Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California based Director operating in the Venture Capital space. If you think a Director is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Kristina Burow
Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners
Kristina Burow is a Managing Director with ARCH Venture Partners. Kristina Burow is focused on the creation and development of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and agbiotechnology companies.
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About ARCH Venture Partners: ARCH is an early-stage venture firm that focuses on life science discoveries to prevent, detect, and cure disease.
Rahul Kishore
Senior Managing Director of Coatue
Rahul Kishore is a Senior Managing Director at Coatue Management, which he joined in 2015. He leads the firm’s investing efforts in fintech across both public and private investment funds. Prior to Coatue he was a consultant at Boston Consulting Group in New York, where he advised media and technology companies on growth strategy and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Kishore holds a degree in computer science and economics from Cornell University.
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About Coatue: Coatue invests in public and private equity markets focusing on the technology, media, and telecommunications industries.
Thomas Laffont
Senior Managing Director and Co-Founder of Coatue
Thomas Laffont is the Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director at Coatue Management. He is currently the Member, Board of Directors at Tipping Point Community. Mr. Laffont is a former Agent & Agent Trainee at Creative Artists Agency. Thomas graduated from Yale University with a bachelor of science in Computer Science and Economics.
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About Coatue: Coatue invests in public and private equity markets focusing on the technology, media, and telecommunications industries.
Praveen Akkiraju
Managing Director of Insight Partners
Praveen Akkiraju is Chief Executive Officer of VCE. Akkiraju and his team are working to deliver next generation converged infrastructure to transform the economics, agility and profitability of Enterprises and Service Providers as they transition to cloud-enabled business models. VCE is a joint venture between Cisco and EMC with investments from VMware and Intel. A 19-year veteran at Cisco, Akkiraju has successfully led businesses across the enterprise and service provider market segments. In his most recent role, he was responsible for setting the direction for Cisco’s next generation enterprise architecture and integrating security and application awareness capabilities with the network and cloud. His previous roles included vice president and general manager of service provider infrastructure businesses, where he was instrumental in defining the product direction and strategy for Cisco’s Core, Mobile & Broadband Edge business. Akkiraju holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Louisiana State University and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School. He also serves on the Senior Advisory Council at the non-profit Industry Initiatives for Science & Math Education (IISME).
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About Insight Partners, SoftBank Vision Fund, VCE: Insight Partners is a private equity firm that invests in growth-stage technology and software companies.
George Mathew
Managing Director of Insight Partners
George Mathew is a Managing Director at Insight Partners focused on earlier venture stage investments in AI, ML, Analytics, and Data companies as they are establishing Product/Market Fit. He brings 20+ years of experience developing high-growth technology startups including most recently being CEO of Kespry. Prior to Kespry, George was President & COO of Alteryx where he scaled up the company through its IPO (AYX). Previously he held senior leadership positions at SAP and salesforce.com. He has driven company strategy, led product management and development, and built sales and marketing teams. George holds a Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology from Cornell University and a Masters in Business Administration from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar.
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About Insight Partners: Insight Partners is a private equity firm that invests in growth-stage technology and software companies.
Adam Berger
Managing Director of Insight Partners
Adam Berger is the managing director/operating partner at Insight Partners.He is also the executive chairman of Episerver.
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About Episerver, Insight Partners: Insight Partners is a private equity firm that invests in growth-stage technology and software companies.
Ganesh Bell
Managing Director of Insight Partners
A lifelong student of enterprise software industry and digital transformation Accomplished builder, operating executive and leader of change. Thought leader, market creator, product innovator, inspiring keynote speaker & evangelist. Battle tested success record across early stage startups, largest multinational corporations, hypergrowth to IPO and M&A. Rare ability to balance GTM & product-oriented CEO responsibilities. Breadth & depth across enterprise software markets (platforms, apps, BI, next gen data), industrial tech & digital business. Passionate builder of high performing culture & teams.
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About Insight Partners: Insight Partners is a private equity firm that invests in growth-stage technology and software companies.
Whitney Bouck
Managing Director of Insight Partners
Whitney Bouck joined HelloSign as COO in 2016, where she is responsible for growing and scaling the company in partnership with the CEO, CTO and the executive team. HelloSign was acquired by Dropbox in 2019, and Whitney continues to serve as COO of the business inside Dropbox. She is on the board of Paycor and BlueOcean, was previously on the board of Ekata (acquired by Mastercard in 2021), is advisor to ARC and Anvilogic, and invester in LogDNA as well as early stage VC funds. Before joining HelloSign, she ran the global marketing organization at Box and built Box’s Enterprise business from the ground up, helping pivot the company from being an SMB-oriented product. Whitney also spent 15 years with Documentum and then EMC (via acquisition) and held a variety of leadership positions, including CMO of the Information Intelligence division at EMC. Previously, Whitney held a variety of technology and leadership roles at both Sybase and Oracle. She was recognized in 2017 as one of the top 40 Women in Revenue, in 2015 as one of the World’s 100 Most Innovative CMOs, previously recognized with the Silicon Valley Women of Influence award in 2009 and received the Top 40 Under 40 award in 2003.
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About HelloSign, Insight Partners: Insight Partners is a private equity firm that invests in growth-stage technology and software companies.
Drew Harman
Managing Director of Insight Partners
Drew has more than 25 years of software startup experience as a strategy, product management and marketing executive. Since 2001, he been an investor and advisor to early-stage technology ventures, including Mainframe 2, Eucalyptus, Framehawk, AppCentral and Readyforce. Drew was also an early investor in insurance software provider Guidewire (NYSE:GWRE) and revenue management vendor Model N (NYSE:MODN). Previously, Drew was with Ariba, where as VP of Product Management he managed a team of 35 product managers across five product lines with annual revenues of $500m. Later, as VP of Corporate Strategy, he defined product strategy and drove M&A activity. He was formerly VP of Marketing for TradingDynamics, which was acquired by Ariba in November 1999. Earlier in his career, Drew held marketing & technical positions at Neuron Data, News Corporation, Zanza Software and Cambridge Technology Group. Drew holds a BA from Harvard College and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
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About Insight Partners: Insight Partners is a private equity firm that invests in growth-stage technology and software companies.
Stu Phillips
Managing Director of Insight Partners
Stu Phillips is a managing director at Insight Venture Partners. He joined in 2016 with a successful 20 year technology investing track record and almost 20 years’ experience in corporate operating roles. At Insight he serves on the board of directors, or works with DataSift and Ensighten. Prior to Insight, Stu was a general partner at Bay Partners where he was a board member or observer with Bay’s investments in Deis (formerly Engine Yard), Envia Systems, MiMoni, Mulesoft, Vaxart, and AMEC. Prior to their exits, he also managed investments in Covestor (acquired by Interactive Brokers), Eventful (acquired by CBS Local Media), Lending Club (NYSE:LC), Oncomed (NASDAQ: OMED), Zenprise (acquired by Citrix) and Paraccel (acquired by Actina). Earlier in his career, Stu was a founding partner at Ridgelift Ventures and also served as a general partner at US Venture Partners, where he led investments in communications, software and services companies. These included Cacheflow, @Road, Procket Networks, Flyswat, Merlin Networks and Force10 Networks. Before becoming a technology investor, Stu was VP of Central Engineering at Cisco, responsible for the strategy and development of Cisco’s IOS. He previously held leadership positions at Tandem Computers, Logica, and ICL. Stu is a Commercial Pilot and an avid participant in RadioSport (the contesting side of Ham Radio). Stu lives with his wife, Barbara, in Woodside, CA, where the hardest decision is whether to turn left or right when they cycle on the many routes in the area. Stu earned a BS Electronic from Cardiff University in Wales, graduating summa cum laude.
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About Bay Partners, Insight Partners: Insight Partners is a private equity firm that invests in growth-stage technology and software companies.
Nikhil Sachdev
Managing Director of Insight Partners
Nikhil is the Managing Director of Insight Partners and a Board Observer at MURAL. He is also a Board Member of Apprentice.io.
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About Insight Partners: Insight Partners is a private equity firm that invests in growth-stage technology and software companies.
Charles Holloway
Vice Chairman of Board of Directors of Kleiner Perkins
Charles A. Holloway, an expert in entrepreneurship, manufacturing strategy and technology, was appointed to the SRI International Board in 2003. Holloway has been a faculty member of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University since 1968 and has served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. In 1990, he founded the Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing (formerly Stanford Integrated Manufacturing Association), a cooperative venture of the Graduate School of Business, School of Engineering, and industrial firms. He is a founding co-director of the Stanford Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and his research has contributed to the Stanford Global Supply Chain Forum. Holloway is also co-chair of the Stanford Commission on Graduate Education. He serves on the boards of Annuity Systems, Freedom Financial Corporation, and Neato Robots. Prior to his career in education, Holloway was assistant to the technical director of the Naval Reactors Branch of the Atomic Energy Commission and a senior engineer at Bechtel Corporation. Holloway is a co-author of numerous business publications. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a BSEE from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About : Kleiner Perkins is a venture capital firm that specializes in investing in early-stage, incubation, and growth companies.
Anna Lo
Director, Americas of SoftBank Vision Fund
Anna Lo is a manager and co-founder of Softbank’s Bodhi fund, focusing on early-stage companies in China, India and selected Southeast Asia geographies. Lo relocated to the Bay Area in 2013 to be project director of SB Product Group, joint procurement arm for SoftBank Mobile and Sprint (yes I know my mobile phones). She is currently covering global investment activities of SoftBank Group International + Vision Fund. Anna Lo is a pseudo-trans-Pacific commuter but mainly based in the Bay Area.
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About Softbank China & India Holdings, SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Kristin Bannon
Investment Director of SoftBank Vision Fund
Kristin Bannon is an Investment Director at SoftBank Vision Fund.
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About SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Linda Yu
Vice President & Investment Director of SoftBank Vision Fund
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About SoftBank Group, SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Ted Fike
Director, Americas of SoftBank Vision Fund
Ted Fike is an investment director with the SoftBank Investment Advisers based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ted focuses on investments in consumer technologies and real estate. He is a SoftBank board representative for Wag, and Plenty. (A full list of portfolio companies can be found here.) Ted has held a variety of investing and operating roles during his career. Prior to joining SoftBank Investment Advisers in 2017, he led corporate development and strategy initiatives at Airbnb, which had acquired Tilt, where he was CFO and board director. Before Tilt, Ted was a founding principal of CapitalG, Google’s growth equity investment arm. Earlier at Google, Ted was responsible for acquisitions and investments as part of the corporate development team, as well as a number of Google’s largest technology and telecommunications client relationships within its sales organization. Prior to joining Google, Ted worked in strategy and operations at WebMD, in credit investing at Bain Capital, and in strategy consulting at Boston Consulting Group. Ted graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in economics and concentrations in finance, marketing, and management.
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About SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Luci Fonseca
Principal & Director of Operations of Base10 Partners
Luci Fonseca currently works as a Principal and Director of Operations at Base10 Partners. Previously, she was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company.
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About Base10 Partners: Base10 is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the automation of the real economy.
Jeff Chung
Managing Director of AME Cloud Ventures
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About AME Cloud Ventures: AME Cloud Ventures invests in seed to later-stage tech companies that build infrastructure and value chains around data.
Mayo A. Shattuck
Director, Credit of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Mayo A. Shattuck IV (San Francisco) joined KKR in 2008. He leads investments in energy, power, and utilities across the firm’s credit strategies. Mr. Shattuck currently sits on the board of Fortune Creek Midstream. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Shattuck was with Goldman, Sachs & Co. in the investment banking division in both New York and London. While there, he focused on mergers and financings in the industrials and natural resources group. Mr. Shattuck received a B.A. from Williams College and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Mr. Shattuck serves as a director of the Solid Rock Foundation.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Jamison Ely
Director of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Jamison C. Ely joined KKR in 2004 and is head of the KKR Strategic Investment Program (“KSIP”), a credit focused direct co-investment strategy. Prior to running KSIP, Mr. Ely was part of the KKR Credit investment team for over 10 years, with direct oversight for $2.5 billion of performing and distressed credit positions across public and private markets. Between 2007 and 2008, Mr. Ely lived in London and worked with a small team to expand KKR Credit internationally. Mr. Ely sits on the Board of Directors for Cengage Learning and Preferred Sands LLC. He graduated from Occidental College with a B.A. in Economics.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Max Lin
Partner & Director, Private Equity of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Max C. Lin (Menlo Park) joined KKR in 2005 and is a member of the Health Care Industry team within KKR’s Private Equity Platform. He has played a significant role in several investments including Biomet, HCA, PRA, Go Daddy, and The Nielsen Company. Currently, he is on the board of directors of Biomet and PRA. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Lin was with Morgan Stanley where he was involved in a number of mergers, acquisitions, and financing transactions. He holds a B.S. and B.A.S., summa cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
John Park
Director, Private Equity of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
John Park (Menlo Park) joined KKR in 2013 and is a member of the Technology industry team. He is currently a member of the board of directors of SunGard Data Systems, Mitchell International, Internet Brands and GoDaddy, and is also involved with KKR’s investments in Ping Identity, Ticket Monster and Cylance. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Park was with Apax Partners, where he focused on investments in technology and participated in transactions involving Epicor Software Corporation, Activant Solutions, Paradigm Geophysical and Sophos. Previously, Mr. Park was a member of the mergers & acquisitions practice at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Park holds an A.B., cum laude, in Economics from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Doug Tapley
Director, KKR Capital Solutions Group of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Doug Tapley (San Francisco) joined KKR in 2006 and is part of the Capital Solutions Group focusing on private debt origination and syndication for KKR’s credit platform and for MerchCap Solutions. He has overseen credit investments across a broad range of sectors including retail/consumer, healthcare, media, business services, technology, and industrial businesses. Mr. Tapley brings more than thirteen years of investment experience to his position at KKR. Previously Mr. Tapley was a vice president at GE Capital where he underwrote and led debt transactions for sponsored buyouts in the media, communications, and healthcare sectors. Prior to his tenure with GE Capital, Mr. Tapley worked as a management consultant in the telecommunications and technology sectors. Mr. Tapley holds a B.A. from Rice University, an M.B.A. from Yale University, and is a C.F.A. charterholder.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Usman Rabbani
Managing Director & Director, KKR Capstone of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Usman Rabbani (Menlo Park) joined KKR Capstone in 2015. Mr. Rabbani leads technology related value creation efforts across the private equity portfolio and works with the Technology industry team on evaluating new investments. Previously, he was a partner at McKinsey & Company focused on the high tech sector and the enterprise IT function. Before that, he spent 10 years in software engineering and operational roles as Founder and CTO of a cloud video surveillance platform, as an enterprise IT architect at Pfizer, as a tech team lead at Scient, and as a software developer at Massachusetts General Hospital. Mr. Rabbani earned an M.B.A. at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in Computer Science at Harvard University, and a B.A. in Computer Science and Psychology at Yale University.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Felix Gernburd
Managing Director of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Vincent Letteri
Managing Director, TMT Growth Equity of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Vincent E. Letteri (Menlo Park) is a member of the TMT team, focusing on growth equity. Mr. Letteri originally joined KKR Capstone in 2007 before becoming a part of KKR’s TMT team in 2015. While at KKR Capstone he worked across a number of KKR portfolio companies including US Foods, Oriental Brewery, MMI, Yageo, and First Data. Mr. Letteri transferred to the Hong Kong office from 2009 to 2011 to assist in developing KKR Capstone’s Asia operations and to work with portfolio companies in the region. He also co-led KKR’s Green Portfolio Program from 2009 to 2012. Prior to KKR Capstone, Mr. Letteri worked for Nike, Inc., and McKinsey & Company in Boston, where he focused on private equity, retail, and consumer goods companies. He holds a B.A. with honors from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Kyle Matter
Director of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Kyle Matter (Menlo Park) joined KKR Capstone in 2010. Prior to joining KKR Capstone.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
John Hockin
Managing Director, Private Equity of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
John C. Hockin (Menlo Park) joined KKR in 2015 to work within the private equity group and focus on its public equity investment effort. He joins from Golden Gate Capital where he was Co-Head of Public Equities from 2010-2015. Prior to Golden Gate, he spent fifteen years at J.H. Whitney & Co. where he devoted the first ten years to the private equity side of the business and the last five years to managing the Whitney Green River hedge fund. He started his career in the investment banking group at Morgan Stanley in New York. In college, he successfully launched and sold a baseball hat company called J&J Lids. He holds a B.A. in Economics (cum laude) from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business (Arjay Miller Scholar).
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Jeff Van Horn
Managing Director, Credit of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Jeffrey B. Van Horn (San Francisco) joined KKR in 2004. Mr. Van Horn is a Managing Director and the Chief Financial Officer of KKR’s Credit business. Previously, he was the Co-Head of the KKR Global Tax Team and the KKR Global Public Markets Tax Director. Mr. Van Horn is also the Chief Operating Officer, Executive Vice President and Director of Tax of KKR Financial Holdings LLC. He previously served as the Chief Financial Officer of KKR Financial Holdings LLC from May 2006 to November 2010. Before joining KKR, Mr. Van Horn worked in various finance positions, including senior vice president of Investments and Chief Financial Officer of AvalonBay Communities, Inc. and its predecessor, Bay Apartment Communities, Inc., respectively. Prior to that, he was a tax partner with Arthur Andersen LLP serving clients in the real estate, leasing, private equity, and REIT industries. Mr. Van Horn was also a member of Arthur Andersen’s firmwide Partnership and REIT Tax Specialty Teams. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Business Administration from California State University, Stanislaus. Mr. Van Horn is also a California licensed Certified Public Accountant.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Daniel McLaughlin
Director of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Daniel McLaughlin (San Francisco) joined KKR in 2009 and is a member of the Client and Partner Group..
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Karr Narula
Director, KKR Capstone of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Karr Narula (Menlo Park) joined KKR Capstone in 2007. Since joining KKR Capstone, Mr. Narula has worked closely with KKR’s investments in Biomet, Energy Future Holdings, Intelligence, Harden Healthcare, Pharmaceutical Research Associates, Research Pharmaceutical Services, Air Medical Group Holdings, and Panasonic Healthcare. Mr. Narula actively works with KKR’s Healthcare industry team and is also involved in KKR’s portfolio wellness and consumer-driven health initiatives. Previously, he was with Bain & Company, where he worked across a number of industries including logistics, retail consumer products, high-tech OEM, and private equity. Mr. Narula also worked in corporate M&A for Harrah’s Entertainment on the acquisition and integration of Caesars and in HIG Capital’s private equity group, executing private equity transactions. He holds a B.S. with distinction from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Mariko M. Uyeda
Director, Client and Partner Group of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Mariko M. Uyeda (San Francisco) joined KKR in 2004 and is a member of the Client and Partner Group, and previously she was a member of the fixed income division at KKR. Ms. Uyeda graduated with a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Jill Henn
Director, Human Resources of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Jill Henn (San Francisco/Menlo Park) joined KKR in 2010 in Human Resources. Prior to joining KKR, Ms. Henn spent over 11 years in a wide range of HR roles. Ms. Henn came to KKR from Cerberus Capital Management, most recently as HR director for the capital markets business at GMAC (a Cerberus portfolio company) and before that as the director of talent management and director of recruitment for Cerberus. Earlier in her career, Ms. Henn had a variety of HR roles at General Electric and HRfirst. Ms. Henn holds a Bachelors of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Billy Fisher
Director, Finance of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
William B. Fisher (San Francisco) joined KKR in 2004 and brings more than 30 years of diversified management experience to his position as Chief Investment Operations Officer at KKR. Prior to joining our operations team, Mr. Fisher served as Managing Director at myCFO, Inc., a startup wealth management firm representing more than $20 billion in AUM. Prior to that, he served as President and Chief Executive Office at Furthco, a privately-held company, managing a conglomeration of businesses and investments. He holds a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Arkansas.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
John Reed
Director, Credit of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
John M. Reed (San Francisco) joined KKR in 2008 and is a member of Credit, serving as the Head of Credit Trading. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Reed was a director at Bear Stearns & Co. in their institutional fixed income department. Previously, he was an analyst at BNY Capital Markets in the syndicated loan, private placement and high yield groups, and also worked in the asset strategies group and The Office of Management & Budget of New York City. Mr. Reed received a B.A. in Business Administration and Psychology from the University of South Carolina and a Global Professional M.B.A. from the Fordham University School of Business Administration.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
David Kerko
Director of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Chris Wade
Director, Credit of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Christopher Wade (San Francisco) joined KKR in February 2006 and brings over thirteen years of experience to his role as Director and Divisional Controller of KKR Credit. Previously, Mr. Wade worked at FEI Company and Riverbed Technology in SEC reporting manager and accounting manager roles, respectively. Mr. Wade began his accounting career at Ernst & Young LLP, serving a variety of clients in the technology and investment management industries. Mr. Wade graduated with a B.A. in Accounting with departmental honors from the University of Oregon.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Albert Chan
Director, Finance of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Albert Chan (San Francisco) joined KKR in September 2005 and is the Controller of KKR Financial Holdings LLC.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Scott Cullerton
Managing Director of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Ryan L.G. Wilson
Director, Credit of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Ryan L.G. Wilson (San Francisco) joined KKR in 2006 and is a Director in Credit Portfolio Management Group. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Wilson was with PricewaterhouseCoopers, serving a variety of clients across industries. Mr. Wilson holds a B.A. in Economics with honors from Wilfrid Laurier University and a MAcc in Accounting from the University of Waterloo. He also is a CFA charterholder, Chartered Professional Accountant, and a Chartered Accountant.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Jeff Smith
Director, Business Operations of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Adam Elegant
Director of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Adam Elegant (San Francisco) joined KKR in 2014 and is a member of the KKR Client and Partner Group, focused on working with leading family offices. Mr. Elegant spent 14 years in the securities division at Goldman Sachs in San Francisco and New York selling the firm’s equities products to family offices, hedge funds, RIAs and broker-dealers, among others. Afterwards, he joined Northern Trust in a business development role focused on family offices. Mr. Elegant holds an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Colorado and a B.A. in Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Adam Elegant
Director of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Adam Elegant (San Francisco) joined KKR in 2014 and is a member of the KKR Client and Partner Group, focused on working with leading family offices. Mr. Elegant spent 14 years in the securities division at Goldman Sachs in San Francisco and New York selling the firm’s equities products to family offices, hedge funds, RIAs and broker-dealers, among others. Afterwards, he joined Northern Trust in a business development role focused on family offices. Mr. Elegant holds an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Colorado and a B.A. in Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis.
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About Kohlberg Kravis Roberts: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a global alternative asset manager focusing on private equity, fixed income, and capital markets.
Ali Rowghani
Partner and Managing Director of Y Combinator Continuity Fund
Ali Rowghani is the CEO of YC Continuity. Previously, he served as the Chief Operating Officer of Twitter, Inc. from 2012 to 2014, where he was in charge of Twitter’s product, design, business development, developer platform, and media teams. He was hired as Twitter’s first Chief Financial Officer and served in that role from 2010 to 2012. For the 9 years prior to his time at Twitter, Ali served in several roles at Pixar Animation Studios, Inc., including as Chief Financial Officer and as Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning. Ali holds a BA and MBA, both from Stanford University. Ali is on the Board at Checkr, Lob and Restoration Hardware (NYSE: RH), and is a Board observer at LendUp.
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About Y Combinator Continuity Fund: Y Combinator Continuity is an investment fund dedicated to supporting founders as they scale their companies.
Ravi Mhatre
Founder and Managing Director of Lightspeed Venture Partners
Ravi is a Partner of Lightspeed and focuses on investments in enterprise IT, mobility, and Internet and cloud-based services and applications. Ravi has 17 years of venture capital experience and before entering venture capital he ran a product management group at Silicon Graphics and also worked in management consulting at Booz Allen and as a software engineer for BDIS, a Silicon Valley biotech instruments manufacturer. His current investments include Nutanix, Appdynamics, Natera, Mulesoft, Sailpoint, Edgespring, TheFind and Kixeye. He has also served as a board member or board observer for numerous successful venture-backed companies including net.Genesis (NTGX), Verio (VRIO), Riverbed (RVBD), Lifeminders (LFMN), Kosmix (acquired by Walmart), TutorVista (acquired by Pearson), Virsa (acquired by SAP), Waveset (acquired by Oracle), Rapsphere (acquired by Appsense), Masergy (acquired by Abry) and Webspective (acquired by Inktomi), and has been recognized on the Forbes Midas List of top venture capital investors. Ravi has also served on the Board of Directors of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs Forum) in Silicon Valley, as a VC advisory board member to DeVenCI, the Department of Defense’s start-up technology acquisition forum, and as a judge for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year competition. Ravi holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and a BA in Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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About Clever, Influitive, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Natera, Nutanix, Qubole: Lightspeed Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that engages in consumer, enterprise, technology, and cleantech markets.
Dylan Love
Director, Executive Talent of Lightspeed Venture Partners
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About Lightspeed Venture Partners: Lightspeed Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that engages in consumer, enterprise, technology, and cleantech markets.
Joe Hurd
Global Managing Director, Corporate Development of SOSV
Joe Hurd runs marketing, business development and corporate engagement efforts for HAX and IndieBio in San Francisco, working with key companies, investors, academics and startups to benefit SOSV’s portfolio. He also helps with SOSV’s San Francisco-based operations. Joe is also a Non-Executive Director of Goco Group plc, a London-listed financial services, utilities and home services comparison company. He is a Venture Partner with Good Growth Capital (female-led investment fund) and an advisor to numerous startups, including Pactio (paid social local journalism), RydeOn (in-cab media platform), and DynoVC (autonomous vehicle technology fund). A seasoned executive, Joe built his career leading strategic business development and sales teams at Facebook, Gannett, AOL/TimeWarner, Friendster and VideoEgg. Earlier, Joe served as a senior political appointee in the U.S. Commerce Department during President Obama’s first term (2009-2012), advising Secretaries of Commerce Locke and Bryson on international trade policy. Committed to public service, Joe is the Chairman of the Board at Bullis Charter School and a Director of the American Swiss Foundation. He is a current member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the American Bar Association, and the National Association of Corporate Directors. Joe grew up in Wellesley Hills, MA and graduated from Harvard Law School, Columbia University, and Harvard College. He currently lives in Los Altos, CA with his wife, daughter and two sons.
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About SOSV: SOSV is a global VC firm with $1B AUM and 1,000+ investments, that operates HAX, IndieBio, Chinaccelerator, MOX, and dlab.
Justin Appler
Director of Engineering, Applications of Crunchbase
Justin develops software mostly in JavaScript, often for the web, and sometimes in other languages. The challenges of building products that stand the test of time and effective software teams (from recruiting through to day-to-day engineering process) fascinate him.
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About Crunchbase: Crunchbase provides intelligent prospecting software powered by live company data.
Danielle Ben-Gera
Director of Data Engineering of Crunchbase
Danielle Ben-Gera has been serving as Director of Data Engineering at Crunchbase since September 2018.
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About Crunchbase: Crunchbase provides intelligent prospecting software powered by live company data.
Jishnu Bhattacharjee
Managing Director of Nexus Venture Partners
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About Nexus Venture Partners: Nexus Venture Partners is a venture capital firm established by ex-entrepreneurs in enterprise technology and consumer internet.
Abhishek Sharma
Managing Director of Nexus Venture Partners
Abhishek is passionate about partnering with mission-driven founders and helping them build transformational companies. He is excited about futuristic opportunities in enterprise software. His investments include Sibros, TileDB, AskNicely, Apollo, FingerprintJS, Daloopa, Imagen.ai, Mezi (acquired by American Express), and Clover Health (NASDAQ: CLOV). Abhishek was an entrepreneur and business builder prior to joining Nexus. He co-founded HelloIntern.com, a marketplace for internships. Most recently, he worked at eBay on partnerships with marketing technology startups. Previously, Abhishek worked at the management consulting firm Booz & Company, where he advised wide-ranging companies in the US, India, and the Middle-East. Abhishek holds Masters and Bachelors in Engineering from IIT Bombay and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was co-president of Harvard India Student Group (HISG) and co-chair of the Harvard India Conference.
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About Clover Health, Imagen Technologies, Nexus Venture Partners, Parsley Health, Quolum: Nexus Venture Partners is a venture capital firm established by ex-entrepreneurs in enterprise technology and consumer internet.
Ashley Cravens
Director Of Operations & Head of Platform of Uncork Capital
Ashley is the operational lynchpin of Uncork Capital. She was the firm’s first employee, and helped establish all of its processes and systems. Her contributions and responsibilities touch every aspect of the business. For starters: She manages corporate accounting, developed and maintains the firm’s internal deal flow management system, oversees legal documentation, plans all events and manages the Uncork Platform. She gets a thrill from discovering the most efficient way to get from A to B, but her most treasured role at Uncork is fostering relationships. Ashley loves bringing people together, as seen by the passion she brings to planning our quarterly cocktail hours, partner-hosted dinners, the annual summer party and the Uncork Capital Summit — a 2-day event in which founders of Uncork companies come together to exchange ideas and learn from one another. As Head of Platform, Ashley focuses on providing Uncork portfolio companies the connections and resources necessary to achieve their goals. She finds and vet’s service providers and experts for our founders and stops at nothing until she secures a discount for our portfolio. She connects founders to our broader community, whether that’s a law firm that can handle an IP battle, a venue that can seat 1,000 people in downtown San Francisco, a branding agency that can craft a differentiated, memorable identity, or a recruiting firm that can help a startup fill out its initial team. Prior to joining Uncork, Ashley spent more than a dozen years in the finance industry. She was a marketing director and registered insurance and securities assistant at Rosenbaum Financial in Portland Oregon. Previously she was a licensed broker at Morgan Stanley, where she managed accounts for two vice presidents and was a client relationship manager. She started her career at Smith Barney, where she conducted due diligence on mutual funds and became a specialist in client relations, running marketing campaigns, and special events for elite clients. Ashley graduated from the University of Oregon with a BS in business administration/marketing.
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About Uncork Capital: Uncork Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm that focuses on SaaS, consumer, marketplaces, hardware, and new technology startups.
Jason A. Kreuziger
Managing Director of Goldman Sachs
Jason Kreuziger is a member of the Growth Equity Investing Group within the Merchant Banking Division (MBD) at Goldman Sachs. He is responsible for leading the private equity investments of high-growth businesses in the Software, Business Services and Healthcare sectors in North America. Jason joined Goldman Sachs first in 2008 as a member of the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Investment Banking Group, and returned to Goldman Sachs in 2014. He now serves as a Managing Director in the Growth Equity Investment Group. Prior to re-joining the firm, Jason was a member of the private equity investment team at Summit Partners where he focused on investments in the communications technology and software sectors. Before that, he worked as an investment banker at the Royal Bank of Canada and as a management consultant at ZS Associates. Jason is a CFA charterholder, and holds both Series 7 and Series 79 securities licenses. Jason earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2008, and a BBA with honors degree in (i) Finance, Investment and Banking, and (ii) Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2002. Outside of work, Jason is an outdoors enthusiast, enjoying distance running, triathlons, hiking, cycling, snowboarding, skiing, and sailing. He also enjoys international travel and collecting local currency from countries he visits.
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About Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.
Joe Porter
Managing Director – Tech Investment Banking of Goldman Sachs
Joe Porter is a Managing Director – Tech Investment Banking at Goldman Sach. He was a managing director in the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) Group and the Merger & Acquisitions Group within the Investment Banking Division (IBD). Before moving to San Francisco and his current role, he worked in the Executive Office in New York City from 2012 to 2013 with the firm’s executive leadership to develop and execute strategic and client initiatives. Earlier in his career, Joe was a member of the Global Consumer Retail Group in IBD from 2007-2012 and a member of the PSI Group from 2005-2007. He joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst in 2005 and was named Managing Director in 2017 Joe earned a BS in Accounting from Brigham Young University in 2005.
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About Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.
Mark Midle
Managing Director of Goldman Sachs
Mark Midle joined Limelight’s Board of Directors in June 2015. Midle is a Vice President in Goldman, Sachs & Co.’s Merchant Banking Division, where he oversees investments in growth stage, technology-driven companies. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Midle spent over a decade investing in technology and technology-enabled services companies while at firms including Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group. Previously, Midle was a consultant at McKinsey & Co., and he began his career in Morgan Stanley & Co.’s Investment Banking Division. Midle has a B.A. from the University of North Carolina and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.
Mark Winkelman
Senior Director of Goldman Sachs
Mark is an independent Board member. Born in 1946, he is a citizen of the Netherlands and holds a Degree in Economics from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is a trustee and chairman of the Penn Medicine Board. He served as a Management Committee member of Goldman Sachs & Co. from 1988 to 1994, where he is now a Senior Director. Before joining Goldman Sachs & Co. in 1978, he served at the World Bank for four years as a senior investment officer.
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About Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.
Ryan Limaye
Managing Director, Co-head Global Technology Investment Banking of Goldman Sachs
Ryan Limaye is a Managing Director, Co-head Global Technology Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs.
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About Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.
John Goldstein
Managing Director of Goldman Sachs
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About Goldman Sachs, Imprint Capital: Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.
Samir Kaul
Founding Partner and Managing Director of Khosla Ventures
Samir is a founding partner and managing director at Khosla Ventures, where he focuses on health, sustainability, food, and advanced technology investments. Samir led the firm’s investments in Cadre, Guardant Health (NASDAQ: GH), Impossible Foods, Mojo Vision, NanoH2O (acquired by LG Chem), Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX), Oscar, Quantumscape, and Ultima, among others. Prior to co-founding Khosla Ventures, Samir spent five years at Flagship Ventures where he started and invested in early-stage biotechnology companies. While there, he was involved in co-founding Helicos BioSciences (IPO), a leader in developing single-molecule sequencing instruments to revolutionize personalized medicine, along with Stan Lapidus and Steve Quake of Stanford. Samir was also founding CEO of Codon Devices, where he raised their Series A financing, built the technical and advisory teams, and booked significant revenues in the company’s first year of operations. His other investments include Epitome (acquired by Millipore), LS9 (acquired by REG), and Morphotek (acquired by Eisai). Previously, Samir led the Arabidopsis Genome Initiative at Craig Venter’s Institute for Genomic Research. Under his direction, the project was completed early and cost-efficiently, culminating in a historic publication in the scientific journal Nature in December 2000. Samir is active in philanthropy and has been a longstanding member of the leadership committee of the Tipping Point Community. He is also a board member of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and on the Board of Trustees for the US Ski and Snowboard Association. In his spare time, Samir enjoys golf, skiing, tennis, meditation, reading, and traveling. He is an avid sports fan with undying loyalty to the Michigan Wolverines, Washington Redskins, and Boston Red Sox.
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About Ausra, Calera, Cogenra Solar, Khosla Ventures, Khosla Ventures, NanoH20, PRAJ Industries, Segetis, Stion, Transonic Combustion: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on environmentally friendly tech, internet, computing, mobile, and silicon tech.
David Weiden
Founding Partner & Managing Director of Khosla Ventures
David is a Founding Partner and Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, where he focuses on Internet software and services. A number of his investments have led to significant exits, including AppNexus (acquired by AT&T), Climate Corporation (acquired by Monsanto), Okta (NASDAQ: OKTA), RingCentral (NYSE: RNG) and Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST). David has also been recognized by Fortune and Forbes as one of the top technology investors. Prior to Khosla Ventures, David spent five years at Tellme Networks as VP of marketing and business development. Using the quantitative decision making framework, RIFLE, the company drove revenue to over $100 million, and was ultimately acquired by Microsoft for more than $700 million. Previously, he led AOL’s communications, community and instant messaging product divisions as they surpassed 50 million users worldwide. In 1995, after being told by his employer Morgan Stanley that email would never be used for business, David jumped at the chance to join Netscape, where he learned many lessons in product management. David’s career began in door to door sales, where one sales pitch led to his new career in technology via McCaw Cellular, now AT&T. David holds a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude with highest honors in organizational behavior and economics from Harvard University.
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About Khosla Ventures: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on environmentally friendly tech, internet, computing, mobile, and silicon tech.
Sven Strohband
Partner & Managing Director of Khosla Ventures
Sven is a Partner and Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, and led the firm’s investments in Berkshire Grey, GitLab, and Rocket Lab, among others. An engineer at heart, Sven is passionate about technologies that forge new industries and enable novel user experiences. Sven spent six years at Mohr Davidow Ventures where he led technical diligence for the infrastructure IT and sustainability practices. He also worked with the firm’s companies, recruiting technical talent, running product-market fit experiments and crafting fundraising strategies. Previously, Sven was a project manager for the Electronics Research Lab of Volkswagen, where he led technical projects for Volkswagen brands ranging from LED front lighting, electro chromic glass, and driver assistance systems and robotics. Sven also served as lead engineer and project lead for the Stanford racing team’s autonomous car, Stanley, which went on to win the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. Now on display at the Smithsonian Museum, Stanley became the foundation for the Google self-driving car project. He also co-founded AI company Metamind and served as CEO. Metamind is now part of Salesforce and a key component of Salesforce Einstein. Sven sits on the boards of numerous companies, including Berkshire Grey, Fulfil, Openwater, Rocket Lab, Velo3D, Vicarious, Voyage, and Uhnder. He holds a bachelor’s of science degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, as well as a Ph.D. in mechanics and computation from Stanford. In his spare time, Sven enjoys teaching his kids to code, flying autonomous drones and cycling.
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About Khosla Ventures: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on environmentally friendly tech, internet, computing, mobile, and silicon tech.
Peter Buckland
Partner, Managing Director, & COO of Khosla Ventures
Peter is a Partner, Managing Director and COO at Khosla Ventures. Peter has spent the last 20+ years advising founders and entrepreneurs through the full lifecycle of their companies. Prior to joining Khosla Ventures, Peter was a Partner at WilmerHale LLP, where he led the firm’s emerging growth technology practice and was responsible for building their West Coast corporate practice. During his time there, he grew the practice by 3X, completed hundreds of financing transactions and, mostly importantly, developed deep and long term relationships with amazing entrepreneurs and their teams. Peter holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of San Francisco. In his spare time, Peter enjoys spending time with his wife and three daughters, skiing, sailing, mountain biking and reading.
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About Khosla Ventures: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on environmentally friendly tech, internet, computing, mobile, and silicon tech.
Ted Maguire
Director, Executive Search of Khosla Ventures
Ted Maguire currently works as the Director, Executive Search for Khosla Ventures. He previously worked at Uber as the Executive Search.
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About Khosla Ventures: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on environmentally friendly tech, internet, computing, mobile, and silicon tech.
Avisha Mehra
Director, Executive Talent of Khosla Ventures
Avisha Mehra currently works as the Director in Executive Talent for Khosla Ventures.
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About Khosla Ventures: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on environmentally friendly tech, internet, computing, mobile, and silicon tech.
Eric Ward
Creative Director of NFX
Born and raised in Lake Tahoe, Eric developed a sense of adventure at an early age. He quickly moved into a creative mindset and followed his passion of filmmaking to Chapman University’s acclaimed Dodge College of Film & Media Arts. He created commercials and creative visuals for multiple tech companies during his collegiate years that generated a high density network in Silicon Valley, leading him to relocate to San Francisco after graduation. Eric’s mission at NFX is to innovate content surrounding the venture capital industry by utilizing high quality film production, design, and animation through a creative approach to strengthen our brand, team, and audience.
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About NFX: NFX operates as a pre-seed and seed stage VC that is transforming how true innovators are funded.
Harris Barton
Founder & Managing Director of H. Barton Asset Management
Harris Barton As the founder and managing director of H. Barton Asset Management, Harris Barton actively manages a $30 million fund that specializes in providing investment capital to up-and-coming VC-backed technology startups. Prior to H. Barton Asset Management, Mr. Barton was a founding partner of HRJ Capital, an investment firm specializing in private equity funds. Mr. Barton became a private equity investor during his football career, where as an All-Pro offensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers he earned three Super Bowl wins. Today, he brings the same passion, dedication and teamwork to both his financial and philanthropic endeavors. In 2004, Mr. Barton founded Champion Charities with his friend and former NFL teammate Ronnie Lott. Dedicated to eradicating brain cancer and helping those afflicted with the disease, the charity has raised more than $7 million for research and patient care. Embracing his mantra of “always give back,” Mr. Barton also focuses his energy on helping and inspiring disadvantaged youth through motivational speeches, volunteer programs and fundraising events. Mr. Barton holds a BA in Finance from the University of North Carolina.
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About H. Barton Asset Management, H. Barton Co-Invest Fund: H. Barton Asset Management is a VC firm specializing in start-ups and early stage investments.
Dawn Timan
Senior Tax Director / Chief Compliance Officer of Norwest Venture Partners
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About Norwest Venture Partners: Norwest is a global venture capital and growth equity investment firm that specializes in venture and growth equity companies.
Daniel Friedland
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Goldcrest Capital
Daniel Friedland is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Goldcrest Capital.
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About Goldcrest Capital: Goldcrest is a venture capital fund that invests in private technology companies.
Ashkan Marsh
Partner & Director of Research of Cota Capital
Ashkan Marsh joined Cota in 2019 as a Principal, where he focuses on sourcing, evaluating, and monitoring of public investments. Prior to Cota, Ashkan was an Investment Partner at Crimson Investment Partners making private equity investments in founder-led companies to accelerate growth through digital transformation and corporate processes. Prior to CIP, Ashkan was a public equity Investment Analyst at Newbrook Capital, a $1+ billion long/short equity fund. Previously, Ashkan was an Investment Analyst and Investment Associate at Goldman Sachs in private equity at the firm’s Special Situations Group, a $25 billion proprietary investment fund. Ashkan was Founder and CEO of SilverIP Communications, which became the leading gigabit internet service provider in Illinois and exited to private equity. Ashkan received a B.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a graduate of Harvard Business School.
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About Cota Capital: Cota Capital is an SEC-registered multi-stage investment firm focused on private and public enterprise technology companies.
Anthony Schiller
Co-Founder and Co-Managing Director of Green Bay Ventures
Led venture investments in Dropbox, Lyft, Spotify, DocuSign, MuleSoft and Xiaomi. Early investor with Kramlich in the world’s largest private nuclear fusion company, Tri Alpha Energy.
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About Green Bay Ventures: Green Bay Ventures (GBV) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm backed by some of the world’s most prominent families.
Richard Kramlich
Co-Founder and Co-Managing Director of Green Bay Ventures
Dick Kramlich began his venture career in 1969 as a General Partner with Arthur Rock and Co. after nine years in general management as Manager of Financial Planning at the Kroger Co. and Investment Management as Executive Vice President at Gardner & Preston Moss Company in Boston. Since co-founding NEA in 1978, he has been involved in eight companies that have grown from start-up or near start-up stage to companies with market value in excess of $1 billion, including Juniper Networks, Ascend Communications (acquired by Lucent), ImmuneX (acquired by Amgen), Macromedia (acquired by Adobe), and Dallas Semiconductor (acquired by Maxim Integrated products). Dick was the first investor to invest in the Ethernet at 3Com with Bob Metcalfe and an early investor with John Simpson in balloon angioplasty at Advanced Cardiovascular Systems (acquired by Eli Lilly) as well as Forethought (acquired by Microsoft), the company that originated PowerPoint. Dick continues to work with start-ups such as Financial Engines, Force10 Networks, MaxiScale, Tabula, Visual Edge, Xoom, and Zhone. He recently joined the board of CITIC Pharmaceuticals in China and is also a director of Silicon Valley Bank. Dick has received four Lifetime Achievement Awards including awards from the National Venture Capital Association (he served as Chairman and President from 1992-93), the University of California- Haas School of Business, the Silicon Valley Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Program, and the Red Herring Magazine Award. He received an MBA from Harvard University and a BS in History from Northwestern University. Dick and his wife, Pamela, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2006. They are noted collectors of Media Art and founded the New Art Trust to foster best practices in the field in 1997. They have four adult offspring and five grandchildren; they enjoy hiking, traveling, tennis and swimming and are currently residing in Shanghai, China where Dick is assisting NEA’s China practice.
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About Green Bay Ventures: Green Bay Ventures (GBV) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm backed by some of the world’s most prominent families.
Ashley Mitchell
Director of Marketing of New Enterprise Associates
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About New Enterprise Associates: New Enterprise Associates is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare.
Shanna Hendriks
Director, Portfolio Services – Business Development of New Enterprise Associates
Shanna joined NEA as a Director, Portfolio Services – Business Development in 2014. She focuses on communications and marketing support for the portfolio which includes supporting the PR needs of early-stage companies, acting as a resource to later-stage companies, and developing educational programs and events at NEA for portfolio companies of all levels of growth. She also supports the portfolio through business development and executive briefings. Shanna brings more than eight years of PR agency work at some of the leading PR agencies in the Bay Area to her role with NEA. She was one of the first hires at LaunchSquad where she learned the ropes of emerging tech PR. She then worked with a boutique firm where she represented some of the most well-known winter sport brands doing consumer PR. Realizing that she missed crafting the story that has become so important for technology companies, she went on to join Hill & Knowlton’s tech practice working with Fortune 500 companies such as Qualcomm, HP, and Yahoo!. Shanna then transitioned in-house to communications at Shutterfly working on corporate communications and the company’s photobooks and share site products. In 2012, Shanna joined Tesla Motors where she among other things, launched Model S, the Supercharger network, and provided comms support to the company’s retail rollout. Shanna moved to the Bay Area from Canada in 2004. Prior to that move, Shanna worked in PR at Ottawa’s famous Fairmont Chateau Laurier. She attended Algonquin College for Public Relations in Ottawa, Ontario.
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About New Enterprise Associates: New Enterprise Associates is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare.
Miriam Rivera
CEO, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Ulu Ventures
Miriam co-founded Ulu Ventures, where she is the Managing Partner. Ulu is an early stage angel fund focused on IT investments and has made 30 investments in the last three years. She is also the co-founder and co-president of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs.
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About Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs, Ulu Ventures: Ulu Ventures provides early-stage investments to enterprise cloud and smart data companies.
Clint Korver
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Ulu Ventures
Clint is a co-founding partner at Ulu Ventures where his investment interests include technology-enabled services, educational technology, and companies that turn data into actionable information. Along with Miriam, Clint is the co-founder and co-president of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs a Stanford University alumni organization helping to build and connect Stanford’s entrepreneurial community. Prior to becoming a full-time investor, he co-founded and led four companies including Outcome Software, where he raised $10 million in venture capital to build web-based decision tools for large enterprises and was granted multiple patents in web-based decision analytics. He also co-founded Decision Quality International which trained over 1000 Fortune 500 executives in the principles of decision quality, licensed decision training programs to over 10,000 end users, and consulted to six of the largest financial institutions in the US. He also co-founded and led the consumer internet company, DecisionStreet and the analytics consulting firm, The Decision Company. Clint has a passion for teaching and regularly guest lectures at Stanford on entrepreneurship, decision-making, and ethics. He has taught courses in ethical decision-making at both Stanford and Grinnell College, and co-authored Ethics for the Real World (Harvard Business Press 2008) with Stanford professor Ron Howard. Clint is a Kauffman Fellow and Venture Partner at Crescendo Ventures and an advisory board member at the Decision Education Foundation. He holds a PhD and MS degree from Stanford University in Management Science and Engineering with an emphasis in decision analysis and a BA with honors in mathematics from Grinnell College where he currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees.
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About Ulu Ventures: Ulu Ventures provides early-stage investments to enterprise cloud and smart data companies.
Philipp Stauffer
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Fyrfly Venture Partners
Philipp Stauffer is a co-founder and managing director at Fyrfly Venture Partners.
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About Containn, Fyrfly Venture Partners, Gmelius, rready: Fyrfly Venture Partners is a venture capital firm with a focus on data and intelligence.
Esther Tricoche
Director of Investments of Kapor Capital
Esther Tricoche is an Associate Partner on NewSchools’ Tools & Services team. Prior to joining NewSchools Venture Fund, Esther was a founding team member, Program Manager and Acting Vice President at the Laura & John Arnold Foundation, where she led the Foundation’s education team and directed over $130 million in grants to sustainable, scalable, and transformative initiatives in K-12 Public Education. Prior to that, Esther worked as a policy researcher for a Fortune 500 company focusing on international human rights and corporate sustainable development. She also served as a cultural affairs policy researcher through a partnership with the Houston Mayor’s Office and is a former member of a Rice University research team that focused on memory and cognition in relation to learning. As an inaugural Pahara Institute NextGen Fellow, Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans National Scholar, and community volunteer, Esther brings deep passion to the NewSchools Venture Fund to transform the United States’ public education system. Esther holds a degree in Cognitive Science from Rice University, with a concentration in Neuroscience.
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About Kapor Capital, National Immigration Forum: Kapor Capital is an investment firm that invests in early-stage tech-enabled startups.
Cliff Worley
Senior Director of Portfolio Growth Marketing of Kapor Capital
Cliff Worley, Chief Digital Officer at Shark Branding, a branding consultancy firm created by renowned mogul Daymond John, the CEO and Founder of FUBU and TV personality on ABC’s business reality show, Shark Tank. In his first year at Shark Branding, Cliff launched the Daymond John Academy and built the entire CRM platform for the consultancy from the ground up. Cliff currently manages various Shark Tank projects, as well as Daymond’s two leading educational projects: The Daymond John Center For Entrepreneurship and The Daymond John Academy. Cliff especially enjoys consulting and helping small businesses and entrepreneurs find success in their personal and professional endeavors.
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About Kapor Capital: Kapor Capital is an investment firm that invests in early-stage tech-enabled startups.
Tiffany Foo
Senior Director of Talent of Kapor Capital
Tiffany Foo currently works as the Senior Director of Talent for Kapor Capital. She previously worked at Mindful Life as the Director of Culture and Team Experience.
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About Kapor Capital: Kapor Capital is an investment firm that invests in early-stage tech-enabled startups.
Shawn Dralle
Executive Director of UBS
Shawn Dralle joined UBS Financial Services Inc. in January 2018 as an Executive Director, based in Los Angeles. In her 25 year career in public finance, she has provided a wide range of investment banking services to state and local governments in multiple sectors throughout California and the Southwest. She has also served as an executive in state government. Prior to joining UBS, Ms. Dralle was with J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets. Ms. Dralle received a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from Marycrest College in Davenport, Iowa, and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Arizona State University.
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About UBS: UBS is a global financial services company that engages in the provision of financial management solutions.
Andrew Nakahata
Managing Director and Regional Head of Public Finance West Region of UBS
Andy Nakahata is a Managing Director and Regional Head of Public Finance, West Region for UBS Financial Services Inc. Andy has 25 years of public finance experience across several firms and roles in the municipal bond industry. Andy has assisted clients in executing a range of financing products and structures – fixed rate bonds, floating rate bonds, current interest and capital appreciation bonds, floating rate bonds, TRANs, BANs and commercial paper. Andy has worked across a wide variety of credits as his clients have included state and local governments, higher education institutions, healthcare institutions, public utilities and 501(c)3 organizations. Andy serves on the Board of Directors of Asian Americans in Public Finance and the Marin Country Day School. He holds a master’s degree in public and private management (MPPM) from the Yale School of Management and a B.A. degree from Wesleyan University.
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About UBS: UBS is a global financial services company that engages in the provision of financial management solutions.
Managing Director of Mayfield Fund
Navin Chaddha is the Board Of Directors of HashiCorp.
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About Balbix, HashiCorp, Mayfield Fund, Nuvia, Poshmark, SecuritAi, WorkSpan: Mayfield is a global VC firm focusing on inception and early-stage investing in enterprise, consumer, and engineering biology companies.
Fred Cohen
Co-Founder & Sr. Managing Director of Vida Ventures
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About Vida Ventures: Vida Ventures is a next-generation life sciences investment firm .
Daniel Docter
Managing Director of Dell Technologies Capital
Daniel Docter is Managing Director at Dell Technologies Capital, where he leads investments for Pivotal, Virtustream, and the Dell-EMC Enterprise Hybrid and Cloud Native Solutions Group. Daniel’s responsibilities include sourcing, leading and managing investments in AI and ML/DL, big/fast data and data analytics, cloud management and orchestration, CI/CD, and serverless architecture. Prior to joining Dell Technologies, Daniel was Director at Intel Capital where he led investment initiatives in Cloud (Open Data Center), Software Defined Networking, Data Center Services, and High Performance Computing. His investments covered services, infrastructure, management software, compute and storage systems, and ICs and include Switch SuperNap, Tier 3 (acquired by CenturyLink), Passave (acquired by PMCS), E2O Communications (acquired by JDSU), Cyoptics (acquired by Avago), Stratalight Communications (acquired by Opnext), Cortina Systems (acquired by InPhi), Overture Networks (acquired by Adva), Fulcrum Microsystems (acquired by Intel), Adaptivity (acquired by EMC), Virident (acquired by Western Digital), and Aspeed (IPO on Taiwan Stock Exchange). Dan also played a key role in several Intel acquisitions, including Fulcrum, New Focus tunable laser group, Stratos LW transceiver group) and the sale of the Optical Products Group to Emcore. Before Intel Capital, Daniel was with Merrill Lynch as an adviser for technology company clients involved in IPOs and M&A transactions. Before Merrill Lynch, Daniel spent 11 years at AT&T Bell Labs and Hughes Research Labs working on optical and RF communications applications. He has more than 50 journal publications and 10 patents. Daniel holds a PhD from the University of Bradford, United Kingdom and a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota. He is based in Palo Alto, California. Daniel represents Dell Technologies Capital on the board of directors of the following companies: BlueData, MongoDB, Cloud66, Packet Host, GraphCore, Redis Labs, Iguazio Systems, and Striim.
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About Dell Technologies Capital: Dell Technologies Capital is a VC arm of Dell Technologies that invests in enterprise and cloud infrastructure.
Deepak Jeevankumar
Managing Director of Dell Technologies Capital
Deepak JeevanKumar is Managing Director at Dell Technologies Capital, where he has investments in cybersecurity. Deepak’s responsibilities include sourcing, leading and managing investments across a wide-spectrum of security technologies and solutions. Prior to joining Dell Technologies, Deepak spent nearly 7 years at General Catalyst where he helped build the firm‘s west-coast presence and was closely involved in Push Computing (acquired by MobileIron), Altiscale (acquired by SAP), Illumio, Menlo Security, Anomali (FKA ThreatStream), Minio and RiskRecon investments. Deepak is a supercomputer designer turned venture capitalist, with 15 years of technology and investment experience. He gained his engineering expertise at Sun Microsystems where he started as a sales engineer and ended-up as a lead supercomputing architect. He was also an intern at the Yale Investments Office. He holds a B. Eng. from the National University of Singapore, an S.M. from the Singapore-MIT Alliance and an MBA from Yale School of Management. Deepak is based in Palo Alto, California.
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About Dell Technologies Capital: Dell Technologies Capital is a VC arm of Dell Technologies that invests in enterprise and cloud infrastructure.
Raman Khanna
Managing Director of Dell Technologies Capital
Raman Khanna is The Managing Director, Dell Technologies Capital.
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About Dell Technologies Capital, Onset: Dell Technologies Capital is a VC arm of Dell Technologies that invests in enterprise and cloud infrastructure.
Tyler Jewell
Managing Director of Dell Technologies Capital
Tyler is Managing Director at Dell Technologies Capital. He previously founded Codenvy and was a partner with Toba Capital managing investments in middleware and application development. He sits on the board of WSO2, Sauce Labs, ShiftMobility and eXo Platform. He has investments in ZeroTurnaround, InfoQ, SourceGraph, and AppHarbor and is an advisor for SD Elements. He is the author of three books on Java, including OReilly’s Java Web Services.
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About Dell Technologies Capital: Dell Technologies Capital is a VC arm of Dell Technologies that invests in enterprise and cloud infrastructure.
Don Butler
Managing Director of Thomvest Ventures
Don’s 20 year career spans a variety of roles with emerging growth technology companies. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Apsalar, Avalanche, Axcient, Kabbage, Milyoni, Netbase, Vungle, and YottaMark. Don’s past investments have included FlashSoft (acquired by SanDisk), GuardianEdge (acquired by Symantec), and Okena (acquired by Cisco). Before joining Thomvest, Don led the Asian business development efforts for several start-up companies in the software and networking industries as part of his work with Asia Pacific Ventures. Previously, Don was an Analyst with Lehman Brothers, where he worked with clients in the software and semiconductor industries. Don received a B.A. in Chinese from UCLA and M.A.s in both East Asian Studies and Political Science from Stanford.
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About Thomvest Ventures: Thomvest Ventures provides companies with cross-stage venture capital fund.
Kittu Kolluri
Co-founder and Managing Director of Neotribe Ventures
Kittu Kolluri is the Co-Founder and Managing Director at Neotribe Ventures.
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About Neotribe Ventures: Neotribe Ventures is an early stage-venture capital firm which invests in breakthrough technologies that stretch the imagination.
Aditya Singh
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Neotribe Ventures
Adit is a hands-on early stage company builder having helped build three startups with an operating career spanning 15 years before entering venture capital. From 2013 to 2017, he led the b2b/enterprise practice at Foundation Capital as a Partner investing across the stack from enterprise applications, cloud infrastructure, analytics and cybersecurity. Adit graduated from University of Illinois (BS/MS in Computer Engineering) and from the University of Chicago (MBA). He started his career as an engineer at Growth Networks (a NEA/Lightspeed company) which was acquired by Cisco for $355m. At Cisco, he led the datacenter infrastructure team as a senior technical leader and delivered several products (converged servers, switches and edge routers) for data center infrastructure. He co-founded a networking appliance company, Bitsplay Systems that streamed video from data centers, out of the EIR program at Foundation Capital. In 2008, he joined Enphase Energy (networked solar microinverters), a Series A startup as their first product manager through IPO on the NASDAQ in 2012. When Enphase went public, Adit was Senior Director of Product Management and responsible for the main microinverter business. He is extremely connected in the the deeply technical circles of silicon valley and has the reputation of building companies from the bottom up by working hand in hand with founders.
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About Bloomreach, Cockroach Labs, Neotribe Ventures, Phantom: Neotribe Ventures is an early stage-venture capital firm which invests in breakthrough technologies that stretch the imagination.
Simon Wu
Investment Director of Cathay Innovation
Simon Wu is an Investment Director at Cathay Innovation, a global venture capital firm investing across North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Based in San Francisco, he focuses on software, fintech, and consumer investments. Prior to joining Cathay Innovation, Simon spent almost four years at VMware in the Strategy & Corporate Development team which was responsible for leading acquisitions, investments, and strategy. As a Manager, he was involved in numerous transactions focusing on a number of enterprise software sectors. Before joining VMware, he was at UBS in the investment banking division as part of the technology, media, and telecommunications group. During his time at UBS, Simon advised on equity and debt capital raises, corporate strategy, and M&A for companies in the technology sector. Simon holds both a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. in Operations Research and Management Science from University of California, Berkeley.
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About Cathay Innovation: Cathay Innovation is a global multi-stage venture capital firm investing in startups impacting the world.
Tom Dare
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Science
Tom has over 20 years of experience building and managing Internet companies through startup, growth, funding, and exit stages. Tom is the co-founder and managing director of Science, Science Ventures Fund II, and Science Partners, a Santa Monica based incubator, accelerator, and funder of early stage companies. Science manages an active roster of pre-Seed and funded companies, and has multiple incubated company exits including Dollar Shave Club (sold to Unilever), Hello Society (sold to NY Times Co), and Famebit (sold to Google). Prior to Science, Tom served as the VP of Business Intelligence for Myspace, responsible for user engagement and monetization analytics for +100 million monthly users, and participated in the business unit divestiture. Prior to joining MySpace, Tom was the co-founder, CFO, and COO of Tsavo Media (exit to CyberPlex, Toronto:CX.TO) an online publishing network of over 400 owned and operated sites. Tom spent four years with Spark Networks (AMEX:LOV), an online personals and social networking provider, in charge of strategic development. Prior to Spark, Tom was part of the founding management team at Move (NASDAQ:MOVE), an online real estate listing service serving consumers and brokers. Tom’s career in online media started with The Los Angeles Times (Tribune Company) where he developed online classified businesses and partnerships within the newspaper industry. Tom received his Bachelor of Science from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, and an MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
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About Science: Science partners with founders to develop and fund disruptive tech-based companies.
Greg Gilman
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Science
Greg Gilman has over 15 years experience as an executive, entrepreneur, investor and attorney. Immediately prior to co-founding Science, he was the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of RxVantage, the leading online practice platform connecting pharmaceutical and medical vendors with healthcare professionals. Prior to RxVantage, Greg was a Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology Law at Pepperdine University School of Law, where he designed and taught courses in Intellectual Property Law and Licensing. Prior to joining the full-time faculty, he practiced law at Gilman/McFadden LLP in Los Angeles, CA, where he was head of the Entertainment, Intellectual Property, and Business Transactions practices. Greg has represented a number of recording artists, producers, independent record labels, songwriters, screenwriters, and directors, including Billboard, Grammy, Cleo and Tony award winners. He served as corporate counsel for Userplane, and represented the founders of the company during the acquisition by AOL. Additionally, he has represented numerous leading technology businesses, both nationally and internationally, and has consulted for businesses across all stages of development – from startup to public- among them World Poker Tour Enterprises (WPTE). Greg has also served as advisor or director of numerous venture-backed companies, including Hello Society, DocStoc, Music180, Tsavo, and FunBits Interactive. He currently serves on the board of directors of a myriad of companies including Ellie Fashion Group, Playhaven, ReFame and Delicious. He is licensed to practice before all California state courts, as well as the United States Federal District Court for the Central and Southern Districts of California. He was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States in 2004. Greg earned his JD from the University of Southern California Law School, where he was a member of the prestigious Southern California Law Review, and earned his BA from Tufts University.
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About Science: Science partners with founders to develop and fund disruptive tech-based companies.
Peter Pham
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Science
Peter Pham is the co-founder and Managing Director of Science an incubator where they co-build these companies with founders in Santa Monica, CA as well as a $76M fund. They were behind Dollar Shave Club ($1B exit to Unilever), DogVacay (merged w/ Rover) & currently 3 of the top 100 apps in iOS app store (Wishbone, Yarn, Arena). The companies they’ve built has had over $700M in follow on financing with additional acquisitions from NY Times & Google. As an operator, Peter was on the founding team of Photobucket which become the largest photo sharing site in 2007, exiting to Myspace for $300M. Repeating that success he did it again as co-founder & CEO of BillShrink which was acquired by Mastercard for $60M. He has been an angel investor in companies like Kabam (Acquired $1/B) Ustream (Acquired $130M) , Ring (Acquired >$1B) & Nextdoor and more recently invested thru Science in companies like Medium, Wealthfront, & Bird.
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About Science, Science Blockchain: Science partners with founders to develop and fund disruptive tech-based companies.
Michael Jones
Co-Founder, CEO & Managing Director of Science
Mike Jones is an internet executive, investor, and strategic advisor. A long-time entrepreneur, Mike founded his first successful company in college and since then has founded, built, and sold numerous online and mobile businesses. As the co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Science, Inc., Mike brings together the best talent, resources, and financing through a centralized platform to build and invest in technology businesses. In 2016 alone, three of Science’s portfolio companies saw big exits — HelloSociety was acquired by The New York Times, Dollar Shave Club was acquired by Unilever, and FameBit was acquired by Google. His experience and expertise in both large and small companies focuses on strategy, growth, and operational efficiency, resulting in over $2.6B in successful investor outcomes. Prior to Science, Mike Jones served as the CEO of Myspace. In this role, Mike oversaw global business strategy and operations for Myspace, Myspace Music, and Myspace Mobile, which included board and strategic roles with joint venture partners in Myspace China and Myspace Japan / Softbank. During his tenure, he was responsible for the relaunch of Myspace, one of the most high-profile turn-around challenges in the industry
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About Science: Science partners with founders to develop and fund disruptive tech-based companies.
James Hicks
Managing Director of Science
James is the Managing Director, Science Incubation. He has pulled 12 plus years of experience working with startups and growth sector businesses serving as co-founder and managing over 10 businessess across e-commerce, marketplaces and mobile in the last four years that have raised over $60m from top-ties VCs. James is a former investment banker who managed over 30 IPOs for technology, consumer and health care companies.
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About Science: Science partners with founders to develop and fund disruptive tech-based companies.
Mark Mullen
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Bonfire Ventures
Mark Mullen has added 20 years of investment banking experience and relationships in investing and raising capital. He launched his second fund in early 2012, Double M Partners LP. The fund currently has 14 investments as of December 31, 2012. The fund focuses on early stage investments in Southern Cal.
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About Bonfire Ventures, Double M Partners: Bonfire Ventures leads Seed rounds for talented founders building the next generation of software giants.
Brett Queener
Partner & Managing Director of Bonfire Ventures
Brett is a Partner at Bonfire Ventures. His entire career has been focused on growing software companies — fast. From 2013-2016, Brett served as COO at SmartRecruiters, where he partnered with the founder to work through the ‘hard things about hard things” and converted a pre-revenue company into the fastest growing and highest rated enterprise player in the recruiting technology space. Prior to SmartRecruiters, Brett spent a decade at Salesforce.com where he served in a variety of senior leadership roles in Sales, R&D, and Operations focused on driving the company growth and expansion across market segments and product categories. Select titles held at Salesforce included VP of Field Operations, SVP Operations, SVP Products, EVP/GM of Data Cloud, and EVP/GM of Marketing Cloud. Prior to Salesforce.com, Brett held senior marketing and business development at Siebel Systems (acquired by Oracle). Brett is an active seed investor and advisor to numerous software entrepreneurs and serves on the board of SmartRecruiters, Pendo, Lytics, Invoca, ClearedIn, SpekIt, and Aforza. Other angel investments include MOAT (acquired by Oracle for $850mm), Guru, Outreach, Postie and Trackstreet. Brett has a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard University.
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About Bonfire Ventures: Bonfire Ventures leads Seed rounds for talented founders building the next generation of software giants.
Jim Andelman
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Bonfire Ventures
Jim is co-founder and Managing Director of Bonfire Ventures and Rincon Venture Partners. In this capacity, he is responsible for driving the firms’ investment activities, as well as the firm’s operations. Jim is in his sixteenth year as a VC. Previously, Jim led software investing at Broadview Capital Partners, a $250 million expansion-stage venture capital firm based in the Bay Area. Before BCP, Jim was a member of the Technology Investment Banking Group at Alex. Brown & Sons (and its successor, Deutsche Bank Securities). There, he concentrated on equity private placements and initial public offerings for software companies. Jim began his career with Symmetrix, a boutique management consulting firm founded by a Bain & Co. founder, which helped to create strategic advantage through the application of technology. At Symmetrix, Jim specialized in strategy formulation and economic modeling. Jim received his MBA with highest distinction (first in his class) from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College, and his BS in Economics (magna cum laude) from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Jim serves on the Boards of Directors of Campus Explorer, Conversion Logic, Keen IO, Mobcrush, Rentlytics, Rainforest QA, Steelhouse, TaxJar and Tradesy. He previously served on the Boards of Cadforce (acquired by Neilsoft), Packet Island (acquired by BroadSoft), Burstly (acquired by Apple), DataPop (acquired by Criteo), and Shift (acquired by Brand Networks). In addition, he serves on the Boards of Directors of Friends of Yosemite Search and Rescue and the Los Angeles Venture Association, on the Advisory Board of the Douglas Family Preserve.
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About Bonfire Ventures, Rincon Venture Partners: Bonfire Ventures leads Seed rounds for talented founders building the next generation of software giants.
William McGlashan
Managing Director of TPG Growth
Bill is a founding Partner of TPG Growth, the growth equity and smaller buyout investment platform of TPG, the global private investment firm. With more than $2 billion under management, TPG Growth targets investments in technology, life sciences, renewables and consumer companies utilizing growth equity, public equity and leveraged buyout structures. Prior to joining TPG in 2004, Bill was the Chairman and CEO of Critical Path (NASDAQ: CPTH). He joined Critical Path in April of 2001 to undertake a major financial and operational restructuring of the company. Previously, he co-founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of Vectis Group, a venture corporation that capitalized and built companies in emerging markets, in partnership with leading U.S. technology businesses. Bill also co-founded and served as President of Pharmanex Inc., a leading phyto-pharmaceutical and dietary supplement company with annual sales of approximately $500 million in 20 countries and significant operations in the People’s Republic of China. The company was sold to NSE (NYSE: NUS) in 1999. Prior to Pharmanex, he was a senior associate with Bain Capital and Information Partners. Bill earned a BA with honors from Yale University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Young Presidents’ Organization in the San Francisco Barbary Coast chapter, and serves on the Advisory Council for the Yale School of Management as well as the Boards of XOJet, David’s Bridal, AgraQuest, SuccessFactors, Elevance, the Bay Area Discovery Museum and Backroads.
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About TPG Growth: TPG Growth specializes in growth equity and middle-market buyout opportunities.
Fred Paulenich
Partner, Managing Director -Human Capital Partner of TPG Growth
Mr. Paulenich is a Human Capital Partner based in San Francisco. He is responsible for actively leading a highly collaborative process with the investment and operating professionals and the portfolio companies to help evaluate, build and improve the key human capital elements required for profitable growth. Prior to TPG, he was Senior Vice President, Human Resources for Walmart’s high growth, $10B global eCommerce business. He was one of the original and key leaders involved in architecting this business unit which develops strategies, platforms and applications that combine the latest in online innovation with physical stores to create a unique, seamless shopping experience for customers. He also served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources for Levi Strauss & Co., a leading global apparel company with over $4B in sales in more than 110 countries. He was an integral part of the leadership team credited with restoring the company’s financial strength, restructuring its competitiveness across all business dimensions and revitalizing the brand around the world. He began his career at PepsiCo where he held a series of increasingly senior human resources positions over 15 years, culminating in his assignment as Vice President, Human Resources for Pepsi-Cola North America. In that role, he led a complete redefinition and integration of the go-to-market process and organizational structure post the spin off and IPO of the company-owned bottling operations.
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About TPG Growth: TPG Growth specializes in growth equity and middle-market buyout opportunities.
