Executive Intelligence

May Habib

CEO & Co-founder

CEO and co-founder of Writer, the enterprise generative AI platform launched in 2020 with Waseem AlShikh for business writing and AI applications.

In this profile

Quick Facts

  • Role CEO & Co-founder
  • Company Writer
  • Country United States
  • Industry AI in Enterprise Software
  • Founded 2020
  • Known For Writer represents a distinct strategy within enterprise generative AI: building and owning its own language models…
  • Last Reviewed Jul 2026

Executive Summary

May Habib is CEO & Co-founder of Writer, an enterprise generative AI platform for business writing, knowledge, and AI applications with governance controls. Habib is CEO and Co-founder of Writer. Writer was launched in 2020 with co-founder Waseem AlShikh.Writer's public materials frame the business around bringing generative AI to the enterprise with quality, security, and brand control. Enterprises adopting generative AI need platforms that respect brand, security, and compliance constraints; founder-CEOs in this wave define whether AI writing tools become systems of record.This profile summarizes May's publicly documented role and Writer's stated mission using official sources reviewed in July 2026. It does not invent education, employers, funding, quotes, or nationality beyond the verified facts listed for this entry.From a category perspective, Writer competes in enterprise generative AI, where buyers evaluate vendors on reliability, integration depth, and the credibility of the executive team that will own multi-year roadmaps. Enterprises adopting generative AI need platforms that respect brand, security, and compliance constraints; founder-CEOs in this wave define whether AI writing tools become systems of record. Analytical coverage of May's role therefore focuses on how verified operating history maps to those buyer criteria rather than on unverified personal narrative. The public product thesis — an enterprise generative AI platform for business writing, knowledge, and AI applications with governance controls — remains the primary company-level signal available from official materials. Readers should treat any biographical detail not listed in the verified facts for this entry as out of scope for this profile.

Career Timeline

Verified company milestones linked to this executive’s organization.

  1. 2020 Company founded

    Writer was founded in 2020 per the company profile source on file.

    Source
  2. 2024 Funding

    Raised a $200 million Series C round in November 2024 at a $1.9 billion valuation, co-led by Premji Invest, Radical Ventures, and ICONIQ Growth.

    Source
  3. Product

    Released domain-specific Palmyra-Fin and Palmyra-Med models for financial services and healthcare use cases.

    Source
  4. Development

    Received continued investment from strategic backers including Salesforce Ventures, Citi Ventures, and IBM Ventures, reflecting enterprise interest in owned language-model stacks.

    Source
  5. Development

    Continued expanding its agentic AI tooling on top of the Palmyra model family.

    Source

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Industry Intelligence

Overview

May Habib is CEO & Co-founder of Writer, an enterprise generative AI platform for business writing, knowledge, and AI applications with governance controls. Habib is CEO and Co-founder of Writer. Writer was launched in 2020 with co-founder Waseem AlShikh.

Writer’s public materials frame the business around bringing generative AI to the enterprise with quality, security, and brand control. Enterprises adopting generative AI need platforms that respect brand, security, and compliance constraints; founder-CEOs in this wave define whether AI writing tools become systems of record.

This profile summarizes May’s publicly documented role and Writer’s stated mission using official sources reviewed in July 2026. It does not invent education, employers, funding, quotes, or nationality beyond the verified facts listed for this entry.

From a category perspective, Writer competes in enterprise generative AI, where buyers evaluate vendors on reliability, integration depth, and the credibility of the executive team that will own multi-year roadmaps. Enterprises adopting generative AI need platforms that respect brand, security, and compliance constraints; founder-CEOs in this wave define whether AI writing tools become systems of record. Analytical coverage of May’s role therefore focuses on how verified operating history maps to those buyer criteria rather than on unverified personal narrative. The public product thesis — an enterprise generative AI platform for business writing, knowledge, and AI applications with governance controls — remains the primary company-level signal available from official materials. Readers should treat any biographical detail not listed in the verified facts for this entry as out of scope for this profile.

Role

As CEO & Co-founder, May is accountable for CEO and co-founder leadership of Writer’s enterprise generative AI strategy. Writer’s about page identifies Habib as CEO and Co-founder. Company blog materials support the public product and thought-leadership narrative under her leadership.

In enterprise software, the operating seat at Writer requires translating product capability into institutional trust. Enterprise GenAI CEOs must prove controllable model outcomes inside corporate workflows, not only consumer-like chat experiences.

Background

Habib’s verified background centers on co-founding Writer in 2020 with Waseem AlShikh. Additional personal education or prior employers are omitted where not in the verified fact list.

That background is relevant because clear founding-year and co-founder pairing are the primary verified biographical anchors. Readers evaluating founder credibility in enterprise software should weigh documented operating history more heavily than unverified biographical color.

Career

Habib’s publicly documented career center of gravity is co-founding Writer in 2020 and serving as CEO. That arc coincides with the enterprise generative AI adoption wave.

Career continuity in enterprise generative AI matters because institutional buyers often prefer vendors with stable executive ownership of risk, compliance, and roadmap commitments. Founder-CEOs who started enterprise GenAI companies before the 2022 hype cycle often hold architectural and go-to-market advantages.

Company Journey

Writer launched in 2020 with Habib and Waseem AlShikh as co-founders. About and blog pages document the company’s enterprise generative AI mission under Habib’s CEO leadership.

Writer’s journey under this leadership reflects a broader pattern in enterprise generative AI: enterprise writing assistants expand into broader governed AI application platforms. For operators and investors tracking the category, the company’s public product thesis — an enterprise generative AI platform for business writing, knowledge, and AI applications with governance controls — is the clearest verified signal of strategic direction.

Leadership

Habib leads Writer as CEO and Co-founder. Public communications emphasize enterprise-ready generative AI with brand and security controls.

Leadership effectiveness in this category is measured less by consumer brand awareness and more by enterprise adoption, governance credibility, and writing/AI app quality. Buyers underwrite GenAI CEOs on whether outputs are on-brand, secure, and operationally reliable.

Public Milestones

CEO and Co-founder of Writer. Launched in 2020 with Waseem AlShikh.

These milestones are drawn from Writer’s official pages cited in this profile and establish a verifiable public record for May’s role. No additional personal awards, funding rounds, or employment claims are added beyond those verified facts.

Why This Founder Matters

Enterprises want generative AI that accelerates work without creating uncontrolled brand or data risk. May matters in this landscape because she co-founded Writer in 2020 with Waseem AlShikh and leads it as CEO of an enterprise generative AI platform.

Writer sits in a control-plane or platform position: Writer aims to be a governed generative AI layer for business writing and applications. As enterprise software buyers demand high-quality AI generation with enterprise security and brand control, founder and CEO profiles like this one help readers distinguish verified operating leadership from marketing narrative. Habib is a leading founder-CEO reference in enterprise generative AI platforms.

Sources

Primary sourcing for this profile:

Last Reviewed

This profile was last reviewed on July 11, 2026.

Correction Request

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Sources and references

This article draws on publicly available company information, official websites, filings, interviews, announcements, and other cited sources. Information may change over time.

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