Team
Built for market infrastructure and live product operation
Steer is led by five operators and engineers covering protocol infrastructure, smart contracts, product delivery, strategy, and company operations. Derek Barrera brings eighteen years in software, including roles at Volmex, Proof, and Voyager. Deepak Gupta brings more than fourteen years across software, crypto operations, productization, compliance, and company scaling.
Rakesh Bhatt, Dharmil Shah, and Brandon Hunt cover the application, node, smart-contract, strategy, and integration work required to run Steer in production. This page reflects the current working team; former team members and advisors are not included.
Derek Barrera
Co-founder & CEO
Eighteen years building software across protocol infrastructure, security, and structured products. Former Volmex core contributor, Proof CTO, and Voyager Principal Blockchain Engineer. LinkedIn
Deepak Gupta
Co-founder & COO
More than fourteen years across software and crypto operations, productization, compliance, and company scaling. Previously at Proof, Voyager / Ethos, and OST Labs. LinkedIn
Rakesh Bhatt
Lead Engineer
Leads application, node-engine, and interface development across Steer’s execution and operating infrastructure. LinkedIn
Dharmil Shah
Smart Contract Engineer
Builds smart-contract systems supporting vaults, liquidity integrations, policy controls, and onchain strategy execution. LinkedIn
Brandon Hunt
Lead Strategist & Core Engineer
Leads strategy implementation and core engineering across developer tooling, application workflows, and smart-contract integrations. LinkedIn
The team covers the complete operating path
The current team is structured around the same path the product must execute: define the product, build and secure its transaction paths, operate the surrounding infrastructure, and support commercial deployment.
| Function | Current responsibility |
|---|---|
| Protocol and smart-contract engineering | Vaults, integrations, policy enforcement, and onchain execution paths |
| Product and full-stack engineering | Issuance Studio, operator workflows, reporting, and partner-facing surfaces |
| Infrastructure and operations | Nodes, workers, monitoring, releases, incident response, and lifecycle automation |
| Product structuring | Product terms, lifecycle design, risk boundaries, and launch configuration |
| Commercial and partnerships | Program development, integrations, distribution, and customer expansion |
| Finance, legal, and compliance | Revenue operations, entity administration, product review, and controlled diligence |
Organization materials
| Material | Access | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Leadership biographies | Link access | Leadership profiles |
| Current employee, contractor, and advisor roster | NDA | Current team; detailed roster controlled |
| Organization chart and functional ownership | NDA | Functional ownership; detailed organization chart controlled |
| Employment, services, confidentiality, and IP agreements | Restricted | Controlled legal and people materials |
| Compensation, equity, and hiring plan | Restricted | Controlled financing and people materials |
The detailed roster is controlled because it includes employment status, location, allocation, compensation, and personal information. Request access through your Steer contact.