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 Partner operating in the FinTech space. If you think a 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.
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.
Andrew Tang
Partner of Draper Associates
Andrew Tang joined the Power Assure Board of Directors in 2011. He is a Managing Director of ABB Technology Ventures (ATV). Andrew has over 15 years of operating, R&D, investment banking and investing experience in the IT industry and focuses on clean technology and industrial applications. Prior to joining ATV, he was a founding Managing Director of the DFJ DragonFund China, Draper Fisher Jurvetson’s sole China affiliate venture capital fund. Andrew has led and managed investments in Miartech, Mobim, Yeepay, Broadbus (MOT), Imago Scientific, Zettacom (IDTI), Packet Video, NuTool (ASMI), Santur, and Corrent. Most recently, he was a partner and member of the investment committee at Infineon Ventures. Prior to Infineon Ventures, he was an investment banker with Credit Suisse First Boston’s technology group in Palo Alto. He worked on the Magma IPO (LAVA), as well as numerous M&A transactions. Before CSFB, Andrew was a senior engineer and marketing manager at Intel Corporation where he was responsible for chip design and market enablement for the Pentium and Itanium processors. He also holds one US patent for silicon germanium thin-film transistor applications. Andrew holds an MBA from the Wharton School, as well as MSEE and BSEE degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Texas at Austin, respectively.
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About Draper Associates, Draper Dragon, Draper University, Draper University Ventures: Draper Associates is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in industry-transforming companies.
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.
Billy Deitch
Partner of Oak HC/FT
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About Oak HC/FT: Oak HC/FT is a venture and growth equity investment firm that focuses on healthcare information services and financial service technology.
Leah Scanlan
Partner of Oak HC/FT
Leah Scanlan is an operating partner at Khosla Ventures, where she works with entrepreneurs and advises portfolio companies on executive search strategy, leadership and talent development. Prior to Khosla Ventures, Leah was a partner at Daversa Partners, a leading executive search firm for high-growth, cutting edge technology companies. While there, she worked with the firm’s consumer Internet, healthcare and enterprise software practices. Leah also led and launched Daversa’s CFO practice, working with some of the most influential CFOs across the globe. Throughout her career, Leah has contributed to building high-performance executive management teams at companies including Uber, Twitter, Square, Dropbox, Airbnb, Yelp, Snapchat, AOL, Instacart, DocuSign, ZocDoc, Shazam, Lending Club, RelateIQ and Lithium Technologies. Earlier in her career, she ran marketing and e-commerce for a children’s publishing company. Leah holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s degree in business administration from Fairfield University. She also is a passionate supporter for various philanthropic organizations including T.E.A.L. and the Caron Foundation. In her free time, Leah enjoys playing tennis, running and practicing yoga.
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About Oak HC/FT: Oak HC/FT is a venture and growth equity investment firm that focuses on healthcare information services and financial service technology.
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.
Jordan Angelos
General Partner of Ribbit Capital
Jordan Angelos is Head of M&A and Investment for Stripe. Previously, Angelos joined Accel in 2013 and focuses on software, security and consumer investments. Jordan helped lead Accel’s investments in BetterCloud, UserTesting, Campaign Monitor, QMC and WorldRemit. Before Accel, Jordan worked at Goldman Sachs in New York, covering technology. Jordan is from Columbus, Ohio and graduated from Brigham Young University.
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About Ribbit Capital, Stripe: Ribbit Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies.
Nicholas Huber
Principal and Partner of Ribbit Capital
Nick Huber is a General Partner at Ribbit Capital.
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About Ribbit Capital: Ribbit Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies.
Nikolay Kostov
Partner of Ribbit Capital
Prior to Ribbit, Nikolay worked for six years at Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division in New York, rising from Analyst to Associate, first in the General Industrials Group and most recently, the Global Technology Group. While at Morgan Stanley, he worked with companies in the aerospace & defense, car & equipment rental, machinery, engineering and construction, and Internet and software sectors. Nikolay was involved in the execution of over $10Bn in transactions, including public equity offerings, investment grade and high yield debt offerings, and strategic M&A assignments.
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About Ribbit Capital: Ribbit Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies.
Nick Shalek
General Partner of Ribbit Capital
Prior to Ribbit, Nick served as Entrepreneur in Residence at Aspire Public Schools, where he incubated Schoolzilla, a cloud-based educational data management and analytics platform. Earlier in his career, Nick was a Director at Verne Global and a Senior Analyst at Yale Investments, where he contributed to over $800 million in new investment commitments across a diversity of asset classes, including U.S. public equities, venture capital, and natural resources. Extending his energy to service in the public sector, Nick was also elected to New Haven’s Board of Alderman —the city council— where he focused his efforts on the city’s economic development and education policy.
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About Ribbit Capital: Ribbit Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies.
Ray Chua
Principal and Partner of Ribbit Capital
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About Ribbit Capital: Ribbit Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies.
Cindy McAdam
Partner & General Counsel of Ribbit Capital
Cindy McAdam focuses on security, finance and legal matters. She served as General Counsel of Postini, negotiating its sale to Google for $643m. Most recently, she worked as COO and General Counsel of mobile payments companies Bling Nation and Lemon Wallet, which were acquired in 2013 for $50m
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About Ribbit Capital: Ribbit Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies.
Ben Paull
General Partner of Ribbit Capital
Ben Paull is a General Partner at Ribbit Capital.
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About Ribbit Capital: Ribbit Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies.
Karen (Appleton ) Page
General Partner of B Capital Group
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About B Capital Group, Forum Ventures: B Capital Group is a venture capital firm that backs global entrepreneurs in the field of information technology.
Robert Mittendorff
General Partner and Head of Healthcare of B Capital Group
Robert brings to NVP more than a decade of operational and medical experience. Based in NVP’s Palo Alto office, Robert focuses on investing capital in venture and growth opportunities in the healthcare sector. Prior to NVP, Robert was the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Hansen Medical Inc. (Nasdaq: HNSN). During his tenure, he launched multiple products, including the Magellan and Sensei X robotic systems, and was involved in leading products from concept to first commercial shipment. As a corporate officer, Robert also led the Company’s partnerships with GE, Siemens, Philips and St. Jude Medical and executed transactions totaling over $100M. He created the Scientific Advisory Board and participated in two public financings. Prior to Hansen Medical, Robert worked in the device, pharmaceutical and biotech industries with experience at a number of companies, working in strategic, business development and marketing capacities. Robert is also a board certified emergency physician who completed his residency training at Stanford. Robert received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He received his B.S. in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University where he played on the soccer team. He has completed fellowships under the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (neuroscience), MIT Sloan School of Management, and Harvard Business School.
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About B Capital Group, Health Catalyst, Kaiser Permanente: B Capital Group is a venture capital firm that backs global entrepreneurs in the field of information technology.
Rashmi Gopinath
General Partner of B Capital Group
Rashmi is a General Partner at B Capital leading growth-stage enterprise investments. Previously, she was a Managing Director at M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund and led investments for the fund globally in cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, devops, AI/ML, and enterprise SaaS. She brings a combination of strong venture capital and startup operating experience. Previously, Rashmi was an Investment Director at Intel Capital focused on investing in cloud infrastructure, and big data companies. She also led global business development for high-growth startups Couchbase and BlueData. Prior to that, she held product development positions at GE and Oracle. Rashmi has an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Mumbai in India.
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About B Capital Group: B Capital Group is a venture capital firm that backs global entrepreneurs in the field of information technology.
Gabe Greenbaum
General Partner at B Capital of B Capital Group
Gabe Greenbaum is the General Partner at B Capital Group.
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About B Capital Group, Cue, Spring Labs, Storeplacer: B Capital Group is a venture capital firm that backs global entrepreneurs in the field of information technology.
Adam Seabrook
Partner of B Capital Group
Adam Seabrook is a Partner at B Capital Group.
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About B Capital Group: B Capital Group is a venture capital firm that backs global entrepreneurs in the field of information technology.
Raj Ganguly
Co-Founder and Partner of B Capital Group
Raj Ganguly is a Founding Partner of B Capital Group where he focuses on creating exponential growth by bringing together thought leaders, technology and capital. With 18 years of deep industry knowledge, Mr. Ganguly has earned a reputation for building businesses and driving growth. Previously, he co-founded and served as a Managing Partner at Velos Partners, a venture capital firm with offices in Los Angeles, Singapore and London. At Velos, he led numerous venture investments and served on the boards of Surf Air, Silvercar and Pong. Prior to founding Velos, Mr. Ganguly spent six years at Bain Capital investing and driving operational excellence in consumer-focused companies across the U.S. and Asia. Earlier in his career, he was with McKinsey & Company, Diageo plc. and Miradiant, one of the first internet payment startups. Currently, Mr. Ganguly serves as an external consultant (‘Senior Advisor”) to The Boston Consulting Group.
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About B Capital Group: B Capital Group is a venture capital firm that backs global entrepreneurs in the field of information technology.
Virginia Schmitt
Partner, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer of B Capital Group
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About B Capital Group: B Capital Group is a venture capital firm that backs global entrepreneurs in the field of information technology.
Sheel Mohnot
Founding Partner of Better Tomorrow Ventures
Sheel is co-founder of Better Tomorrow Ventures and GP of 500Fintech, investing in pre-seed and seed stage fintech companies. His own startup experience includes 2 successful FinTech exits – a payments company and a high-stakes auction company.He also co-founded the startup podcast called The Pitch. He formerly worked as a financial services consultant at BCG and started his FinTech career at the non-profit p2p lender Kiva.
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About 500 Fintech, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), The Pitch, Thistle: Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV) is an early stage fintech focused fund that leads rounds in pre-seed and seed-stage companies globally
Jacob Gibson
Founding Partner of Better Tomorrow Ventures
Co-founded NerdWallet. Without any outside funding, helped it grow from 2 guys into a world-class, mission-driven team, working to build the future of personal finance. I stepped down in early 2014 and am now using that experience to help other entrepreneurs and small businesses in any way I can.
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About Better Tomorrow Ventures: Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV) is an early stage fintech focused fund that leads rounds in pre-seed and seed-stage companies globally
Michael Arrington
Partner of Arrington XRP Capital
Michael Arrington most recently Co-Founded CrunchFund after leading TechCrunch to a successful exit with AOL. His venture investments include Uber, Airbnb and Pinterest. Michael was the Editor of TechCrunch, which he founded in 2005. In 2008 Time Magazine named Michael “One of the World’s 100 most influential people”. Michael also practiced securities law at O’Melveny & Myers and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.Michael graduated from Stanford Law School and Claremont McKenna College.
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About Arrington XRP Capital, TechCrunch: Arrington XRP Capital is a digital asset management firm in blockchain-based capital markets.
Heather Harde
Partner of Arrington XRP Capital
Heather was the Founding CEO TechCrunch, which was acquired by AOL. Post-acquisition Heather was appointed GM of AOL Tech Media. Heather is Co-founder and Co-Chair sfciti.org with Ron Conway. Prior to TechCrunch, Heather was SVP News Corporation and held various M&A, BD, and operating roles. Heather has her MBA from Harvard Business School and a degree from Mount Holyoke College where she is a current Trustee and co-chair Finance Committee.
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About Arrington XRP Capital: Arrington XRP Capital is a digital asset management firm in blockchain-based capital markets.
Alireza Masrour
Managing Partner of Plug and Play Tech Center
Alireza is General Partner at Plug & Play Investment Arm a place where he led more than 100 investments for the firm since 2008. • Plug & Play representative and works closely with the management teams as advisor or investor • Founding Partner of Plug and Play Startup Camp Founding General Partner of PnP Scale Fund . “Alireza Masrour is the General Partner at Plug & Play. He has led more than 200 investments out of 20,000 plus startups for the Venture firm since 2008. Some investments led by him are CreditSesame, HealthPocket which acquired by Health Insurance Innovations, Matcha which acquired by Apple, PasswordBox which acquired by McAfee/Intel, TrustGo which acquired by Baidu, GNS3 which was acquired by Solarwind, Flyr, FiscalNote (unicorn, first check), Shippo (unicorn, first check), Trulioo (unicorn), BigID (unicorn), Kustomer (unicorn) which was acquired by Facebook, and N26 (unicorn) to name a few. Alireza has been selected as a Silicon Valley 40 under 40 in 2018 as well as recognized by BusinessInsider as a 100 rising-star VC who represent the future of venture capital. . Prior to Plug and Play, he was Founder and CEO at NekaTel, one of the largest Internet Airtime Distribution Networks, with over 800 retailers and millions of subscribers. Alireza grew NekaTel’s revenue from $0 to over $45M in less than 2 years. He was also Founder of VidaTel, offering mobile airtime distribution technology and sold the technology in 2007. He has prior Engineering and Management background. Alireza published “Crossing the Digital Divide: What’s Next” in Information Technologies and International Development Journal published by Harvard Business School for UN’s World Summit on the Information Society.”
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About Plug and Play Tech Center, Plug and Play Tech Center: Plug and Play is an innovation platform bringing together startups and large corporations.
Chen Zhao
Managing Partner, China of Plug and Play Tech Center
Chen Zhao is Managing Partner at Plug and Play.
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About Amidi Group, Plug and Play Tech Center: Plug and Play is an innovation platform bringing together startups and large corporations.
Ivan Zgomba
Partner of Plug and Play Tech Center
Ivan Zgomba is Principal at Plug and Play Ventures, Investment Arm of Plug & Play Tech Center. Ivan is an investor and adviser to number of Plug&Play start-ups including: Speaktoit, XYZ Interactive, Orbeus, Faspark, Stipple, TrintMe, Muzzley, WiifMe, Netkiller, Inbenta, Jetlore, Aegis Mobility, Retailigence, Envizio, YourMech, Wattio, InextWeb, Tickengo, Dropifi, EIE Materials, Palmbox, KnightScope, TidePool, Handscpape, Grability, Scout, etc…
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About Plug and Play Tech Center: Plug and Play is an innovation platform bringing together startups and large corporations.
Omeed Mehrinfar
Managing Partner, Middle-East of Plug and Play Tech Center
Omeed is a Regional Director of Plug and Play FinTech in Europe. He joined Plug and Play in August 2014 and, alongside Scott Robinson (VP and Global Head of FinTech), were tasked in launching a program targeted towards the financial sector. Since the launch of the program in January 2015, Omeed has worked in 5 different accelerator classes with a total of 117 FinTech startups, as well as a list of over 30 corporate partners (BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, to name a few).Now based in Paris, Omeed acts as the Program Director of BNP Paribas / Plug and Play; a partnership between the two entities, targeted towards finding the best FinTech and InsurTech startups that can innovate and disrupt different sectors of the financial market; while simultaneously evaluating investment opportunities in Paris and the larger Eurozone.
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About Plug and Play Tech Center: Plug and Play is an innovation platform bringing together startups and large corporations.
Amir Amidi
Managing Partner of Travel and Hospitality Center of Innovation of Plug and Play Tech Center
Amir Amidi is the Managing Partner for Plug and Play’s Travel and Hospitality Program. In this role, Amir is responsible for all startups investments and corporate relationships including but not limited to Lufthansa, Jetblue, Turkish Airlines, Accor Hotels, Carlson Wagonlit Travel and Travelport. Plug and Play’s mission is to invest in 20 travel tech startups a year and bridge the gap between the innovators and industry leaders. Previously Amir was the Senior Director of Strategic Accounts at Nor1, the leader in upsell technologies for Hotels brands. In this role, Amir was responsible for strategic partnerships with brands like IHG, Fairmont, and Carlson.
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About Plug and Play Tech Center: Plug and Play is an innovation platform bringing together startups and large corporations.
George Damouny
Partner of Plug and Play Tech Center
George Damouny is a Partner at Plug and Play Ventures (previous investments include Dropbox, Paypal, LendingClub, and many more). With a diverse background of founding start-ups to operational roles, George took his experience and applied it to venture investing in early 2014. Since then, George has led venture deals in over 100 start-ups, primarily in the fintech and retail space. His deals have successfully raised subsequent capital from institutional investors like Matrix Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Foundation Capital, Canaan Partners, KPCB, and many more. As an active adviser and investor, George is passionate about helping entrepreneurs grow and reach their goals. George is one of the founding members of Plug and Play Fintech, Plug and Play Retail, Plug and Play Materials, Lafayette Plug and Play (Plug and Play Paris), and more. George holds a B.A. in Behavioral Science with a Minor in Communications in the Informations Age from San Jose State University where he graduated with both the President’s and Dean’s Honors Awards.
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About Plug and Play Tech Center: Plug and Play is an innovation platform bringing together startups and large corporations.
Connie Weisman
Vice President, Corporate Partnerships – Innovation of Plug and Play Tech Center
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About Plug and Play Tech Center, Plug and Play Tech Center, Plug and Play Tech Center: Plug and Play is an innovation platform bringing together startups and large corporations.
Kevin Withstandley
Senior Director, Partner Success of Plug and Play Tech Center
Kevin is the corporate partnerships manager for the Internet of Things vertical at Plug and Play Tech Center, a global innovation platform headquartered in Silicon Valley. Plug and Play’s IoT vertical currently helps 30 partners such as Philips, Panasonic, Fujitsu, Bosch, and Samsung by introducing them to top tier startups for business development, pilots, investment opportunities, etc. Kevin also runs the Internet of Thursdays meetup consisting of 1,744 members, which helps engage the community around IoT topics, startups, and corporations. Prior to Plug and Play, Kevin worked for 6 years at Best Buy managing sales teams in different departments while helping grow the regional presence. Kevin holds a bachelor’s degree in Business with a focus in Entrepreneurship.
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About Plug and Play Tech Center: Plug and Play is an innovation platform bringing together startups and large corporations.
Lisa Nestor
Director of Partnerships of Stellar Development Foundation
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About Stellar Development Foundation, Stellar Development Foundation: Stellar Development Foundation supports the development and growth of Stellar, a blockchain network that connects financial infrastructure.
Howard Lindzon
Founder & General Partner of Social Leverage
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About 140Labs, Knight’s Bridge Capital Partners, Marketbright, Social Leverage: Social Leverage is a Venture Capital firm which specializes in early-stage investments in the Software, Consumer, and Fintech industries.
Gary Benitt
General Partner of Social Leverage
Gary is a seasoned serial entrepreneur, having been a part of four founding teams in both consumer and B2B companies over the past 18 years. Most recently, he spent 3 years as COO of Desk.com after his company, Assistly, was acquired in 2011 by Salesforce.com. Previously, Gary was with AOL after his company, Goowy Media, was acquired in early 2008. Gary has managed various technology and go-to-market teams including business operations, customer service, client implementation and success, engineering, and quality assurance. He brings broad knowledge across all facets of growing a business from startup into a mature organization. Gary has been an active investor in early stage companies since 2011, with over 20 investments including Getaround, Hello Inc, Stitch Labs, and ZenPayroll.
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About Social Leverage: Social Leverage is a Venture Capital firm which specializes in early-stage investments in the Software, Consumer, and Fintech industries.
Josh Hannah
General Partner of Matrix Partners
Josh Hannah is a general partner with Matrix Partners. His entrepreneurial career began in 1999 when he cofounded Flutter.com in London and later led a merger with his biggest competitor, Betfair.com. The combined entity revolutionized the gaming industry by building the world’s first online marketplace for sports betting. Josh returned to the States in 2004. Soon after, he and a partner purchased eHow, an ailing, Web 1.0, how-to directory. Josh and his partner outsourced content creation to the community and employed then-new advertising and search engine optimization techniques. They increased revenue and traffic 30-fold before selling the company to Demand Media in 2006 for a 400-X return. As a partner at Matrix, Josh has invested in Huddle, Inflection and Taulia. Prior to joining Matrix, Josh invested in successful startups such as Aardvark (acquired by Google), Blingo (acquired by Publishers Clearing House), Designer Apparel (acquired by Sugar Media), Friendster (acquired by MOL Global), Minted, uShip and Wetpaint.
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About Flutter Entertainment, Matrix Partners: Matrix Partners is a venture capital firm that focuses on seed and early-stage investments.
Dana Stalder
General Partner of Matrix Partners
Dana Stalder currently works as the General Partner for Matrix Partners. He previously worked at Poynt as the Board of Directors.
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About Matrix Partners: Matrix Partners is a venture capital firm that focuses on seed and early-stage investments.
Patrick Malatack
General Partner of Matrix Partners
Patrick Malatack currently works as the Partner for Matrix Partners. He previously worked at Twilio Inc. as the VP of Product.
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About Applied Intuition, Matrix Partners: Matrix Partners is a venture capital firm that focuses on seed and early-stage investments.
Matt Brown
Partner of Matrix Partners
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About Bonsai, Matrix Partners: Matrix Partners is a venture capital firm that focuses on seed and early-stage investments.
Jake Jolis
Partner of Matrix Partners
Jake Jolis currently works as the Partner for Matrix Partners. He previously worked at Zeno Ventures as the Entrepreneur.
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About Matrix Partners: Matrix Partners is a venture capital firm that focuses on seed and early-stage investments.
Ilya Sukhar
General Partner of Matrix Partners
Ilya Sukhar currently works as the General Partner for Matrix Partners. He previously worked at Y Combinator as a part-time partner.
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About Matrix Partners: Matrix Partners is a venture capital firm that focuses on seed and early-stage investments.
Andrew Verhalen
General Partner of Matrix Partners
Andy Verhalen joined Matrix Partners in 1992. Since then he has led Matrix’s involvement in dozens of successful companies, including Unwired Planet (Openwave), which went public in 1999; SiTera, which sold to Vitesse; and Alteon Websystems, which listed its shares on Nasdaq before being acquired by Nortel Networks. Before joining Matrix, Andy helped start Grand Junction Networks, an Ethernet switch business which is now a major division at Cisco. Previously he worked for 3Com, where he built a new division focused on network adapters and hubs. Prior to that, Andy managed marketing for Intel’s flagship microprocessor, the 8086. Today Andy is working with several young companies: Ambarella provides HD video and image processing solutions; Cyphort secures enterprises against advanced cyber-attacks; Framehawk delivers fast secure mobile access to enterprise applications; Panzura provides enterprise cloud storage controllers; Sila Nanotechnologies is developing advanced battery materials; Skyfire optimizes video in the cloud for mobile operators; and SpiderCloud Wireless makes enterprise mobile broadband systems.
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About Ambarella, Matrix Partners: Matrix Partners is a venture capital firm that focuses on seed and early-stage investments.
Diana Kimball Berlin
Partner of Matrix Partners
Diana Kimball Berlin currently works as the Partner for Matrix Partners. She previously worked at Quip as the VP of Product.
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About Matrix Partners: Matrix Partners is a venture capital firm that focuses on seed and early-stage investments.
Igor Ryabenkiy
Managing Partner of AltaIR Capital
Igor is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor with over twenty years of successful executive and investment experience including Internet startups and IT companies. He has funded, developed, and exited a significant number of investment projects worldwide.
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About AltaIR Capital: We manage funds that invest in the world’s most promising companies with disruptive ideas and great return potential.
Omar Hamoui
Partner of Mucker Capital
Omar Hamoui is a partner at Mucker Capital, where he focuses on partnering with early stage companies. Prior to Mucker, Omar was a partner at Sequoia Capital. Before becoming an investor, Omar founded and ran several companies in mobile software and services. At the time, he was frustrated by the lack of available options when it came to promoting and monetizing mobile products. While working towards his MBA at the Wharton School, Omar began to think more seriously about the untapped potential of mobile advertising, and created AdMob to address this growing opportunity. Omar served as AdMob’s CEO and a member of the company’s board of directors from January 2006 through the company’s acquisition by Google in May 2010. During his time at Google, Omar was a VP of mobile ads, responsible for the development and innovation of Google’s mobile advertising products. After Google, Omar founded Churn Labs to incubate new startup teams and ideas. One of the teams which emerged from Churn Labs formed Maybe, Inc., a company focused on helping people make better decisions. This team became a part of LinkedIn in 2013.
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About Clutter, Mucker Capital: MuckerLab is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation, pre-seed, seed, startup, early-stage, and Series A investments.
William Hsu
Co-Founder & Partner of Mucker Capital
William Hsu is the Co-Founder & Partner at Mucker Capital.
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About Mucker Capital: MuckerLab is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation, pre-seed, seed, startup, early-stage, and Series A investments.
Erik Rannala
Co-Founder & Partner of Mucker Capital
Erik Rannala is the Co-Founder & Partner at Mucker Capital.
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About Mucker Capital: MuckerLab is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation, pre-seed, seed, startup, early-stage, and Series A investments.
Wesley Chan
Managing Director, General Partner of Felicis Ventures
Wesley Chan is a Managing Director and General Partner at Felicis Ventures. He founded Google Analytics and Google Voice, built Google’s early advertising system, built Google Venture’s early investment team, and holds 17 US patents for his fundamental contributions in designing many of Google’s most widely-used services. Wesley is an investor and coach to some of the world’s most successful startups. He led investment rounds and holds board or observer seats in Canva, Guild Education, Turvo, CultureAmp, Okera, Hyperscience, Guideline, and Dialpad. He also led investments in Ring (exited for $1B+ to AMZN), Flexport, Carta, Checkr, Gusto, ZipLine, Orca Bio, Whole Biome, Skip the Dishes (exited to Just Eats/JE), and YES (exited to TWTR). Wesley was also one of the earliest General Partners at GV (Google Ventures), where he built the investment team, led many of GV’s investments and held board or observer seats in Angelist, Aptelligent (exited to VMWare), iPerian (exited to BMS), and Dialpad. Wesley was also one of the first checks into Plaid, RobinHood, Gusto, Optimizely, HelloSign (exited to DropBox), DataPad (exited to Cloudera), Freshplum (exited to TWTR), Namo Media (exited to TWTR), and Parse (exited to FB). He is a recipient of Google’s Founders Award–the company’s most prestigious recognition–for leading the development of Google’s early client efforts, which led to the creation of Google Chrome. Wesley worked at HP Labs as a senior software engineer and as a sponsored fellow at Microsoft Research. He holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT where he completed his graduate thesis at the Media Laboratory. Technology Review magazine featured Wesley as a “Top 35 Under 35” innovator. Wesley’s accomplishments have been covered by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Fortune, and his story as a product founder is featured in Steven Levy’s best-selling Google book, “In The Plex.”
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About Felicis Ventures: Felicis invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors, industries, and frontier tech.
Niki Pezeshki
General Partner of Felicis Ventures
Niki Pezeshki is a Partner on the investment team at Felicis Ventures. At Felicis, Niki has sourced and continues to work closely with the firm’s investments in Guild Education, Guideline, Trusted Health, Modus, Cleo, Octave, FarmWise, DoNotPay, and SentiLink. Prior to joining Felicis, he was on the investment team at Summit Partners, a tech-focused growth equity firm in Menlo Park. Before Summit, Niki lived in Austin, TX and was on the investment team at Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in software and technology-enabled businesses. He also had a brief stint at the Climate Corporation (a former Felicis portfolio company), where he focused on sales strategy and operations. Niki received a BS in Business Administration with Honors from the University of Southern California. He continues to be actively involved with the USC Value Investing Group.
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About Felicis Ventures: Felicis invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors, industries, and frontier tech.
Sundeep Peechu
Managing Director, General Partner of Felicis Ventures
Sundeep Peechu is a Managing Director, General Partner at Felicis. He’s currently excited about re-invention of security and insurance and further developments in crypto and machine learning. Investor in ActiveHours (Earnin), Counsyl, BitPay, Gigster, Ginkgo Bioworks, HealthIQ, Matterport, Plaid, Pindrop, Recursion, Spoke, Troops, Top Hat, Wish and a few others. Prior to joining Felicis in 2010, he held various product roles at Intel within the software division. Sundeep joined Intel through the acquisition of Sarvega, where he was an early employee responsible for the design of the security infrastructure. He also had brief stints at NEA where he focused on mobile and emerging markets and at Simbol Mining where he developed key initiatives around the production of battery materials. Sundeep has a Bachelors in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, an M.S in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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About Earnin, Felicis Ventures, Pindrop, Top Hat: Felicis invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors, industries, and frontier tech.
Aydin Senkut
Founder & Managing Partner of Felicis Ventures
Aydin Senkut is the Founder and Managing Partner of Felicis Ventures. An original super angel turned multi-stage investor, he has been named on the Forbes Midas List for the past seven years (2014-2020) as well as the New York Times Top 20 Venture Capitalists list for the past four years (2016-2019). His recent focus areas include consumerization of enterprise, security, cloud optimization, and longevity. He is well-known as an early backer of a number of iconic companies including Shopify (NYSE:SHOP), Fitbit (NYSE:FIT), Rovio (HEL:ROVIO), Adyen (AMS: ADYEN), Pluralsight (NASDAQ:PS), Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH), Credit Karma (acquired by Intuit), SoundHound & Vicarious. Prior to starting Felicis Ventures, Aydin was a Senior Manager at Google responsible for strategic partner development and account management in Asia Pacific, including Japan. Aydin joined Google in 1999 as its first Product Manager to launch Google’s first 10 international sites, its first online search licensing products, and its first Safe Search. He then became the first International Sales Manager at Google, responsible for worldwide licensing deals. Before joining Google, Aydin was the Product Manager for Data Visualization and Data Mining software MineSet at SGI. He received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with Honors from Boston University. He also earned an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School and a master’s degree in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. He is an avid pilot, loves playing tennis, and speaks five languages: English, German, French, Portuguese, and Turkish.
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About Felicis Ventures, Guideline, Paravision: Felicis invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors, industries, and frontier tech.
Viviana Faga
General Partner of Felicis Ventures
Viviana Faga is the General Partner at Felicis Ventures.
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About Felicis Ventures: Felicis invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors, industries, and frontier tech.
Dasha Maggio
Partner & Head of Founder Success of Felicis Ventures
Dasha Maggio is the Partner and Head of Founder Success at Felicis Ventures.
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About Felicis Ventures: Felicis invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors, industries, and frontier tech.
Victoria Treyger
General Partner and Managing Director of Felicis Ventures
Victoria is passionate about building great brands and scaling revenue through innovative sales and marketing. She joined Kabbage because she loved the opportunity to leverage technology and data to transform how financial services are delivered to customers.
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About Felicis Ventures: Felicis invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors, industries, and frontier tech.
Katie Riester
Partner, Investor Relations of Felicis Ventures
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About Felicis Ventures: Felicis invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors, industries, and frontier tech.
Alexis Abrams
Partner and General counsel of Felicis Ventures
Alexis Abrams is the Partner and General Counsel at Felicis Ventures.
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About Felicis Ventures, General Catalyst: Felicis invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors, industries, and frontier tech.
Steve Reale
CFO & Venture Partner of Ulu Ventures
Steve Reale joined Ulu Ventures as CFO and Venture Partner in 2019.
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About Aria Systems, Kauffman Fellows, Madison Bay Capital Partners, Midwestern Bioag, ShotSpotter, Ulu Ventures: Ulu Ventures provides early-stage investments to enterprise cloud and smart data companies.
Eric Bahn
General Partner & Co-Founder of Hustle Fund
Eric Bahn is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm based in San Francisco. Hustle Fund invests in software startups at the pre-seed and seed stages, backing founders who exhibit great execution and high velocity (aka, hustle). Previous to Hustle Fund, Eric was an angel investor and partner at 500 Startups. And prior to becoming a professional investor, he spent over a decade as an operator (Facebook, Instagram) and entrepreneur (Beat The GMAT, The Hustle). Eric draws from his product and growth experience to advise his founders in scaling their own enterprises. Eric is a native of Detroit, Michigan and first arrived to Silicon Valley to attend Stanford University (BA, MA), which launched his career into software and startups. Eric is happily married with two kids.
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About Hustle Con, Hustle Fund: Hustle Fund is a seed fund that seeks to invest in early-stage startups.
Elizabeth Yin
Co-Founder & General Partner of Hustle Fund
Elizabeth Yin is co-founder and CEO of LaunchBit. She frequently speaks at conferences and events and has previously spoken at Women 2.0 partner events, Web 2.0, Lean Startup events, TechStars, MIT, Stanford, Yale, and Babson among others. Prior to LaunchBit, she built profitable niche websites and previously worked as a product marketing manager at Google. She holds a BS in electrical engineering from Stanford and an MBA from MIT Sloan.
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About Hustle Fund: Hustle Fund is a seed fund that seeks to invest in early-stage startups.
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.
Brian Nichols
Venture Partner, Squad Leader of Hustle Fund
Brian Nichols is Co-Founder at RewardTag.
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About Hustle Fund: Hustle Fund is a seed fund that seeks to invest in early-stage startups.
Tarek Waked
Founding Partner of Type One Ventures
Founding Partner @ Type One Ventures. Investing in Anything progressing humanity towards a Type One Civlization. Searching for Humanity’s Longevity Escape Velocity. Space Enthusiast and Futurist. History Buff. Obsessed with improving each new iteration of myself.
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About Type One Ventures: Type One Ventures invests in anything progressing humanity towards a Type One Civilization. Space, robotics, fin-tech, and frontier tech.
Greg Rosen
Venture Partner of BoxGroup
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About BoxGroup: BoxGroup is an early-stage investment fund that invests in technology companies.
Yves Sisteron
Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Upfront Ventures
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About Upfront Ventures: Upfront Ventures is the venture capital firm focusing on early-stage technology companies.
Kobie Fuller
General Partner of Upfront Ventures
Kobie is a General Partner at Upfront. He joined the firm in June 2016 after having previously worked at Silicon Valley based Accel, where he was involved in investments including Campaign Monitor, UserTesting, AdRoll, Emergent VR and Invoca (also an Upfront portfolio company). Prior to Accel, Kobie was the Chief Marketing Officer at REVOLVE, one of the largest global fashion ecommerce players based in Los Angeles. Kobie brings to Upfront expertise in SaaS businesses and marketing technologies and is an author of Growthverse, an interactive visualization of the marketing technology landscape. He has deep knowledge of emerging technologies including VR and AR and was also an early personal investor in Oculus, later sold to Facebook for $2B. Earlier in his career, Kobie helped found OpenView Venture Partners and was an investor at Insight Venture Partners where he sourced notable early investments in Exact Target (acquired by Salesforce for $2.5B) and Instructure (NYSE: INST). Kobie received a AB in Economics from Harvard University.
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About Upfront Ventures, Valence Community: Upfront Ventures is the venture capital firm focusing on early-stage technology companies.
Mark Suster
Managing Partner of Upfront Ventures
Mark Suster is General Partner at Upfront Ventures. He joined the firm in 2007 after having previously worked with Upfront Ventures for nearly 8 years as a two-time entrepreneur. Before joining Upfront Mark was Vice President, Product Management at Salesforce.com following its acquisition of Koral, where Mark was Founder and CEO. Prior to Koral, Mark was Founder and CEO of BuildOnline, a European SaaS company that was acquired by SWORD Group. Earlier in his career, Mark spent nearly ten years working for Accenture in Europe, Japan and the U.S. Mark looks to invest in passionate entrepreneurs in early-stage technology businesses. His interests include Digital Content and Distribution, AdTech, Consumer Internet, and SaaS businesses and he has deep operating experience having started and sold his last two companies. Mark received a BA in Economics from the University of California, San Diego, and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Mark’s investments include: Bird, Density, Imbellus, Invoca, MakeSpace, mitu, Nanit, Osmo, and Tact.
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About SonicEnergy™, Upfront Ventures: Upfront Ventures is the venture capital firm focusing on early-stage technology companies.
Aditi Maliwal
Partner of Upfront Ventures
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About Upfront Ventures: Upfront Ventures is the venture capital firm focusing on early-stage technology companies.
Kara Nortman
Managing Partner of Upfront Ventures
Kara is a Partner at Upfront Ventures, the largest venture capital firm based in Los Angeles. Some of her notable investments include Endgame, Time by Ping, Writer, Open Raven, Parachute Home and Fleetsmith (acquired by Apple in 2020). Before Upfront, Kara co-founded the children’s e-commerce company Moonfrye and also spent seven years at IAC where she co-headed the M&A group and acted as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Urbanspoon and Citysearch. During her tenure at IAC she oversaw the initial investment in Tinder. Earlier in her career, she also spent time at Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, and Battery Ventures. She received her AB in Politics from Princeton University and her MBA from Stanford University. Kara is also a founding member of All Raise, a VC-led group dedicated to increased diversity in funders and founders and is a founder of Angel City Football Club. Kara resides in Los Angeles with her husband and three daughters.
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About All Raise, Moonfrye, Upfront Ventures: Upfront Ventures is the venture capital firm focusing on early-stage technology companies.
Kevin Zhang
Partner of Upfront Ventures
Kevin joined Upfront Ventures in 2012 and has been a partner since 2016. Prior to Upfront, Kevin was at Boston Consulting Group, where he advised on strategy and operations for technology, healthcare, and industrial goods clients in the US and Asia and conducted due diligence for private equity investors. Previously, Kevin worked at Verisk Health, a healthcare IT startup in Boston, focusing on project management, product development, and consulting for strategic accounts. Kevin received a BA in Biology from Harvard College, with a minor in Psychology.
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About Upfront Ventures: Upfront Ventures is the venture capital firm focusing on early-stage technology companies.
Greg Bettinelli
Partner of Upfront Ventures
Greg joined Upfront in 2013, with a focus on investment in businesses at the juncture of retail and technology. Greg was the Chief Marketing Officer for HauteLook, a leading online flash-sale retailer. Launched in December 2007, Los Angeles based HauteLook was acquired by Nordstrom, Inc., in March 2011 for $270mm. Prior to joining HauteLook, Greg was Executive Vice President of Business Development and Strategy at Live Nation, responsible for strategic direction and key business partnerships for Live Nation’s ticketing and digital businesses. Before Live Nation, Greg held a number of leadership positions at eBay, including Sr. Director of Business Development at StubHub, where he led business development, partnerships, sales and seller development, including spearheading StubHub’s landmark relationship with Major League Baseball. Prior to transitioning to StubHub from eBay, he led eBay.com’s Event Tickets and Media businesses (including half.com) and was the business leader who led eBay’s acquisition of StubHub in 2007. Greg received a BA in Political Science from the University of San Diego and an MBA from Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management.
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About MuckerLab, Upfront Ventures: Upfront Ventures is the venture capital firm focusing on early-stage technology companies.
John Helm
Partner and Managing Director of RET Ventures
John Helm is the founder and a current Partner at the proptech-focused VC firm RET Ventures. Prior to founding RET Ventures in 2017, John was a Venture Partner with DN Capital in Munich, Germany. Before that, John ran and successfully exited two venture-backed real estate tech startups, was CFO of Marcus & Millichap, and a consultant at McKinsey & Company. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. You can find John on his skis or mountain biking around Park City or—his favorite thing—spending time with his wife, son, and daughter.
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About RET Ventures: RET Ventures is an industry backed early-stage VC helping build the real estate industry’s cutting edge technology providers.
Christopher Yip
Partner and Managing Director of RET Ventures
Christopher Yip currently serves as Partner at the proptech-focused VC firm RET Ventures. Prior to RET, Christopher spent twelve years at the global private equity firm TPG, where he led growth investments in tech-enabled companies and partnered closely with CEOs and entrepreneurs. He began his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company. Christopher has an MBA from the Stanford GSB, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, as well as an AB in Economics and an SM in Computer Science from Harvard University. You can find Christopher flying between Park City and San Francisco, trailing the RET team on the snow, or driving anything with four wheels.
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About RET Ventures: RET Ventures is an industry backed early-stage VC helping build the real estate industry’s cutting edge technology providers.
Charles Moldow
General Partner of Foundation Capital
Charles joined Foundation Capital in 2005, with a background in general management, sales, marketing, product management, and business development. Before coming to Foundation Capital, he was part of two teams that successfully built companies from early start-up through greater than $100 million in sales and exits near or above a billion dollars. Charles has made thirteen investments since joining Foundation, of which four have been acquired: PowerSet to Microsoft; Xoopit to Yahoo!; Adwhirl to Google; and, Weblistic to Spot Runner. Charles works closely with his current portfolio, which includes: AdRoll, Bancbox, CloudOn, Copious, Everyday Health, Fanhood, LendingClub, Motif Investing, Pixazza, Refresh, RevelTouch, and SunRun. Prior to Foundation, Charles spent five years with Tellme Networks and was a member of the founding executive team. While there, he led Tellme in raising one of the largest private financing rounds in the country post-Internet bubble, adding $125 million in cash to the company balance sheet during tough market conditions in August, 2000. Tellme was acquired by Microsoft in 2007 for $760 million. Prior to Tellme, Charles was a member of the founding team of Internet access provider @Home Network. In 1996, he established the @Media division; and over the ensuing three years helped establish @Media as the leading broadband media provider. In 1997 the company went public. A year later, Charles assisted in the $7 billion acquisition of Excite Network. After the merger, he became General Manager of Matchlogic, the $80 million division focused on interactive advertising. Charles’ entrepreneurial penchant dates back to 1989 when he co-founded OnTime Guide which replaced the OAG Pocket Flight Guide as the must-have resource for frequent business travelers and PrimeTime Partners, which attempted to establish a new category of self liquidating promotions on behalf of advertisers and direct marketers. Prior to that, Charles spent three years in the Mergers and Acquisitions practice at Merrill Lynch. Charles holds a BS degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and received his MBA from Harvard University. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and four children.
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About Foundation Capital: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
Bill Elmore
General Partner and Founder of Foundation Capital
With a combinationof venture and operating experience that cultivated a deep understanding about the challenges an organization faces on a daily basis, Bill founded Foundation Capital in 1995 with the purpose of helping entrepreneurs build strong organizations from the ground up. He has always operated on the belief that substantial, sustainable companies are the result of matching insight—whether about technology or market opportunity—with the right entrepreneurand management team. Prior to Foundation, Bill spent eight years as a General Partner at Inman & Bowman. Previous roles include president of Visual Engineering, as well as a variety of marketing management positions, at Hewlett-Packard. As former director and past presidentof the Western Association for Venture Capitalists, and past director of the National Venture Capital Association, Bill continues to be actively involved in defining, serving, and representing the interests of the venture capital and private equity industries. Equally passionate about his philanthropy work, Bill serves on the Advisory Council at Stanford Business School and is a board member of the Eastside College Preparatory School. Bill currently sits on the board ofdirectors of Biz360, CloudShield, Helpstream, Quartics, SpringCM, TeaLeaf Technology, Venafi, and XMOS Semiconductor, and was previously on the boards of Atheros Communications and WindRiver Systems. Bill holds a BSEEand MSEE from Purdue University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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About Foundation Capital: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
Joanne Chen
General Partner of Foundation Capital
Joanne Chen is a General Partner at Foundation Capital.
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About Foundation Capital, Quilt Data, Simppler: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
Steve Vassallo
General Partner of Foundation Capital
In his wallet, Steve Vassallo carries around the business card from his childhood snow-blowing business, a constant reminder that entrepreneurship is about grasping opportunity where you find it, even if your hands get cold and numb in the process. Of more recent vintage is the business card that identifies Steve as a venture capitalist at Foundation Capital, where he works with companies in the areas of cleantech, consumer, and software & services. Steve serves on the board of directors of SunRun, Akiban, and Sentient Energy, and he is actively involved with eMeter, EnerNOC, and Serious Materials. Steve also serves on the board of the Nueva School and advises the Aquaya Institute, a nonprofit research and consulting firm focused on bringing safe water innovations to vulnerable populations. Before joining Foundation Capital in 2007, Steve helped launch Ning, a consumer Internet service where anyone can create their own social network for any passion, any cause, anything.Prior to Ning, Steve was Director of Mechanical Engineering at Immersion [IMMR], which pioneered the field of tactile feedback and human touch technology.Prior to Immersion, Steve was a project leader and design engineer at IDEO, where he developed more than a dozen successful products for market leading companies including Cisco, Nike, BMW, Steelcase, McDonalds, and Caterpillar. An entrepreneur who lives at the intersection of business, technology, and design, Steve’s innovations have won him over 28 patents and several design awards, including the Business Week Design of the Decade Award, red dot 2009, IDEA99 Gold and Bronze Awards, NeoCon Gold and Most Innovative New Product Awards.Steve earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.When Steve is able to break away from brainstorming the next big idea, he enjoys building Lego robots with his three children and bicycling through the Palo Alto foothills with his wife and best friend, Trae.
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About Abstract, Foundation Capital, Framer, Runtime, The Nueva School: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
Paul Koontz
General Partner Emeritus of Foundation Capital
Paul Koontz is a General Partner, Emeritus having joined Foundation Capital as a partner in 1995. He currently serves on the boards of Financial Engines, where he has been chairman since 2004, and ForUsAll, a private company delivering turnkey 401(k) solutions. Paul is on the Smithsonian Institution National Board and has been Board Chair of Summit Charter High School, named by Newsweek as one of the 10 most transformative high schools in the country. Paul is also active in other community organizations. He occasionally lectures at Stanford and has degrees from Princeton and Stanford.
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About Foundation Capital: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
Rodolfo Gonzalez
Partner of Foundation Capital
Rodolfo, who joined Foundation Capital in June 2013, is fascinated by financial disintermediation, peer-to-peer funding, and bringing transparency and simplicity to the consumer experience. As a kid, he wanted to be a professional soccer player or movie actor; but he grew into an adult with a passion for promoting economic growth and inclusion through innovation in financial services. The best part of his work is: Working with/for ambitious, talented, and extremely driven entrepreneurs who are bent on changing the world for the better! He was 17 when he co-founded his first startup, Mexplosion, to host the Mexican qualifiers for the World Cyber Games e-gaming competition in 2001. His second and more recent entrepreneurial venture was a crowdfunding platform for social enterprises called YouVest. As part of McKinsey’s Latin America Financial Institutions Group, Rodolfo worked with clients across a spectrum of financial institutions, including banks, insurers, asset managers, and payments processors. He also participated in economic development projects and financial literacy promotion, and developed cross-country methodologies to measure financial inclusion for SME’s and individuals in the region. Rodolfo is the co-author of several different knowledge perspectives on retail banking, payments, and SME banking in Latin America. During the summer of 2012, Rodolfo worked with Open Capital Advisors in Nairobi, Kenya, where he worked with clients in renewable energy, agribusiness, and private health care delivery to raise capital. Best advice he ever got: “Work hard, and when things are going well, do everything you can to bend the universe your way!” Profile: Rodolfo geeks out on movies, philosophy, history, travel and coffee. He is an avid traveler, and has lived in Mexico City, North Carolina, Orlando, Melbourne (Australia), Boston, Nairobi, and Bangkok. He is now based in San Francisco, where he is on a quest to find the best espresso in the city. “I often travel alone and often end up being saved by complete strangers with whom I can barely communicate.” Training: MBA from MIT Sloan’s School of Management with concentrations in finance and entrepreneurship. Degrees in Marketing from ITESM and International Relations from UNAM Mexico.
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About Foundation Capital: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
Josh Manchester
Venture Partner of Foundation Capital
Josh loves studying companies or trends which have touch points with governance or with large industries or parts of society that are off the Silicon Valley radar. He previously founded Champion Hill Labs, which performed consulting services for venture firms and hedge funds, and through which he invested in SpaceX, Flexport, and Rigetti Computing. Before that he cut his teeth in the venture industry during six years on the team at TrueBridge Capital Partners, committing about $1 billion to venture capital firms globally as an LP, and leading the team’s investments in several mid-stage companies. He began his career in finance at USAA Real Estate Company. Before becoming an investor, Josh spent about six years as an officer in the US Marine Corps, in infantry and combat engineering roles, and has led three different platoons ranging from 10-60 Marines. In his last role he led a reinforced rifle platoon and was responsible for the security and civil development of a city of 10,000 people along the Euphrates River. He graduated from Duke University. When not chasing his young kids he enjoys Alan Furst novels and any time spent in the great outdoors.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Foundation Capital: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
Sid Trivedi
Partner of Foundation Capital
Growing up across Asia, Sid enjoyed a front row seat as the mobile phone transformed the entire planet. His dad worked for Nokia during the early 2000’s when Nokia was one of the most valuable brands in the world, which allowed Sid’s dad to bring home a new phone for Sid to test each week. The increasing speed and impact of each innovation was enough to get him hooked, and Sid pursued a career in the tech sector. Sid’s experience has run the gamut from public to growth to early-stage, affording him a unique perspective on how brand leaders are built and sustained. He started on Wall Street at Barclays Capital, advising on tech, media and telecom companies and spending time on both the buy-side and sell-side of major deals, from mergers and takeovers to corporate debt and equity financings. He then worked as an investment professional at Symphony Technology Group, a Palo Alto-based private equity firm investing in software, technology-enabled and data analytics companies. Before arriving at Foundation Capital, Sid was an investor at Omidyar Technology Ventures where he invested in and counseled early-stage enterprise software companies. Sid has a Bachelors (Honors) in Economics and Biological Sciences from Cornell University, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Outside of work, Sid serves on the advisory council for Entrepreneurship at Cornell and serves as a board member of the Cornell Venture Capital Club, which he co-founded during college.
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About Cornell Venture Capital, Foundation Capital: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
Ashu Garg
General Partner of Foundation Capital
Ashu Garg is a General Partner at Foundation Capital, focusing on startups in Marketing Technology (MarTech), Analytics, and SaaS applications. Board Member at Skyflow, Fortanix & Cohesity.
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About Fortanix, Foundation Capital, Opas AI Inc: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
Jonathan Ehrlich
Partner of Foundation Capital
Jonathan is a Partner at Foundation Capital. Jonathan joined Foundation Capital as an EIR in January, 2013. Prior to Foundation, Jonathan co-founded Utah Street Labs, a Foundation portfolio company. Mr. Ehrlich was previously the Director of Marketing at Facebook. From November 2003 until 2007 he was the Executive Vice-President, Online at Indigo Books & Music Inc. (TSE: IDG), Canada’s largest book retailer, where he was responsible for that company’s Online business. Prior to joining Indigo, Mr. Ehrlich was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Mosaic Venture Partners and before that was a Co-Founder and Vice President of Marketing for MobShop Inc, a pioneer in Online eCommerce. MobShop was funded by GE Capital, Visa International, Mayfield Fund and Marc Andreessen. His previous business experience also includes several years at CYBERplex interactive media and MacLaren McCann advertising. He holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business and a BA in Political Science from the University of Western Ontario.
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About Foundation Capital: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
Zach Noorani
Partner of Foundation Capital
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About Foundation Capital: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
Apoorva Pandhi
Partner of Foundation Capital
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About Foundation Capital: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
Mike Schuh
General Partner of Foundation Capital
Before joining Foundation Capital in 1998, Mike Schuh was CEO, co-founder, and chairman of the board of Intrinsa Corporation, a software applications company that was acquired by Microsoft. Mike helped to create and establish two leading software companies: Computervision in the CAD/CAM market, and Cadence in the EDA market.
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About Foundation Capital: Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm made up of former entrepreneurs and helps companies and businesses grow.
Rob Leclerc
Founding Partner of AgFunder
Rob is the cofounder of AgFunder, a venture capital platform investing in agtech and foodtech. Rob is a Forbes contributor and has also been published in TechCrunch, Harvard Business Review, Financial Post, and twice in Nature journals (>400 citations across both publications). Rob has been invited to chair, speak, and keynote at dozens of global conferences on food & agriculture, technology, and fintech. In 2014, Forbes Magazine named Rob to their list of ‘Up-And-Comers’, and the White House has extended special invitations to White House sponsored events. He’s a judge for the National Ag Innovation Prize, the Verizon’s $6M IoT Award for 2015, and sits on the advisory committee of the Ag Innovation Showcase, the world’s first and longest-running AgTech conference. Rob has been interviewed by Bloomberg TV, CNBC (TV), Wall Street Journal, Forbes, LA Times, Entrepreneur, FastCompany, and Reuters. He has five degrees, spanning Philosophy, Computer Science (AI/Virtual Robotics), and Computational Biology, including a PhD from Yale University.
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About Aerobotics, AgFunder, Alpha Foods, Atomo Coffee, Bear Flag Robotics, Black Sheep Foods, Brightseed, Chinova Bioworks, DeHaat, FieldIn, Forbes Magazine, Greenlight Biosciences, ImpactVision, Integriculture, Intelligent Growth Solutions, Jüsto, Kula Bio, Phylagen, Root AI, Sentera, SIMULATE, Solinftec, Stem, Trace Genomics, TRAY, Verdant Robotics, Wefarm: AgFunder invests in impactful companies that can positively transform the world’s food system.
Michael Dean
Founding Partner of AgFunder
Michael Dean is a co-founder of AgFunder and brings over 20 years of legal, business management and project development experience to the team. Michael oversees operations and all deal origination and execution on the AgFunder platform. Prior to starting AgFunder, Michael founded and operated SeedRock Africa Agriculture, an African agribusiness. He managed all development activities in West Africa including the implementation of farming operations; the construction of the company’s edible oil processing facility; the launch of the “Africa Gold” sunflower oil brand and the granting of official leaseholds to over 43,000 hectares of agricultural land. A qualified lawyer, Michael previously advised many of Australia’s largest development and investment corporations on the acquisition and development aspects of their property, agribusiness, resources, renewable energy, construction and associated investment activities. He has substantial experience of large-scale projects incorporating complex development and structuring issues. Michael holds a Bachelor of Laws degree and a Master of Laws degree from the University of Sydney.
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About AgFunder: AgFunder invests in impactful companies that can positively transform the world’s food system.
Martin Gedalin
Founder & Partner of Lumia Capital
Martin is Founder of Lumia Capital, an expansion-stage VC partnering with leading tech companies in under-invested emerging markets and forward-thinking US companies targeting these markets to accelerate growth. Previously, Martin was one of five investment professionals at Focus Ventures, a technology-focused venture capital firm in Palo Alto with ~$850M under management and ~110 expansion-stage investments across three funds. Prior to Focus, Martin was a Product Manager at Oracle Corp., where he was responsible for core components of Fusion CRM, Oracle’s next generation CRM strategy, and a $1B+ product line. Prior to these roles, Martin was a management consultant for both Siebel Systems (Customer Strategy Team) and, post acquisition, Oracle (Insight Group), where he provided strategic recommendations across people, process and technology domains to Oracle/Siebel’s top global customers. Martin began his career in Corporate Strategy at NCR Corporation. Personally, Martin is also an adviser to a number of private companies and funds.
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About Lumia Capital: Expansion-stage VC firm partnering with forward-thinking US and European innovators expanding internationally for breakout growth.
Pete Daffern
Venture Partner of Octopus Ventures
Peter M. Daffern, also known as Pete, serves as a Venture Partner at Octopus Investments Limited and helps UK-based portfolio to establish in the United States. He also serves as Venture Partner at Octopus Venture Ltd. Peter Daffern has been the Chief Executive Officer of ForeSee Results, Inc. since January 14, 2016. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Answers Cloud Services since January 2016 (formerly Forsee and WebCollage) where he is responsible for developing this APAX Partners asset into a world leading SaaS company. He served as President of EMEA and Executive Vice President of Verticals at NetSuite Inc., since May 9, 2013. Peter Daffern oversaw direct and channel sales and business operations in the EMEA region and direct NetSuite’s vertical strategy. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Monitise Americas, Inc. since January 2009. He served as the President of Group Business Development at Monitise plc. Peter Daffern served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of ClairMail, Inc. since January 2009 to June 2012. Peter Daffern has over two decades of experience in leadership positions at global technology firms and has an extensive experience in leading companies. He has a wealth of technology business expertise and has strategic proficiency in North America and beyond. He served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of AIM Technology. He served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Purisma, Inc., since October 2005 until January 2009. Before AIM, he served as Vice President of Worldwide Alliances, Business Development and Corporate Development of Vitria Technology, Inc. He joined Vitria as Vice President of Worldwide Alliances on June 19, 2000. Peter Daffern has an extensive background in business intelligence (BI), business process management (BPM), enterprise application integration (EAI) and customer contact center technologies. Prior to that, Peter Daffern worked at Seagate Software more than 10 years and served a series of senior sales and business development roles culminating and served as Vice President of Europe, Middle East and Africa, where he served numerous management and sales positions including General Manager EMEA. He worked at Holistic Systems as Western Regional Sales Director and served as Sales Manager of Northern Europe. He serves as Chairman of the Board at SynchHR. Peter Daffern served as Chairman and Director of Purisma, Inc. He serves as a Director of Amplience and Revoo. He has been a Non-Executive Director of Curlet Limited since October 16, 2014 and provides leadership in helping Amplience navigate the rapidly increasing market for its rich digital media solutions. He serves as Executive in Residence for Octopus Ventures. He has been Director of Answers Corporation since May 31, 2017. He served as a Director of Market Metrix. He serves as a Member of Board of Advisors of Enablon SA. He has been a Member of Board of Advisors at Enablon North America Corp., since October 19, 2015. He holds an American and British passport, is a keen golfer and avid cyclist. Peter Daffern graduated from Sheffield University in England with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Mathematics. Collapse Detail
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About Acumatica, Glofox, GroupBy, Octopus Ventures, PeakSpan Capital, Vitruvian Partners: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
John Hamm
Venture Partner of Octopus Ventures
John Hamm‘s career spans 35 years in technology executive (CEO) leadership, venture capital, and advisory work with CEOs and Executive Teams. John is actively engaged with a diverse group of CEOs from a variety of market segments on matters of strategy, leadership, and managing teams, change, and growth. He has coached and advised over 75 CEOs in the last decade. Previously, John served as CEO of Accept Software which he guided to acquisition by Artemis. Prior, John was a Venture Partner at Redpoint Ventures and a GP at VSP Capital in San Francisco. John was also a Partner with Geoff Moore at Chasm Group Advisors, a leading technology market strategy firm. John was CEO of Whistle Communications, funded by IVP and Mayfield. Whistle was acquired by IBM in June, 1999. John’s best-selling book, Unusually Excellent, (Wiley 2010) is available worldwide and his timeless article, The Five Messages Leaders Must Manage, was the lead feature in the May, 2006 issue of The Harvard Business Review. Hamm also authored Why Entrepreneurs Don’t Scale, for HBR in December 2002, which is used in many MBA programs worldwide. John holds a BS degree in Engineering from Purdue University in Engineering Physics and Engineering Management.
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About Octopus Ventures, VSP Capital: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
Wei Jiang
Venture Partner of ZhenFund
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About ZhenFund: ZhenFund invests in TMT, healthcare, and education among other sectors.
TX Zhuo
General Partner of Fika Ventures
An entrepreneur at heart, TX has been involved with startups since his college days where he started then successfully sold an online college textbook marketplace. After a stint at McKinsey where he was a core member of their financial services and consumer goods practices, he came back to his roots and served as the CFO for an electric vehicle startup, Lit Motors. Thereafter, he worked for Innovation Endeavors, a seed stage venture fund backed by Eric Schmidt. In 2012, he co-founded Karlin Ventures, based in Los Angeles, where he served as the managing partner for 4 years before co-founding Fika Ventures. He is a strong proponent of transparency and efficiency and is constantly on the lookout for new platforms that seek to disrupt old, antiquated industries. Once a competitive badminton player who trained 4-5 days a week, he now can be found on the golf course or maxing out his ClassPass account on the weekends. He is also passionate about supporting initiatives that help cancer fighters. TX holds an MBA from Stanford and a BA in Mathematics and Economics from Wesleyan University.
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About Fika Ventures: Fika Ventures is a seed fund that focuses on enterprise and B2B software, FinTech, marketplaces, and digital health.
Eva Ho
General Partner of Fika Ventures
Prior to Fika, Eva was a founding GP at Susa Ventures. She is a serial entrepreneur and founder, most recently a founding executive at Factual, a leading location data provider in Los Angeles. Prior, she was a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Google and Youtube for 5 years. Prior to Google, she was the head of marketing for Applied Semantics, a company that sold to Google in 2003. She also co-founded Navigating Cancer, a health startup, in 2008 which is now based in Seattle. She is active in the non-profit sector, serving on the boards of California Community Foundation, Ocean Conservancy, First Descents, and Iridescent. She is currently the Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the city of Los Angeles working with Mayor Eric Garcetti and his team. In her spare time, you can find her wandering remote geo coordinates, with a special affinity for cold, inhospitable places. Almost always, she is accompanied by her trusty camera and a backpack too large for her frame. Eva holds an MBA from Cornell and a BA from Harvard.
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About All Raise, Fika Ventures, MuckerLab: Fika Ventures is a seed fund that focuses on enterprise and B2B software, FinTech, marketplaces, and digital health.
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.
Corey Mulloy
General Partner of Highland Capital Partners
Corey is a General Partner at Highland Capital Partners, which he joined in 1997. Corey is currently chairman of the board of Gigamon (IPO in 2013) and serves on the boards of CrowdSource, Entourage, Fidelis, Malwarebytes, Pharmaca and vArmour Networks. He is a former director of AccentCare (acquired by Oak Hill in 2010), BAROnova, Hyperion (IPO in 2012; acquired by Horizon for $1.1 billion in 2015), OpGen (IPO in 2015) and YogaWorks (acquired by Great Hill in 2014). He has also been involved with BÂRRX (acquired by Covidien for $413 million in 2012), Conor (IPO in 2006; acquired by J&J for $1.4 billion in 2007), Helicos (IPO in 2007), NextCard (IPO in 1999), NuGenesis (acquired by Waters in 2004), Pervasis (acquired by Shire in 2012), Talaria (acquired by Google in 2013), Telcobuy.com (merged with World Wide Technology), Turbine (acquired by Warner Bros. in 2010) and US Labs (acquired by LabCorp in 2005). Previously, Corey worked at Robertson Stephens, ONI Systems (IPO in 2000; acquired by Ciena for $1.2 billion in 2002) and The Whitman Group. He holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Corey has been a member of the Swarthmore College Investment Committee since 2007.
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About Highland Capital Partners: Highland Capital Partners is a venture capital firm that offers seed, early, and growth-stage funding solutions.
