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 Financial Services 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.
Avichal Garg
Managing Partner of Electric Capital
Avichal is Managing Partner at Electric Capital. He is a serial entrepreneur and technology executive. Avichal sold two companies and was most recently Director of Product at Facebook, which acquired his company Spool in 2012. He previously worked at Google on search ranking and ads ranking, is part-time at YCombinator, and an active angel investor. Avichal’s firm, Electric Capital, focuses on cryptocurrencies that are rooted in technological utility. Electric performs deep technological diligence, such as compiling code, profiling nodes, and analyzing blockchains with in-house software. The founders of Electric have started and sold five companies, have been investing in cryptocurrencies since 2013, and are investors in Anchor, Bitwise, Chia, Coda, dYdX, Dfinity, Oasis, Thunder and many other crypto projects.
Follow Avichal Garg:
About Electric Capital: Electric Capital is a venture capital firm that focuses on the cryptocurrency, blockchain, fintech, and marketplaces industries.
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.
Follow Effie Epstein:
About Sound Ventures: Sound Ventures is a venture capital firm that seeks to invest in the technology sector.
Tim Draper
Founder and Managing Partner of Draper Associates
Timothy Draper is founding partner of leading venture capital firms Draper Associates and DFJ. Tim’s original suggestion to use “viral marketing” in web-based e-mail to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail and other web-based email providers and has been adopted as a standard marketing technique by hundreds of businesses. Tim launched the DFJ Global Network, an international network of early-stage venture capital funds with offices in over 30 cities around the globe. Tim founded or co-founded DFJ ePlanet (global), Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham (NYC), Zone Ventures (LA), Epic Ventures (Salt Lake City), Draper Atlantic (Reston), Draper Triangle (Pittsburg), Timberline Ventures (Portland), Polaris Fund (Anchorage), DFJ Frontier (Sacramento and Santa Barbara), DFJ Vina Capital (Vietnam), Draper Nexus (Tokyo), and DFJ DragonFund (Shanghai). Tim recently launched “Six Californias,” a statewide initiative to create six new states and dissolve a failed one in California. Previously, Tim served on the California State Board of Education. In November of 2000, Tim launched a statewide cyber-initiative on school choice for the California General Election. Tim was a Member of Singapore’s International Economic Council and Ukraine’s Orange Circle. Tim was on the Board of U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Tim was ranked 52 on the list of the 100 most influential Harvard Alumni, and seven on the Forbes Midas List. Tim was named Always-On #1 top venture capital deal maker. Tim was awarded the Commonwealth Club’s Distinguished Citizen Award for achievements in green and sustainable energy. To further encourage entrepreneurship, Tim started BizWorld.org, a non-profit for children to learn entrepreneurship, Draper University of Heroes, a school for entrepreneurs 18-28 and he leads SixCalifornias, an initiative to improve the governance of California. Tim has a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Follow Tim Draper:
About Bancor, DDF, DFJ DragonFund, DFJ VinaCapital, Draper Associates, Draper Athena, Draper Dragon, Draper University Ventures, ePlanet Capital, Gotham Ventures, SpeedUPAfrica, Threshold, VenturesLab, Zone Ventures: Draper Associates is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in industry-transforming companies.
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.
Follow Ronald Conway:
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.
Follow Topher Conway:
About SV Angel: SV Angel is an angel firm that helps startups with business development, financing, M&A, and other strategic advice.
Hans Tung
Managing Partner of GGV Capital
Hans Tung is the Managing Partner of GGV Capital.
Follow Hans Tung:
About GGV Capital: GGV Capital is a global venture capital firm that invests in local founders.
Jeff Richards
Managing Partner of GGV Capital
A Managing Partner at GGV Capital, Jeff joined the firm in 2008 after spending 13 years as an entrepreneur and operating executive in the US and Asia. Prior to joining GGV, Jeff founded two venture-backed companies, one a success and one a “huge failure” in his own words – “I learned a lot.” His background as an entrepreneur gives him a unique perspective on the challenges of starting and running a venture-backed company, and he works closely with the GGV Talent team on Founders + Leaders. Jeff focuses on the Software and Internet sectors, and currently sits on the boards of or is a board observer at BigCommerce, one of the top ecommerce software platforms, Boxed, a rising star in the ecommerce space, Brightwheel, the leading SaaS provider for the early education vertical, Gladly, a next generation SaaS platform for customer care, Percolate, a leading marketing SaaS platform for global brands,PlushCare, a mobile platform for consumer healthcare, Reebonz, Southeast Asia’s leader in luxury ecommerce, Slice, a market network for the pizza industry, and Tile, the platform for location. Jeff also led GGV’s investments in Appirio (acquired in 2016 by Wipro), BlueKai (acquired in 2014 by Oracle), Buddy Media (acquired in 2012 by Salesforce), Citrus Lane (acquired in 2014 by Care.com), Evolv (acquired in 2014 by Cornerstone OnDemand), Flipboard, HotelTonight, ShiftGig, Voicera and Zylo, and has been actively involved in GGV’s investments in Domo, OpenDoor, Square and Wish. Prior to joining GGV, Jeff founded two software companies: R4, a supply chain SaaS business acquired by VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN), and QuantumShift, a telecom software business backed by Texas Pacific Group (TPG). Earlier in his career, Jeff worked in Asia and Latin America with PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Jeff graduated from Dartmouth College, where he was a four-year letterman on the basketball team and is on the Advisory Board for the Dartmouth Entrepreneur Network (DEN). Jeff is a frequent guest on CNBC and often writes on topics like startup management and leadership, venture-backed IPOs and shifts in tech trends across the US and China. Follow Jeff on Twitter @jrichlive or check out his LinkedIn profile for more information.
Follow Jeff Richards:
About Addi, All Raise, Appirio, Belong, BigCommerce, Boxed, Brightwheel, Coinbase, Convex, Curebase, Electric, Fairmarkit, GGV Capital, Gladly, Handshake, Homebase, Lambda School, Namely, People.ai, Phil, Pinpoint.com, Realm, Slice, Stream, Tala, Tile, Vic.ai, Voicea, Workboard: GGV Capital is a global venture capital firm that invests in local founders.
Glenn Solomon
Managing Partner of GGV Capital
Glenn Solomon is a venture capitalist. He is a partner at [GGV Capital](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ggv-capital), a venture capital firm that invests in the U.S. and China. Since 2006, Solomon has worked with entrepreneurs and leaders at companies where he has led GGV’s investments such as Zendesk (NYSE: ZEN), Pandora (NYSE: P), Successfactors (NYSE: SFSF/Acq by SAP), Isilon (NASDAQ: ISLN/Acq by EMC), Nimble Storage (NYSE: NMBL), Quinstreet (NASDAQ: QNST), Square, Conviva, Domo, AlienVault, HashiCorp, and Gridstore. He also assists his partners on other GGV investments such as Appirio, BlueKai, Buddy Media, China Talent Group (CTG), MediaV, Tujia, and Qunar. Prior to GGV, Solomon was a general partner with Partech International, where he led investments in Broadbase Software, Datacenter Technologies, Digital Island, Pentasafe, and Vignette (NASDAQ:VIGN). Earlier in his career, he worked with [Goldman Sachs](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/goldman-sachs) and also with SPO Partners, a San Francisco-based private investment partnership. Glenn Solomon graduated from [Stanford University](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/stanford-university), where he majored in tennis, starting on three NCAA championship tennis teams, and he also earned an M.B.A from Stanford where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Follow Glenn Solomon:
About Airbnb, GGV Capital, Kong, Slack, Spotlight Foundation: GGV Capital is a global venture capital firm that invests in local founders.
Saurabh Gupta
Managing Partner of DST Global
Follow Saurabh Gupta:
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.
Follow Karan Wadhera:
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.
Follow Jamie McGurk:
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.
Follow Kris Fredrickson:
About Coatue, Curology: Coatue invests in public and private equity markets focusing on the technology, media, and telecommunications industries.
Garry Tan
Managing Partner of Initialized Capital
Garry is a designer, engineer, and founder turned early stage investor, co-founding Initialized Capital in 2012. The firm has invested at the earliest stages of companies like Coinbase, Flexport, Instacart, and Cruise. Prior to Initialized, Garry spent nearly 5 years as a partner at Y Combinator, advising and funding more than 1,000 companies and founders. He was co-founder of YC-backed blog platform Posterous (acquired by Twitter in 2012) and previously worked at Palantir as a founding member of the engineering team. He also designed Palantir’s logo. Garry holds a BS in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford University.
Follow Garry Tan:
About Initialized Capital, SapientNitro: Initialized Capital is an early-stage VC firm focused on helping software engineers and designers with their first seed checks.
Lee Linden
Managing Partner of Quiet Capital
Lee is an entrepreneur and early stage investor. Previously, he lead Facebook’s emerging initiatives in commerce, including Gifts and the Facebook Card. Lee founded Karma, a breakthrough mobile commerce platform which allowed smartphone users to instantly send real gifts to others without the burden of physical mailing addresses. Karma was acquired by Facebook in early 2012. Prior to Karma, Lee founded Tapjoy and piloted the company to it’s position as a leading mobile advertising platform which today touches more than 1 billion devices. He began Tapjoy by co-creating multiple top mobile games for iOS/Android and subsequently unraveling the potential of mobile advertising and app distribution at scale. Earlier, Lee worked for venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and helped launch the iFund, a $100M investment vehicle focused on smartphone application platforms. Lee originally began his career working in product development at Microsoft, where he co-created the Windows Home Server division and shipped the first version of that product to market. Lee holds a MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a BA in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan. He grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan and today lives and works in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area. Lee has been a featured speaker at universities, conferences, and panels worldwide and has received numerous awards for his work including 30 under 30 Best Young Tech Entrepreneur by Bloomberg Businessweek 2012, 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company in 2012, and The Silicon Valley 100 by Business Insider 2013.
Follow Lee Linden:
About Quiet Capital: Quiet Capital is an investment firm that seeks to make venture capital investments.
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.
Follow Meyer Malka:
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.
Follow Colin Fan:
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.
Follow Deep Nishar:
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
Follow Brian Wheeler:
About SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Eric Chen
Managing Partner of SoftBank Vision Fund
Follow Eric Chen:
About Silver Lake, SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Adeyemi Ajao
Co-founder & Managing Partner of Base10 Partners
Adeyemi (“Ade”) is Co-founder & Managing Partner at Base10 Partners. Before Base10, Ade had a successful career as an entrepreneur and investor. Ade was the co-founder and CEO of Tuenti (The “Spanish Facebook” which was acquired by Telefonica in 2010 for $100M), co-founder and CEO of Identified (“AI for HR” acquired by Workday in 2014) and a founding investor of Cabify (the largest ridesharing company in Latin America currently valued at over $1B). While at Workday, Ade led launch to Workday Ventures, the first fund focused on Applied AI for Enterprise Software and was VP of Technology Strategy. Ade is originally from Spain and half Nigerian. He holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. He also holds a J.D. in Law and a M.S in Economics from Icade University in Spain and studied a certificate on Machine Learning at Stanford. Ade volunteers with CODE2040 who tries to create access, awareness and opportunities for gifted Black and Latin engineering talent.
Follow Adeyemi Ajao:
About Augusta Investments LLC, Base10 Partners: Base10 is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the automation of the real economy.
TJ Nahigian
Co-founder and Managing Partner of Base10 Partners
TJ Nahigian helping to build Jobrapp.com, a mobile first job matching marketplace. Previously, I invested in tech companies like: Wildfire (acq Google), Clearwater Analytics, Nimble Storage (NMBL), Qualtrics, Despegar, Airwatch (acq VMWare), HotelTonight, Snapchat, Lyft, Avvo, Anaplan.
Follow TJ Nahigian:
About Base10 Partners: Base10 is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the automation of the real economy.
Adam Bain
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of 01 Advisors
Follow Adam Bain:
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.
Follow Dick Costolo:
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.
Follow Neil Mehta:
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.
Follow Benny Peretz:
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.
Follow Haseeb Qureshi:
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.
Follow Brendan Wallace:
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.
Follow Andriy Mykhaylovskyy:
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.
Follow Brad Greiwe:
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.
Follow Kishore Bopardikar:
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.
Follow Mary Meeker:
About Bond: Bond is a venture capital firm that supports visionary founders throughout their life cycle of innovation and growth.
Michael Marks
Founding Managing Partner of Celesta Capital
Michael E Marks is the Founding Managing Partner at Celesta Capital. Prior to that, he was the CEO and founder of Katerra. He was also the founding partner of Riverwood Capital, a Menlo Park-based private equity firm. Prior to establishing Riverwood, he was a partner and senior advisor at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in 2006 and 2007. Prior to KKR, Michael spent 13 years as CEO and then chairman of Flextronics International Ltd., building it into one of the largest technology companies in the world. He is a director of The Melt, Enjoy, H20.ai, and Berkeley Lights.
Follow Michael Marks:
About Celesta Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Riverwood Capital, Walden Riverwood Ventures: Celesta Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs and disruptive technology companies.
Nicholas Brathwaite
Founder & Managing Partner of Celesta Capital
Follow Nicholas Brathwaite:
About Celesta Capital, Walden Riverwood Ventures: Celesta Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs and disruptive technology companies.
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
Follow Steve Jang:
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.
Follow Kanyi Maqubela:
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.
Follow Aileen Lee:
About All Raise, Broadway Angels, Cowboy Ventures, nWay: Cowboy Ventures is a generalist seed-stage fund focused fund investing in technology startups.
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.
Follow Michael J. Pellini:
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
Follow Andrew Harrison:
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.
Follow Lo Toney:
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.
Follow David Krane:
About Google, GV: GV provides venture capital funding to bold new companies.
Graham Spencer
Managing Partner of GV
Follow Graham Spencer:
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.
Follow Jon Soberg:
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.
Jon Callaghan
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of True Ventures
Jon is an early stage venture capitalist and co-founder of True Ventures. He has been in the venture capital business since 1991 and built three companies of his own. His first was Mountain Bike Outfitters, Inc., which he created at age 18. Jon started his venture career as an associate at Summit Partners and then joined Greenhouse, AOL’s venture capital investment group and incubator. He entered the internet market early by joining CMGI’s @Ventures group in 1996. Before founding True, Jon was a managing director at Globespan Capital Partners. First as a founder and now as an investor in early-stage technology companies, Jon’s direct startup experience has allowed him to see the world through an entrepreneur’s eyes. Jon’s career has been driven by a deep belief in the power of human creativity to improve our world. Jon received a bachelor’s degree in government from Dartmouth College and an MBA, with distinction, from Harvard Business School. He was recently the Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association. When he is not empowering the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, you can find him talking about airplanes or hanging out with his wife and four boys.
Follow Jon Callaghan:
About NexPrise Corporation, True Ventures: True Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups.
Jon Callaghan
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of True Ventures
Jon is an early stage venture capitalist and co-founder of True Ventures. He has been in the venture capital business since 1991 and built three companies of his own. His first was Mountain Bike Outfitters, Inc., which he created at age 18. Jon started his venture career as an associate at Summit Partners and then joined Greenhouse, AOL’s venture capital investment group and incubator. He entered the internet market early by joining CMGI’s @Ventures group in 1996. Before founding True, Jon was a managing director at Globespan Capital Partners. First as a founder and now as an investor in early-stage technology companies, Jon’s direct startup experience has allowed him to see the world through an entrepreneur’s eyes. Jon’s career has been driven by a deep belief in the power of human creativity to improve our world. Jon received a bachelor’s degree in government from Dartmouth College and an MBA, with distinction, from Harvard Business School. He was recently the Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association. When he is not empowering the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, you can find him talking about airplanes or hanging out with his wife and four boys.
Follow Jon Callaghan:
About NexPrise Corporation, True Ventures: True Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups.
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.
Follow Owen Van Natta:
About 415, Prefix Capital: Prefix Capital is an early-stage, deep-tech VC that invests in foundational technologies.
Matthew Howard
Managing Partner of Norwest Venture Partners
Follow Matthew Howard:
About Norwest Venture Partners: Norwest is a global venture capital and growth equity investment firm that specializes in venture and growth equity companies.
Promod Haque
Senior Managing Partner of Norwest Venture Partners
Promod has 31 years of experience in the venture capital industry and currently serves as senior managing partner at Norwest Venture Partners. Promod joined Norwest in 1990, and has invested in more than 70 companies since he began his venture career. His investments have been worth more than $40B in aggregate exit value to date, as 25 of his portfolio companies have gone public and 37 have been acquired (or have gone public and been acquired). In 2014 and 2016, Forbes recognized Promod as a “Hall of Fame” investor. 2017 marked Promod’s thirteenth appearance on the annual Forbes Midas List, including 2004, when he was ranked the #1 venture capitalist based on performance over the previous decade. In 2006, Promod was presented with a Global Leadership award from NASSCOM, and he was honored with the 2011 SV Forum Visionary Award based on his outstanding achievements and contributions to the technology industry.
Follow Promod Haque:
About Norwest Venture Partners: Norwest is a global venture capital and growth equity investment firm that specializes in venture and growth equity companies.
Jon Kossow
Managing Partner of Norwest Venture Partners
Follow Jon Kossow:
About Clarus Commerce, Norwest Venture Partners: Norwest is a global venture capital and growth equity investment firm that specializes in venture and growth equity companies.
Jeff Crowe
Managing Partner of Norwest Venture Partners
Follow Jeff Crowe:
About Norwest Venture Partners: Norwest is a global venture capital and growth equity investment firm that specializes in venture and growth equity companies.
Dominik Andrzejczuk
Managing Partner of Atmos Ventures
Dom has been involved in technology startups since the beginning of his professional career. He cofounded mobile payments startup Nooch, in 2010 and has since been involved in the fin tech vertical. Most recently, he was the Product Lead at the Virtual Currency startup Sohalo, where he established global relationships with Fortune 500 companies, and developed the core social loyalty product. Dom holds a degree in Physics from Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
Follow Dominik Andrzejczuk:
About Atmos Ventures: Atmos Ventures is focused on investing, nurturing, and growing Seed and Series A-stage European firms, in Quantum Computing, AI & Deep Tech
Shiyan Koh
Managing Partner of Hustle Fund
Shiyan leads NerdWallet’s Personal Financial Management products. Before NerdWallet, she was an investment professional at Bridgewater Associates. Shiyan was also a Senior Investment Associate at Institutional Venture Partners, and began her career as an Investment Banking Analyst at JPMorgan, serving technology and healthcare clients. She is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Business School.
Follow Shiyan Koh:
About Hustle Fund: Hustle Fund is a seed fund that seeks to invest in early-stage 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.
Follow Vincent Diallo:
About Bleu Capital, Interlace Ventures: Interlace Ventures is an early-stage and seed-stage fund investing in the Future of Commerce.
James Sagan
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Arc Labs
James is the CEO of a credit company that is currently still in stealth mode. Prior to starting the firm, James co-founded Arc Labs, a niche credit fund that focuses on lending to tech-enabled businesses. James continues to manage Arc Labs with his partners at the firm. Prior to founding Arc Labs, James managed a multi-family office, where he focused on managing the firm’s private debt activities. James holds a number of advisory roles, and is active in the fintech community. James graduated from Tufts University with a degree in Philosophy and a minor in Entrepreneurial Leadership. He grew up in Lake Tahoe, and was a competitive ski racer throughout his youth and college.
Follow James Sagan:
About Arc Labs, Architect Capital: Arc Labs is an early-stage credit fund focused on lending to technology-enabled businesses.
Francis Shih
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Arc Labs
Frank is Co-founder and Managing Partner of Arc Labs. Before launching Arc, Frank was a Principal and Founding Team member of Arena Ventures, an early-stage VC based in Los Angeles. He also worked at a family office based in New York managing early stage venture investments. Frank managed client portfolios at Bank Julius Baer and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, where he was a Vice President in the Asia CIO Office focused on global equity strategy and macro-driven investments. His background is in institutional equity research including experience as a technology sector analyst at Bear Stearns and as a buy-side analyst for a hedge fund in New York. Francis graduated from the University of Rochester with a BA in Economics and English.
Follow Francis Shih:
About Arc Labs: Arc Labs is an early-stage credit fund focused on lending to technology-enabled businesses.
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.
Follow Matt Hobart:
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.
Follow Philip O’Connor:
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.
Follow John Vrionis:
About Unusual Ventures: Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital offering hands-on support and expertise to startups on their early-stage journey.
Srinivas Akkaraju
Founder & Managing Partner of Samsara BioCapital
Akkaraju founded Samsara BioCapital in 2017, and has more than 18 years of investment and operational experience in the Life Sciences sector. Most recently, he was a General Partner at Sofinnova Ventures and concentrated on biopharmaceutical investments. Previously, he was Managing Director at New Leaf Venture Partners, a co-founder and Managing Director at Panorama Capital, and served as Partner of J.P. Morgan Partners. He held business and corporate development positions at Genentech. Dr. Akkaraju also serves as a director of aTyr Pharma, Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Seattle Genetics and Versartis. Dr. Akkaraju received B.A. degrees in biochemistry and computer science from Rice University and an M.D. and Ph.D. in Immunology from Stanford University School of Medicine.
Follow Srinivas Akkaraju:
About Samsara BioCapital: Samsara Biocapital, LLC provides investment advisory services.
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.
Follow David Singer:
About College Track, Maverick Ventures: Maverick Ventures is a registered investment advisor managing private investment funds for qualified investors.
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.
Follow Anthony Lin:
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.
Follow Court Coursey:
About TomorrowVentures: TomorrowVentures is an early stage venture capital firm that funds lifestyle-focused companies.
Emily Kirsch
Founder, Managing Partner & CEO of Powerhouse Ventures
Follow Emily Kirsch:
About Powerhouse, Powerhouse Ventures: Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems.
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.
Follow Robert Schwartz:
About Third Point Ventures: Third Point Ventures is an investment firm that focuses on enterprise, fintech, mobile, and healthcare innovation.
Brian Chee
Managing Partner of Polaris Partners
Follow Brian Chee:
About Polaris Partners: Polaris Partners invests in healthcare and technology companies across all stages from founding to profitable growth.
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.
Follow David Fisher:
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
Follow Theo Osborne:
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.
Dave Leyrer
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of 3L Capital
Dave Leyrer is a Venture Partner at FirstMark. He’s also a co-founder at Boulevard Capital Management, a multi-asset class investment firm based in LA. Earlier in his career, Dave founded and managed Nexus Group, a management company based in SF and Menlo Park which managed technology-focused venture funds and a technology-oriented hedge fund. Before Nexus, Dave was a Director at DMG Technology Group and CSFB Technology Group. He is also the Chairman of Citymaps and Omaze, a mentor at AmplifyLA, a board member of The Nantucket Project, a board member at CoachART, a former Chairman of PS Arts and a board member of Adopt-a-Classroom. Dave is a graduate of Lafayette College and lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.
Follow Dave Leyrer:
About 3L Capital, The Safe + Fair Food Company: 3L is a multi-stage growth equity firm that invests across tech-enabled consumer and enterprise businesses.
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.
Follow Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf:
About YL Ventures: YL Ventures funds and supports seed-stage entrepreneurs in the cybersecurity sector.
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.
Follow Peter Svennilson:
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.
Follow David Goeddel:
About The Column Group: The Column Group is a venture capital firm dedicated to developing biotechnology companies.
Daniel Ahn
Founder & Managing Partner of Clearvision Ventures
Dan enjoys working with early stage companies and entrepreneurs to create their business plans and Go To Market strategies to disrupt existing markets and create new ones. Dan focuses on enterprise software and infrastructure, around the convergence of SaaS, big data and cloud computing. He has extensive experience in venture capital investing, portfolio company management and technology entrepreneurship.He serves on the boards of AutoGrid, where he was the founding VC, ChargePoint, ClearCare, Vidder, Placecast and Wise.io for Voyager. Prior to Voyager, Dan was a partner and managing director at Woodside Fund, an early stage venture capital firm, for nine years. At Woodside, he led the firm’s investing in core technology and infrastructure companies, and led the creation, development and investment in numerous successful companies, including companies such as Analogix and Berkeley Design.Prior to Woodside Fund, he was an associate at the Foster Management Company, a venture capital firm that invested in and consolidated fragmented service companies. Prior to that time, Dan was the co-founder and president of a successful technology startup company, Endpoint Technologies, Inc., which developed and sold real-time manufacturing control systems for semiconductor device production. He was responsible for the company’s product management, business development, and finance functions. The company was acquired by Applied Materials.Prior to that activity, Dan was with the venture capital group at CS First Boston, where he worked with information technology companies. Outside of work, Dan enjoys spending time with his family and is a classical violinist.Dan has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an AB, magna cum laude, from Harvard College.
Follow Daniel Ahn:
About Clearvision Ventures, Envision Ventures: Clearvision Ventures is a a venture capital firm that helps entrepreneurs build category leading 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.
Follow Bryan Taylor:
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
Follow Ben Yu:
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.
Follow Mark Fernandes:
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
Follow Tim Guleri:
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.
Follow Matthew Hobart:
About TPG: TPG is a private investment firm that manages capital across a family of funds.
Michael Levit
Managing Partner of Dragonfly Partners
Michael is a serial entrepreneur working on his fifth startup, Spigot Inc., which he co-founded in 2008. Prior to Spigot Michael ran the business side of Vendio, an eCommerce platform, where he grew transactions to $1.5+ billion/year before selling the business to Chinese giant Alibaba. Michael’s previous experience includes starting AOL’s Broadband division, running sales and marketing at Hearme and Paltalk, co-founding and overseeing Business Development at Bluelight.com a venture between Softbank, Martha Stewart, Kmart and Yahoo, and working in Accenture’s technology and strategy consulting practice where he co-founded the Internet Center in Palo Alto some 16 years ago.
Follow Michael Levit:
About Dragonfly Partners, Founders Den, Pure Digital Technologies: Boutique advisory service for cross-border transactions with a focus on M&A in China.
Anthony Tucker
Managing Partner of Troy Capital Partners
Mr. Anthony Tucker is a Managing Partner at Troy Capital Partners. Prior background as consultant in Deloitte Consulting’s strategy practice focused on corporate venture investment opportunities and retail omnichannel strategy. Mr. Tucker is a Head of strategy for seed stage digital media company. He received a BS in Finance and Technology Entrepreneurship from the University of Maryland with distinction and MBA, Harvard Business School.
Follow Anthony Tucker:
About Troy Capital Partners: Troy Capital Partners is an early stage venture capital firm investing in companies across sectors.
Orlando Bravo
Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo
Follow Orlando Bravo:
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.
Follow Seth Boro:
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
Follow Scott Crabill:
About Thoma Bravo: Thoma Bravo is a private equity firm with a focus on investing in software and technology companies.
Duygu Oktem Clark
Founder & Managing Partner of DO Venture Partners
Duygu Oktem Clark is the Founder & Managing Partner at DO Venture Partners.
Follow Duygu Oktem Clark:
About DO Venture Partners, European Commission, European Investment Fund: DO Venture Partners is an investment firm.
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.
Follow Justin Fishner-Wolfson:
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.
Follow Alex Jacobson:
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.
Follow Ashmeet Sidana:
About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Engineering Capital: Engineering Capital partners with great entrepreneurs driven by technical insights—before traditional venture firms are willing.
Anamitra Banerji
Managing Partner, Founder of Afore Capital
Anamitra Banerji joined Foundation Capital in February as an EIR. Anamitra comes to Foundation with 8 years of product management experience in advertising and social media at Twitter, Overture and Yahoo. Prior to product roles, Anamitra worked as a software engineer in the enterprise space for 4 years. He also co-founded an internet-healthcare company during the ’98-’00 boom-bust. Anamitra joined Twitter in March 2009 as its first product manager and employee number 30. He helped start the company’s advertising platform and core revenue engine, leading the team that launched the first monetization products, including promoted tweets, promoted accounts and promoted trends. At Foundation, Anamitra will foster his own passions with exploration of the fast growing online collaboration, marketplaces, and mobile industries, as well as help the firm identify promising start-ups, and advice on the investment process. Along with his EIR responsibilities, Anamitra is also helping to launch Widescope, an early-stage experiment at Stanford focused on online collaboration. The website (http://widescope.stanford.edu ) encourages the community to find a solution to reduce the federal budget deficit and seeks to build consensus by allowing members to vote on submitted ideas. Anamitra is a mentor at 500 Startups—Dave McClure’s accelerator program—where he advises a number of startups. Anamitra has earned an MBA from Cornell University and a degree in Electronics Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur, India. Anamitra is an avid soccer fan and follows Liverpool football club. He used to play competitively at the under 18 level in India. He continues to play today—albeit less competitively. Anamitra is also an aspiring coffee aficionado, his favorite blend is the ‘cubano’ at Epicenter Cafe in SOMA. Anamitra lives in San Francisco with his wife and 15 month old son.
Follow Anamitra Banerji:
About Afore Capital: Afore Capital is a venture fund that focuses on pre-seed stage exclusively and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Gaurav Jain
Co-founder & Managing Partner of Afore Capital
Gaurav Jain is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Afore Capital and an Investor at Modern Health, Flatfile, Petal, BenchSci, and Sinai Technologies. Prior to that, he was the Principal at Founder Collective.
Follow Gaurav Jain:
About Afore Capital, Transfix: Afore Capital is a venture fund that focuses on pre-seed stage exclusively and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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.
Follow Ravi Viswanathan:
About MindTickle, NewView Capital: NewView Capital has developed a new model in venture capital to drive sustainable growth for entrepreneurs.
Nancy Pfund
Founder & Managing Partner of DBL Partners
Nancy E. Pfund is Founder and Managing Partner of DBL Partners, a venture capital firm whose goal is to combine top-tier financial returns with meaningful social, environmental and economic returns in the regions and sectors in which it invests. Nancy is also the Founder of DBL Investors. As a leading player in the growing field of “impact investing”, DBLhas helped to reveal the power of venture capital to promote social change and environmental improvement, and Nancy Pfund writes and speaks frequently on this topic. Nancy Pfund currently sponsors or sits on the board of directors of several companies, including; SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY) on both the audit and compensation committees, and is chair of the corporate governance committee; Farmers Business Network, Advanced Microgrid Solutions, Off-Grid Electric, Primus Power, The Muse, and, prior to their public offerings, Tesla Motors and Pandora. Prior to founding DBL Investors, Nancy Pfund was a Managing Director in Venture Capital at JPMorgan, having started her investment career at Hambrecht & Quist in 1984. Previously, Nancy Pfund worked at Intel Corporation, the State of California, Stanford University and the Sierra Club. Nancy Pfund was recently featured in 2016 Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business list; featured #17 in the 2014 FORTUNE Inaugural World’s Top 25 Eco-Innovators; is Chair of the Advisory Council of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University; a member of the Advisory Board of: the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab); and the UC Davis Center for Energy Efficiency, and a Trustee of the National Geographic Society. She has been a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Yale School of Management; and is a C3E Ambassador to the U.S. Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Program, led by the U.S. Department of Energy. She is also a founding officer and director of ABC2, a foundation aimed at accelerating a cure for brain cancer. Nancy Pfund is the author, along with Benjamin Healey of the widely cited report on the history of U.S. energy subsidies entitled, “What Would Jefferson Do? The Historical Role of Federal Subsidies in Shaping America’s Energy Future”, co-authored with Michael Lazar, “Red, White & Green: The True Colors of America’s Clean Tech Jobs”, co-authored with Noah Walker, “Ask Saint Onofrio: Finding What Has Been Lost in A Tale of Two Energy Sources”, co-authored with Anand Chhabra, “Renewables Are Driving Up Electricity Prices: Wait, What?”, and co-authored with Kristofer Holz, “The 2017 Inauguration: Empowering a Clean Energy Nation”. Nancy Pfund received her BA and MA in anthropology from Stanford University, and her MBAfrom the Yale School of Management
Follow Nancy Pfund:
About DBL Partners: DBL Partners is an investment venture focused on companies that deliver high venture capital returns and economic benefits.
Mike Dorsey
Managing Partner of DBL Partners
Mike Dorsey is a Managing Partner of DBL Investors. Previously he was a Managing Director at JPMorgan. Prior to his affiliation with the Bay Area Equity Fund, Mr. Dorsey worked for 20 years as an investment banker to technology companies. For six years, Mr. Dorsey served as Head of Technology Investment Banking at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Cowen & Co., primarily operating out of their Bay Area offices. During his tenure at Cowen & Co. he built the technology investment banking practice from a level of seven transactions per year in 1991 to 55 transactions per year in 1995. Mr. Dorsey established his own financial advisory and investment business in March 1999. In this capacity, Mr. Dorsey advised Signatures Network in its management buyout from Sony Music and in its subsequent sale of a controlling interest to CMGI. He served as Acting CEO of @pos, a publicly-traded company which has been acquired by Symbol Technologies Inc. Mr. Dorsey has been a resident of the Bay Area for 30 of the past 34 years. Mr. Dorsey is a Director of the United Way of the Bay Area, and a member of the Stanford Athletic Board and the Parents Advisory Boards of Stanford and Duke Universities. via: [DBL](http://dblinvestors.com/mike-dorsey.php)
Follow Mike Dorsey:
About Bay Area Equity Fund, DBL Partners: DBL Partners is an investment venture focused on companies that deliver high venture capital returns and economic benefits.
Ira Ehrenpreis
Founder and Managing Partner of DBL Partners
Follow Ira Ehrenpreis:
About DBL Partners, National Association of Corporate Directors, Technology Partners, The National Venture Capital Association, Western Association of Venture Capitalists: DBL Partners is an investment venture focused on companies that deliver high venture capital returns and economic benefits.
Arjan Schutte
Managing Partner & Founder of Core Innovation Capital
Follow Arjan Schutte:
About Core Innovation Capital: Core Innovation Capital is a venture capital firm investing in companies committed to empowering small businesses.
Kathleen Utecht
Managing Partner of Core Innovation Capital
Kathleen is a Managing Partner at Core Innovation Capital. Previously, she was an EIR/ Investor at Comcast Ventures and an investor at WVP Ventures. Prior to her venture roles, Kathleen invested in and led Green Rock Entertainment, an online / offline commerce startup whose main product was Cahootie. Before her operational experience, Kathleen was an investment banker in the financial services group of Raymond James and a graduate of General Electric Capital’s Financial Management Program. Kathleen holds a bachelors degree from Babson College and an MBA from the Wharton School.
Follow Kathleen Utecht:
About Core Innovation Capital, LOLA, MAZ: Core Innovation Capital is a venture capital firm investing in companies committed to empowering small businesses.
Nate Redmond
Managing Partner of Alpha Edison
Follow Nate Redmond:
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.
Follow Nick Grouf:
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.
Follow Sunil Nagaraj:
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.
Follow Arlan Hamilton:
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.
Follow Abe Yokell:
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.
Follow Joshua Posamentier:
About Congruent Ventures, Elan Management, Ripple Foods, Yerdle: Congruent Ventures is an early-stage venture fund focused on sustainable technologies.
SC Moatti
Managing Partner of Mighty Capital
SC Moatti is a Silicon Valley investor, entrepreneur & visionary. She is the managing partner of Mighty Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and Products That Count, one of the largest communities of product managers, leaders and entrepreneurs in the world. Previously, she built products that billions of people use at Facebook, Nokia and Electronic Arts. She also serves on boards of both public and private companies, including mobile technology giant Opera Software (OPERA:Oslo). An award-winning bestselling author, Moatti frequently gives keynotes on business and technology, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, and on NPR. She lectures at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she earned her MBA and has a Master of Science in electrical engineering. Andrew Chen, one of Uber’s top executives, called SC “a genius at making mobile products people love.”
Follow SC Moatti:
About Columbia University in the City of New York, Mighty Capital, Products That Count, Stanford University Graduate School of Business: A Silicon Valley venture capital firm that invests in companies building products that transform lives and create value at scale.
Nikolai Oreshkin
Managing Partner of Elysium Venture Capital
Nikolai is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Elysium Venture Capital, an investment management fund focused on helping high-growth technology companies access global markets. Based in Silicon Valley and with strong ties in Europe and China, Nikolai leverages his domain expertise in AI, blockchain and consumer tech to invest in companies led by visionary technologists from across the world. During his tenure at Elysium, Nikolai has participated in over 50 VC transactions, including cross-border and M&A, valued at more than $2.5 billion. Previously, Nikolai founded an ISP and was one of the first entrepreneurs who offered internet access to people of Belarus and promoted the use of social networks.
Follow Nikolai Oreshkin:
About Elysium Venture Capital: Elysium Venture Capital is an investment management group focused on global technology opportunities.