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 Partner operating in the Finance space. If you think a Managing Partner 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.
Effie Epstein
Managing Partner of Sound Ventures
Effie is the Managing Partner of Sound Ventures, an LA-based venture capital fund founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary.
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About Sound Ventures: Sound Ventures is a venture capital firm that seeks to invest in the technology sector.
Ronald Conway
Founder & Co-Managing Partner of SV Angel
Ronald Conway has been an active angel investor for over 15 years. He was the Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds (1998-2005) whose investments included: Google, Ask Jeeves, Paypal, Good Technology, Opsware, and Brightmail. Ronald was previously with National Semiconductor Corporation in marketing positions from 1973-1979, and Altos Computer Systems as a co-founder, President and CEO from 1979-1990. He eventually took Altos public in 1982 and served as CEO of Personal Training Systems (PTS) from 1991-1995. PTS went on to be acquired by SmartForce/SkillSoft. Ronald has served/serves on Boards/Advisory Boards including: Twitter, Digg, Brightmail, Ask Jeeves, Rupture (acquired by EA), Associated Content (acquired by Yahoo!), Facebook, RockYou, ScanScout, Zappos, Trulia, StumbleUpon, Plaxo (acquired by Comcast), Photobucket (acquired by Fox), and Anchor Intelligence (co-founder). Ronald was recently named #6 in Forbes Magazine Midas list of top deal-makers in 2008 and is actively involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors. Ronald is Vice Chairman of the UCSF Medical Foundation in SF, Board Member of The Tiger Woods Foundation, and SF Homeless Connect, and on the Benefit Committee of Ronald McDonald House, College Track, and the Blacked Eyed Peas-PeaPod Academy Foundation. Ronald is also featured in Gary Rivlin’s book _The Godfather of Silicon Valley: Ronald Conway and the Fall of the Dot-coms, described as ‘the man who has placed more bets on Internet start-ups than anyone else in Silicon Valley.
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About Applied Intuition, FWD.us, Personal Training Systems, Smart Tech Foundation, SV Angel: SV Angel is an angel firm that helps startups with business development, financing, M&A, and other strategic advice.
Topher Conway
Co-Managing Partner of SV Angel
Topher Conway is a Co-Managing Partner of SV Angel. Topher joined SV Angel in 2009, coming from a background in Business Development and Sales at EQAL. At SV Angel, he works particularly close with Flexport, Dapper Labs, Stripe, BetterUp, Coinbase, DoorDash, and Deel. He was included in Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 in 2015. Topher studied History at UCLA and is a member of the UCLA VC Fund, helping foster entrepreneurship at the University. Philanthropically, Topher is involved in a wide range of organizations including Family House, College Track, THORN Foundation, Giffords.org, TGR Foundation, and Team RWB.
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About SV Angel: SV Angel is an angel firm that helps startups with business development, financing, M&A, and other strategic advice.
Paul Buchheit
Managing Partner of Y Combinator
Paul Buchheit co-founded social network aggregator [FriendFeed](/organization/friendfeed), along with three other former [Google](/organization/google) employees. He is also an investor in FriendFeed and participated in a $5 million Series A round in February 2008. He was the 23rd employee at Google, where he created [Gmail](/product/gmail) and implemented many of its innovative features. He developed the original prototype of [Google AdSense](/product/google-adsense), and was responsible for Google’s famous “Don’t be evil” motto in a meeting.
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About Gmail, Y Combinator: Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a wide range of startups twice a year.
Saurabh Gupta
Managing Partner of DST Global
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About DST Global: DST Global is an investment firm that funds late-stage ventures in the internet industry.
Karan Wadhera
Managing Partner of Casa Verde Capital
Karan Wadhera is a Managing Partner at Casa Verde Capital. He is an experienced finance professional and investor, as well as an advisor for several young companies. Spending over a decade in Asia as a senior executive with Goldman Sachs and Nomura, he has had significant international experience. Karan holds a BA in Finance from Babson College.
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About Casa Verde Capital, Cayke: Casa Verde Capital is a venture capital firm specialized in seed investments.
Jamie McGurk
Managing Partner of Coatue
Jamie McGurk is a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm focused on identifying and funding world-class entrepreneurs in spanning both enterprise and consumer technology. Jamie has been focused on the technology space for his entire 15 year career, funding, advising and supporting management teams with revolutionary ideas. Jamie’s expertise spans M&A and capital raising in both public and private markets and is also an active angel investor in several emerging technology companies.
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About Coatue: Coatue invests in public and private equity markets focusing on the technology, media, and telecommunications industries.
Kris Fredrickson
Managing Partner of Coatue
Kris Fredrickson is Managing Partner at Coatue.
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About Coatue, Curology: Coatue invests in public and private equity markets focusing on the technology, media, and telecommunications industries.
Meyer Malka
Managing Partner of Ribbit Capital
Micky Malka (born Meyer Malka Rais) is an entrepreneur by design and investor at heart, focused on the utilization of technology to disrupt consumer financial services. He is based in Palo Alto, California where he is the Managing Director of Ribbit Capital. Micky is also the CEO and a founding member of MECK Partners, an investment partnership focused on investing and building businesses in financial services, energy and agribusiness, and the Co-Founder and Chairman of Lemon, Inc. He currently serves on the Board of Wonga, a company transforming the credit market by offering small, short term loans with more transparency, speed, convenience and flexibility than banks, high street lenders and other websites. Micky also serves on the Board of Peixe Urbano, the first and largest Latin-American local commerce website. Micky grew up in Venezuela where he learned the impact of devaluation and hyperinflation at a very young age. Living with hyperinflation allowed him to develop a skill he is still well known for; accurately and quickly running numbers in his head. He also saw first hand how technology could transform businesses. In 1993, at the age of 19, Micky, co-founded Heptagon Group, a securities and investment broker dealer servicing the Venezuelan and US markets. In 1996, he graduated with a degree in Economics from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, Venezuela and was one of the founders of the Wendy’s Hamburger’s franchise for Venezuela. It was one of the fastest growing food businesses worldwide with over 70 new store locations in the first 3 years. In 1998, Micky developed the online brokerage, Patagon by merging with Heptagon local operations. Patagon became Latin America’s first comprehensive Internet based financial services portal and dealer. The company expanded its online services to the United States and the rest of South America and was later acquired by the Spanish bank Banco Santander (NYSE: STD) for US$ 750 million. In 2000 Micky was the interim CEO for Banco Patagon the leader for online banking in Spain and Germany. In 2002, he co-founded Banco Lemon, a Brazilian retail bank serving the underbanked population) which became the largest private microfinance institution in Brazil. In 2009 it was acquired by Banco do Brasil, Latin America’s largest bank. Micky was also involved with Classified Media Group, an online classified company focusing on Colombia, Venezuela and Central America. The group was acquired in 2007 by MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI). In 2011 he co-founded Banco Bracce a Brazilian financial institution positioned as the merchant bank of choice for mid-cap companies in Brazil. In 2011 Meyer co-founded Lemon a service to help individuals keep track of their expenses.
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About Ribbit Capital: Ribbit Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies.
Colin Fan
Managing Partner, Americas, Asia of SoftBank Vision Fund
Colin Fan serves as the Head of Markets and Co-Head of Corporate Banking & Securities at Deutsche Bank AG. At Deutsche Bank, Mr. Fan is responsible for Cash Equities, Program Trading, Equity Derivatives and Prime Services. He serves as the Global Head of Convertibles Trading of Deutsche Bank. Mr. Fan served as Regional Head of Asia and Global Markets Equity Division of Deutsche Bank AG since September 30, 2005 and served a its Co-Head of Global Credit Trading since February 2008. From 2001 to 2004, he served as Head of Emerging Markets Credit Derivatives of Deutsche Bank. Mr. Fan holds a BA with honors in History and Science from Harvard University.
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About SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Deep Nishar
Senior Managing Partner, Americas of SoftBank Vision Fund
Deep Nishar is the Vice President of Product at LinkedIn, a position he took in December 2008. Prior to LinkedIn, Nishar was a long time Google executive who helped start its mobile business and other key products. As Director of Wireless Products at Google, Deep Nishar developed and implemented the product strategy for Google’s mobile products worldwide. Prior to Google, Deep worked at Siebel Systems where he was a member of the founding team of the Universal Application Network (UAN) business unit which grew to a $40 million a year run rate in its first year. Prior to Siebel, Deep founded Patkai Networks, a web services based software integration company. At Patkai, Deep built the product and engineering organizations and drove all of the business operations for the company. Additionally, Deep was an associate at The Boston Consulting Group and also held various product management, marketing, finance and engineering roles at Cummins Engine Company, where he was awarded three patents. Deep received his Bachelors in Technology with honors from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, where he was awarded the Institute Silver Medal. Deep also received a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School where he graduated with highest honors as a Baker Scholar.
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About SoftBank, SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Brian Wheeler
Managing Partner, General Counsel of SoftBank Vision Fund
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About SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Eric Chen
Managing Partner of SoftBank Vision Fund
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About Silver Lake, SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Anna Patterson
Founder & Managing Partner of Gradient Ventures
Anna Patterson is the Founder and Managing Partner at Gradient Ventures.
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About Google, Google, Gradient Ventures, Washington University in St. Louis: Gradient Ventures helps founders build transformational companies.
Adam Bain
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of 01 Advisors
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About 01 Advisors, Goat Group: 01A is a venture firm founded by a team of operators to help entrepreneurs build great companies.
Dick Costolo
Managing Partner & Co-Founder of 01 Advisors
Since October 2010, Dick has been the Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, where he was responsible for the growth and management of the overall business. Previously, as Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer, he oversaw monetization and day to day operations. Before joining Twitter, Dick was co-founder and CEO of FeedBurner, a digital content syndication platform that was acquired by Google in 2007. While at Google, Dick was Group Product Manager on the Ads team responsible for social media ads. Previously, Dick lived and worked in Chicago, where he founded and ran two digital media companies: SpyOnIt, a web page monitoring service, and Burning Door Networked Media, a web design and development consulting company. Dick was also an improv performer with the acclaimed Annoyance Theater. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in Computer Science.
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About 01 Advisors: 01A is a venture firm founded by a team of operators to help entrepreneurs build great companies.
Neil Mehta
Founder, Managing Partner of Greenoaks
Neil Mehta is the founder and a managing partner of Greenoaks Capital. Greenoaks is a leading investment firm focused on internet and technology businesses. Greenoaks makes concentrated, long-term investments in enduring businesses globally.
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About Greenoaks: Greenoaks is a global investment firm specializing in technology companies.
Benny Peretz
Managing Partner of Greenoaks
Benny Peretz is a Managing Partner of Greenoaks Capital. Prior to Greenoaks Capital, Benny co-founded WRKSHP, a leading mobile gaming company. Benny previously invested in public and private businesses globally with D.E. Shaw & Co., L.P. Benny holds a BSc from the Wharton School and BAS from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Greenoaks: Greenoaks is a global investment firm specializing in technology companies.
Haseeb Qureshi
Managing Partner of Dragonfly Capital Partners
Haseeb Qureshi is a Managing Partner of Dragonfly Capital. He is also a Pledger at Founders Pledge.
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About Dragonfly Capital Partners: Dragonfly Capital Partners are investing in and supporting the most promising opportunities in the cryptoasset class.
Brendan Wallace
Co-founder & Managing Partner of Fifth Wall
Brendan Wallace is a Co-founder and Managing Partner at Fifth Wall, where he guides the firm’s strategic vision. Prior to starting Fifth Wall, Brendan co-founded Identified, a workforce optimization data and analytics company that raised $33 million of venture funding and was acquired by Workday (NYSE: WKDY) in 2014. He also co-founded Cabify, the largest ridesharing service in Latin America, and has been an active investor, leading more than 60 angel investments including Bonobos, Dollar Shave Club, Lyft, SpaceX, Clutter, and Philz Coffee. Brendan started his career at Goldman Sachs in the real estate, hospitality, and gaming group before joining The Blackstone Group’s real estate private equity practice. Brendan is from New York City and currently lives in Venice. He graduated from Princeton University, where he received his BA in political science and economics. He received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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About Fifth Wall, Otter Rock Capital: Fifth Wall is a venture capital firm that focuses on technologies for the global real estate industry.
Andriy Mykhaylovskyy
Managing Partner and COO of Fifth Wall
Andriy is a Principal and COO at Fifth Wall. Previously, Andriy was a Principal and member of the founding team of Evergreen Coast Capital, a technology focused private equity group of Elliott Management Corporation. Prior to Evergreen Coast Capital, Andriy was a Vice President at The Gores Group, an operationally focused private equity fund, and before The Gores Group, Andriy was CFO of Identified, a data and analytics company focused on workforce optimization that raised $33 million of venture capital and was acquired by Workday (NYSE: WDAY) in 2014. Andriy started his career at Morgan Stanley in the global industrials investment banking group. He then worked as an Associate at Francisco Partners, a technology focused private equity firm. Andriy grew up in New York City and is originally from Ukraine. He graduated with honors from Princeton University where he studied at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Andriy received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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About Fifth Wall: Fifth Wall is a venture capital firm that focuses on technologies for the global real estate industry.
Brad Greiwe
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Fifth Wall
Brad Greiwe is a Co-founder and Managing Partner at Fifth Wall.
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About Fifth Wall: Fifth Wall is a venture capital firm that focuses on technologies for the global real estate industry.
Kishore Bopardikar
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Eileses Capital
Kishore Bopardikar is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Eileses Capital.
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About Eileses Capital: Eileses Capital is an investment firm that invests in companies that focuses on information technology.
Mary Meeker
Managing Partner of Bond
Mary Meeker joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in December 2010. She focuses on investments in the firm’s digital practice and helps lead KPCB’s Digital Growth Funds, targeting high-growth Internet companies that have achieved rapid adoption and scale. Mary serves on the boards of Square, Lending Club and DocuSign and has been involved in KPCB’s investments in SoundCloud, LegalZoom, Spotify, Twitter, Instacart, NextDoor, Stance, slack, Bitstrips, Houzz, Affectiva, One Kings Lane, Trendyol and Jawbone. She also previously led KPCB’s investments in Waze (acquired by Google), JD.com (NASDAQ: JD), Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB). From 1991 to 2010 she worked at Morgan Stanley and served as managing director and research analyst. Since beginning her career as a securities analyst in 1986, Mary has focused on discovering and understanding emerging technology trends, building relationships with visionary entrepreneurs and supporting category-defining companies during their critical phases of market adoption and growth. A prolific writer, Mary is the co-author of the industry-defining books The Internet Report (1995) and The Internet Advertising Report (1996). She is also the co-author of The Internet Retailing Report (1997), The Online Classified Advertising Report: It’s About Search/Find/Obtain (SFO) (2002), The China Internet Report (2004), The Mobile Internet Report (2009), and The Technology IPO Yearbooks. Beyond technology, Mary (and Liang Wu) created USA, Inc. (2011), an award winning, non-partisan report / video that looks at the U.S. government (and its financials) from a business perspective. Mary’s reports (including her annual Internet Trends presentations) are widely read around the world. While at Morgan Stanley, Mary covered emerging technology companies that have created more than 500,000 jobs over more than two decades and have increased their collective market value by more than $1.5 trillion dollars, as of September 2014. These companies include Activision, Adobe, Alibaba, Amazon.com, Apple, Dell, eBay, Electronic Arts, Google, Intuit, Microsoft, priceline.com and Yahoo!. Mary is credited with having a deep understanding of what makes businesses succeed and fail. Mary graduated from DePauw University with B.A. degree and received an M.B.A. from Cornell University and an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from DePauw.
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About Bond: Bond is a venture capital firm that supports visionary founders throughout their life cycle of innovation and growth.
Steve Jang
Founder & Managing Partner of Kindred Ventures
Steve Jang is a venture capital investor and technology entrepreneur. Based in San Francisco, Steve serves as founder and a managing partner of Kindred Ventures. As a generalist early stage venture fund, Kindred’s mission is to invest in brilliant and dedicated founders at the earliest stages of building their startup and, ultimately, our collective future. Over the past 12 years, Steve has backed over 100 companies across different theme areas, including Uber, Coinbase, Postmates, Tonal, Color Health, Zymergen, and Blue Bottle Coffee. Since 2009 and up until IPO, Steve has also served as an Advisor to Uber since the founding of the company, up through initial product launch, global expansion, and then IPO. Steve also serves as an Advisor at Expa, a startup studio based in SF and NY, mentoring startup teams on product development, team building, and company growth. Most recently as an entrepreneur, Steve served as co-founder of Bitski, a digital wallet and storefront service for NFTs. Previously, he was co-founder/CEO of SoundTracking, a popular mobile music service that was Apple’s Best iPhone Music App of 2011 and was acquired by Rhapsody in 2014. Prior to these startups, in 2005, he was the co-creator and founding team member of the world’s first and largest on-demand music streaming service which reached over 100 million monthly unique users before its eventual acquisition by MySpace. //Investment Theme Areas of Interest// * Online Marketplaces * Decentralized Systems and Crypto * ClimateTech & Sustainable Systems * Digital Health and Wellness * FinTech * Social Consumer Media * Developer/Creator Tools * Future of Work * Software-enabled Hardware //Representative Portfolio Companies Include// Marketplaces/Market Networks: Uber (IPO), Postmates (acq. by Uber), Poshmark (IPO), StyleSeat, Italic, Reserve (acq. by Resy), Drip (acq. Kickstarter), GrandSt (acq. by Etsy), RangeMe (acq. by ECRM) Decentralized Systems & Crypto: Coinbase, dYdX, Zora, CoinTracker, Mina Protocol, Bitski, Computable, Nervos Network, Origin Protocol, Harbor, Radar Relay, Set Protocol, Messari, Rarebits Health & Wellness: Tonal, Color Health, Heartbeat Health, Forward, Enso, Breathometer Sustainable Systems/Climate Tech: Zymergen, Linear Labs, Replenysh, Mootral, Connora Systems FinTech & LegalTech: Atrium, Bloom Credit, Coinbase, Catch Benefits Developer/Creator Tools: Red Planet Labs, Northflank, Optic, Anjuna Future of Work: Bravado, Torch, Braintrust, Fountain, Catch Food Innovation & CPG: Taika, Blue Bottle Coffee, Fort Point Beer Consumer/Social Media: Clubhouse Frontier Tech: Humane
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About Bitski, Kindred Ventures: Kindred Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital fund that supports startup companies.
Kanyi Maqubela
Managing Partner of Kindred Ventures
Kanyi is a Managing Partner at Kindred Ventures, an early stage venture fund investing in mission-driven technology companies at the earliest stages. Previously, he served as a Partner at Collaborative Fund. Kanyi is a co-founder at Heartbeat Health, and previously ran growth at One Block Off the Grid (acquired by $NRG) and was an early employee at Doostang (acquired by Universum Global). Kanyi has also served as a Lecturer and Adjunct at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, a curriculum adapted from his time in undergrad at Stanford University, where he studied Philosophy.
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About Kindred Ventures: Kindred Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital fund that supports startup companies.
Aileen Lee
Founder and Managing Partner of Cowboy Ventures
Aileen is the founder of Cowboy Ventures, a seed-stage focused fund. They seek to back exceptional teams building technology that re-imagines work and personal life in large and growing markets – what they call “Life 2.0”. She was formerly a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and the CEO of RMG Networks. A graduate of MIT, Aileen has an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.
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About All Raise, Broadway Angels, Cowboy Ventures, nWay: Cowboy Ventures is a generalist seed-stage fund focused fund investing in technology startups.
Roberto Sanabria
Managing Partner of Expa
Roberto Sanabria is Managing Partner of Expa, overseeing the company’s day-to-day operations and working closely on early stage projects. Previously, Roberto held business analytics and finance roles at LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Google. Roberto was born in Venezuela.
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About Expa, Input.com: Expa supports early-stage startups through expertise, access, and funding.
Michael J. Pellini
Managing Partner of Section 32
Michael Pellini, M.D., is a Managing Partner of Section 32, a tech and life-science-based venture capital fund. He served as CEO of Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ:FMI) from May 2011 until he transitioned to Chairman in February 2017 through the close of Roche’s (NASDAQ:RHHBY) acquisition of FMI in August 2018. He was President and COO of Clarient, Inc. (“Clarient”), which was acquired by GE Healthcare in 2010. He also currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Tango Therapeutics, Singular Genomics, the Personalized Medicine Coalition, and the Mission Hospital Foundation. As a physician with more than 20 years of executive experience with companies at the forefront of clinical diagnostics and genomics, Dr. Pellini brings a breadth of understanding in personalized medicine, with a particular interest and focus in cancer. Dr. Pellini is a member of the President’s Leadership Council at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, as well as the Advisory Board for Mission Hospital’s Cancer Institute (Provident/St. Joseph Health). Dr. Pellini received a BA from Boston College, an MBA from Drexel University and an MD from Jefferson Medical College.
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About Section 32: Section 32 is a venture capital fund that invests at the cutting edge of technology, healthcare, and life sciences.
Andrew Harrison
Managing Partner of Section 32
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About Section 32: Section 32 is a venture capital fund that invests at the cutting edge of technology, healthcare, and life sciences.
Lo Toney
Founding Managing Partner of Plexo Capital
Lo is the Founding Managing Partner of Plexo Capital, which he incubated and spun out from GV, based on a strategy to increase access to early stage deal flow. Plexo Capital invests as an LP into emerging seed stage VCs and also invests directly into select companies sourced from the portfolios of VCs where Plexo Capital has an LP commitment. Investors in Plexo Capital include the venture capital units of top corporate VCs, prominent family offices and technology executives. Prior to founding Plexo Capital, Lo was a Partner on the investing team at GV where he focused on marketplaces, mobile and consumer products. Before GV, Lo was a Partner with Comcast Ventures where he led the Catalyst Fund and worked with the main fund where he focused on mobile messaging and marketplaces. He also worked with Zynga as the GM of Zynga Poker with full P+L responsibility for Zynga’s largest franchise at that time. During his leadership, web bookings increased by over 150% with margin expansion. Lo has also held executive roles with Nike + eBay as well as startups funded by top tier investors. Lo received his M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business (University of California at Berkeley where he completed the Management of Technology program – a joint curriculum program with the College of Engineering. Lo received his B.S. from Hampton University in Virginia.
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About Plexo Capital: Plexo Capital is a venture fund formed inside GV that seeks to make investments into women and minority seed-stage VCs.
David Krane
CEO & Managing Partner of GV
David is the CEO & Managing Partner at GV and oversees the fund’s global activities. He invests in a wide range of technology companies including Uber, Nest, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Urban Engines. David’s Google career began more than 17 years ago, as director of Global Communications and Public Affairs. In this role, David oversaw the company’s strategic communications programs worldwide, and worked as a member of the senior leadership team to grow Google from a small startup to a multi-billion dollar global enterprise. David’s prior professional experience spanned both startup and public companies, including Apple Computer, QUALCOMM, Four11 (now Yahoo! Mail), and two computer security software developers. David is also on the board of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (MGM), a member of Young President’s Organization (YPO), a trustee of San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum of Art, and a Menlo/Atherton Little League baseball coach. David received his Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Indiana University Bloomington. As a proud Hoosier alumnus, he serves on the Dean’s advisory board for the IU School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. David resides in the Bay Area with his wife, three children, and their labradoodle.
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About Google, GV: GV provides venture capital funding to bold new companies.
Graham Spencer
Managing Partner of GV
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About GV, Santa Fe Institute: GV provides venture capital funding to bold new companies.
Jon Soberg
Managing Partner of MS&AD Ventures
Jon Soberg joined MS&AD Ventures as Managing Partner in 2018.
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About CerraCap Ventures, MS&AD Ventures, SocietyOne, The Wharton School, True Link Financial: MS&AD Ventures is an early-stage venture fund focused on big data businesses related to the insurance industry.
Owen Van Natta
Founder and Managing Partner of Prefix Capital
Owen Van Natta is currently Founder and Managing Partner of Prefix Capital, an early stage investment fund founded in 2019. Owen is also a Founder and Managing Partner at 415 Investments. Previously, Owen was the Executive Vice President of Business at Zynga. He was responsible for the company’s revenue strategy, corporate development, international expansion, and brand. Owen was also a member of Zynga’s Board of Directors. Before Zynga, Owen served as Chief Executive Officer of MySpace, where he was responsible for all aspects of the company’s strategic vision and the execution of its global business initiatives. Owen joined the MySpace team after serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Project Playlist, a music sharing website allowing users to search for music, create custom playlists, and share the content with friends. Prior to Project Playlist, Van Natta was the Chief Operating Officer at Facebook, where he focused on revenue operations, business development, and strategic partnerships. Earlier in his career, Owen was Vice President of Worldwide Business and Corporate Development at Amazon.com, where he managed global marketing programs and strategic partnerships. He was part of the founding team of A9.com, the Amazon.com search company, and was responsible for site operations and sponsored-link advertising. Owen holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
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About 415, Prefix Capital: Prefix Capital is an early-stage, deep-tech VC that invests in foundational technologies.
Babak Poushanchi
Founder & Managing Partner of Cota Capital
Babak Poushanchi is a Founder and Managing Partner at Cota Capital. Babak is responsible for leading public investing activities across the Firm’s funds. As Portfolio Manager of the Cota Growth Fund, he is directly responsible for the management of the investment team covering sourcing, evaluation, and portfolio/risk management of the Firm’s public investments. Babak also serves on the Firm’s Investment Committee, overseeing investments across its private and public portfolios. Babak and Bobby Yazdani founded Cota Capital in 2015. Leveraging Bobby’s early stage investing and operational expertise, and Babak’s late stage and public investing expertise, Cota was designed to invest across all the stages of the lifecycle of a company. Their investment platform is built around the desire to create a research and knowledge platform, and to deploy their own capital into the multi-decade theme of the digital transformation of the enterprise technology stack. Prior to Cota, Babak served as Co-Founder and Co-Portfolio Manager of Newbrook Capital, a global equity long/short fund focused on public investments across the technology, media, consumer, and industrial sectors. Babak was also a Venture Partner at Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, a leading technology accelerator based in New York. Previously, Babak was on the investment teams at Karsch Capital, a global equity long/short fund focused on public investments across all sectors, and Indosuez Capital, a leading middle market merchant banking group focused on equity and debt private investments across the capital structure and a broad range of sectors. Babak has a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University.
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About Cota Capital, Fanatic Sports Corp.: Cota Capital is an SEC-registered multi-stage investment firm focused on private and public enterprise technology companies.
Chi-Hua Chien
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Goodwater Capital
Chi-Hua Chien is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Goodwater Capital.Prior to co-founding Goodwater, Chi-Hua was a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Chi-Hua serves on the Board of Directors of Path, Lithium (fka Klout), Zaarly, Chill, Level Money, and Zumper. He also invested in Chegg, Inspirato, Karma Science (acquired by FB), Spotify, and Twitter. Previously, Chi-Hua was an Associate at Accel Partners, where he originated Accel’s investment in Facebook. Chi-Hua was an early employee or co-founder of four startups including Coremetrics (acquired by IBM), where he led the marketing and inside sales teams, served as interim CFO, and was appointed to the Office of the President. Chi-Hua fell in love with startups at Stanford University where he earned a BS in Industrial Engineering, a BA in Economics, an MS in Industrial Engineering, and an MBA. At Stanford he was named a Mayfield Fellow, President’s Scholar, and Arjay Miller Scholar. Chi-Hua also serves on the board of charity: water, a non-profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations.
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About Citizen, Goodwater Capital: Goodwater Capital is a venture capital firm that focuses on consumer tech startups.
Eric J. Kim
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Goodwater Capital
Eric Kim was a Managing Director with Maverick Capital where he focused on the Firm’s private investments globally and led a number of investments in technology-based companies. Prior to joining Maverick, Eric co-founded Biomimedia and also worked in the US and Asia as a member of McKinsey & Company’s global strategy practice focusing on M&A, technology licensing, turnaround strategies and new product launches. Eric received his MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and his Bachelors Degree in Cognitive Science from Yale University (Magna Cum Laude), where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was a recipient of the Richard U. Light Fellowship.
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About Goodwater Capital, Musical.ly: Goodwater Capital is a venture capital firm that focuses on consumer tech startups.
Vincent Diallo
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Interlace Ventures
Vincent Diallo serves as the Managing Partner at Interlace Ventures and Bleu Capital. Diallo served as the Chief Financial Officer at Sinodis (Shanghai) from 2011 to 2015. He worked for 7 years at Deloitte. Diallo has cross industry exposure from manufacturing to distribution.
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About Bleu Capital, Interlace Ventures: Interlace Ventures is an early-stage and seed-stage fund investing in the Future of Commerce.
Matt Hobart
Co-Managing Partner of TPG Growth
Hobart is a Partner based in San Francisco. He leads the Healthcare and Financial Services sectors for TPG Growth. Matt is currently a board member of Petbarn and iMDsoft. Previous board service includes The Vincraft Group, Schiff Nutrition International, Wil Research and Agraquest. Prior to joining TPG Growth in 2004, Mr. Hobart was the Vice President of Corporate Development for Critical Path, where he was part of a turnaround team that led Critical Path through a major financial and operational restructuring. Previously, Matt co-founded and served as a Managing Director of Vectis Group, a venture corporation that capitalized and built companies globally, in partnership with leading U.S. technology businesses. Prior to Vectis Group, Mr. Hobart made private equity investments in the US and Europe for the $2.2 billion Morgan Stanley Capital Partners III L.P. and helped raise and invest the $350 million Morgan Stanley Global Emerging Markets Fund.
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About TPG Growth: TPG Growth specializes in growth equity and middle-market buyout opportunities.
Philip O’Connor
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Blackhorn Ventures
Phil is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Blackhorn Ventures, an early stage venture fund investing in technology that increases the resource efficiency of essential industries. Prior to Blackhorn, Phil was co-founder and CEO of PAX Pure, an industrial water treatment company. For the past five years Philip has been an investor and advisor focusing on improving natural resource use.
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About Blackhorn Ventures, Conservation International: Blackhorn Ventures is an early stage venture firm that invests in companies using cutting edge engineering to improve resource productivity.
John Vrionis
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Unusual Ventures
John Vrionis is the Founder and Managing Partner at Unusual Ventures.
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About Unusual Ventures: Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital offering hands-on support and expertise to startups on their early-stage journey.
David Singer
Managing Partner of Maverick Ventures
David has led Maverick’s private investments since he joined Maverick in 2004. Maverick Ventures was established in 2015. Previously David was a founder and CEO of three companies: Affymetrix; Corcept Therapeutics; and Genesoft Pharmaceuticals, the latter two in which Maverick invested. David currently serves on the boards of private companies in healthcare and software-driven marketplace businesses, and one public company, Castlight Health. During his career, David has served on the boards of 19 private companies including five that became public companies during his service. David received a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. He was a Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Rand Corporation’s Health Advisory Board. He is currently Vice Chair of College Track and was formerly Vice President of the San Francisco Health Commission. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Diana Kapp, and their three kids.
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About College Track, Maverick Ventures: Maverick Ventures is a registered investment advisor managing private investment funds for qualified investors.
Patrick Gallagher
Co-founder & Managing Partner of Tuesday Capital
Pat has dedicated the past two decades to working with and investing in some of the most exciting technology startups in Silicon Valley. He co-founded CrunchFund in 2011 with Michael Arrington and has held the role of managing partner since the fund’s inception. Successful companies CrunchFund has invested in include Cruise, Digital Ocean, and x.ai, amongst more than 200 other leading early-stage startups. Prior to CrunchFund, Pat’s VC experience included VantagePoint Capital Partners and Morgan Stanley Venture Partners. He has invested across all segments of information technology and has been on numerous boards including Constant Contact (public), Plateau Systems (Board Observer, acquired by SuccessFactors), Immobilien Scout (acquired by Deutsche Telecom), and TouchTunes (acquired by Searchlight Capital). Patrick graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a bachelor’s degree in economics and literature.
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About Tuesday Capital: Tuesday Capital (formerly known as CrunchFund) is a seed stage focused venture firm
Anthony Lin
Managing Partner and Head of Intel Capital of Intel Capital
Anthony Lin is vice president and senior managing director of Intel Capital. He is responsible for all areas of strategic growth, including equity investing, M&A, and new business incubation. Lin is responsible for leading, managing and driving Intel’s mergers and acquisitions that contribute to Intel’s growth strategy. Lin joined Intel’s M&A team in 2008 and has more than 24 years of experience in technology M&A, investments, strategy, financial planning and business development. As head of Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment organization, Lin also leads equity investments in innovative technology startups and companies worldwide. The Intel Capital organization delivers market leading returns by providing not only financial investments, but also the full resources of Intel to its portfolio companies. Intel Capital is one of the largest, most successful and longest serving corporate venture organizations. Lin was formerly the leader of the equity international investing practice and a member of the investment committee. Lin heads the Emerging Growth and Incubation Group focused on nimble innovation and developing new technologies and businesses internally. Lin also leads the Intel Sports Group which resulted from a product of inorganic and organic efforts. Before joining Intel, Lin worked for 12 years in corporate finance, M&A and private equity roles at Banc of America Securities, ASAT, Merrill Lynch and PaineWebber. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
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About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Court Coursey
Managing Partner of TomorrowVentures
Coursey is a serial entrepreneur having founded his first business at 14 years old. He has built a number of successful companies over the past 20 years. Coursey brings operational expertise and an extensive variety of contacts in a number of industries around the globe that range from technology to finance to entertainment. In addition to his efforts with TomorrowVentures, Coursey supports a wide variety of philanthropic efforts by bringing his entrepreneurial expertise to the non-profit forum.
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About TomorrowVentures: TomorrowVentures is an early stage venture capital firm that funds lifestyle-focused companies.
Robert Schwartz
Managing Partner of Third Point Ventures
Since June 2000, Robert Schwartz has been Managing Partner of Third Point Ventures, the Sunnyvale, California based venture capital arm of Third Point LLC, which is a registered investment adviser based in New York and the investment manager of the Third Point Funds (AUM over $17B). Robert Schwartz is presently a director of Elastica, Kumu Networks, CloudVelox, Apigee, Formation Data Systems, KidoZen, Krimmeni Technologies, R2 Semiconductor, Technocom Wireless, and EnPhase Energy. Previously he lead investments in Radia Communications (acquired by Texas Instruments), LitePoint (acquired by Teradyne), Global Locate (Acquired by Broadcom), EnPhase Energy (Nasdaq : ENPH), and IQ Engines (Acquired by Yahoo!) . Robert Schwartz was named to the Annual Always On List Of Top 100 Venture Capitalists. Previously, for 23 years, Robert Schwartz was the President of RF Associates North, a privately held communications semiconductor manufacturer’s representative firm. Robert Schwartz holds a multi-disciplinary engineering degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Third Point Ventures: Third Point Ventures is an investment firm that focuses on enterprise, fintech, mobile, and healthcare innovation.
Fred Harman
Managing Partner of Oak Investment Partners
Fred Harman, Managing Partner, joined Oak Investment Partners as a General Partner in 1994. Fred’s primary investment focus is on Consumer Internet and Internet New Media. Fred is currently on the Boards of Aspect Software, Brit Media, Dot & Bo, Demand Media, FRS, Keep Holdings, Limelight Networks, Milyoni, NowThis Media, RazorGator, Rebel Mouse, Social Programming, sovrn, Sutherland Global Services, Thrillist Media Group and U.S. Auto Parts. Fred has also led investments in and/or served on the Boards of aQuantive (acquired by Microsoft), Allyes (acquired by Focus Media), Bleacher Report (acquired by Time Warner), Campus Pipeline (acquired by SCT), Fastclick (acquired by ValueClick), Captura (acquired by Concur), Cobalt (acquired by ADP), Exodus, Huffington Post (acquired by AOL), ILOG, IMS (acquired by Celestica), Inktomi, Knowledge Networks (acquired by GfK), Pivotal, Primus, Qpass (acquired by Amdocs), Sanmina/SCI, and SPSS (acquired by IBM). Prior to Oak, Fred worked for seven years with Morgan Stanley’s Venture Capital Group where he was a General Partner. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Fred worked in Business Development at Hughes Communications where he was involved in the formation of the predecessor to DirecTV. Fred received an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business and a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University where he was a Hughes Fellow. Fred is on the Board of the Stanford Hospital, a Trustee of Sacred Heart Schools, a Trustee of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation, and a co-owner of the Golden State Warriors.
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About Oak Investment Partners: Oak Investment Partners is a multi-stage venture capital and private equity firm.
David Fisher
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of 9Yards Capital
David focuses on investments in the enterprise and consumer segments. Previously, David worked at the private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners and the investment bank JP Morgan & Chase. He is an alum of Stanford GSB, and graduated summa cum laude from The University of Pennsylvania.
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About 9Yards Capital: 9YC is a global investment firm that invests in tech enabled consumer and enterprise fintech and logistics companies at the growth stage.
Theo Osborne
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of 9Yards Capital
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About 9Yards Capital: 9YC is a global investment firm that invests in tech enabled consumer and enterprise fintech and logistics companies at the growth stage.
Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf
Managing Partner of YL Ventures
Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf founded YL Ventures, which invests early in core-technology software companies in and around the Internet, and accelerates their evolution via value-added involvement and Silicon Valley-based business development. Yoav has been a successful entrepreneur, investor, and consultant in the technology and new media fields for the past two decades. He is the founder and managing partner of YL Ventures, a global venture capital firm that invests in high-technology start-up companies and, within a short time, brings them to market. In addition to 6Scan, Yoav serves on the board of directors of ClickTale (customer experience analytics), Upstream Commerce (automated competitive pricing analytics) and BlazeMeter (self-service load testing cloud) and is the lead investor of Seculert (security threat intelligence). Yoav served on the board of AcceloWeb (browser experience optimization) until it was acquired by Limelight Networks. Yoav was the CEO and cofounder of Movota (mobile gaming) acquired by Bertelsmann, the CTO and cofounder of ExchangePath (online payments) acquired by CMGI, and the CEO and cofounder of PcEnterntainer Magazine. Yoav was also an associate at DFJ Gotham Ventures, studied at IMD, and holds an MBA from Columbia University.
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About YL Ventures: YL Ventures funds and supports seed-stage entrepreneurs in the cybersecurity sector.
Boris Putanec
Managing Partner of Hillsven Capital
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About Hillsven Capital: Hillsven Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on startups based in Silicon Valley and Israel.
Peter Svennilson
Managing Partner and Founder of The Column Group
Peter Svennilson is the Managing Partner and Founder of The Column Group, a biotech VC fund based in San Francisco. He has 23 years of experience in corporate finance, investment banking, and venture capital. He was the founder and a partner of Three Crowns Capital, a leading backer of a new generation of US biotechnology companies. He helped found companies such as Rosetta, PTC, Tercica, and Somalogic. Over the past 12 years he has helped finance and develop biotech companies, including Tularik, Sunesis, Chemocentryx, Infinity, AVEO, Rinat, and FivePrime. He is currently a Board Director of NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Aragon Pharmaceuticals and PTC Therapeutics and has served on the Boards of Directors of several other biotechnology companies, including Rosetta, Somalogic, and ChemoCentryx. Before founding Three Crowns Capital, he was the Associate Managing Director of European Investment Banking Origination at Nomura Securities in London. He is currently a trustee for the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
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About Nomura Holdings, The Column Group, Three Crowns Capital: The Column Group is a venture capital firm dedicated to developing biotechnology companies.
David Goeddel
Managing Partner of The Column Group
Goeddel co-founded Tularik in November 1991, was Vice President of Research until 1996 and CEO from April 1996 – August 2004, when Tularik was acquired by Amgen. He served as Amgen’s first Senior Scientific Vice President until May 2006. Prior to Tularik, he was the first scientist hired by Genentech, Inc. and from 1978 to 1993 served in various positions, including Fellow, Staff Scientist and Director of Molecular Biology. His pioneering work in the fields of gene cloning and expression of human proteins has been the basis for five significant marketed therapeutics developed by Genentech, including human insulin, human growth hormone, interferon-alpha, interferon-gamma and tissue plasminogen activator. Goeddel has received numerous scientific awards including the Scheele Medal, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, the Inventor of the Year Award, the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award, the Howley Prize for Arthritis Research and the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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About The Column Group: The Column Group is a venture capital firm dedicated to developing biotechnology companies.
Bryan Taylor
Managing Partner of Advent International
Bryan Taylor joined Advent International in February 2019 as a Managing Partner and head of the firm’s technology investment team. He has been investing in the technology sector for more than 18 years and has led or participated in over 30 investments across a range of deal sizes, from later-stage growth equity to large-scale buyouts. Bryan has worked on Advent’s investment in Definitive Healthcare and Transaction Services Group. Prior to Advent, Bryan worked on over 30 investments in the technology sector, including, most recently, McAfee, Ellucian, Tanium, Box, GreenSky, Advent Software, CCC Information Services and Eze Software. Most recently, Bryan was co-head of TPG Capital’s technology group, where he was instrumental in building the firm’s software investment capabilities and jointly led a 20-person team. Prior to joining TPG, Bryan was a founder and Managing Director at Symphony Technology Group, a private equity firm focused exclusively on software and technology services investments. Before Symphony, he was a Manager at Bain & Company, where he worked in the private equity and technology practice groups in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Bryan graduated with honors from Stanford University and earned an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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About Advent International: Advent International is a global private equity firm that invests in the business and financial services.
Ben Yu
Managing Partner of Sierra Ventures
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About Akasha Imaging, Everestlabs.AI, Invisible AI, Movandi, Podcastle, Q-CTRL, Sierra Ventures: Sierra Ventures is an early-stage venture firm investing globally with a focus on next generation enterprise and emerging technologies.
Mark Fernandes
Managing Partner of Sierra Ventures
Mark Fernandes is the Managing Partner at Sierra Ventures.
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About Sierra Ventures: Sierra Ventures is an early-stage venture firm investing globally with a focus on next generation enterprise and emerging technologies.
Tim Guleri
Managing Partner of Sierra Ventures
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About Sierra Ventures: Sierra Ventures is an early-stage venture firm investing globally with a focus on next generation enterprise and emerging technologies.
Matthew Hobart
Co-Managing Partner of TPG
Matt Hobart is the Co-Managing Partner at TPG Growth based in San Francisco, where he oversees the platform’s healthcare and financial services groups. Prior to joining TPG in 2004, Matt worked at Morgan Stanley Capital Partners. Matt graduated Summa Cum Laude from Miami University with a degree in economics, and from Stanford University with an MBA He currently sits on the Boards of Access Clinical Partners, Cancer Treatment Services International, Evolent Health, iMDsoft, Northstar Anesthesia, and Precision for Medicine.
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About TPG: TPG is a private investment firm that manages capital across a family of funds.
Orlando Bravo
Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo
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About Thoma Bravo: Thoma Bravo is a private equity firm with a focus on investing in software and technology companies.
Seth Boro
Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo
Seth Boro is the Managing Partner at San Francisco Office of Thoma Bravo, LLC. since June 2005.Previously, Seth was an Associate at Summit Partners and an Analyst at Credit Suisse and First Marathon Securities (National Bank Financial).Seth also worked at ServiceSource in San Francisco, CA.Seth currently serves as a Member of the Board of Directors at Hyland Software, Vision Solutions, LANDesk Software, Inc., Tripwire, Inc., Blue Coat Systems, Inc., InfoVista, S.A., Mediware Systems, Inc., Keynote Systems, Inc., Empirix, Inc., Global Healthcare Exchange, Inc., SailPoint Technologies, Inc., Compuware Corporation, Dynatrace, Riverbed Technology, Inc., DigiCert, Inc. and SolarWinds, Inc.. Previously, Seth served as a Member of the Board of Directors at Flexera Software, Inc., Entrust, Inc., SonicWALL, Inc., Network Instruments, LLC. and Crossbeam Systems, Inc.. Seth earned his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and his Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen’s University School of Business.
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About Thoma Bravo: Thoma Bravo is a private equity firm with a focus on investing in software and technology companies.
Scott Crabill
Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo
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About Thoma Bravo: Thoma Bravo is a private equity firm with a focus on investing in software and technology companies.
Justin Fishner-Wolfson
Co-founder, Managing Partner of 137 Ventures
Justin is the managing partner of 137 Ventures. He previously worked at Founders Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm, where he was responsible for all aspects of the investment process and led the firm’s financial and operations functions. While there, he guided the investment in SpaceX, the first private company to develop a liquid fueled rocket to achieve Earth orbit. He also served on the boards of Inigral, Prior Knowledge and Social Gaming Network (SGN). Prior to that, Justin was the CEO of SSE, a conglomerate of businesses at Stanford University. He led SSE to the largest expansion of revenue and profitability in the organization’s history. Earlier in his career, Justin was the director of sales at Cellfire, a mobile promotional marketing service and worked as an engineer at Raytheon/Texas Instruments. Justin also served under Alan Larson, the Undersecretary for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department. He is a graduate of the Kauffman Fellows Program, the leading educational fellowship in venture capital, in addition to being a Mayfield fellow, part of Stanford University’s Technology Ventures Program. Justin holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in management science and engineering and a master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University.
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About 137 Ventures: 137 Ventures is a growth stage venture fund with an innovative secondary investment structure.
Alex Jacobson
Co-founder, Managing Partner of 137 Ventures
Alex is a managing partner of 137 Ventures, an investment firm focused on private technology companies. He also serves as the chairman of ImmunePath, a biotechnology company that he co-founded, which develops cell therapies to treat the effects of radiation exposure. Previously, Alex was an entrepreneur in residence (EIR) at Founders Fund, where he focused on deep science investing. While there, he played a principal role in the acquisition of Powerset, a natural language search company, by Microsoft. Alex also led the diligence processes that resulted in their investments in Halcyon Molecular, Navia Systems and SpaceX. From 2005 to 2007, he served as the chief architect of what has now become Happstack, today’s leading open-source Haskell application server. In 1998, Alex founded Shop.com, a multi-vendor shopping and comparison website, which became an Idealab! Company that he eventually sold to Altura Ventures in 2003. In 1995, he founded Interband, an advertising management and measurement company, which he sold to Winstar Communication in 1997. Earlier in his career, Alex worked as a researcher at the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research at the National Eye Institute and as a programmer for the Department of Cognitive Neuroscience at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Alex holds a bachelors degree in cognitive science from Brown University.
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About 137 Ventures: 137 Ventures is a growth stage venture fund with an innovative secondary investment structure.
Ashmeet Sidana
Founder, Chief Engineer and Managing Partner of Engineering Capital
Ashmeet is the Founder and Managing Partner of Engineering Capital. His experience includes managing venture capital funds, serving on multiple Boards of Directors, and helping build the industry leading products VMware ESX Server and Silicon Graphics WebFORCE. Before this last decade as a venture capitalist Ashmeet was an operating executive with hands-on operating experience as a CEO and Entrepreneur. Realized exits include Freewheel (acquired by Comcast), InQuira (acquired by Oracle), Altor (acquired by Juniper), Appurify (acquired by Google) and PrivateCore (acquired by Facebook). Previous investments and Boards of Directors (not yet realized) include Zetta.net, SimplyHired and Azure Power. Ashmeet came to venture from VMware, where he ran product management for their flagship product – ESX Server. Before VMware, Ashmeet was the Founder and CEO of Sidana Systems, Inc. He started his career at Hewlett Packard and Silicon Graphics as an engineer. Ashmeet received an MBA from Wharton, MS in Computer Science from Stanford University and a BS in Computer Science from USC. In his spare time he can be found planning his second trip to Mt. Everest.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Engineering Capital: Engineering Capital partners with great entrepreneurs driven by technical insights—before traditional venture firms are willing.
Ravi Viswanathan
Founder & Managing Partner of NewView Capital
Ravi joined NEA in 2004 and co-heads the firm’s Technology Venture Growth Equity investment practice. Ravi’s investments in the software and technology sectors include Acquia, Bloomreach, Boku, Captora, Desire2Learn, Mulesoft and Stitcher. Ravi’s investments in other sectors include Availink, Boulder Wind Power, Goji, Imergy Power, PURE Energies, and Suniva. Prior investments include Arcot (acquired by CA), Braintree (acquired by eBay), GlobalLogic (acquired by Apax Partners), IM Logic (acquired by Symantec), Sanera (acquired by McData), Tele Atlas (Euronext: TA, acquired by TomTom), and ViXs (TXS: VXS). Prior to NEA, Ravi worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co. as co-head of the technology practice in their private equity group. Ravi has also worked for McKinsey & Company and Raychem Corporation focusing on R&D in various materials systems. Ravi received an MBA from Wharton and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from UCSB where he focused his search on materials science applications. Ravi also earned a BS in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He currently serves on the Wharton Entrepreneurship Advisory Board.
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About MindTickle, NewView Capital: NewView Capital has developed a new model in venture capital to drive sustainable growth for entrepreneurs.
Jack Leeney
Managing Partner & Co-Founder of 7 Global Capital
Jack Leeney is the Chairman & CEO at 7GC & Co. Holdings.
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About 7 Global Capital, 7GC & Co. Holdings, Capsule, Jyve Corporation, Reliance Jio, Roofstock: 7GC is a boutique private investment firm investing in growth stage technology companies
John Diekman
Founder & Managing Partner of 5AM Ventures
John Diekman, Ph.D. is a founder and Managing Partner of 5AM Ventures. Prior to founding 5AM, Diekman was a founder and Managing Director of Bay City Capital, a life sciences investment firm. Previously, Diekman was Chairman and CEO of Affymetrix, Inc, where he still serves as a Director. Diekman currently serves as Board Chairman of Ambrx and Phenomix as well as on the Boards of Directors of Ingenuity Systems, Marcadia, PhaseRx and Wildcat Discovery. He is also Vice-Chairman of Singapore’s Life Science Fund, Bio*One Capital. He was recently named a Trustee of Princeton University and is also former Trustee of The California Institute of Technology and The Scripps Research Institute, where he served as Chairman. Diekman holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University. Diekman is based in the Menlo Park, CA office.
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About 5AM Ventures: 5AM Ventures is a venture capital firm that aims to finance seed and early-stage life sciences companies.
Scott M. Rocklage
Managing Partner of 5AM Ventures
Scott M. Rocklage, Ph.D. joined 5AM Ventures in 2003 as a Venture Partner and became a Managing Partner in 2004. Dr. Rocklage has over 20 years of healthcare management experience with strategic leadership responsibilities that have led to the successful approval of three U.S. New Drug Applications by the FDA (Omniscan™, Teslascan® and Cubicin®), and entered six drug candidates into clinical trials. Dr. Rocklage has served as Chairman and CEO of Cubist Pharmaceuticals, President and CEO of Nycomed Salutar, President, CEO and Chairman of Nycomed Interventional and has also held various R&D positions at Salutar and Catalytica. Dr. Rocklage currently serves as Board Chairman of Achaogen, Relypsa and Semprus as well as on the Boards of WaveRx, Pulmatrix and Variation and the Board of Associates at the Whitehead Institute. Dr. Rocklage was formerly Executive Chairman of Ilypsa (acquired by Amgen) and Miikana (acquired by EntreMed). Dr. Rocklage received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Rocklage is based in the Waltham, MA office.
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About 5AM Ventures: 5AM Ventures is a venture capital firm that aims to finance seed and early-stage life sciences companies.
Nate Redmond
Managing Partner of Alpha Edison
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About Alpha Edison, Basepoint Ventures, Rustic Canyon Partners: Alpha Edison is a venture capital firm that focuses on technology-driven innovation.
Nick Grouf
Managing Partner of Alpha Edison
Nick Grouf is the Managing Partner of Alpha Edison and Clementine Capital. He was the Managing Director of Firefly Holdings and a former Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of privately-held Spot Runner before that. Grouf and longtime business partner, David Waxman, have successfully built and sold two prior companies, PeoplePC and Firefly Network, both of which focused on harnessing the democratizing power of the Internet. Grouf formerly served as Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of PeoplePC, Inc., which was dedicated to simplifying the process of joining the online world and grew to become the fifth-largest Internet service provider in the U.S. PeoplePC served over 600,000 individual subscribers as well as Fortune 500 corporations such as Ford Motor Company, Vivendi Universal and Delta Air Lines and The New York Times. In August 2000, Grouf took the company public and in 2002, it was acquired by EarthLink. Prior to founding PeoplePC, Grouf served as a Venture Partner at Softbank Technology Ventures, a venture capital firm based in San Jose, California.Grouf was also the Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Firefly Network, Inc., which was acquired by Microsoft in 1998. Its core product, the Firefly Passport, became the foundation for Microsoft’s Passport and .NET initiatives. While at Firefly, Grouf was also a Co-Founder and Director of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). Co-Founder of TrustE. Grouf spent his early career with McKinsey & Co. in its New York office, where he focused on media and technology companies, as well as at Goldman Sachs, where he worked in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group. A native New Yorker, Grouf holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. B.A. from Yale, where he was awarded the Norman Holmes Pearson Prize for Best Thesis.
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About Alpha Edison: Alpha Edison is a venture capital firm that focuses on technology-driven innovation.
Sunil Nagaraj
Managing Partner of Ubiquity Ventures
Sunil Nagaraj is the Founder and Managing Partner of Ubiquity Ventures, a seed-stage institutional venture capital firm that invests in “software in the real world” startups, primarily around smart hardware and machine intelligence applications. Prior to founding Ubiquity Ventures, Sunil spent six years as an investor with Bessemer Venture Partners where his work included investments in Auth0, Defense.Net (acquired by F5 Networks), Rocket Lab, Spire, Tile, Twitch (acquired by Amazon), and Zapier. Before being an investor, Sunil was founder/CEO of Triangulate, a VC-backed online dating startup using machine learning and behavioral data to improve accuracy. He has also worked at Bain & Company, Cisco, and Microsoft. Sunil holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves on several non-profit boards: NextGen Partners (a Bay Area VC networking organization), Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the Harvard Business School California Research Center. He is also an Alumni Advisor to the Harvard MS/MBA program. In his free time, he enjoys coding, piano, sailing, stargazing, and family time with his wife and 3-year old daughter.
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About Computer History Museum, Ubiquity Ventures: Ubiquity Ventures is a “nerdy and early” venture capital firm that invests in “software beyond the screen” (typically ML or smart hardware).
Arlan Hamilton
Founder & Managing Partner of Backstage Capital
Arlan Hamilton is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Started from scratch in 2015, Backstage has now raised more than $12 million and invested in more than 150 startup companies led by underestimated founders. In 2018, they launched a four-city accelerator program in Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, and London. Arlan is the author of, It’s About Damn Time, an inspirational and tactical business book for budding entrepreneurs and aspiring investors. She hosts the popular podcast, Your First Million, and has been featured on CNN, PBS, and others, and in 2019 became the first Black woman to have an entirely devoted episode of Emily Chang’s Bloomberg 1.0. In October 2018, Arlan was featured on the cover of Fast Company magazine as the first Black woman non-celebrity to do so (following Oprah, Serena, and Beyonce). In 2019, Arlan and her mother, Mrs. Earline Butler-Sims, announced their new scholarship program, which kicked off with Oxford University’s first-ever undergraduate scholarship for a Black student, as well as a commitment to fund a full-ride scholarship for a Psychology student at Mrs. Sims’ alma mater, HBCU Dillard University.
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About Backstage Capital, Backstage Crowd: Backstage Capital is a venture capital fund that invests in new companies led by underrepresented founders.
Abe Yokell
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Congruent Ventures
Abe Yokell is Managing Partner and co-founder of Congruent Ventures, an early stage venture firm that backs companies in the sustainable technology ecosystem. Prior to co-founding Congruent Ventures, Abe spent 13 years at RockPort Capital, helping the RockPort team build nearly half of its portfolio, with a primary focus on business models and software solutions that address climate change challenges. While at RockPort, he was responsible for opening the West Coast office in 2007, where he helped lead investments in energy fintech, residential solar, companies focused on blending software and hardware, data analytics platforms, urban transportation solutions, and energy storage companies. His RockPort board seats included Renovate America, RePower, Qnovo, Flywheel, and EcoFactor, and he was previously involved with Enphase Energy (NASDAQ: ENPH), Streetline Networks (acquired by Kapsch), Recurve (acquired by Tendril), and Eka Systems (acquired by Cooper Power), among others. Abe graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Economics, with minors in Chemistry and Biology.
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About Congruent Ventures, RockPort Capital: Congruent Ventures is an early-stage venture fund focused on sustainable technologies.
Joshua Posamentier
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Congruent Ventures
Joshua Posamentier is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Congruent Ventures. Joshua oversees Congruent’s investments in PolySpectra, Sense Photonics, Energetic Insurance, TeleSense, Bellwether Coffee, Xtelligent, ArcByt, Fox Robotics, and Emergy Labs.
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About Congruent Ventures, Elan Management, Ripple Foods, Yerdle: Congruent Ventures is an early-stage venture fund focused on sustainable technologies.
Takeshi Mori
Managing Partner of GoAhead Ventures
TK is a Managing Partner at GoAhead Ventures. TK led our investments in Alpha-MRI, Talkable, and BigLeaf. TK brings expertise in hardware investments and helping companies with Japanese market expansion if needed. TK has three IPOs and 5 M&A exits from previous investments. TK has over twenty five years of investment, engineering, entrepreneurship, and U.S.-Japan operations experience. Prior to GoAhead, TK was co-founder and managing director of ZenShin Capital. TK also served as an advisor to the venture capital operation of Tudor Capital Japan, and a Vice President at OnFiber Communications Inc (acquired by Qwest).
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About GoAhead Ventures: GoAhead Ventures is an early stage Venture Capital fund based in Silicon Valley.
Clancey Stahr
Managing Partner of GoAhead Ventures
Clancey is a Managing Partner at GoAhead Ventures. Clancey led our investments in VideoAmp, Popular Pays, and Charlie. Clancey brings expertise in sourcing Stanford entrepreneurs and adTech deals for the fund. Clancey is on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List for 2017. Previously while at ZenShin Capital, Clancey successfully led and realized an investment in Strikingly, as well as managing key holdings such as Hackerrank and Audyssey. While at Stanford, Clancey helped operate Stanford’s business association for entrepreneurial students (BASES.)
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About GoAhead Ventures: GoAhead Ventures is an early stage Venture Capital fund based in Silicon Valley.
Phil Brady
Managing Partner of GoAhead Ventures
Phil is a Managing Partner at GoAhead Ventures. Phil led our investments in Gameflip, Collectly, FANCHEST, and Rainway Phil was previously on the deal team at Andreessen Horowitz, where he focused on IoT and crypto. Phil has also spent time working at tech startups such as Airware and Xapo, as well as PE/VC firms such as Lindsay Goldberg in NY and Inventure Oy in Finland.
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About GoAhead Ventures: GoAhead Ventures is an early stage Venture Capital fund based in Silicon Valley.
Andrew Ogawa
Managing Partner & Founder of Quest Venture Partners
Andrew Ogawa is a Managing Partner and founder of Quest Venture Partners since its inception in late 2007. Andrew is responsible for evaluating investment opportunities and closing seed and A rounds. Andrew’s expertise are in automotive transportation, procurement, corporate strategy and implementation of turnaround activities. Andrew has 11 years experience as an employee and Manager at Daimler AG, within the divisions of Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler and Global Procurement & Supply and has been responsible in various capacities for Corporate Strategy, Controlling and Procurement. Andrew was also part of Daimler AG’s selected management team sent to former alliance partner Mitsubishi Motors Corp. to implement corporate turnaround activities, especially within the International Sales & Marketing Office. He holds BAs in Economics and East Asian Studies from University of California at Santa Barbara, as well as a MBA in International Management from Thunderbird, American Graduate School of International Management. He currently serves as a Member of the Board of Directors for Highlightcam and Tripping.
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About Quest Venture Partners: Early stage venture capital firm based in Palo Alto California
Maarten ‘t Hooft
Managing Partner & Founder of Quest Venture Partners
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About Quest Venture Partners: Early stage venture capital firm based in Palo Alto California
Marcus Ogawa
Managing Partner & Founder of Quest Venture Partners
Marcus Ogawa is responsible for finding new investment opportunities, closing investment rounds and working closely with the management teams of Quest Venture Partners portfolio companies. His investment expertise are in mobile, consumer internet and video. He was a Board Member working very closely with Qik, Inc for 1 year and 9 months until the company was sold to Skype. Prior to joining Quest Venture Partners, he worked with a number of startups and established companies ranging from Internet, distributed computing, real estate, and news media.He is an active member of angel communities and the early stage ecosystem. He holds a BS in Computer Information Systems from Bentley University.
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About Fididel, Quest Venture Partners: Early stage venture capital firm based in Palo Alto California
Steve Schlenker
Managing Partner of DN Capital
Steve Schlenker has 20 years of venture capital and private equity investment experience. Schlenker is a Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of DN Capital. He is particularly involved in investments in enterprise application software and consumer facing Internet applications. His companies at DN Capital include Endeca (acquired by Oracle), Lagan (acquired by Kana), Datanomic (acquired by Oracle), Apsalar, Digital Chocolate, Sonico, Greenleads, IGA and FamilyBuilder (acquired by Intelius). Prior to co-founding DN Capital, Schlenker was a senior member of the investment team in his capacity as chief investment officer for SUN Technology Investors. At SUN he was also involved in the investment and successful sale of PlanetAll to Amazon, and also invested in Cyberview Technologies (AIM: CYBV), eMode (later Tickle.com, acquired by Monster Worldwide), PlasmaNet and others. Prior to joining SUN, he spent four years with Interlaken Capital, a buyout fund in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he worked on private equity investments in companies in the consumer goods, industrial distribution and service industries. Schlenker received a BSc in Economics, summa cum laude, from the Wharton School of Finance with dual concentrations in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management, and an MBA, with high distinction, from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.
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About DN Capital: DN Capital operates as an early-stage venture capital firm.
Victor Orlovski
Managing Partner of Fort Ross Ventures
Victor Orlovski – has more then 20 years of experience in financial technology space. Started his career in ABN AMRO serving in different managerial positions in Uzbekistan, Russia and Head Quarters in Amsterdam. In 2001 Victor joined Alfa Bank (leading Russian financial institution) as the Chief Transformation Officer and was in charge of the largest banking transformation project in Russia. It resulted in the state-of-the-art business model and technological solution and made Alfa Bank a leader in innovative banking and most efficient financial company in Russia and CIS. In 2007 Victor became a partner at IBM Global Business Services in charge of FI and Insurance practice in Russia and CIS. From 2008 to 2015 Victor continued his career in Sberbank. He started as Chief Technology Officer (2008-2013) and then as Chief Digital Officer (20014-15). Several times Victor was nominated as the best CIO of the year in Russia, Best CIO of the year in Europe (Oracle award), was selected among top 1000 most efficient managers in Russia (kommersant.ru). Victor was the member of supervisory boards of more than 10 Sberbank subsidiaries; he was a founder and chairman of Supervisory board of Sberbank Technology and Sberbank Services. Victor and his team accomplished one of the largest banking transformation projects in the world changing Sberbank from old-fashion inefficient traditional banking to the truly digital and mobile customer centric modern financial firm. Victor is a founder of number of startups in Fin Tech space, social networking, crowd funding and sharing economy. Starting august 2015 Victor is the general partner of the Venture fund (MT Ventures), he is an angel investor and entrepreneur.
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About Fort Ross Ventures: Fort Ross Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early growth stage startups with the proven product, technology.
Ray Lane
Founder & Managing Partner of GreatPoint Ventures
Ray Lane is a Partner Emeritus at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Since joining the firm in 2000, he has focused on helping entrepreneurs with technological and market insight, organizational development, team building, selling and managing growth. Ray sponsored a number of investments for KPCB in enterprise technology and alternative energy. These investments include GreatPoint Energy (coal-to-gas conversion), Aquion (energy storage), Kenandy (cloud based MRP systems), Alert Enterprise (security convergence solutions), Vertica Systems (data warehousing solutions), Virsa Systems (financial systems compliance), Luca Technologies (biologically enhanced gas recovery from fossilized hydrocarbons), Fisker Automotive (extended range electric vehicle), Ausra (solar thermal concentrator) and Xsigo Systems (virtual I/O switch for datacenters). Ray also serves on the board of Hewlett-Packard and was its former Chairman. He presently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon University. Before joining KPCB, Ray was president and chief operating officer of Oracle Corp., one of the world’s largest software companies and a leading enterprise software and services company. During his eight-year tenure, Oracle exhibited phenomenal revenue growth from less than $1 billion in 1992 to more than $10 billion. Ray led Oracle’s business expansion beyond its core database technology into enterprise applications and professional services. Earlier in his career, Ray was a senior partner with Booz Allen Hamilton, where he pioneered and led the Information Systems Group, a worldwide consulting practice targeted at helping senior management achieve better results from information technology. He also served on Booz Allen Hamilton’s board of directors and executive management committee. Ray’s early career also included serving as division vice president with Electronic Data Systems Corp. and spending 10 years with IBM in various product-management, sales and marketing positions. Ray received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and an honorary Ph.D. in science from West Virginia University. He was elected to the Academy of Distinguished Graduates of WVU, served as a director of the WVU Foundation Board, and presently serves on the university’s Board of Governors. WVU honored Ray by naming the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Ray also serves on the board of trustees of Carnegie Mellon University currently as its Chairman. He has been an active campaigner and planner for Carnegie Mellon’s establishment in 2002 of a Silicon Valley campus. He helped create and fund Carnegie Mellon’s Computational Biology Department, one of six permanent degree-granting departments in the School of Computer Science. He serves as vice chairman of Special Olympics International and has served on the international board of Special Olympics for 15 years. He also holds an honorary Ph.D. from Golden Gate University. Ray was recently honored by TechAmerica as the 2011 recipient of the David Packard Medal of Achievement Award.
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About 2015 Special Olympics World Games, GreatPoint Ventures, Kleiner Perkins: GreatPoint Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing between $250k and $20m into Seed, A, and B rounds.
Andrew Perlman
Founder & Managing Partner of GreatPoint Ventures
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About G20 Ventures, GreatPoint Energy, GreatPoint Energy, GreatPoint Ventures: GreatPoint Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing between $250k and $20m into Seed, A, and B rounds.
Robert Hutter
Founder and Managing Partner of Learn Capital
Robert J. Hutter is a Managing Partner of Learn Capital. Rob is chairman of Edmodo, a leading social learning network for K12, and he also serves on the boards of several Learn Capital portfolio companies including Schooltube, BloomBoard, MobLab, and LearnZillion. Rob was co-founder of Edusoft (acquired by Houghton-Mifflin), one of the most widely used assessment management platforms in US public education. Rob is a patent holder in games-based adaptive learning and is the founder of a tax credits partnership administered by the U.S. Treasury focusing on high performance schools. In addition to his background in education, Rob was co-founder of Gazillion, a developer of massively multiplayer online videogames featuring Marvel Entertainment franchises, and was co-founder of SmartDrive, a developer of life saving solutions for fleet vehicle operators that was recently named to the Wall Street Journal Top 50 Venture-Backed Startup List. Earlier in his career, Rob worked at Fundamental Capital and was instrumental in the founding stages of Silicon Spice which sold to Broadcom for $1.2 billion. He is a graduate of Harvard University.
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About Learn Capital: LearnCapital is a venture capital firm focused exclusively on funding entrepreneurs with a vision for better and smarter learning.
Tuff Yen
Founder & Managing Partner of Seraph Group
Tuff Yen is the founder and President of Seraph Group, a professionally managed angel investment fund group that invests in seed and early stage private enterprises by leveraging its proprietary network of more than 300 successful business leaders and entrepreneurs. Yen spent his career as a scientist and a professional investor. He worked as a venture capitalist with Hambrecht & Quist’s venture fund (“HQAP”) in San Francisco as well as Chemical Bank’s venture arm in New York City. During this period, he worked on investments in a broad range of businesses including industrial manufacturing, distribution, entertainment, publishing, information technology, Internet, medical and life sciences. Prior to joining the VC community, Yen was a bioengineer with Genentech and worked at Amgen, two leading biotechnology pioneers. He received his Masters in Business Administration from the Yale School of Management and his Bachelor degree in Arts in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of California Berkeley.
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About Seraph Group: Seraph Group is an angel investor that invests between $50,000 and $1,000,000 in early-stage startups.
Jeff Parks
Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Riverwood Capital
Jeff Parks is a founding Partner of Riverwood Capital. Prior to joining Riverwood, Jeff was an investment executive at KKR from 2005 to 2007, where he focused on private equity investments in the technology sector and worked extensively with Michael Marks and Francisco Alvarez-Demalde. While at KKR, Jeff worked on investments in three of the five largest leveraged buyouts ever completed in the technology sector, and evaluated investment opportunities across the technology spectrum. Prior to joining KKR, Jeff was an investment professional in the Principal Opportunities Fund at Oaktree Capital Management, where he specialized in private equity investment in distressed companies. Earlier in his career, he was an investment banker at UBS Investment Bank in Los Angeles. Jeff earned a Dual BA in Economics and Mathematics from Pomona College (Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) in Claremont, California. He is also a director of SintecMedia (Chairman) and Accellion.
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About Riverwood Capital, UGSI Solutions: Riverwood Capital invests in technology companies in need of financial and intellectual capital to scale.
Martha Notaras
Managing Partner of Brewer Lane Ventures
Martha focuses on new business models and data and analytics startups creating insurance-specific solutions. Martha has over 20 years of investing and corporate development experience in technology, information and financial services companies and has served as board director for over a dozen young companies. Her current investments include Cape Analytics, which leverages geospatial imagery, computer vision, and machine learning for the built environment; Notion, a provider of all-in-one IoT sensors for home awareness, combined with risk analytics for homeowners insurers; GeoQuant, a revolutionary platform that fuses political and computer science to help global investors; and Pillar Technologies, an end-to-end environmental monitoring solution for construction sites. Martha began her insurance career while an Executive Vice President of DMG Information, the business data and analytics division of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc. She led the acquisition of insurtech pioneer, Risk Management Solutions (RMS), where she first encountered Tom Hutton on the opposite side of the negotiating table. Martha served on the RMS board for 10 years. Of the 20 investments she made at DMG Information, two achieved valuations over $1 billion. Prior to DMG Information, Martha worked in investment banking at Merrill Lynch and commercial banking at Credit Suisse. Martha received her AB cum laude from Princeton University and her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar, awarded for graduating in the top 5% of the class. Outside of XL Innovate, Martha is involved in multiple service organizations. She is currently a board member at Partners for Potential, which helps adults with disabilities achieve their potential through activities that teach life skills, and served as Chair of the Board of Ingenium Charter Schools, which uses a student-centric instructional model in which students take responsibility for mastering the curriculum.
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About Brewer Lane Ventures, Brewer Lane Ventures, XL Innovate: Brewer Lane Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund backing founders transforming the insurance and finance industries.
Shelley Zhuang
Founder & Managing Partner of 11.2 Capital
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About 11.2 Capital: 11.2 Capital is an early stage venture capital fund that invests in early-stage technology startups with a global vision and help them grow.
David Golden
Managing Partner of Revolution Ventures
David Golden, a native of Minnesota, co-leads Revolution Ventures, which invests in and helps build innovative and impactful companies; and he is based in our San Francisco office. David has over three decades of industry experience and brings to bear his extensive history as a financier of emerging growth companies and understanding of capital markets with his unique abilities in negotiation and deal-structuring. David joined Revolution with Steve Case in 2006 and has since been an investing partner and strategic advisor. David joined Revolution after 18 years with JPMorgan, and a predecessor firm, Hambrecht & Quist. During his tenure, David was named co-director of mergers and acquisitions in 1992, director of mergers and acquisitions in 1995, and co-director of investment banking in 1998. Most recently he was Vice Chairman and Director of JPMorgan’s global investment banking practice for technology, media and telecommunications clients and was a member of the investment bank’s management committee. During these years, he acted as lead merger advisor, equity underwriter or investor on over 150 transactions. From 1990 to 1992, David was a vice president at Allen & Company in New York. In 2010, David helped found Code Advisors, a next-generation investment bank in San Francisco focused on the intersection of strategy and finance for emerging technology companies; and he served as Code’s Executive Chairman through 2012. Early in his career, David was an associate at the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York and London, where he practiced corporate finance and securities law. Prior to practicing law, David was a law clerk to the Honorable Charles M. Merrill of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. David received an A.B. from Harvard University (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) in 1980 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School (cum laude) in 1983, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He serves or has served on the boards of many companies including current Revolution companies Aura, SRS Acquiom, Policygenius, Paro, MemberSuite and eSub as well as previously-exited companies including Revolution Money (acquired by American Express), Extend Health (acquired by Willis Towers Watson), and Everyday Health (acquired by j2 Global). He also serves or has served on the boards of Barnes & Noble Education, Blackbaud, and Barnes & Noble.
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About Revolution, Revolution Ventures: Revolution Ventures, part of the venture capital firm Revolution, invests in early-stage companies around the country.
Chris Yeh
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Wasabi Ventures
Chris Yeh was on the founding team of pioneering Internet companies such as United Online Services (Nasdaq: UNTD) and Merrill Lynch’s Intelligent Technologies Group. He has founded, advised, or invested in dozens of startups, including Ustream and PBworks. Chris is a much-quoted thought leader in the field of marketing and entrepreneurship; his research and publications have been incorporated into the Harvard Business School curriculum, while his projects have received press coverage in Fortune, the Financial Times, and the New York Times. He writes a popular blog on entrepreneurship and venture capital, Adventures in Capitalism and contributes to blogs such as TechCrunch and VentureBeat. Chris holds two degrees from Stanford University, and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was named a Baker Scholar (High Distinction). You can reach Chris by e-mail at chris@wasabiventures.com and follow him on Twitter or AngelList.
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About Dokkio, PBworks, TVLP Institute Silicon Valley, Wasabi Ventures: Wasabi Ventures has planned, implemented, and maintained solutions for many early-stage startups.
Steve Bowsher
Managing Partner and Executive Vice President of In-Q-Tel
Steve Bowsher serves as Executive Vice President at In-Q-Tel, leading In-Q-Tel’s strategic investment strategy. Mr. Bowsher joined In-Q-Tel from InterWest Partners. While at InterWest, he served as General Partner, concentrating on the Enterprise software and Internet sector, and led and managed 13 investments in those sectors. Previously, Mr. Bowsher worked at E*TRADE, managing its value-added products and services. During his tenure at E*TRADE, he helped launch Destination E*TRADE, the company’s award-winning Web site. Mr. Bowsher was also an early stage employee at two start-up companies, where he was responsible for revenue and distribution targets. Mr. Bowsher has been a frequent speaker at industry-leading conferences such as the Wharton Technology Conference, IBF’s Early Stage Investing Conference, Internet World Annual Conference, and Dow Jones Private Equity Summit, and has been frequently quoted as a subject matter expert in national publications including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and Fortune magazine. Mr. Bowsher graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and received his MBA from Stanford.
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About In-Q-Tel: In-Q-Tel identifies and partners with companies developing cutting-edge technologies to help deliver solutions.
Kabir Misra
Managing Partner of SoftBank Group
Kabir Misra is a Managing Partner at SoftBank Capital and is responsible for the PrinceVille Growth Equity Fund. He is also President of SB China and India Holdings, which manages SoftBank’s Bodhi Fund, an early-stage fund primarily focused on Asia. In addition to being on the board of Gilt, Kabir sits on the boards of uStream, PayActiv, and IP Ventures; he is also an observer on the board of RenRen. Additionally, as Vice President of SoftBank Inc., Kabir assists SoftBank Corporation with numerous direct investments and other business development activities on the West Coast and globally. Prior to joining SoftBank, Kabir was an investment banker focused on the Internet and technology sectors, most recently with Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong and Goldman Sachs in Menlo Park. Kabir holds a BA with honors in Economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University. He lives with his wife and their two children in Atherton, CA.
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About RPS Ventures, Softbank China & India Holdings, SoftBank Group: SoftBank Group is a holding company focused on artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.
Ash Lilani
Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Saama Capital
Ash Lilani is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Saama Capital. Previously, Lilani served as the President of India and China markets for Silicon Valley Bank and he founded and headed SVB Global, setting the strategy and overseeing the development and operation of international subsidiaries in London, Tel Aviv, Bangalore, Mumbai, Beijing and Shanghai. Prior to taking on SVB’s globalization efforts, Lilani served as Senior Vice President and Division Manager of SVB’s largest market and was based in Silicon Valley, where he was responsible for commercial banking activity and leadership of the team closely working with leading venture capital and technology companies in the area. Ash Lilani is an independent board member of SVB India Finance Pvt. Ltd., which is Silicon Valley Bank’s India financial services subsidiary. He also represents Saama Capital on the boards of several companies including Sula Wines, Genesis Colors, One97, Vistaar, Shubham, Shaadi.com, Games2Win and Modern Family Doctor. Ash Lilani is a Board member at Vittana, a non-profit facilitating micro loans to students in developing countries, an advisor to the American Indian Foundation, a charter member of TiE, and was a founder of the U.S.-India Venture Capital Association. Ash Lilani holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accounting from Bangalore University and has a MBA degree from Philadelphia University.
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About Saama Capital, The Family Doctor: Saama Capital is an early stage investor with an extensive network within the venture and entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Roy Geva Glasberg
Founder and Managing Partner of AnD Ventures
Roy is the founder and General Manager of the Google Global Acceleration programs (LATAM, ASIA, AFRICA, CEE) and the Google AI Studio. In the last 3 years he has built Google global mentoring program for startups as Global manager of Launchpad Google Startup program, scaling it to over 40 countries. Previously Roy was head of Campus TLV and led Developer Relations for Google in Israel and Europe. Before joining Google Roy was the Director business development at LivePerson, building Liveperson market place for startups and integrating innovative solutions. Roy was also the Head of Business Development and Business Solutions at Microsoft, where he was leading the BI market for Enterprises and Government. Roy has a vast experience in strategy formulation and implementation working as a Senior consultant for Deloitte and for HayGroup. Roy holds 4 university degrees in Law, Business management, Software IP and financial engineering from The IDC and Hebrew University. Roy’s team includes his wife Zohar, their 4 daughters and Chewy their golden retriever.
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About AnD Ventures: AnD Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups in the information technology sector.
James Everett
Managing Partner & Founder of Ecosystem Integrity Fund
James Everett is a Managing Partner with the Ecosystem Integrity Fund, where he authored the fund strategy; leads research, due diligence, and strategy development; and serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee. He has been focused on environmental sustainability for 30 years, and has cultivated a sophisticated understanding of sustainability problems and strong pattern recognition with respect to workable solutions in green business. James is committed to the integration of economic and ecological sustainability, believing that green ideas have increased potential for scale and impact when they are directed toward practical solutions of business problems. James serves as a Director on the boards of LumiGrow, Complete Solar, Pegasus Solar, and CleanFund. He was a board member at Zep Solar prior to Zep’s acquisition by SolarCity. He is a board observer at Opti and Upflex. He is also formerly a board member at Opti, T-Rex, and SynchroNet, and was a board observer with Synova Power and OneEnergy Renewables. James has many years of experience in a range of areas related to natural resources and renewable energy, as well as very strong analytical and due diligence capabilities. Before co-founding the Ecosystem Integrity Fund, James was a partner at Aquillian Investments, was Conservation Finance Manager for Pacific Forest Trust, and managed integrated conservation and development projects for the World Conservation Union. Previously, James worked in commercial finance with GATX Capital, where he conducted financial analysis and due diligence on investments in rail, air, marine, distributed power generation, telecommunications, and natural resources; worked in timberland investment and management with Wagner Forest Management; led a research and demonstration center for sustainable technologies; was co-director of a university recycling program; worked for a photovoltaic systems integrator on installation of some of the first grid-tied PV systems in the San Francisco Bay Area; and has run his own arboricultural consulting business. He holds a Master of Forestry degree from Yale University and a BSc in Environmental Policy and Management from Humboldt State University, and completed the UC Berkeley Venture Capital Executive Program.
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About Ecosystem Integrity Fund: Ecosystem Integrity Fund is a venture capital fund that targets its investments on industries of renewable energy and green chemistry.
Devin Whatley
Managing Partner of Ecosystem Integrity Fund
Devin Whatley is a Managing Partner at the Ecosystem Integrity Fund, where he leads deal structuring, negotiations, and fund operations; assists with the fund strategy; and works closely with the portfolio companies. He has been dedicated to environmental sustainability for more than 20 years and in particular the application of sustainability in technology and commerce. He believes that demonstrating business success in sustainability is not only possible, but also required in order to accelerate the shift to a sustainable existence. Devin serves as a Director on the boards of Flying Embers, EV Connect, Bluon, Pegasus Solar, Synova Power, OneEnergy Renewables, Complete Solar, LumiGrow, and Progressive Brands. He is formerly a board member of KeVita, and was also a board observer at Zep Solar, CleanFund, and SynchroNet. Devin’s background is as a sustainability- focused entrepreneur, with significant experience in operations, sales, and finance. He began his career in the film business, where he developed and honed his operations and cost-management skills as the producer of more than 50 large-budget commercials and music videos. During this time he nurtured a growing fascination with environmental sustainability and became a passionate student of green business. Looking for a way to use his diverse skill set as a “triple-bottom-line” entrepreneur, in 2000 Devin launched a gourmet, organic home delivery and packaged food business that catered to the Hollywood elite. From an initial $10,000 investment, Devin rapidly grew the firm, exiting it within three years to a larger natural food manufacturer in the region. Subsequently, Devin was the general manager of a start-up organic winery that he grew to profitability, and also developed and ran a successful luxury yoga retreat business near Santa Barbara. After a brief stint at his family’s award- winning mutual fund, where he worked with the investment team and institutional sales group, Devin became a partner at Aquillian Investments and subsequently co-founded the Ecosystem Integrity Fund. Devin has an MBA from Wharton and was a CFA Charterholder. He graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA’s Honors Division, where he was both an Alumni Scholar and Regents’ Scholar, earning a degree in East Asian Studies with a minor in Business
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About Ecosystem Integrity Fund: Ecosystem Integrity Fund is a venture capital fund that targets its investments on industries of renewable energy and green chemistry.
Mohammed Almeshekah
Founder & Managing Partner of Outliers Venture Capital
Mohammed Almeshekah is the Founding Partner of Outliers Venture Capital.
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About Outliers Venture Capital: Outliers is a venture capital firm that backs outlier founders who are building compounding businesses.
Michael Dixon
Managing Partner of Transformation Capital
Michael Dixon is a venture capitalist at [Sequoia Capital](/financial-organization/sequoia-capital). Michael works with growth stage healthcare companies. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 2008, he worked at Fidelity Management & Research Company, where he directed $2 billion of investment capital in the wire and cable, ATM, and RFID sectors. Earlier, he was with UBS Investment Bank and Deloitte. Michael has a BS in finance and accounting from Boston College. (Source : [Sequoia Capital](http://www.sequoiacap.com/us/michael-dixon))
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About Transformation Capital, UBS: Transformation Capital is a growth equity fund 100% focused on innovative healthcare IT and services companies.
Lynne Chou
Founder and Managing Partner of Define Ventures
Lynne Chou joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers in 2013 and focuses on life science investing in medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health. She works alongside entrepreneurs to develop impactful technologies and therapies for improving patients’ lives. Before joining KPCB, Lynne has over twelve years of healthcare operating and investing experience. Most recently, Lynne worked for eight years at Abbott Vascular and Guidant in multiple roles and has worked on the launch of over ten interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery product families both in the US and internationally. Most recently, Lynne lead the global launch of Absorb, the world’s first bioresorbable vascular scaffold, recognized by Wall Street Journal as Medical Device Technology Innovation of the Year and Popular Mechanics. Lynne was responsible for building the global commercial strategy and therapy development as well as playing a key role in the clinical, reimbursement, operational strategy for the therapy. Earlier in her career, Lynne worked at Apax Partners with a focus on software venture capital investing. In addition, Lynne worked at Goldman Sachs in the Mergers and Acquisitions group and worked on multiple multi-billion dollar acquisitions and sell side transactions in various industries. Lynne earned a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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About Define Ventures: Define Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in digital health companies.
