Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California based Managing Partner operating in the Venture Capital 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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About Applied Intuition, FWD.us, Personal Training Systems, Smart Tech Foundation, SV Angel: SV Angel is an angel firm that helps startups with business development, financing, M&A, and other strategic advice.
Topher Conway
Co-Managing Partner of SV Angel
Topher Conway is a Co-Managing Partner of SV Angel. Topher joined SV Angel in 2009, coming from a background in Business Development and Sales at EQAL. At SV Angel, he works particularly close with Flexport, Dapper Labs, Stripe, BetterUp, Coinbase, DoorDash, and Deel. He was included in Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 in 2015. Topher studied History at UCLA and is a member of the UCLA VC Fund, helping foster entrepreneurship at the University. Philanthropically, Topher is involved in a wide range of organizations including Family House, College Track, THORN Foundation, Giffords.org, TGR Foundation, and Team RWB.
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About SV Angel: SV Angel is an angel firm that helps startups with business development, financing, M&A, and other strategic advice.
Ram Shriram
Founder & Managing Partner of Sherpalo Ventures
Ram Shriram has served as a member of our board of directors since September 1998. Ram has been a managing partner of Sherpalo Ventures, LLC, an angel venture investment company, since January 2000. From August 1998 to September 1999, Ram served as Vice President of Business Development at Amazon.com, Inc., an e-commerce company. Prior to that, Ram served as President at Junglee Corporation, a provider of database technology, which was acquired by Amazon.com in 1998. Ram was an early member of the executive team at Netscape Communications Corporation. Ram is also on the board of trustees of Stanford University. Ram holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Madras, India.
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About Sherpalo Ventures: Sherpalo is a mentor capital firm that supports the development and commercialization of early-stage disruptive new technologies.
Hans Tung
Managing Partner of GGV Capital
Hans Tung is the Managing Partner of GGV Capital.
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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.
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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.
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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
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About DST Global: DST Global is an investment firm that funds late-stage ventures in the internet industry.
Karan Wadhera
Managing Partner of Casa Verde Capital
Karan Wadhera is a Managing Partner at Casa Verde Capital. He is an experienced finance professional and investor, as well as an advisor for several young companies. Spending over a decade in Asia as a senior executive with Goldman Sachs and Nomura, he has had significant international experience. Karan holds a BA in Finance from Babson College.
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About Casa Verde Capital, Cayke: Casa Verde Capital is a venture capital firm specialized in seed investments.
Jamie McGurk
Managing Partner of Coatue
Jamie McGurk is a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm focused on identifying and funding world-class entrepreneurs in spanning both enterprise and consumer technology. Jamie has been focused on the technology space for his entire 15 year career, funding, advising and supporting management teams with revolutionary ideas. Jamie’s expertise spans M&A and capital raising in both public and private markets and is also an active angel investor in several emerging technology companies.
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About Coatue: Coatue invests in public and private equity markets focusing on the technology, media, and telecommunications industries.
Kris Fredrickson
Managing Partner of Coatue
Kris Fredrickson is Managing Partner at Coatue.
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About Coatue, Curology: Coatue invests in public and private equity markets focusing on the technology, media, and telecommunications industries.
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.
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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.
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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.
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About Ribbit Capital: Ribbit Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies.
Colin Fan
Managing Partner, Americas, Asia of SoftBank Vision Fund
Colin Fan serves as the Head of Markets and Co-Head of Corporate Banking & Securities at Deutsche Bank AG. At Deutsche Bank, Mr. Fan is responsible for Cash Equities, Program Trading, Equity Derivatives and Prime Services. He serves as the Global Head of Convertibles Trading of Deutsche Bank. Mr. Fan served as Regional Head of Asia and Global Markets Equity Division of Deutsche Bank AG since September 30, 2005 and served a its Co-Head of Global Credit Trading since February 2008. From 2001 to 2004, he served as Head of Emerging Markets Credit Derivatives of Deutsche Bank. Mr. Fan holds a BA with honors in History and Science from Harvard University.
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About SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Deep Nishar
Senior Managing Partner, Americas of SoftBank Vision Fund
Deep Nishar is the Vice President of Product at LinkedIn, a position he took in December 2008. Prior to LinkedIn, Nishar was a long time Google executive who helped start its mobile business and other key products. As Director of Wireless Products at Google, Deep Nishar developed and implemented the product strategy for Google’s mobile products worldwide. Prior to Google, Deep worked at Siebel Systems where he was a member of the founding team of the Universal Application Network (UAN) business unit which grew to a $40 million a year run rate in its first year. Prior to Siebel, Deep founded Patkai Networks, a web services based software integration company. At Patkai, Deep built the product and engineering organizations and drove all of the business operations for the company. Additionally, Deep was an associate at The Boston Consulting Group and also held various product management, marketing, finance and engineering roles at Cummins Engine Company, where he was awarded three patents. Deep received his Bachelors in Technology with honors from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, where he was awarded the Institute Silver Medal. Deep also received a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School where he graduated with highest honors as a Baker Scholar.
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About SoftBank, SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Brian Wheeler
Managing Partner, General Counsel of SoftBank Vision Fund
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About SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Eric Chen
Managing Partner of SoftBank Vision Fund
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About Silver Lake, SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
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.
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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.
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About Base10 Partners: Base10 is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the automation of the real economy.
Anna Patterson
Founder & Managing Partner of Gradient Ventures
Anna Patterson is the Founder and Managing Partner at Gradient Ventures.
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About Google, Google, Gradient Ventures, Washington University in St. Louis: Gradient Ventures helps founders build transformational companies.
Neil Mehta
Founder, Managing Partner of Greenoaks
Neil Mehta is the founder and a managing partner of Greenoaks Capital. Greenoaks is a leading investment firm focused on internet and technology businesses. Greenoaks makes concentrated, long-term investments in enduring businesses globally.
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About Greenoaks: Greenoaks is a global investment firm specializing in technology companies.
Benny Peretz
Managing Partner of Greenoaks
Benny Peretz is a Managing Partner of Greenoaks Capital. Prior to Greenoaks Capital, Benny co-founded WRKSHP, a leading mobile gaming company. Benny previously invested in public and private businesses globally with D.E. Shaw & Co., L.P. Benny holds a BSc from the Wharton School and BAS from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Greenoaks: Greenoaks is a global investment firm specializing in technology companies.
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.
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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
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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
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About Bitski, Kindred Ventures: Kindred Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital fund that supports startup companies.
Kanyi Maqubela
Managing Partner of Kindred Ventures
Kanyi is a Managing Partner at Kindred Ventures, an early stage venture fund investing in mission-driven technology companies at the earliest stages. Previously, he served as a Partner at Collaborative Fund. Kanyi is a co-founder at Heartbeat Health, and previously ran growth at One Block Off the Grid (acquired by $NRG) and was an early employee at Doostang (acquired by Universum Global). Kanyi has also served as a Lecturer and Adjunct at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, a curriculum adapted from his time in undergrad at Stanford University, where he studied Philosophy.
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About Kindred Ventures: Kindred Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital fund that supports startup companies.
Aileen Lee
Founder and Managing Partner of Cowboy Ventures
Aileen is the founder of Cowboy Ventures, a seed-stage focused fund. They seek to back exceptional teams building technology that re-imagines work and personal life in large and growing markets – what they call “Life 2.0”. She was formerly a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and the CEO of RMG Networks. A graduate of MIT, Aileen has an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.
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About All Raise, Broadway Angels, Cowboy Ventures, nWay: Cowboy Ventures is a generalist seed-stage fund focused fund investing in technology startups.
Andy McLoughlin
Managing Partner of Uncork Capital
Andy McLoughlin is a Managing Partner at Uncork Capital.
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About Founders Pledge, GreatHorn, Human Interest, Kauffman Fellows, Simplifeye, Uncork Capital: Uncork Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm that focuses on SaaS, consumer, marketplaces, hardware, and new technology startups.
Jeff Clavier
Founder and Managing Partner of Uncork Capital
Jeff Clavier Is The Founder and Managing Partner At Uncork Capital.
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About Uncork Capital: Uncork Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm that focuses on SaaS, consumer, marketplaces, hardware, and new technology startups.
Michael J. Pellini
Managing Partner of Section 32
Michael Pellini, M.D., is a Managing Partner of Section 32, a tech and life-science-based venture capital fund. He served as CEO of Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ:FMI) from May 2011 until he transitioned to Chairman in February 2017 through the close of Roche’s (NASDAQ:RHHBY) acquisition of FMI in August 2018. He was President and COO of Clarient, Inc. (“Clarient”), which was acquired by GE Healthcare in 2010. He also currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Tango Therapeutics, Singular Genomics, the Personalized Medicine Coalition, and the Mission Hospital Foundation. As a physician with more than 20 years of executive experience with companies at the forefront of clinical diagnostics and genomics, Dr. Pellini brings a breadth of understanding in personalized medicine, with a particular interest and focus in cancer. Dr. Pellini is a member of the President’s Leadership Council at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, as well as the Advisory Board for Mission Hospital’s Cancer Institute (Provident/St. Joseph Health). Dr. Pellini received a BA from Boston College, an MBA from Drexel University and an MD from Jefferson Medical College.
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About Section 32: Section 32 is a venture capital fund that invests at the cutting edge of technology, healthcare, and life sciences.
Andrew Harrison
Managing Partner of Section 32
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About Section 32: Section 32 is a venture capital fund that invests at the cutting edge of technology, healthcare, and life sciences.
Soleio Cuervo
Managing Partner of Combine
Soleio is cofounder and managing partner of Combine, a design and venture firm in San Francisco. Prior to Combine, Soleio led early product efforts at Dropbox as head of design and at Facebook where he was one of the company’s first product designers. He’s invested in and advised early stage startups since 2012.
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About Combine: Combine is a design and venture firm.
Adam Michela
Managing Partner of Combine
A digital product investor, designer and engineer.
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About Combine: Combine is a design and venture firm.
Matt Ocko
Co-Managing Partner and Co-Founder of DCVC
Matt has nearly three decades of experience as a technology entrepreneur, operating executive and venture capitalist, with over 20 patents granted or pending in areas as diverse as hardware systems and social games. He still reads C++ code but admits to occasional struggles with Erlang. Matt is a cofounder of Data Collective, a venture fund with a unique team of experienced venture capitalists, technology entrepreneurs and practicing engineers, investing together in seed and early stage Big Data and IT infrastructure companies. During his venture capital tenure, he has invested in and/or helped grow a variety of companies including XenSource (CTRX), Zynga (ZNGA), Impermium, Verisign (VRSN), Facebook (FB), Virtuata (CSCO), Akimbi Systems (VMW), Cotendo (AKAM), Tango.me, MetaWeb (GOOG), FlashSoft (SNDK), DataMirror (IBM), UltraDNS (NSR), Kenshoo, Metamarkets, Fortinet (FTNT), SupportSoft (SPRT), Alantro (TXN), CouchBase, Spool (FB), BranchOut, On-Ramp Wireless, and many others.
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About AngelList, Archimedes Capital, DCVC, Uber: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
John Hamer
Managing Partner of DCVC
John is a Managing Partner at DCVC Bio. Prior to DCVC Bio, John was an Investment Director for Monsanto Growth Ventures. Monsanto is a leading global, agricultural company providing products to growers worldwide. Monsanto Growth Ventures, through investment and partnership encourages entrepreneurs, and innovative start-up companies, to take on the challenge of a more sustainable future for world food production. John Hamer’s career spans more than three decades of research, senior management and investment experience in the life sciences. Prior to joining Monsanto, he was Entrepreneur-in-Residence and later Managing Director and General Partner at Burrill & Company, a San Francisco-based life sciences merchant bank with activities in venture capital, merchant banking and media. John Hamer led investments in numerous of Ag-related start-ups in the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Prior to joining Burrill, John Hamer was the CSO and later CEO of Paradigm Genetics/ICORIA, a leading genomics and ag-biotechnology company that completed its IPO on NASDAQ in 2000 and was later acquired by Monsanto. John Hamer received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of California at Davis and was a Visiting Scientist in Dupont’s Central Research & Development Group. He later joined Purdue University and rose to the rank of full Professor and was the recipient of several national awards including the David Lucille Packard Award, and The National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellowship. At Purdue, John Hamer’s research focused on crop diseases, where he pioneered molecular approaches to disease management and control and worked with numerous international agencies in China, the Philippines and South America. John Hamer lectures widely on innovation, agriculture and venture capital and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and serves on the Board of Directors for Golden Pine Ventures, a microVC fund in RTP, North Carolina. He is a passionate believer in new growth opportunities that are emerging in the agricultural value chain in food, health, energy, materials and chemicals.
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About DCVC: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Kiersten Stead
Managing Partner – DCVC Bio of DCVC
Kiersten is a Managing Partner at DCVC Bio. Prior to DCVC Bio, Kiersten was an Investment Director at Monsanto Growth Ventures (MGV), the Venture Capital arm of Monsanto, which was one of the most active investors globally in agriculture. Kiersten has over 15 years of experience in Biotechnology. Prior to joining MGV, Kiersten worked at Burrill & Company, which invested broadly in Life Sciences and Industrial Biotechnology. Kiersten is a co-founder and Director of Pairwise, is on the Board of Atomwise, Farmlead, Plant Response Biotech, VitalFields (acquired), Understory Weather and Blue River Technology (acquired). She is also a member of the Investment Committee of Genome Canada GAAP, The Keystone Symposia Scientific Advisory Board, and the EULC, a sport-not-for-profit.
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About DCVC: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Zachary Bogue
Co-Managing Partner and Co-Founder of DCVC
Zack has over a decade of experience in Silicon Valley as an entrepreneur, lawyer, angel investor and advisor for big data startups. Zack is a cofounder of Data Collective, a venture fund with a unique team of experienced venture capitalists, technology entrepreneurs and practicing engineers, investing together in seed and early stage Big Data and IT infrastructure companies. Zack also is a cofounder and managing partner of Founders Den, a shared workspace for experienced technology entrepreneurs. He was previously an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and a law partner at Virtual Law Partners, where he worked with numerous start-ups and their founders, and developed expertise in technology law and Silicon Valley business practices.
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About aWhere, Cask, Citus Data, Cotendo, DCVC, Founders Den, Montara Capital Partners, Square, The World Economic Forum, Uber: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Eric Kwan
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Locus Ventures
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About Applied Intuition, Ironclad, Lob, Locus Ventures, Meesho, Notable Labs, Razorpay, Standard Cognition: Locus Ventures is a seed fund that invests in passionate founders looking to build important, world-changing companies.
Perry Tam
Founder & Managing Partner of Locus Ventures
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About Locus Ventures: Locus Ventures is a seed fund that invests in passionate founders looking to build important, world-changing companies.
Lo Toney
Founding Managing Partner of Plexo Capital
Lo is the Founding Managing Partner of Plexo Capital, which he incubated and spun out from GV, based on a strategy to increase access to early stage deal flow. Plexo Capital invests as an LP into emerging seed stage VCs and also invests directly into select companies sourced from the portfolios of VCs where Plexo Capital has an LP commitment. Investors in Plexo Capital include the venture capital units of top corporate VCs, prominent family offices and technology executives. Prior to founding Plexo Capital, Lo was a Partner on the investing team at GV where he focused on marketplaces, mobile and consumer products. Before GV, Lo was a Partner with Comcast Ventures where he led the Catalyst Fund and worked with the main fund where he focused on mobile messaging and marketplaces. He also worked with Zynga as the GM of Zynga Poker with full P+L responsibility for Zynga’s largest franchise at that time. During his leadership, web bookings increased by over 150% with margin expansion. Lo has also held executive roles with Nike + eBay as well as startups funded by top tier investors. Lo received his M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business (University of California at Berkeley where he completed the Management of Technology program – a joint curriculum program with the College of Engineering. Lo received his B.S. from Hampton University in Virginia.
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About Plexo Capital: Plexo Capital is a venture fund formed inside GV that seeks to make investments into women and minority seed-stage VCs.
Michael Yang
Managing Partner of OMERS Ventures
Based in Silicon Valley, Michael is a Managing Partner of OMERS Ventures leading the fund’s investment efforts in the US in sectors such as health-tech, proptech and insuretech. Prior to joining OMERS Ventures in 2019, Michael was a Managing Director for Comcast Ventures. Previously, he was a VP/GM for Yahoo! and started his career at AT Kearney, AOL and Atlas Venture. He has a BS from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), OMERS Ventures: OMERS Ventures is a transatlantic multi-stage investor in growth-oriented, disruptive technology companies
David Krane
CEO & Managing Partner of GV
David is the CEO & Managing Partner at GV and oversees the fund’s global activities. He invests in a wide range of technology companies including Uber, Nest, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Urban Engines. David’s Google career began more than 17 years ago, as director of Global Communications and Public Affairs. In this role, David oversaw the company’s strategic communications programs worldwide, and worked as a member of the senior leadership team to grow Google from a small startup to a multi-billion dollar global enterprise. David’s prior professional experience spanned both startup and public companies, including Apple Computer, QUALCOMM, Four11 (now Yahoo! Mail), and two computer security software developers. David is also on the board of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (MGM), a member of Young President’s Organization (YPO), a trustee of San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum of Art, and a Menlo/Atherton Little League baseball coach. David received his Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Indiana University Bloomington. As a proud Hoosier alumnus, he serves on the Dean’s advisory board for the IU School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. David resides in the Bay Area with his wife, three children, and their labradoodle.
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About Google, GV: GV provides venture capital funding to bold new companies.
Graham Spencer
Managing Partner of GV
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About GV, Santa Fe Institute: GV provides venture capital funding to bold new companies.
Jon Soberg
Managing Partner of MS&AD Ventures
Jon Soberg joined MS&AD Ventures as Managing Partner in 2018.
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About CerraCap Ventures, MS&AD Ventures, SocietyOne, The Wharton School, True Link Financial: MS&AD Ventures is an early-stage venture fund focused on big data businesses related to the insurance industry.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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About Norwest Venture Partners: Norwest is a global venture capital and growth equity investment firm that specializes in venture and growth equity companies.
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.
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About Norwest Venture Partners: Norwest is a global venture capital and growth equity investment firm that specializes in venture and growth equity companies.
Jon Kossow
Managing Partner of Norwest Venture Partners
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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
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About Norwest Venture Partners: Norwest is a global venture capital and growth equity investment firm that specializes in venture and growth equity companies.
Babak Poushanchi
Founder & Managing Partner of Cota Capital
Babak Poushanchi is a Founder and Managing Partner at Cota Capital. Babak is responsible for leading public investing activities across the Firm’s funds. As Portfolio Manager of the Cota Growth Fund, he is directly responsible for the management of the investment team covering sourcing, evaluation, and portfolio/risk management of the Firm’s public investments. Babak also serves on the Firm’s Investment Committee, overseeing investments across its private and public portfolios. Babak and Bobby Yazdani founded Cota Capital in 2015. Leveraging Bobby’s early stage investing and operational expertise, and Babak’s late stage and public investing expertise, Cota was designed to invest across all the stages of the lifecycle of a company. Their investment platform is built around the desire to create a research and knowledge platform, and to deploy their own capital into the multi-decade theme of the digital transformation of the enterprise technology stack. Prior to Cota, Babak served as Co-Founder and Co-Portfolio Manager of Newbrook Capital, a global equity long/short fund focused on public investments across the technology, media, consumer, and industrial sectors. Babak was also a Venture Partner at Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, a leading technology accelerator based in New York. Previously, Babak was on the investment teams at Karsch Capital, a global equity long/short fund focused on public investments across all sectors, and Indosuez Capital, a leading middle market merchant banking group focused on equity and debt private investments across the capital structure and a broad range of sectors. Babak has a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University.
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About Cota Capital, Fanatic Sports Corp.: Cota Capital is an SEC-registered multi-stage investment firm focused on private and public enterprise technology companies.
Chi-Hua Chien
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Goodwater Capital
Chi-Hua Chien is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Goodwater Capital.Prior to co-founding Goodwater, Chi-Hua was a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Chi-Hua serves on the Board of Directors of Path, Lithium (fka Klout), Zaarly, Chill, Level Money, and Zumper. He also invested in Chegg, Inspirato, Karma Science (acquired by FB), Spotify, and Twitter. Previously, Chi-Hua was an Associate at Accel Partners, where he originated Accel’s investment in Facebook. Chi-Hua was an early employee or co-founder of four startups including Coremetrics (acquired by IBM), where he led the marketing and inside sales teams, served as interim CFO, and was appointed to the Office of the President. Chi-Hua fell in love with startups at Stanford University where he earned a BS in Industrial Engineering, a BA in Economics, an MS in Industrial Engineering, and an MBA. At Stanford he was named a Mayfield Fellow, President’s Scholar, and Arjay Miller Scholar. Chi-Hua also serves on the board of charity: water, a non-profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations.
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About Citizen, Goodwater Capital: Goodwater Capital is a venture capital firm that focuses on consumer tech startups.
Eric J. Kim
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Goodwater Capital
Eric Kim was a Managing Director with Maverick Capital where he focused on the Firm’s private investments globally and led a number of investments in technology-based companies. Prior to joining Maverick, Eric co-founded Biomimedia and also worked in the US and Asia as a member of McKinsey & Company’s global strategy practice focusing on M&A, technology licensing, turnaround strategies and new product launches. Eric received his MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and his Bachelors Degree in Cognitive Science from Yale University (Magna Cum Laude), where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was a recipient of the Richard U. Light Fellowship.
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About Goodwater Capital, Musical.ly: Goodwater Capital is a venture capital firm that focuses on consumer tech startups.
Deborah Quazzo
Founder & Managing Partner of GSV Ventures
Deborah is the Managing Partner of GSV AcceleraTE, a venture capital fund investing in exceptional entrepreneurs and their companies in the $75B education and talent technology sector. In addition, she is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of the ASU+GSV Summit and Founder and Senior Advisor of GSV Advisors. Now in its 10th year, the ASU+GSV Summit celebrates innovations and innovators across the global “preK to Gray” learning and talent landscape and attracts over 4,000 attendees. Deborah currently serves on the boards of Ascend Learning (a portfolio company of Blackstone and CCCP), Degreed, The Educational Testing Service (ETS), Lightneer, Remind, and Web.com (NASDAQ: WWWW). She is a board observer at CreativeLive and RaiseMe, and an advisory board member of Area9 Lyceum. She is a member of the boards of The Common Ground Foundation, Harvey Mudd College, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, The Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School, The Khan Academy Thought Leadership Council and The Board of Dean’s Advisory Council at Princeton University. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition. She previously served on the board of a number of education organizations including The Chicago Board of Education (CPS) and KIPP: Chicago. Deborah received the 2014 Arnold M. Berlin ’46 Distinguished Service to Princeton Award from the Princeton University Club of Chicago, the 2014 Visionary of the Year Award from CFY PowerMyLearning, the 2016 LEAP Innovator in Education “Champion” Award from LEAP Innovations, the 2016 Inaugural Impact Award from Golden Apple Foundation, and the 2017 Visionary Award from the Association of American Publishers (AAP). Deborah graduated cum laude with a BA in history from Princeton University in 1982 and an MBA from Harvard University in 1987.
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About GSV Ventures: GSV Ventures is a venture firm investing company.
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.
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About Hustle Fund: Hustle Fund is a seed fund that seeks to invest in early-stage startups.
Matt Hobart
Co-Managing Partner of TPG Growth
Hobart is a Partner based in San Francisco. He leads the Healthcare and Financial Services sectors for TPG Growth. Matt is currently a board member of Petbarn and iMDsoft. Previous board service includes The Vincraft Group, Schiff Nutrition International, Wil Research and Agraquest. Prior to joining TPG Growth in 2004, Mr. Hobart was the Vice President of Corporate Development for Critical Path, where he was part of a turnaround team that led Critical Path through a major financial and operational restructuring. Previously, Matt co-founded and served as a Managing Director of Vectis Group, a venture corporation that capitalized and built companies globally, in partnership with leading U.S. technology businesses. Prior to Vectis Group, Mr. Hobart made private equity investments in the US and Europe for the $2.2 billion Morgan Stanley Capital Partners III L.P. and helped raise and invest the $350 million Morgan Stanley Global Emerging Markets Fund.
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About TPG Growth: TPG Growth specializes in growth equity and middle-market buyout opportunities.
Philip O’Connor
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Blackhorn Ventures
Phil is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Blackhorn Ventures, an early stage venture fund investing in technology that increases the resource efficiency of essential industries. Prior to Blackhorn, Phil was co-founder and CEO of PAX Pure, an industrial water treatment company. For the past five years Philip has been an investor and advisor focusing on improving natural resource use.
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About Blackhorn Ventures, Conservation International: Blackhorn Ventures is an early stage venture firm that invests in companies using cutting edge engineering to improve resource productivity.
David Singer
Managing Partner of Maverick Ventures
David has led Maverick’s private investments since he joined Maverick in 2004. Maverick Ventures was established in 2015. Previously David was a founder and CEO of three companies: Affymetrix; Corcept Therapeutics; and Genesoft Pharmaceuticals, the latter two in which Maverick invested. David currently serves on the boards of private companies in healthcare and software-driven marketplace businesses, and one public company, Castlight Health. During his career, David has served on the boards of 19 private companies including five that became public companies during his service. David received a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. He was a Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Rand Corporation’s Health Advisory Board. He is currently Vice Chair of College Track and was formerly Vice President of the San Francisco Health Commission. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Diana Kapp, and their three kids.
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About College Track, Maverick Ventures: Maverick Ventures is a registered investment advisor managing private investment funds for qualified investors.
Sumant Mandal
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of March Capital
Sumant is Managing Director and cofounder of LA-based March Capital Partners, in addition to being cofounder of two leading technology incubators in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Hive, which focuses on AI and Blockchain driven companies, and The Fabric, which focuses on cloud, IoT and network infrastructure companies. Sumant invests in Cloud Computing, IoT, AI/ML, and Network Infrastructure as well as companies focused on the Indian market. Sumant currently serves on the boards of numerous market leading companies, including BillDesk, The Rubicon Project, CarTrade, IoTium, and Xage Security. In his nearly two decades of venture capital, Sumant has generated multiple meaningful exits in companies he has either incubated or been the first institutional investor. Most recently, Sumant played an integral role in VMWare’s acquisition of cloud networking startup VeloCloud, as well as Cisco’s acquisition of machine-learning startup Perspica, both in late 2017. As an active board member, and investor in both companies, Sumant fostered their development and growth since their formations at The Fabric and The Hive, respectively. Other companies that he has incubated and helped lead to a successful exit include The Rubicon Project (NYSE:RUBI), Kosei (acquired by Pinterest), Appcito (acquired by A10 Networks), Deep Forest Media (acquired by Rakuten), Kazeon Systems (acquired by EMC), Mimosa Systems (acquired by Iron Mountain), Ankeena Networks (acquired by Juniper), Cetas (acquired by VMware), and Apture (acquired by Google). In 2000, Sumant joined Clearstone Venture Partners where he went on to become a Managing Director four years later. In 2014, he cofounded March Capital Partners, which has since grown to $500M under management. Prior to Clearstone, Sumant spent more than eight years as an entrepreneur, starting companies in both India and the United States. Sumant has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University. He is a Charter Member of TiE.
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About Clearstone Venture Partners, March Capital, The Fabric, The Hive: March is committed to partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs to build great tech companies and scale them globally.
Gregory Milken
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of March Capital
Gregory Milken is Managing Director at March Capital Partners, where he focuses on investments in digital media, gaming and esports. Gregory has led March Capital’s investments in broadcasting solution Genvid Technologies, game mastery platform Dojo Madness, and game developers nWay and Wavedash. Gregory has over 15 years of entrepreneurial and operational experience. He was the co-founder and COO of AltEgo, a cloud-based technology and gaming company. Prior to his work in technology, he worked in strategy and operations for Knowledge Universe Education, new business development at Warner Bros. in Hong Kong and London, and at Twentieth Century Fox. Gregory received his M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and a M.A. in international policy studies from Stanford University. He also received a B.A. in international relations and Asian studies from the University of Pennsylvania.
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About AltEgo, March Capital: March is committed to partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs to build great tech companies and scale them globally.
Jamie Montgomery
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of March Capital
Jamie Montgomery is a Founder and Managing Director of March Capital Partners. Prior he was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Montgomery & Co, a leading Los Angeles-based investment bank where he advised and financed over 1000 leading technology companies over a 25 year period. He is the founder of The Montgomery Summit, an annual conference that attracts over 1,000 leading entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate executives for a celebration of entrepreneurship and innovation to Santa Monica. Jamie received his M.A. in Economics from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego.
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About March Capital: March is committed to partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs to build great tech companies and scale them globally.
Anthony Lin
Managing Partner and Head of Intel Capital of Intel Capital
Anthony Lin is vice president and senior managing director of Intel Capital. He is responsible for all areas of strategic growth, including equity investing, M&A, and new business incubation. Lin is responsible for leading, managing and driving Intel’s mergers and acquisitions that contribute to Intel’s growth strategy. Lin joined Intel’s M&A team in 2008 and has more than 24 years of experience in technology M&A, investments, strategy, financial planning and business development. As head of Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment organization, Lin also leads equity investments in innovative technology startups and companies worldwide. The Intel Capital organization delivers market leading returns by providing not only financial investments, but also the full resources of Intel to its portfolio companies. Intel Capital is one of the largest, most successful and longest serving corporate venture organizations. Lin was formerly the leader of the equity international investing practice and a member of the investment committee. Lin heads the Emerging Growth and Incubation Group focused on nimble innovation and developing new technologies and businesses internally. Lin also leads the Intel Sports Group which resulted from a product of inorganic and organic efforts. Before joining Intel, Lin worked for 12 years in corporate finance, M&A and private equity roles at Banc of America Securities, ASAT, Merrill Lynch and PaineWebber. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
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About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Court Coursey
Managing Partner of TomorrowVentures
Coursey is a serial entrepreneur having founded his first business at 14 years old. He has built a number of successful companies over the past 20 years. Coursey brings operational expertise and an extensive variety of contacts in a number of industries around the globe that range from technology to finance to entertainment. In addition to his efforts with TomorrowVentures, Coursey supports a wide variety of philanthropic efforts by bringing his entrepreneurial expertise to the non-profit forum.
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About TomorrowVentures: TomorrowVentures is an early stage venture capital firm that funds lifestyle-focused companies.
Emily Kirsch
Founder, Managing Partner & CEO of Powerhouse Ventures
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About Powerhouse, Powerhouse Ventures: Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems.
Alexis Houssou
Founder & Managing Partner of HCVC
Alexis is the managing partner of Hardware Club which he co-founded in 2015. Through its unique $50M early-stage fund, Hardware Club invests in early-stage full-stack startups globally. Alexis took part in launching several initiatives including the Hello Tomorrow and The Family. He sits on the boards of companies including Cowboy, Remedee Labs, Norbert Health and several stealth companies.
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About Elephants & Ventures, HCVC, The Hardware Club, The Hardware Club: HCVC is an early-stage Venture Capital firm investing in companies automating and digitizing the physical world.
Robert Schwartz
Managing Partner of Third Point Ventures
Since June 2000, Robert Schwartz has been Managing Partner of Third Point Ventures, the Sunnyvale, California based venture capital arm of Third Point LLC, which is a registered investment adviser based in New York and the investment manager of the Third Point Funds (AUM over $17B). Robert Schwartz is presently a director of Elastica, Kumu Networks, CloudVelox, Apigee, Formation Data Systems, KidoZen, Krimmeni Technologies, R2 Semiconductor, Technocom Wireless, and EnPhase Energy. Previously he lead investments in Radia Communications (acquired by Texas Instruments), LitePoint (acquired by Teradyne), Global Locate (Acquired by Broadcom), EnPhase Energy (Nasdaq : ENPH), and IQ Engines (Acquired by Yahoo!) . Robert Schwartz was named to the Annual Always On List Of Top 100 Venture Capitalists. Previously, for 23 years, Robert Schwartz was the President of RF Associates North, a privately held communications semiconductor manufacturer’s representative firm. Robert Schwartz holds a multi-disciplinary engineering degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Third Point Ventures: Third Point Ventures is an investment firm that focuses on enterprise, fintech, mobile, and healthcare innovation.
Brian Chee
Managing Partner of Polaris Partners
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About Polaris Partners: Polaris Partners invests in healthcare and technology companies across all stages from founding to profitable growth.
Fred Harman
Managing Partner of Oak Investment Partners
Fred Harman, Managing Partner, joined Oak Investment Partners as a General Partner in 1994. Fred’s primary investment focus is on Consumer Internet and Internet New Media. Fred is currently on the Boards of Aspect Software, Brit Media, Dot & Bo, Demand Media, FRS, Keep Holdings, Limelight Networks, Milyoni, NowThis Media, RazorGator, Rebel Mouse, Social Programming, sovrn, Sutherland Global Services, Thrillist Media Group and U.S. Auto Parts. Fred has also led investments in and/or served on the Boards of aQuantive (acquired by Microsoft), Allyes (acquired by Focus Media), Bleacher Report (acquired by Time Warner), Campus Pipeline (acquired by SCT), Fastclick (acquired by ValueClick), Captura (acquired by Concur), Cobalt (acquired by ADP), Exodus, Huffington Post (acquired by AOL), ILOG, IMS (acquired by Celestica), Inktomi, Knowledge Networks (acquired by GfK), Pivotal, Primus, Qpass (acquired by Amdocs), Sanmina/SCI, and SPSS (acquired by IBM). Prior to Oak, Fred worked for seven years with Morgan Stanley’s Venture Capital Group where he was a General Partner. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Fred worked in Business Development at Hughes Communications where he was involved in the formation of the predecessor to DirecTV. Fred received an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business and a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University where he was a Hughes Fellow. Fred is on the Board of the Stanford Hospital, a Trustee of Sacred Heart Schools, a Trustee of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation, and a co-owner of the Golden State Warriors.
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About Oak Investment Partners: Oak Investment Partners is a multi-stage venture capital and private equity firm.
Luke Roush
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Sovereign’s Capital
Luke Roush co-founded 410 Medical alongside Dr. Piehl in 2013. He is currently a Managing Principal of Sovereign’s Capital, the venture capital firm which he co-founded in 2012. Previously, Luke has twelve years of experience in global commercialization and business development at venture-backed and Fortune 500 companies. He was Vice President for Sales, Marketing, and Business Development at TransEnterix, a medical device company that developed and commercialized a minimally invasive surgical system in the US, Europe, and Middle East. Prior to joining TransEnterix, he served as Chief Operating Officer at Liquidia Technologies, a nanotechnology company focused on biopharmaceutical applications. Mr. Roush was also global marketing manager for Boston Scientific’s neurovascular stroke business. Mr. Roush graduated summa cum laude from Duke University, and earned his MBA from The Fuqua School of Business.
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About 410 Medical, Sovereign’s Capital: Sovereign’s Capital provides growth capital for consumer SaaS, B2B tech, healthcare IT, and med devices.
Zach Finkelstein
Co-founder and Managing Partner of Class 5 Global
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About CargoX, Class 5 Global, Luminous Computing, Nomad Homes, Notable Labs: Class 5 Global is a venture fund investing in the next generation of emerging market entrepreneurs.
David Fisher
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of 9Yards Capital
David focuses on investments in the enterprise and consumer segments. Previously, David worked at the private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners and the investment bank JP Morgan & Chase. He is an alum of Stanford GSB, and graduated summa cum laude from The University of Pennsylvania.
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About 9Yards Capital: 9YC is a global investment firm that invests in tech enabled consumer and enterprise fintech and logistics companies at the growth stage.
Theo Osborne
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of 9Yards Capital
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About 9Yards Capital: 9YC is a global investment firm that invests in tech enabled consumer and enterprise fintech and logistics companies at the growth stage.
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.
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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.
Calvin Chin
Managing Partner of The E14 Fund
Calvin was previously founder and CEO of Qifang, China’s first online student loan service and the first Chinese company recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer. Calvin is a member of the Aspen Institute’s inaugural China Fellowship Program, a WEF Young Global Leader and served on the WEF Global Agenda Council on Social Innovation. He was named one of Fast Company magazine’s 100 Most Creative People In Business for 2011, was named 2009 Chinese Business Leader of the Year by Horasis and Baker & McKenzie, and is a Social Innovation Park Fellow. He has an MBA from TRIUM (NYU, LSE, HEC Paris), a B.A. from Yale University and has also studied social entrepreneurship, global leadership and other management and policy subjects at Harvard University and INSEAD.
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About Brelyon, Chunk Foods, Culture Biosciences, Diligent Robotics, FIGUR8, MIT Media Lab, MitoLab, Overjet, Social Innovation Park, Sourcemap, Spatial, Stable, The E14 Fund, Volta Labs, Wise Systems: E14 Fund is an early stage venture fund focused on startups founded by the MIT community.
Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf
Managing Partner of YL Ventures
Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf founded YL Ventures, which invests early in core-technology software companies in and around the Internet, and accelerates their evolution via value-added involvement and Silicon Valley-based business development. Yoav has been a successful entrepreneur, investor, and consultant in the technology and new media fields for the past two decades. He is the founder and managing partner of YL Ventures, a global venture capital firm that invests in high-technology start-up companies and, within a short time, brings them to market. In addition to 6Scan, Yoav serves on the board of directors of ClickTale (customer experience analytics), Upstream Commerce (automated competitive pricing analytics) and BlazeMeter (self-service load testing cloud) and is the lead investor of Seculert (security threat intelligence). Yoav served on the board of AcceloWeb (browser experience optimization) until it was acquired by Limelight Networks. Yoav was the CEO and cofounder of Movota (mobile gaming) acquired by Bertelsmann, the CTO and cofounder of ExchangePath (online payments) acquired by CMGI, and the CEO and cofounder of PcEnterntainer Magazine. Yoav was also an associate at DFJ Gotham Ventures, studied at IMD, and holds an MBA from Columbia University.
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About YL Ventures: YL Ventures funds and supports seed-stage entrepreneurs in the cybersecurity sector.
Boris Putanec
Managing Partner of Hillsven Capital
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About Hillsven Capital: Hillsven Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on startups based in Silicon Valley and Israel.
Peter Svennilson
Managing Partner and Founder of The Column Group
Peter Svennilson is the Managing Partner and Founder of The Column Group, a biotech VC fund based in San Francisco. He has 23 years of experience in corporate finance, investment banking, and venture capital. He was the founder and a partner of Three Crowns Capital, a leading backer of a new generation of US biotechnology companies. He helped found companies such as Rosetta, PTC, Tercica, and Somalogic. Over the past 12 years he has helped finance and develop biotech companies, including Tularik, Sunesis, Chemocentryx, Infinity, AVEO, Rinat, and FivePrime. He is currently a Board Director of NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Aragon Pharmaceuticals and PTC Therapeutics and has served on the Boards of Directors of several other biotechnology companies, including Rosetta, Somalogic, and ChemoCentryx. Before founding Three Crowns Capital, he was the Associate Managing Director of European Investment Banking Origination at Nomura Securities in London. He is currently a trustee for the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
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About Nomura Holdings, The Column Group, Three Crowns Capital: The Column Group is a venture capital firm dedicated to developing biotechnology companies.
David Goeddel
Managing Partner of The Column Group
Goeddel co-founded Tularik in November 1991, was Vice President of Research until 1996 and CEO from April 1996 – August 2004, when Tularik was acquired by Amgen. He served as Amgen’s first Senior Scientific Vice President until May 2006. Prior to Tularik, he was the first scientist hired by Genentech, Inc. and from 1978 to 1993 served in various positions, including Fellow, Staff Scientist and Director of Molecular Biology. His pioneering work in the fields of gene cloning and expression of human proteins has been the basis for five significant marketed therapeutics developed by Genentech, including human insulin, human growth hormone, interferon-alpha, interferon-gamma and tissue plasminogen activator. Goeddel has received numerous scientific awards including the Scheele Medal, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, the Inventor of the Year Award, the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award, the Howley Prize for Arthritis Research and the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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About The Column Group: The Column Group is a venture capital firm dedicated to developing biotechnology companies.
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.
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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.
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About Advent International: Advent International is a global private equity firm that invests in the business and financial services.
Ben Yu
Managing Partner of Sierra Ventures
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About Akasha Imaging, Everestlabs.AI, Invisible AI, Movandi, Podcastle, Q-CTRL, Sierra Ventures: Sierra Ventures is an early-stage venture firm investing globally with a focus on next generation enterprise and emerging technologies.
Mark Fernandes
Managing Partner of Sierra Ventures
Mark Fernandes is the Managing Partner at Sierra Ventures.
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About Sierra Ventures: Sierra Ventures is an early-stage venture firm investing globally with a focus on next generation enterprise and emerging technologies.
Tim Guleri
Managing Partner of Sierra Ventures
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About Sierra Ventures: Sierra Ventures is an early-stage venture firm investing globally with a focus on next generation enterprise and emerging technologies.
Matthew Hobart
Co-Managing Partner of TPG
Matt Hobart is the Co-Managing Partner at TPG Growth based in San Francisco, where he oversees the platform’s healthcare and financial services groups. Prior to joining TPG in 2004, Matt worked at Morgan Stanley Capital Partners. Matt graduated Summa Cum Laude from Miami University with a degree in economics, and from Stanford University with an MBA He currently sits on the Boards of Access Clinical Partners, Cancer Treatment Services International, Evolent Health, iMDsoft, Northstar Anesthesia, and Precision for Medicine.
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About TPG: TPG is a private investment firm that manages capital across a family of funds.
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.
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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.
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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
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About Thoma Bravo: Thoma Bravo is a private equity firm with a focus on investing in software and technology companies.
Seth Boro
Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo
Seth Boro is the Managing Partner at San Francisco Office of Thoma Bravo, LLC. since June 2005.Previously, Seth was an Associate at Summit Partners and an Analyst at Credit Suisse and First Marathon Securities (National Bank Financial).Seth also worked at ServiceSource in San Francisco, CA.Seth currently serves as a Member of the Board of Directors at Hyland Software, Vision Solutions, LANDesk Software, Inc., Tripwire, Inc., Blue Coat Systems, Inc., InfoVista, S.A., Mediware Systems, Inc., Keynote Systems, Inc., Empirix, Inc., Global Healthcare Exchange, Inc., SailPoint Technologies, Inc., Compuware Corporation, Dynatrace, Riverbed Technology, Inc., DigiCert, Inc. and SolarWinds, Inc.. Previously, Seth served as a Member of the Board of Directors at Flexera Software, Inc., Entrust, Inc., SonicWALL, Inc., Network Instruments, LLC. and Crossbeam Systems, Inc.. Seth earned his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and his Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen’s University School of Business.
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About Thoma Bravo: Thoma Bravo is a private equity firm with a focus on investing in software and technology companies.
Scott Crabill
Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo
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About Thoma Bravo: Thoma Bravo is a private equity firm with a focus on investing in software and technology companies.
Shaun Abrahamson
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Urban Us
Shaun leads Urban.Us funding startups that help cities upgrade for climate change. Shaun is a member of the investment committee and leads investment selection and communications with portfolio companies, members of the Network, and limited partners in Fund II. Before Urban Us, Shaun was an active angel investor, investing in more than 20 firms between 2007 and 2013. . experiences building MediaSentry (acquired by SafeNet in 2005), Starmedia Network (acquired by France Telecom) and Oculus Technologies (MIT CADLab spin-out). In 1999, he was an early employee at govWorks, one of the earliest startups focused on serving local government. govWorks failed spectacularly during the dot com bust, becoming the subject of the documentary Startup.com in 2001. Shaun has written for organizations such as The Economist Intelligence Unit, The Huffington Post, and CNNMoney. Crowdstorm, published by Wiley, was his first book and is a guide to working with large online crowds to find and evaluate ideas. The book is a based on Shaun’s experience working with Starbucks, Omnicom Group, $300 House, and Life Edited. Shaun has an MSc in Computer Aided Design from MIT; an MBA from the Berlin School of Creative Leadership; and a BSc from the University of Cape Town. He is papai to Max and Oli, and the number-one fan of his partner, artist Andrea Nhuch. When he is not at work or with his family, you will most likely find him swimming, Onewheeling, or voiding a warranty.
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About Urban Us, URBAN-X: Early-stage fund focused on rapid, scalable climate action and targeting outsized impact and outsized returns.
Collin West
Managing Partner of Ensemble VC
Collin West founded Ensemble VC as Managing Partner in 2020.
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About Correlation Ventures, Ensemble VC, Kauffman Fellows: Ensemble is a modern early-stage venture capital firm that is backed by category-defining operators and investors.
Duygu Oktem Clark
Founder & Managing Partner of DO Venture Partners
Duygu Oktem Clark is the Founder & Managing Partner at DO Venture Partners.
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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.
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About 137 Ventures: 137 Ventures is a growth stage venture fund with an innovative secondary investment structure.
Alex Jacobson
Co-founder, Managing Partner of 137 Ventures
Alex is a managing partner of 137 Ventures, an investment firm focused on private technology companies. He also serves as the chairman of ImmunePath, a biotechnology company that he co-founded, which develops cell therapies to treat the effects of radiation exposure. Previously, Alex was an entrepreneur in residence (EIR) at Founders Fund, where he focused on deep science investing. While there, he played a principal role in the acquisition of Powerset, a natural language search company, by Microsoft. Alex also led the diligence processes that resulted in their investments in Halcyon Molecular, Navia Systems and SpaceX. From 2005 to 2007, he served as the chief architect of what has now become Happstack, today’s leading open-source Haskell application server. In 1998, Alex founded Shop.com, a multi-vendor shopping and comparison website, which became an Idealab! Company that he eventually sold to Altura Ventures in 2003. In 1995, he founded Interband, an advertising management and measurement company, which he sold to Winstar Communication in 1997. Earlier in his career, Alex worked as a researcher at the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research at the National Eye Institute and as a programmer for the Department of Cognitive Neuroscience at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Alex holds a bachelors degree in cognitive science from Brown University.
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About 137 Ventures: 137 Ventures is a growth stage venture fund with an innovative secondary investment structure.
Dan Bragiel
Founder & Managing Partner of Bragiel Brothers
Dan Bragiel has co-founded 2 companies and has been involved in startups for the past 10 years. He began with mobile gaming at Paragon 5 focusing on running the offices in Poland, Netherlands and Argentina. He then co-founded the startup Meetro, a pioneer in the location/mobile space. He then went on to start Lefora that was sold in 2010.
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About Bragiel Brothers, i/o Ventures: Bragiel Brothers is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in seed and Series A rounds.
Zal Bilimoria
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Refactor Capital
Zal is the Founding Partner of Refactor Capital. After spending 10 years as a product manager at Google, Netflix, and LinkedIn, Zal joined Andreessen Horowitz as a partner on the investing team. He later helped launch a16z’s Bio Fund and soon thereafter Refactor along with David Lee of SV Angel.
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About Refactor Capital: Refactor Capital is a seed stage VC firm investing in bio and health.
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.
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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.
