Save Time With Pre-Filled Documents

Tune Your Data Structure with Metadata and External IDs

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Tune Your Data Structure with Metadata and External IDs

Reducing Tax Complexity with Constraints

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Reducing Tax Complexity with Constraints

Onboard Contractors in Minutes — Contractor On-The-Fly Onboarding

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Onboard Contractors in Minutes — Contractor On-The-Fly Onboarding

Disbursing Your Own Funds? Check Out Prepaid Checks

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Disbursing Your Own Funds? Check Out Prepaid Checks

Introducing Tax Exemptions

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Introducing Tax Exemptions

Announcing Onboarding Paperwork API

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Announcing Onboarding Paperwork API

Guides by

Pranab Krishnan

Zeal is a financial technology company, not an FDIC insured depository institution. Banking services provided by Bangor Savings Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC insurance coverage protects against the failure of an FDIC insured depository institution. Pass-through FDIC insurance coverage is subject to certain conditions.


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