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 Managing Director operating in the Finance space. If you think a Managing 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.
Michael Seibel
Managing Director and Partner of Y Combinator
Michael Seibel is a Partner at YC and CEO of YC’s startup accelerator. He was the cofounder and CEO Justin.tv and Socialcam. Socialcam sold to Autodesk in 2012 and under the leadership of Emmett Shear, Justin.tv became Twitch.tv and sold to Amazon in 2014. Before getting into startups, he spent a year as the finance director for a US Senate campaign and in 2005, Michael graduated from Yale University with a BA in political science.
Follow Michael Seibel:
About Y Combinator: Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a wide range of startups twice a year.
Dalton Caldwell
Partner and Managing Director of Y Combinator
Dalton Caldwell is a Partner and the Head of Admissions at Y Combinator. He was the cofounder and CEO of imeem (acquired by MySpace in 2009), and the cofounder and CEO of App.net. He has a BS in Symbolic Systems and a BA in Psychology from Stanford University.
Follow Dalton Caldwell:
About Mixed Media Labs, Y Combinator: Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a wide range of startups twice a year.
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.
Follow Rahul Kishore:
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.
Follow Thomas Laffont:
About Coatue: Coatue invests in public and private equity markets focusing on the technology, media, and telecommunications industries.
Jeff Chung
Managing Director of AME Cloud Ventures
Follow Jeff Chung:
About AME Cloud Ventures: AME Cloud Ventures invests in seed to later-stage tech companies that build infrastructure and value chains around data.
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.
Follow Ali Rowghani:
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.
Follow Ravi Mhatre:
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.
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.
Follow Joe Hurd:
About SOSV: SOSV is a global VC firm with $1B AUM and 1,000+ investments, that operates HAX, IndieBio, Chinaccelerator, MOX, and dlab.
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.
Follow Jason A. Kreuziger:
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.
Follow Joe Porter:
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.
Follow Mark Midle:
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.
Follow Ryan Limaye:
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
Follow John Goldstein:
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.
Follow Samir Kaul:
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.
Follow David Weiden:
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.
Follow Sven Strohband:
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.
Follow Peter Buckland:
About Khosla Ventures: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on environmentally friendly tech, internet, computing, mobile, and silicon tech.
Brian Dunlap
Managing Director of Blackstone Group
Brian Dunlap is the Sector Lead for Technology, Media & Telecommunications for The Rise Fund and is based in San Francisco. Prior to joining TPG, Brian worked at General Atlantic and JMI Equity, where he led investments in enterprise software / SaaS, consumer internet, financial technology and financial services in the U.S. and Latin America. Brian received a B.A., and M.A. from Stanford University, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Brian speaks Spanish and Portuguese and serves on the Boards of Directors at EverFi, HotSchedules, Noodle AI, and Resultados Digitais.
Follow Brian Dunlap:
About Blackstone Group: Blackstone is an investment and advisory firm providing financial solutions for investors and clients.
Paul Morrissey
Managing Director of Blackstone Group
Paul joined Battery as an Associate and focuses on later stage investments, including growth equity, buyouts, rollups, PIPES and take-privates. Prior to Battery, Paul spent time with Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division focusing on the technology, media & telecom sectors. While Paul was at Goldman, he worked on a variety of debt and equity financings, M&A transactions and strategic advisory assignments. Paul graduated from Stanford University, where he earned a BS in Economics.
Follow Paul Morrissey:
About Battery Ventures, Battery Ventures, Blackstone Group: Blackstone is an investment and advisory firm providing financial solutions for investors and clients.
Kelley Morrell
Managing Director of Blackstone Group
Kelley Morrell is Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. She is responsible for leading the evaluation and execution of a wide range of strategic initiatives, including large-scale strategic mergers and acquisitions, as well as for partnering with senior leaders across the organization to develop the Company’s strategy and execute its strategic priorities.
Follow Kelley Morrell:
About Blackstone Group, CIT Group: Blackstone is an investment and advisory firm providing financial solutions for investors and clients.
Ivan Brockman
Senior Managing Director of Blackstone Group
Follow Ivan Brockman:
About Blackstone Group, FIGS: Blackstone is an investment and advisory firm providing financial solutions for investors and clients.
Steven Mayer
Senior Managing Director and Co-Head of Global Private Equity of Cerberus Capital Management
Steven Mayer is Senior Managing Director, Co-Head of Global Private Equity, and Chairman of the Investment Committee of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. Steven Mayer is the managing director of Cerberus California, LLC and predecessor entities since November 2002. Likewise, Steven Mayer is a member of the boards of directors of BlueLinx Holdings, Inc., Starrus Holdings Limited, TransCentra Inc. and YP Holdings LLC. Steven Mayer received his AB, cum laude, from Princeton University and his JD, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
Follow Steven Mayer:
About Cerberus Capital Management, The Gores Group: Cerberus Capital Management is a private investment firm that focuses on operational private equity investments.
Daniel Friedland
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Goldcrest Capital
Daniel Friedland is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Goldcrest Capital.
Follow Daniel Friedland:
About Goldcrest Capital: Goldcrest is a venture capital fund that invests in private technology 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.
Follow Philipp Stauffer:
About Containn, Fyrfly Venture Partners, Gmelius, rready: Fyrfly Venture Partners is a venture capital firm with a focus on data and intelligence.
Karan Mehandru
Managing Director and Head of Venture Capital of Steadfast Financial
Managing Director and Head of Venture Capital at STEADFAST FINANCIAL LTD.
Follow Karan Mehandru:
About Cohesity, Lucid, Steadfast Financial, Zapier: Steadfast Financial invests in companies in the technology, telecom, and media sectors.
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.
Follow Tom Dare:
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.
Follow Greg Gilman:
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.
Follow Peter Pham:
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
Follow Michael Jones:
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.
Follow James Hicks:
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.
Follow Mark Mullen:
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.
Follow Brett Queener:
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.
Follow Jim Andelman:
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.
Follow William McGlashan:
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.
Follow Fred Paulenich:
About TPG Growth: TPG Growth specializes in growth equity and middle-market buyout opportunities.
Ambar Bhattacharyya
Managing Director of Maverick Ventures
Ambar Bhattacharyya currently works as the Managing Director for Maverick Capital. He previously worked at Collective Medical as the Series A Investor and Board Observer.
Follow Ambar Bhattacharyya:
About Artemis Health, Centivo, Cityblock Health, Hims & Hers, Maverick Ventures: Maverick Ventures is a registered investment advisor managing private investment funds for qualified investors.
Prateesh Maheshwari
Managing Director of Maverick Ventures
Prateesh Maheshwari serves as a Managing Director at Maverick Capital.
Follow Prateesh Maheshwari:
About Maverick Ventures: Maverick Ventures is a registered investment advisor managing private investment funds for qualified investors.
Dipender Saluja
Managing Director of Capricorn Investment Group
Dipender Saluja is Partner and Managing Director at Capricorn Investment Group. Dipender oversees investments in energy technology, clean tech, and IT. Prior to Capricorn, Dipender was Chief of Staff at Cadence, a global market leader in electronic design, where he built and managed businesses that worked closely with the leading electronics companies around the world. Dipender is also President and CEO of Automatiks Inc, a Capricorn portfolio company developing electronic connectivity platforms for electric & hybrid vehicles, storage and smart grids. He is an electrical & computer engineer by training, and attended UND, the University of Minnesota, and Stanford.
Follow Dipender Saluja:
About Capricorn Investment Group: Capricorn Investment Group invests in the public equity, fixed income, private equity, and real assets markets.
Mitchell Kertzman
Managing Director of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Mitchell Kertzman is a Managing Director at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. He has over 30 years of experience as a CEO of public and private software companies. Most recently, Mitchell was Chairman and CEO of Liberate Technologies, a provider of platform software for the delivery of digital services by cable television companies. Before joining Liberate, he was chairman of the board and CEO of Sybase, Inc. Mitchell was founder and CEO of Powersoft, which merged with Sybase in February 1995. A former programmer, Mitchell founded Powersoft in 1974 as Computer Solutions. He renamed the company and became a member of the Hummer Winblad family in 1991 when Hummer Winblad invested in the company, which became the leading provider of client-server development tools with its flagship product, PowerBuilder. The merger with Sybase in 1995 was, at the time, the most valuable in the history of the software industry. Mitchell served as President of the Massachusetts Software Council from 1994 to 1996 and was 1990 chairman of the American Electronics Association. He is founder and former chairman of the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC), a think tank focused on issues related to the standard of living and quality of life of America’s middle class. He served on the New York State Commission on Industrial Competitiveness and chaired its task force on industrial policy. Mitchell was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He currently sits on the Boards of AspireIQ, Blissfully, 6connect and Symbium.
Follow Mitchell Kertzman:
About 6connect, Blissfully, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, MassINC: Hummer Winblad Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage enterprise software companies.
Aaron Tolson
Managing Director of H.I.G. Capital
Follow Aaron Tolson:
About H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Rob Wolfson
Managing Director of H.I.G. Capital
Follow Rob Wolfson:
About H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Kevin Van Culin
Managing Director of H.I.G. Capital
Follow Kevin Van Culin:
About H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Andrew Freeman
Managing Director of H.I.G. Capital
Follow Andrew Freeman:
About H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Sunil Kurkure
Managing Director of Intel Capital
Sunil is a Managing Director at Intel Capital driving early-venture and growth-equity investments in the Software and Security Sector across cloud infrastructure, big data, security and next-generation enterprise applications. He is actively involved with Intel Capital portfolio companies Kaltura, Eclypsium, Synack, SecurityScorecard, Vectra Networks, Fortanix, Lightbend, Preempt Security, Catalytic, Capsul8 and ZeroFox. Prior to joining Intel Capital, Sunil worked as an enterprise-focused venture capitalist at Mirador Capital, Greenspring Associates and Charter Ventures; and product strategy in the Client Computing Group at Intel. Sunil has held board or advisory roles at Ellie Mae (NYSE: ELLI), Deem, Sumo Logic, Snowflake Computing, Xensource (NASDAQ: CTXS), Clear Standards (NYSE: SAP), Splunk (NASDAQ: SPLK), DATAllegro (NASDAQ: MSFT), Solidcore (NASDAQ: INTC), TeleNav (NASDAQ: TNAV), Winery Exchange, and SysteamUS. Previously, Sunil spent several years at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse in M&A and equity financing, working with leading technology companies including Cisco, Yahoo, HP, Oracle, and Applied Materials among others. Sunil holds a BS in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. Sunil is actively involved in several youth sports organizations including AYSO and NJB, and previously served as a regional board member of BUILD, an organization that uses entrepreneurship to help children in under-resourced communities.
Follow Sunil Kurkure:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Nick Washburn
Senior Managing Director, Intel Capital of Intel Capital
Nick Washburn is a Senior Managing Director of Intel Capital located in Santa Clara, CA. He joined Intel Capital in 2014. Nick is a voting member of Intel Capital’s investment committee and co-manages Intel Capital’s cloud investment domain. He focuses on early-stage investments in cloud-native infrastructure, applications, developer tools and data platforms. Nick currently serves as a director or observer on the board of Amenity Analytics, Augtera Networks, Tetrate, Verica and two additional early-stage investments not yet announced. He also works closely on Intel Capital’s investments in Anyscale and Upbound. In addition, he currently serves as a director on the board of the National Venture Capital Association. Nick is a member of the Kauffman Fellows, Class 25, and he previously served as a Managing Counsel and a Senior Attorney for Intel Capital. He is an avid lover of all things outdoors, including skiing, mountain biking and rock climbing.
Follow Nick Washburn:
About Intel Capital, Kauffman Fellows: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Mark Lydon
Managing Director of Intel Capital
Mark Lydon is a Managing Director at Intel Capital and leads investments in the IOT, Edge Computing and Autonomy sectors. Mark joined Intel Capital in 2000 and brings over 30 years of experience in venture capital investing, business development, engineering and operations spanning both high tech startups and Fortune 100 companies. Prior to Intel Capital, Mark held a variety of management positions in engineering, business development, sales and marketing at Dialogic Corporation, helping the company grow from a startup to a worldwide leader in telecommunications technology. Mark began his career as an engineer at IBM, where he contributed to the development of the industry’s first integration of computer systems and telecom private branch exchanges. Mark invested in and managed exits for a number of companies including XEVO (acquired by Lear), Fibocom (IPO on SHE), Vocera Communications (IPO on NYSE), Rapid Bridge (acquired by Qualcomm), Skyhook Wireless (acquired by Liberty Media), Bocom (acquired by BGTC), Continuous Computing Corporation (acquired by Radisys Corporation), China ITS (IPO on HKSE), IPTego (acquired by Acme Packets), Crossbeam (acquired by Blue Coat Systems) and Telera (acquired by Alcatel). Mark has a BS in Electrical Engineering from California Polytechnic University.
Follow Mark Lydon:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Trina Van Pelt
Vice President, Senior Managing Director of Intel Capital
Trina Van Pelt is Vice President & Senior Managing Director of Intel Capital; Vice Chair of its Investment Committee; and Chair of its diversity & inclusion investing initiative. She focuses on investments in artificial intelligence, autonomous things, mobility management, sports technology, and data centric business models. Trina currently serves on multiple, early to growth stage, portfolio company boards (Cognitive Scale, GoodData, Mighty Networks, Moovit, Paxata). In February 2019, she was named to the Power 200 list of the world’s most influential data economy leaders. She is a sought out advisor to Intel’s executive team on transformational growth strategies for Intel’s data centric businesses. Van Pelt has more than 23 years of experience in technology investments, M&A, strategic planning and business development. She has led more than 85 technology acquisitions and investments worth >$50B over the course of her career, spanning the computing, communications, software, IoT and mobile industry segments. She has built, developed, led, inspired and managed large teams of investors and strategic business development professionals negotiating equity and complex buy-and sell-side transactions and partnerships. Before joining Intel in 2004, Van Pelt was a director of corporate development at CNET Networks and an investment associate at TA Associates. She began her career in investment banking at Lehman Brothers and Ernst & Young’s financial advisory services group. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan and earned a master’s degree in management from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
Follow Trina Van Pelt:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Arun Chetty
Managing Director of Intel Capital
Arun Chetty has been with Intel Capital since 2004 and focuses on investments in the wireless ecosystem covering the latest in 5G and wireless connectivity technologies, in Edge Compute/Intelligence, Sensors, HMI, Enterprise AI and conversational AI platforms, Gaming/Esports, and AR/VR in consumer and enterprise. Arun has led investments in Bluestacks, Avaamo, NextInput, Mindmeld, OnScale, Axonne, Telink Semiconductor, Espressif, Delta ID, AdHawk Microsystems, Babble Labs, VeriSilicon, Aicent, mFoundry, Insyde Software, LANDesk, and many others during his tenure with Intel Capital. Some of his successful exits include VeriSilicon (IPO), Telink (M&A), Espressif (IPO), Babble Labs (M&A), Mindmeld (M&A), Delta ID (M&A), Aicent (M&A), LANDesk (M&A), LGC Wireless (M&A), Circle Lending (M&A), and many others. Prior to Intel Capital, Arun spent several years as M&A Director at Intel, leading and executing over 15 M&A deals, and as a Controller in Intel’s Finance organization. Arun also worked as an engineer in R&D groups at GE, DuPont, and Brookhaven National Labs after his B.S.E. from Princeton and M.S. from MIT. Arun received an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Follow Arun Chetty:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Sean Doyle
Managing Director of Intel Capital
Sean is a Director in Intel Capital focused on manufacturing, semiconductor and supply chain investments for Intel’s core business and on new emerging silicon-related “adjacency” opportunities. From 1997 to 2001 he was a Sr. Treasury Manager responsible for financial due diligence and structuring of over 50 investments across a variety of sectors including media, content, enterprise computing and software. During this time period Sean also provided financial oversight of Intel 64 Fund operations and supported merger and acquisition transactions. In 2001 Sean joined Intel Capital as Sector Director, Technology and Manufacturing, to lead a team of investment managers supporting Intel’s global technology development and manufacturing operations. Notable investments by Sean’s team included ALIS, Clearshape, Epichem, Epion, Lotes, TriChem Labs and Xtreme Technologies. Sean’s transactional experience at Intel Capital ranges from seed stage venture financings to public company debt and equity investments with business development agreements worldwide. He has served as a lead investment manager on some of Intel Capital’s largest or most notable investments worldwide including ASM International, ASM Lithography, Elpida Memory, Ion Microfabrication Systems, Nikon Corporation, Pacific Biosciences, Photronics and Micron Corporation. Sean serves as board observer at several Intel Capital portfolio companies. Prior to Intel Capital, Sean worked in corporate finance for the investment bank Laidlaw Equities and was a marketing manager at Oracle Corporation. Sean holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MBA from UCLA.
Follow Sean Doyle:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Andrew Fligel
Senior Managing Director of Intel Capital
Andy is a Senior Managing Director and a voting member of Intel Capital’s investment committee. Andy focuses on investments in enterprise software, cloud and datacenter technologies driving digital transformation. He currently serves as a Board Member of ScienceLogic and Maana and acts as a Board Observer of Mirantis and Immuta. Andy’s prior investments include Virtustream (acquired by EMC), LogMeIn (NASDAQ: LOGM), Elastic (NYSE: ESTC), Spot.io (acquired by NetApp), CloudGenix (acquired by Palo Alto Networks), CoreOS (acquired by Red Hat), Prelert (acquired by Elastic), Joyent (acquired by Samsung), DynamicOps (acquired by VMware), JBoss (acquired by Red Hat), Managed Objects (acquired by Novell) among others. Prior to Intel Capital, Andy worked in the investment banking group at Robinson-Humphrey. Andy has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a B.S. in Commerce and a minor in mathematics from the University of Virginia, where he was an Echols Scholar.
Follow Andrew Fligel:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Dave Johnson
Managing Director of Intel Capital
Dave joined Intel Capital in 2003, following 10 years in Intel’s Finance and Treasury organization where he held financial management positions supporting Intel’s microprocessor and manufacturing groups and was a founding member of Intel’s Treasury M&A group where he completed over a dozen acquisitions. Joining Intel Capital’s investment team in 2003, Dave invested in WiMAX, LTE, Connectivity, RF, wireless services / spectrum companies before joining the Edge Intelligence, 5G and Autonomous Systems group in 2015 where he is a Managing Director. Dave’s current investment focus areas include industrial systems, computer vision, robotics and autonomy, 5G and network infrastructure. Dave serves as a board member for Foghorn and K4Connect, and board observer for Keyssa. He is on the investment team for Matroid, Landing.ai, Cloudleaf and Cellwize. Dave was named #2 on Global Corporate Venturing’s Emerging Leader list for 2020. Before joining Intel, Dave held management positions with Procter and Gamble and Chevron Corporation. Dave has an MBA from Cornell University and a BA from Vanderbilt University.
Follow Dave Johnson:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Tammi Smorynski
Managing Director of Intel Capital
Tammi is a Managing Director in Intel Capital and since 2005 has been focused on emerging technologies, see General Interest. Tammi is a board member of Embodied, Savioke, and Silkroad and holds various board observer seats including Cubeworks, CY Vision, and OnDot. From 2000-2005, Tammi was a Treasury Manager supporting Intel Capital and responsible for financial due diligence and structuring of over 70 investments across a variety of sectors including wireless, sensors/RFID and software. Prior to Intel Capital, Tammi was with J.P. Morgan & Co., focused on leveraged buyout transactions and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to that, she was an Audit Officer at J.P. Morgan & Co. covering a diverse set of investment banking operations from derivatives trading to global custody. She passed the CPA Exam in 1991. Tammi earned an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and a bachelor’s degree in Accounting/International Management from Georgetown University.
Follow Tammi Smorynski:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Shahi Ghanem
Managing Director of WI Harper Group
Shahi Ghanem is a technology industry veteran, serial entrepreneur, and venture capital investor and advisor. Prior to joining BitTorrent, Shahi served as the president and CEO of STL, a digital media company that helps Fortune 500 companies manage, distribute and measure digital assets. He has also held similar roles at EmpowHER, a Health Media Company dedicated to female health and wellness, and Brickfish, an Internet advertising and social media company that delivers social media campaigns and metrics to clients in the fashion, sports, electronics and consumer products industries. Most notably, Shahi previously served as president of DivX, Inc., one of the world’s leading developers of video compression, digital rights management and media language technologies. During his tenure he helped grow the company from a pre-revenue startup into a profitable, multi-national, public company. Shahi was educated at Cal State Long Beach and the University of California at Irvine, where he majored in both economics and pre-med.
Follow Shahi Ghanem:
About WI Harper Group: WI Harper Group is a venture capital firm that focuses on early and expansion investments in Mainland China, Taiwan and Silicon Valley.
Jimmy Lu
Managing Director of WI Harper Group
Follow Jimmy Lu:
About WI Harper Group: WI Harper Group is a venture capital firm that focuses on early and expansion investments in Mainland China, Taiwan and Silicon Valley.
Charles Wu
Managing Director of WI Harper Group
Follow Charles Wu:
About WI Harper Group: WI Harper Group is a venture capital firm that focuses on early and expansion investments in Mainland China, Taiwan and Silicon Valley.
Anuj Mathur
Managing Director of Moelis & Company
Follow Anuj Mathur:
About Moelis & Company: Moelis & Company is an investment bank that provides innovative strategic advice and solutions to a diverse client base.
Peter Y. Chung
CEO and Managing Director of Summit Partners
Peter Y. Chung joined Summit Partners in 1994. Prior to Summit, he worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions department of Goldman, Sachs & Co. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Peter is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America, Europe and Asia. During his 19 years with Summit Partners, Peter has invested in more than 25 companies including 13 currently or formerly publicly-traded companies. His prior board seats and investment experience include E-TEK Dynamics (NASDAQ: ETEK, later merged with JDS Uniphase in a transaction valued at over $18 billion), AltoCom (acquired by Broadcom), Card Capture Services (acquired by E*Trade), Ditech Networks (NASDAQ: DITC, later acquired by Nuance Communications), Finisar (NASDAQ: FNSR), GoldenGate Software (acquired by Oracle Corporation), iPayment (NASDAQ: IPMT), NightHawk Radiology Holdings (NASDAQ: NHWK, later acquired by Virtual Radiologic), SeaBright Insurance Holdings (NYSE: SBX, later acquired by Enstar Group Limited), Sirenza Microdevices (NASDAQ: SMDI, later acquired by RF Micro Devices), Splash Technology Holdings (NASDAQ: SPLH, later acquired by Electronics for Imaging) and Winshuttle Holdings. He is currently a director of Acacia Communications, Empower RF Systems, M/A-COM Technology Solutions Holdings (NASDAQ: MTSI), Trident University International, Ubiquiti Networks (NASDAQ: UBNT) and WebAction. Peter holds an AB in economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University. He is currently a trustee of the California Academy of Sciences and a director of the Asian Pacific Fund. In addition, he serves on the Advisory Boards of the Friends of Harvard Football and the Salvation Army’s Golden State Division.
Follow Peter Y. Chung:
About Asian Pacific Fund, California Academy of Sciences, Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Andrew J. Collins
Managing Director of Summit Partners
Andrew Collins joined Summit Partners in 2008. Prior to Summit, he worked as an investment banking analyst in the Mergers and Acquisitions group at Banc of America Securities and ABN Amro Financial Services in Chicago. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Andrew is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America and Asia, and focuses primarily on the technology and healthcare sectors. His investment and board experience includes Cloudmark, Delphix, NetWitness (acquired by EMC Corporation), Philz Coffee, RiskIQ, Rocket Fuel, TeleSign Holdings, Ubiquiti Networks (NASDAQ: UBNT), Visier, WebAction, Wildfire Interactive (acquired by Google), Winshuttle Holdings and Wowza Media Systems. Andrew holds a BS in finance from Miami University. Andrew is a member of the Associates Board of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Foundation (UCCRF), an organization that seeks funds to underwrite basic clinical research programs for the treatment of cancer
Follow Andrew J. Collins:
About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Craig Frances
Managing Director of Summit Partners
Craig Frances joined Managing Director at Summit Partners in 2003.
Follow Craig Frances:
About HCPEA, Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Greg Goldfarb
Managing Director of Summit Partners
Greg Goldfarb joined Summit Partners in 2002. Prior to Summit, he worked for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide where he was Director of E-Commerce and Director of Starwood’s Innovation Lab. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Greg is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America, Europe and Asia, and focuses primarily on the technology and healthcare & life sciences sectors. His board directorships and investments include Clearwater Analytics, Cloudmark, IntelliChem (acquired by Symyx Technologies), LiveOffice (acquired by Symantec Corporation), Philz Coffee, ProClarity Corporation (acquired by Microsoft), RiskIQ, Rocket Fuel, TeleSign Holdings, The Mutual Fund Store (acquired by Warburg Pincus), Tiny Prints (acquired by Shutterfly), Visier, Web Reservations International (acquired by Hellman & Friedman), Winshuttle Holdings, and Wowza Media Systems. Greg holds an AB, magna cum laude, in government from Harvard University.
Follow Greg Goldfarb:
About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Harrison B. Miller
Senior Advisor, Former Managing Director of Summit Partners
Harrison B. Miller first joined Summit Partners in 1988. After then attending business school, he was part of the founding management team at Lightspan, an online education company that completed its initial public offering in 2000. At Amazon.com from 1998 to 2003, Harrison was the founding VP and GM of Platform Services, a $180 million unit of the company developing and deploying Amazon’s technology infrastructure as a managed service for major retailers and other customers. Harrison rejoined Summit in 2003. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Harrison today co-heads the firm’s venture capital activities in North America, Europe and Asia, and focuses primarily on the technology and healthcare & life sciences sectors. Harrison’s directorships and investments include Autobase (acquired by Dominion Enterprises), Clearwater Analytics, Cloudmark, Delphix, LiveOffice (acquired by Symantec Corporation), NetWitness Corporation (acquired by EMC Corporation), Postini (acquired by Google), Software Spectrum (acquired by Level 3 Communications),Tiny Prints (acquired by Shutterfly), Wildfire Interactive (acquired by Google), AdvaCare (acquired by Medaphis Corporation), Diagnostic Hybrids (acquired by Quidel Corporation), and The Mutual Fund Store (acquired by Warburg Pincus). Harrison holds an AB in religion, cum laude, from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford Business School. He serves numerous nonprofit organizations in an advisory or board capacity, including Common Sense Media, Opportunity Fund and Worldreader.org.
Follow Harrison B. Miller:
About Autobase, LiveOffice, Postini, Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Jay D. Pauley
Managing Director of Summit Partners
Jay D. Pauley joined Summit Partners in 2010. Prior to Summit, he worked for GTCR Golder Rauner, Apax Partners and GE Capital. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Jay is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America, and focuses primarily on the growth products & services sector. His investment experience includes Central Security Group, where he is currently a board director. Jay holds a BS, magna cum laude, in accountancy and finance from the Honors Business Program at the Ohio State University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Follow Jay D. Pauley:
About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Leonard C. Ferrington
Managing Director of Summit Partners
Leonard C. Ferrington joined Summit Partners in 2006. Prior to Summit, he worked for Celerity Partners and Baxter Healthcare International. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Len is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America, and focuses primarily on the technology and education sectors. His board directorships and investments include Access Information Management, Heald College (acquired by Corinthian Colleges), RuffaloCODY, Trident University International and Ubiquiti Networks (NASDAQ: UBNT). Len received a BS in accounting from the Leventhal School of Accounting at the University of Southern California.
Follow Leonard C. Ferrington:
About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Peter A. Francis
Managing Director of Summit Partners
Peter A. Francis joined Summit Partners in 2011. Prior to Summit, Peter worked for Jefferies & Company and UBS Investment Bank. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Peter is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America, and focuses primarily on the healthcare & life sciences sector. His investments include Solutionreach. Peter holds a BA in economics from Cornell University.
Follow Peter A. Francis:
About Jefferies, Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Peter L. Rottier
Managing Director of Summit Partners
Peter L. Rottier joined Summit Partners in 2006. Prior to Summit, he worked for KSL Capital Partners, Stone Arch Capital and RBC Capital Markets. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Peter is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America, and focuses primarily on the technology sector. His board directorships and investments include Answers, Help/Systems, Infor, ISH (acquired by PwC), Salient Partners, Snap Fitness, Solid State Equipment and Tivoli Audio. Peter received a BS in finance from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Follow Peter L. Rottier:
About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Garrett Henn
Managing Director, Head of Life Sciences Credit – West of Oxford Finance LLC
Henn has over 10 years of commercial lending experience to public and venture-backed life sciences and technology companies. He became part of the Oxford team in 2008, and is responsible for overseeing the firm’s portfolio of loans in western United States and western Canada. Prior to joining Oxford, Mr. Henn held various positions at Silicon Valley Bank where he managed a portfolio of loans primarily comprised of early and late-stage life sciences and technology companies. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from California State University, Los Angeles.
Follow Garrett Henn:
About Oxford Finance LLC: Oxford Finance delivers flexible financial solutions to healthcare and life sciences companies worldwide.
Tracy Maziek
Managing Director of Oxford Finance LLC
Maziek rejoined the Oxford team in 2015 and is responsible for managing the company’s healthcare services business. After establishing Oxford’s healthcare lending practice from 2010 to 2012, Mr. Maziek was the Senior Managing Director and Head of Healthcare Finance at Wells Fargo Capital Finance. Previously, Mr. Maziek served in various capacities in the healthcare corporate lending division at Siemens Financial Services. He began his healthcare financing career with FINOVA Capital in 1994. Throughout his career, he has focused exclusively on lending to middle market healthcare companies. Mr. Maziek has had numerous articles published in healthcare industry journals and is a frequent guest speaker at industry conferences and events. He holds a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Arizona.
Follow Tracy Maziek:
About Oxford Finance LLC: Oxford Finance delivers flexible financial solutions to healthcare and life sciences companies worldwide.
Michael Cardito
Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager, Oaktree’s GFI Energy Group of Oaktree Capital Management
Mr. Cardito is a managing director and co-portfolio manager of Oaktree’s GFI Energy Group, which executes the Power Opportunities investment strategy. He is responsible for the overall management of the group and its investing activities, including setting investment strategy, sourcing and executing investment opportunities and board oversight of the group’s portfolio companies. He currently serves on the board of Shermco Industries, Solomon Corporation and MaxGen Energy Services, and has previously served on the boards of U.S. Silica Company, Coveright Services, Lund International, Chem-Dry Holdings and Neptco, Inc. Mr. Cardito has spent most of his career as a control private equity investor focused on energy, process-related and niche industrial sectors. Prior to joining Oaktree in 2011, he was a Principal with Harvest Partners, LP, a New York-based private equity firm. Mr. Cardito received a B.A. degree in economics from Colgate University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School
Follow Michael Cardito:
About Oaktree Capital Management: Oaktree Capital Management is a privately owned investment manager specializing in alternative investment strategies.
Ian Schapiro
Managing Director & Portfolio Manager of Oaktree Capital Management
Ian Schapiro is a managing director and the portfolio manager for Oaktree’s GFI Energy Group, which executes the Power Opportunities investment strategy. Additionally, he leads and is a co-portfolio manager of the firm’s Infrastructure Investing strategy following Oaktree’s acquisition of the Highstar Capital team. Ian Schapiro co-founded GFI Energy Ventures, the predecessor to the GFI Energy Group, which became part of Oaktree in 2009. He presently serves on the boards of Remedial Construction Services (RECON) and Infrastructure & Energy Alternatives LLC. Ian Schapiro previously served on the boards of directors of Solomon Holdings Corp.; Osmose Holdings, Inc.; Integrated Pipeline Services; Elgin National Industries, Inc.; NORESCO; Trans-Elect, Inc.; Smart Systems International, Inc.; LPPI Holdings LLC; UtiliQuest, LLC; Trace Technology; Xantrex Technology Inc.; InfraSource Inc.; Elgar Holdings, Inc. and Cherokee International Corporation. Prior to founding GFI Energy Ventures in 1995, Ian Schapiro was a Partner of utility consulting firm Venture Associates and of Arthur Anderson & Co. following that firm’s acquisition of Venture Associates. Previously, Ian Schapiro was the Chief Financial Officer of a technology company and a commercial banker focused on the energy sector. Ian Schapiro received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California.
Follow Ian Schapiro:
About Oaktree Capital Management: Oaktree Capital Management is a privately owned investment manager specializing in alternative investment strategies.
Jason Lee
Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager, Oaktree’s GFI Energy Group of Oaktree Capital Management
Mr. Lee is a managing director and co-portfolio manager in Oaktree’s GFI Energy Group and is responsible for the overall management of the Power Opportunities investment strategy and operations of the group. Mr. Lee has worked with the GFI Energy Group since 2007, which was acquired by Oaktree in 2009. He serves on several boards including Array Technologies and The Kirlin Group. Among other areas, he focuses in the energy efficiency, engineering and construction, renewable energy, software and infrastructure security sectors. Prior to GFI Energy, Mr. Lee worked for a number of years as an executive in the operational management of several companies, some of which he co-founded, and has advised a number of companies and government organizations in the areas of entrepreneurial strategy, investments and finance. He began his career at J.P. Morgan’s technology, media and telecom investment banking practice. Mr. Lee received his B.S. degree from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management where he currently serves as a member of the finance faculty and teaches courses on private equity and corporate finance.
Follow Jason Lee:
About Oaktree Capital Management: Oaktree Capital Management is a privately owned investment manager specializing in alternative investment strategies.
Ravi K. Paidipaty
Managing DirectorSan Francisco of Farallon Capital Management
Mr. Paidipaty rejoined us in 2008, having been a summer analyst in 2007. Previously, Mr. Paidipaty worked as a private equity associate at Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. and as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Paidipaty graduated with Distinction from Yale College with a B.A. in Ethics, Politics & Economics and received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Follow Ravi K. Paidipaty:
About Farallon Capital Management: Farallon Capital Management operates as a global institutional asset management firm.
Adam Nelson
Managing Director of FirstMark
Adam is a Partner at Social Capital where he focuses on early stage venture investing in enterprise SaaS and marketplaces. He brings experience in building and executing go-to-market strategies in both SMB and Enterprise, most recently at Dropbox. Prior to that, Adam was a Private Equity investor at Lindsay Goldberg, an investment firm in New York.
Follow Adam Nelson:
About FirstMark: FirstMark Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs.
Santiago Corredoira-Jack
US Managing Director of Speedinvest
Santiago is a seasoned European entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, where he co-founded 10darts, a communications platform as-a-sevice (CPaaS), and Onpublico, a citizen journalism community leader in local news in the US hispanic market. His experience in startups and network in the Valley made the Spanish Government choose him to set up their startups incubator in San Francisco. Prior to that, Santiago joined the most successful Spanish startup created in the 2000’s, Lanetro – Zed, taking it from scratch to a pre-IPO status within 9 years. Santiago was one of the four C-class team members that took it from a non-revenue status to generating $500m in yearly revenue, managing 150m users worldwide and having operations in 14 countries. In this company, he set up and launched several new business divisions, including the Global Business Development and the Strategic Partnerships and Alliances, managed the operations in the UK, the largest market, and headed the legal department. Santiago graduated from law school in Madrid and holds 2 masters degrees from the University of London (LLM) and the IESE Business School (Global Executive MBA). He has enjoyed pitching top-notch Sand Hill Road VCs (including Sequoia, Greylock and Andreessen Horowitz) and has also suffered the vertigo of not having enough cash for the payroll 2 weeks before it is due. A strategic thinker and thoroughly data-driven, Santiago is resilient, very curious, an outstanding communicator, skilled negotiator and trusted advisor. He has been collaborating with Students Rising Above for the last 5 years, where he mentors high school seniors with challenging social conditions and outstanding personal and academic potential. Coming from a large family with 7 siblings, the usual startup chaos makes him feel truly at home and comprehensively challenged.
Follow Santiago Corredoira-Jack:
About Onpublico, Speedinvest: Speedinvest is a venture capital fund investing in pre-seed, seed, and early-stage tech startups.
Troy Griepp
Managing Director of Morgan Stanley
Follow Troy Griepp:
About Morgan Stanley: Morgan Stanley is a financial services company that offers securities, asset management, and credit services.
Rob Ward
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Meritech Capital Partners
Rob co-founded Meritech in 1999. His current areas of investment interest include Big Data, cloud computing, Saas, security and online consumer services. Rob led Meritech’s successful investments in Acclarent (JNJ), BigFix (IBM), Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD), Counterpane (BT), Fortinet (FTNT), Greenplum (EMC), Imperva (IMPV), Netezza (IBM), NetSuite (N), PopCap Games (ERTS), Quigo (AOL), Reliant (SLTM) and Zipcar (ZIP). Prior to Meritech, Rob was a principal in the Private Equity Group at Montgomery Securities, and worked in the New York and San Francisco Corporate Finance Departments at Smith Barney.
Follow Rob Ward:
About Eastside College Preparatory School, Meritech Capital Partners: Meritech Capital provides late-stage venture capital to technology companies.
Tom Amster
Senior Managing Director, Head of US Financial Sponsors of Macquarie Group
Follow Tom Amster:
About Macquarie Group: Macquarie Group is a global provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment and funds management services.
Greg Callman
Global Head, Energy Technology & Solutions, Senior Managing Director of Macquarie Group
Follow Greg Callman:
About Macquarie Group: Macquarie Group is a global provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment and funds management services.
Nan Li
Managing Director of Obvious Ventures
Investor, Board Observer, Advisor at Zymergen, Dexterity, Recursion & Octave. Managing Director at Obvious Ventures.
Follow Nan Li:
About Obvious Ventures, Octave, Stanford University: Obvious Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in the early and growth stages.
Vishal Vasishth
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Obvious Ventures
Vishal is the Managing Director of Obvious Ventures. Board Observer at Tomorrow Health, Galileo & Corvus Insurance.
Follow Vishal Vasishth:
About Devoted Health, Good Eggs, Myro, Obvious Ventures, The Aspen Institute: Obvious Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in the early and growth stages.
James Joaquin
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Obvious Ventures
James has over twenty-five years of experience building and leading technology companies from early stage company ideation to global market leadership. He helped create entirely new categories such as online photography, web-based calendaring and the Personal Digital Assistant. James is the former CEO of Ofoto, Xoom, and Xmarks. James is the co-founder of Obvious Ventures, investing in #worldpositive startups that combine profit and purpose.
Follow James Joaquin:
About Breezeworks, Obvious Ventures: Obvious Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in the early and growth stages.
Andrew Beebe
Managing Director of Obvious Ventures
Managing Director at Obvious Ventures. Board Observer at AMPLY Power, Inc, RenoRun & Lyric.
Follow Andrew Beebe:
About Elemental Excelerator, Obvious Ventures: Obvious Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in the early and growth stages.
Brian Nicholson
Managing Director of Sonoma Brands
Brian joined Sonoma Brands in 2018 as a Principal, bringing eight years of experience as a growth investor in leading eCommerce, Digital Media and Direct-to-Consumer businesses. At Sonoma Brands, Brian is focused on sourcing, executing and leading growth-stage investments in emerging consumer brands. Prior to joining Sonoma Brian spent over 5 years at Stripes Group, a leading growth equity firm in New York City, where he directly sourced and led growth investments in companies including Refinery29, Reformation, The Black Tux and Pond5. With these investments, Brian served as a Board Director or Observer and supported management in areas such as teambuilding, business development and strategic planning. Additionally, Brian has helped lead growth investments in disruptive consumer brands like Daily Harvest and ClassPass. Previously, Brian founded a direct-to-consumer apparel brand and spent several years in the Technology Investment Banking Group at JMP Securities in San Francisco. Brian received a B.A. (Honors) from Brown University.
Follow Brian Nicholson:
About Sonoma Brands: Sonoma Brands Capital is a private equity firm focused on the growth sectors of the consumer economy.
Benjamin Black
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Akkadian Ventures
Benjamin Black is the Co-founder & Chief Investment Officer of Akkadian Ventures, LLC. An eleven-year veteran of the private equity space, Ben co-founded Akkadian with Peter Smith, to specialize in offering early liquidity to entrepreneurs, early employees, and investors in successful private companies. In 2011, Ben co-founded, with Chris Tarr, the Momentum Index (www.momentumindex.com) which tracks the top performing private venture-backed companies. With the understanding that it often takes more than ten years for entrepreneurs to achieve liquidity, Akkadian Ventures created unique deal structures for entrepreneurs and employees to generate liquidity and diversify their risk by selling or leveraging private stock. Focusing exclusively on purchasing small stakes in successful growing companies, Akkadian helps innovators manage risk and reap financial reward during that hard climb to the top. Among many, Ben has managed notable investments in RocketFuel, Splunk, DocuSign, Lithium Technologies, Cloudmark, Ooyala, Citizenhawk, The Villa, Automattic and Telephia. Ben co-founded New Cycle Capital with Josh Becker to bring socially responsible investing to sectors like clean energy and social finance with angel investments in Renewable Funding and Opower. He spent nearly four years at Seattle venture capital firm Maveron, focusing on consumer businesses such as Allconnect (Inc. 500 winner). Prior to Maveron, he spent 3 years at private equity firm Rosewood Capital where he focused on branded consumer products and services, including Under Armour. As an entrepreneur, Ben was part of the founding team at Harris Interactive, which was a pioneer in Internet-based market research. During Ben’s tenure, the company completed a successful IPO and generated $200M in revenue. Ben received his undergraduate degree at Cornell University and his JD at the Cornell School of Law. He is the author of a book on American Politics titled ‘The Politics of American Discontent’ which can be bought on Amazon for $0.12.
Follow Benjamin Black:
About Akkadian Ventures: Akkadian Ventures is a direct secondary investment firm that offers liquidity to early employees and investors of venture-backed businesses.
Mike Gridley
Managing Director of Akkadian Ventures
Mike is a Managing Director and Partner of Akkadian Ventures. Previously, he was a member of the founding team of Industry Ventures, where he served as a Managing Director since 2004. Mike led Industry’s investments in Facebook (FB), Twitter, Pandora (P), LifeLock (LOCK), Jajah (Acquired by Telefonica), Cloudmark, Lowercase Capital (Twitter, Uber, Instagram), Walden Venture Capital (Pandora, Glam, SoundHound) and Madrona (Isilon), among others. He also helped grow Industry Ventures from less then $10 million AUM to over $1 billion AUM. Prior to Industry, Mike worked at BV Capital (formerly Bertelsmann Ventures) in San Francisco, a $275 million international venture capital fund. At BV, he sourced, structured, and managed direct venture investments. Earlier in his career, Mike worked in Business Development at Personify, a CRM analytics software company. Mike holds a BA from University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Regents and Alumni Scholar, and an MS from the London School of Economics.
Follow Mike Gridley:
About Akkadian Ventures: Akkadian Ventures is a direct secondary investment firm that offers liquidity to early employees and investors of venture-backed businesses.
Mike Dinsdale
Managing Director of Akkadian Ventures
Mike Dinsdale joined DocuSign as chief financial officer in May 2010. Mike’s broad experience is highlighted by a proven track record of driving organizations to hyper growth. Most recently, he served as CFO of Lithium, a Software-as-a-Service platform and application suite provider. At Lithium, Mike raised millions in equity financing over three rounds and was also responsible for two strategic acquisitions. During his tenure Lithium’s valuation increased, positioning the company as the clear leader in social CRM. Prior to Lithium, Mike was employee #10 of Velocity11, a life sciences technology company, where he was instrumental in setting business strategy and aggressively driving revenue growth to $50M. Mike further fueled the growth of Velocity11 by dramatically increasing revenue, securing funding and playing a key role during the firm’s acquisition by Agilent Technologies in 2007. Mike holds a B.E.Sc in mechanical engineering from the University of Western Ontario, an MBA from McMaster University and the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Follow Mike Dinsdale:
About Akkadian Ventures, Plum Partners, TMD Ventures: Akkadian Ventures is a direct secondary investment firm that offers liquidity to early employees and investors of venture-backed businesses.
Jed Katz
Managing Director of Javelin Venture Partners
Jed Katz is the Managing Director at Javelin Venture Partners.
Follow Jed Katz:
About Javelin Venture Partners: Javelin Venture Partners invests in and partners closely with early-stage, software-enabled technology companies.
Noah Doyle
Managing Director of Javelin Venture Partners
Noah Doyle is the Managing Director at Javelin Venture Partners.
Follow Noah Doyle:
About Javelin Venture Partners, LAM Aviation, PowerCloud Systems: Javelin Venture Partners invests in and partners closely with early-stage, software-enabled technology companies.
Alex Gurevich
Managing Director of Javelin Venture Partners
Alex is an early stage technology investor and Managing Director at Javelin Venture Partners. He led Javelin’s investments in Thumbtack, MasterClass, Clutter, Mythical Games, Stensul, Rinse, HitRecord, Estimote, Wheels, Telerivet, and Vendigo. Prior to joining Javelin, Alex was a Principal at DFJ Aurora, where he helped establish one of the first venture capital funds focused on high tech investments in Eastern Europe. Prior to DFJ, Alex was the first employee at ooma, a venture-backed company in the consumer electronics, VoIP (voice over IP) space, where he led the company’s initial product roll out, customer acquisition, and retail distribution strategy in product management and business development roles. Alex was also co-founder of Say-Hey-Hey.com, one of the web’s first free video dating sites, where he was in charge of all product development, fundraising, and business development efforts. Alex is also an angel investor in Citizen and a mentor at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Alex holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was co-President of the Venture Capital Club, a leader of a Global Study Trip, and a Board Fellow. He also holds a B.S. in Management Science and Engineering, a B.A. in International Relations, and an M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. During his time at Stanford, Alex was a Mayfield Fellow and led major technology centered research projects at General Motors and IBM for Stanford’s Center for Work, Technology, and Organization.
Follow Alex Gurevich:
About Clutter, FEM, Javelin Venture Partners, Telerivet, Weddington Way, WorkPatterns: Javelin Venture Partners invests in and partners closely with early-stage, software-enabled technology companies.
Jason Warner
Managing Director of Redpoint
Jason Warner is the MD at Redpoint. Jason cares deeply about the future of technology, developer experience, and growing companies. He is a people-oriented product technologist, who is passionate about building both the technical and human systems needed for scale and growth. Prior to joining GitHub, Jason was Vice President of Engineering at Heroku, the world’s leading PaaS and one of the largest cloud computing providers in the world. Before Heroku, Jason worked to make Linux accessible to everyone by leading product engineering for Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Phone at Canonical. Jason is also an active speaker, writer, and advisor on cloud computing, technology and leadership. His activities include formally and informally advising startup and established executives, as well as active coaching and mentoring future product and technology leaders. Jason graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a BS in Computer Science, and Rensselaer University with an MS in Computer Science. He lives with his family in Victoria, British Columbia, where he writes, sketches and enjoys the water as much as possible.
Follow Jason Warner:
About Redpoint: Redpoint Ventures partners with visionary founders to create new markets or redefine existing ones at the seed, early, and growth stages.
Tomasz Tunguz
Managing Director of Redpoint
Tomasz Tunguz is a venture capitalist at [Redpoint Ventures](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/redpoint-ventures). He is also a board member of Looker, ERPLY, Electric imp, inc., AxialMarket, Quantifind, Expensify, and more. Prior to joining Redpoint, Tomasz was the product manager for Google’s social media monetization team, including the Google-MySpace partnership. In addition, he managed the launches of AdSense into six new markets in Europe and Asia. Before Google, Tomasz developed systems for the Department of Homeland Security at Appian Corporation. Tomasz also co-founded Perquimans Systems, a provider of bilingual, tri-currency automated time billing and document management systems for top tier law firms in Chile. Tomasz holds a B.A. in mechanical engineering, a B.E. in system identification and control systems and Master of Engineering Management from Dartmouth College.
Follow Tomasz Tunguz:
About Redpoint: Redpoint Ventures partners with visionary founders to create new markets or redefine existing ones at the seed, early, and growth stages.
Elliot Geidt
Managing Director of Redpoint
Elliot Geidt is a Vice President with Redpoint Ventures where he helps lead the firm’s growth equity practice and focuses on opportunities in the software, infrastructure, Internet and mobile sectors. Prior to joining Redpoint, Elliot was with Spectrum Equity Investors, a $4 billion growth equity firm. Prior to Spectrum, Elliot worked for Goldman Sachs & Co. in the Investment Banking Group. Elliot holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Follow Elliot Geidt:
About Bright HealthCare, Nubank, Redpoint: Redpoint Ventures partners with visionary founders to create new markets or redefine existing ones at the seed, early, and growth stages.
Satish Dharmaraj
Managing Director of Redpoint
Satish Dharmaraj is a Managing Director of Redpoint Ventures. Prior to Redpoint, Satish was the founder/CEO of Zimbra. At Zimbra, he grew sales from inception to $20M in subscription sales in the first year of selling and nearly doubled sales the next year. Satish was directly responsible for leading the product vision, PR and the open source distribution strategy. Prior to founding Zimbra, Satish was VP of the Messaging Product Division at Openwave Systems, responsible for the email, unified messaging, voicemail, and instant messaging product lines. Satish managed the engineering and product management teams which had over 200 people and a $45 million budget. While at Openwave, Satish’s division deployed 180 million mailboxes worldwide with the largest deployments being 20 million mailboxes at JPhone and KDDI in Japan. Satish previously was part of the founding team at the unified messaging company Onebox, where he led engineering and network operations, and was instrumental in the sale of Onebox to Phone.com for $850 million. Prior to Onebox, Satish was at Sun Microsystems’ JavaSoft Division where he was responsible for the conception, design and implementation of Java Server Pages (JSPs); in addition, he led the team that designed and implemented the Java Servlet API.Satish previously held several positions at IBM and Transarc Corporations. Satish has BS and MS degrees in Computer Sciences and an executive management degree from Harvard Business School.
Follow Satish Dharmaraj:
About Redpoint: Redpoint Ventures partners with visionary founders to create new markets or redefine existing ones at the seed, early, and growth stages.
Jim Adler
Founding Managing Director of Toyota Ventures
Follow Jim Adler:
About Toyota Ventures: Toyota Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in startups from around the world.
William Woodward
Managing Director & Founder of Anthem Venture Partners
Bill’s technology interests include innovative software platforms, emerging new media models, and broadband convergence. His personal interests include spending time with his children, tennis, wine, movies, travel, and the entrepreneurial process. He is a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, U.S.C.Trojans, and the Oakland Raiders.
Follow William Woodward:
About Anthem Venture Partners: Anthem Venture Partners is a venture capital firm.
Tory Patterson
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Owl Ventures
Tory is the co-founder and Managing Director of Owl Ventures where he is actively involved with all facets of the firm and serves on the board of directors for Accelerate Learning (acquired by Carlyle Group), BetterLesson, Degreed, DreamBox Learning (acquired by TPG), Gather, Hazel Health, Kiddom, Labster, Newsela, Noodle Partners, Quizlet, Remind and uLesson. As one of the early pioneers in the next generation of leading EdTech companies, Tory has led investments in some of the most successful companies in the sector. As a lead investor and board member he has played a hands-on role helping leading edtech companies across all facets of development including core definition and measurement of value proposition, sales & distribution, hiring, funding and eventual paths to successful exit. Prior to Owl Ventures, Tory was a Partner at Catamount Ventures where he founded and ran one of the venture industry’s first education investment practices. There he led investments in education companies TenMarks (acquired by Amazon), MasteryConnect (acquired by Instructure), PresenceLearning and EdSurge (acquired by ISTE). Tory is a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow and holds a B.A. in Economics from Williams College and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Follow Tory Patterson:
About Catamount Ventures, Owl Ventures: Owl Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies.
Amit Patel
Managing Director of Owl Ventures
Amit Patel is a Partner at Owl Ventures. He has experience scaling several education startups and is deeply committed to building new organizations that will create sustainable and higher quality education solutions. Amit has worked closely with several education companies, including PresenceLearning, Revolution Foods, TenMarks (acquired by Amazon), Raise, MasteryConnect, LearnZillion and EdSurge. Amit is a board observer for Panorama Education. Before joining Owl, he founded Personal Academic Trainers, an after-school tutoring company, and created the quality assurance program and institutionalized sales training for Mathnasium Learning Centers, an after-school math learning center franchise with over 450 locations on four continents. Amit also served as the Director of Technology for Success Academy Charter Schools, a premiere charter school network in New York City with 32 schools. Amit was an Education Pioneers Graduate School Fellow, and he earned a MBA/MA in Education from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Graduate School of Education. He also received a BA in Mathematical Economic Analysis from Rice University and studied theatre/film at The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts and New York University.
Follow Amit Patel:
About Catamount Ventures, Owl Ventures: Owl Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies.
Ian Chiu
Managing Director of Owl Ventures
Ian is a Managing Director at Owl Ventures, the world’s largest venture capital fund exclusively focused on education technology. Across his career, Ian has been an investor, entrepreneur, and advisor to education and technology companies. He currently serves on the boards of Degreed, Benchprep, LeLe Ketang, Sanjieke, and Abl. Prior to joining Owl Ventures, Ian was an education and technology investor at Warburg Pincus and Silver Lake Partners and a consultant at Bain & Company. He also helped launch BigMachines a SaaS company which was acquired by Oracle. Ian serves on the Advisory Board for SEO, a non-profit that provides educational, career, and mentoring programs for young people from underserved and underrepresented communities. He is also a member of the Advisory Council for Gladeo, a social enterprise dedicated to helping underserved youth from diverse backgrounds gain awareness, preparedness, and access to upwardly mobile careers. Ian is a graduate of Stanford University, where he earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering, with Distinction, and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering, with a concentration in technology management and entrepreneurship. He also received his M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar and Arbuckle Leadership Fellow.
Follow Ian Chiu:
About Owl Ventures: Owl Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies.
Tom Costin
Managing Director of Owl Ventures
Tom is a Partner at Owl Ventures. Tom has held numerous investment, managerial and advisory roles. Before joining Owl, he was a Private Investments Specialist at Cambridge Associates where he advised, or invested on behalf of, families, nonprofits, endowments and pension funds with assets ranging from $700 million to over $150 billion on their venture capital, private equity and hard assets investments. Tom has also served as a Managing Director at SoleTech, a leading supplier of materials and products for the footwear and orthopedic industries. As an MBA intern, Tom worked with the founding team at Castlight Health (NYSE: CSLT) where he helped create the company’s business plan and constructed revenue models. Prior to business school, Tom served as an Associate at FLAG Capital and as a Senior Associate at Cambridge Associates. Tom serves on the Advisory Board of Match Education. Tom received an M.B.A. from Stanford University and a B.A. from Bowdoin College.
Follow Tom Costin:
About Owl Ventures: Owl Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies.
Todd Chaffee
Managing Director & General Partner of Institutional Venture Partners
Todd Chaffee joined IVP as a Managing Director and General Partner in March 2000. He focuses on venture capital investments in rapidly growing media, travel, and technology companies. Todd has been recognized by Forbes and The New York Times as one of the world’s top venture capitalists. He is ranked #6 on the Forbes Midas List of Top 10 Founder VCs and has appeared on every Forbes Midas List for the past eight years. He was also selected for the New York Times / CB Insights List of Top 100 Venture Capitalists and the Morgan Stanley / AlwaysOn Top 100 VC List. Todd is known for his investments in such high profile companies such as HomeAway (AWAY), Kayak (PCLN), Netflix (NFLX), Twitter (TWTR), and Yahoo (YHOO). He has also led investments in AdRoll, Akamai (AKAM), ArcSight (HPQ), Ariba (ARBA), Business Insider (Axel Springer), Compass, ComScore (SCOR), CyberSource (CYBS), Digital River (DRIV), Domo, Epiphany (EPNY), Extensity (EXTN), General Assembly, H5 Technologies, Hipmunk, InphoMatch (SAP), Inspirato, Klarna, LivingSocial, LoopNet (CSGP), Mobile 365 (SAP), Mobileway (SAP), Nuance Communications (NUAN), Omniture (ADBE), Open Market (OMKT), Pandora (P), Trintech (TTPA), VeriSign (VRSN), Verisity (VRST), Vessel, and Whip Networks. Todd was also the supporting partner for IVP’s investments in Advent Software (ADVS), Artisan Components (ARTI), At Road (TRMB), Business.com (DEXO), CafePress (PRSS), Carbonite (CARB), Concur Technologies (CNQR), Danger (MSFT), Datalogix, Dropcam, MarkMonitor (TRI), Mindbody, One Kings Lane, Personal Capital, POPSUGAR, Quigo Technologies (TWX), RetailMeNot (SALE), Snapchat, SoundCloud, The Honest Company, Tripwire (Thoma Bravo), TuneIn, Websense (WBSN), Yodlee, ZEFR, and ZipRecruiter. Prior to IVP, Todd was Executive Vice President of Visa International. His responsibilities included overseeing the Advanced Technology, Strategic Planning, Corporate Development, and Equity Investment divisions for Visa. He was also the President of Visa Marketplace, Inc. (Visa’s investment subsidiary) and managed Visa’s global technology investment portfolio. Under Todd’s leadership, Visa’s venture capital operation generated more than $1.2 billion in gains and his investments produced a 32.8x multiple of invested capital with an IRR of 243.4%. Todd joined Visa in 1994 as Senior Vice President of Advanced Payment Systems. After establishing and growing Visa’s highly successful venture capital business, he was promoted to Executive Vice President of Visa International, becoming the youngest Executive Vice President in Visa’s history. Prior to Visa, Todd held management positions at Fortune 500 companies such as American Express and TRW Information Systems Group. During his career, he also founded Grand Expeditions, Inc., a global luxury and adventure travel company with revenues in excess of $200 million. Todd earned a B.S. with honors from the University of Minnesota Carlson Business School. He also completed the Stanford Graduate Business School Advanced Management Program and the Harvard Business School Venture Capital Program.
Follow Todd Chaffee:
About Institutional Venture Partners: Institutional Venture Partners is a later-stage venture capital firm that focuses on technology and media companies.
Rick Prostko
Managing Director of Comcast Ventures
Follow Rick Prostko:
About Comcast Ventures, Modsy, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan: Comcast Ventures partners with extraordinary entrepreneurs building transformative consumer and enterprise companies.
Matt Murphy
Managing Director of Menlo Ventures
Matt Murphy joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1999. Matt focuses on multi-stage investments across mobile and cloud infrastructure technologies. Matt is either a Director or works closely with the management teams of AppDynamics, Drawbridge, Egnyte, Insidesales.com, InstartLogic, PernixData, Puppet Labs, SessionM, Shazam, and Simplivity. Previously, Matt was a Board Observer at Google (from initial investment to IPO), launched the iFund in ’08 (a collaborative initiative with Apple to build the defining applications on the iOS platform), and led KPCB’s investments in AutoNavi (Nasdaq: AMAP, 2010) and Aerohive Networks (Nasdaq: HIVE, 2014). Matt also served as a Director at Shopkick (acquired by SK Planet 2014), Pelago (acquired by Groupon in 2011), Ocarina Networks (acquired by Dell in 2010), Dash Navigation (acquired by RIM in 2009) and Peakstream (acquired by Google in 2008). Before joining KPCB, Matt led product management at semiconductor startup Netboost (acquired by Intel) and worked at Sun Microsystems, where he led business development for the Network Systems Group and was a product line manager for networking platforms. Matt also worked in strategic and technical consulting for a number of years at Booz Allen Hamilton and Accenture. Matt holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
Follow Matt Murphy:
About Menlo Ventures, Netlify: Menlo Ventures provides capital for consumer, enterprise, and life science technologies from seed to growth stages.
