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 San Francisco based Director operating in the Finance space. If you think a Director is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Michael Seibel
Managing Director and Partner of Y Combinator
Michael Seibel is a Partner at YC and CEO of YC’s startup accelerator. He was the cofounder and CEO Justin.tv and Socialcam. Socialcam sold to Autodesk in 2012 and under the leadership of Emmett Shear, Justin.tv became Twitch.tv and sold to Amazon in 2014. Before getting into startups, he spent a year as the finance director for a US Senate campaign and in 2005, Michael graduated from Yale University with a BA in political science.
Follow Michael Seibel:
About Y Combinator: Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a wide range of startups twice a year.
Dalton Caldwell
Partner and Managing Director of Y Combinator
Dalton Caldwell is a Partner and the Head of Admissions at Y Combinator. He was the cofounder and CEO of imeem (acquired by MySpace in 2009), and the cofounder and CEO of App.net. He has a BS in Symbolic Systems and a BA in Psychology from Stanford University.
Follow Dalton Caldwell:
About Mixed Media Labs, Y Combinator: Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a wide range of startups twice a year.
Stephanie Simon
Director of Admissions of Y Combinator
Stephanie Simon is the director of admissions at Y Combinator.
Follow Stephanie Simon:
About Rex, Y Combinator: Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a wide range of startups twice a year.
Elizabeth Akman
Batch Director of Y Combinator
Follow Elizabeth Akman:
About Y Combinator: Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a wide range of startups twice a year.
Verena Prescher
Director of Finance of Y Combinator
Verena is the Director of Finance at Y Combinator. Prior to joining Felicis, Verena was a tax manager in PwC’s asset management practice where she provided tax compliance and consulting services to investment partnerships with a primary focus on the venture capital and real estate industries. Verena received her B.S. in accounting and economics from NYU’s Stern School of Business. She is a Certified Public Accountant, licensed in California and New York. A native of Germany, Verena speaks German and English.
Follow Verena Prescher:
About Y Combinator: Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a wide range of startups twice a year.
Nischal Piratla
Director, Strategy & Innovation of Deutsche Bank
• Versatile hands-on leader, with 15-plus years of expertise in Innovation, Product Strategy, Entrepreneurship and People Management. • Extensive experience in building Local and Global Teams (North America & EMEA), with development of new products from scratch that contributed to new revenue of 20+ millions USD. • Expertise in products based on Artificial Neural Networks, Machine Learning, Business Process Automation, Design Thinking, and Data Networking, which also led to 33 patent filings (18 Issued Patents & 15 pending), and to several highly cited journals and conferences publications.
Follow Nischal Piratla:
About Deutsche Bank: Deutsche Bank, a Frankfurt-based global investment bank, offers financial products and services to corporate and institutional clients.
Zachary Jarvis
Director of Deutsche Bank
Follow Zachary Jarvis:
About Deutsche Bank: Deutsche Bank, a Frankfurt-based global investment bank, offers financial products and services to corporate and institutional clients.
Linda Yu
Vice President & Investment Director of SoftBank Vision Fund
Follow Linda Yu:
About SoftBank Group, SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Ted Fike
Director, Americas of SoftBank Vision Fund
Ted Fike is an investment director with the SoftBank Investment Advisers based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ted focuses on investments in consumer technologies and real estate. He is a SoftBank board representative for Wag, and Plenty. (A full list of portfolio companies can be found here.) Ted has held a variety of investing and operating roles during his career. Prior to joining SoftBank Investment Advisers in 2017, he led corporate development and strategy initiatives at Airbnb, which had acquired Tilt, where he was CFO and board director. Before Tilt, Ted was a founding principal of CapitalG, Google’s growth equity investment arm. Earlier at Google, Ted was responsible for acquisitions and investments as part of the corporate development team, as well as a number of Google’s largest technology and telecommunications client relationships within its sales organization. Prior to joining Google, Ted worked in strategy and operations at WebMD, in credit investing at Bain Capital, and in strategy consulting at Boston Consulting Group. Ted graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in economics and concentrations in finance, marketing, and management.
Follow Ted Fike:
About SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Jeff Chung
Managing Director of AME Cloud Ventures
Follow Jeff Chung:
About AME Cloud Ventures: AME Cloud Ventures invests in seed to later-stage tech companies that build infrastructure and value chains around data.
Dylan Love
Director, Executive Talent of Lightspeed Venture Partners
Follow Dylan Love:
About Lightspeed Venture Partners: Lightspeed Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that engages in consumer, enterprise, technology, and cleantech markets.
Karen Zerrudo
Director of Operations, Dragonfly Capital of Dragonfly Capital Partners
Karen Zerrudo currently works as the Director of Operations for Dragonfly Capital. She previously worked at OODA Health as an Executive Assistant.
Follow Karen Zerrudo:
About Dragonfly Capital Partners: Dragonfly Capital Partners are investing in and supporting the most promising opportunities in the cryptoasset class.
Adam Draper
Founder & Managing Director of Boost VC
Adam Draper is the CEO and Founder of Boost, a startup accelerator. He has invested in companies, started companies, and more. Adam Draper is a fourth generation venture capitalist and Super Smash player. He also co-founded Xpert Financial while still in his senior year at UCLA. Before starting Boost, he invested in 20 companies, including Coinbase, Plangrid, and Practice Fusion. Adam Draper’s favorite movie is Notting Hill and his favorite pizza joint is Round Table. He is also interested in making pickles. Adam Draper currently resided in San Francisco.
Follow Adam Draper:
About Boost VC, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Enders Fund: The Accelerator for Sci-Fi. We invest $500K in 20+ startups each per year.
Gaurav Bhasin
Founder & Managing Director of Allied Advisers
Gaurav Bhasin is the Founder and Managing Director at Allied Advisers.
Follow Gaurav Bhasin:
About Allied Advisers: Allied Advisers operates as a global technology-focused boutique advisory firm providing advisory services to technology companies.
Raymond Tonsing
Founder, Managing Director & General Partner of Caffeinated Capital
Raymond Tonsing is a San Francisco based venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He founded Caffeinated Capital, an early stage venture capital firm, and now serves as its managing director. Raymond holds a bachelor’s degree in Arts from University of Colorado Boulder.
Follow Raymond Tonsing:
About Caffeinated Capital, SingleStore: Caffeinated Capital is a technology venture capital firm that partners with founders at the inception stage.
Tench Coxe
Managing Director of Sutter Hill Ventures
Tench Coxe focuses his investments in telecommunications hardware, application software, semiconductors, and payment infrastructure. Tench joined the firm in 1987 following his tenure with Digital Communications Associates in Atlanta, where he managed T-1 products and directed internal MIS and marketing. Previously, he worked with Lehman Brothers in New York City, where he was a corporate financial analyst specializing in mergers and acquisitions as well as debt and equity financing. His current directorships include Actiance, Artisan Partners, Mattersight, NVIDIA, PINC Solutions, RedSeal Networks, Inc., Swift Financial and Tower Cloud, Inc. He was also responsible for the firm’s investment in Alteon Networks, Aruba Networks, Inc., @mobile, Avant!, Clarus, Copper Mountain Networks, Edify, Legato, Lifesize, Lynk Systems, Network Appliance, Grand Junction, NCD, OnStream Networks, Ruckus Wireless, Symmetricom, Synernetics, Primary Access, WildCard Systems, and XcelleNet. Tench graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in economics. He earned his MBA in 1984 from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business.
Follow Tench Coxe:
About Sutter Hill Ventures: Sutter Hill Ventures primarily invests in technology-based start-ups.
Andy Sheehan
Managing Director of Sutter Hill Ventures
Andy Sheehan is a Managing Director at Sutter Hill Ventures in Palo Alto, Ca. He is also the Managing Partner of Tippet Venture Partners. In addition to Lifesize, Andy serves on the boards of Yext, Inc., Global Liquid Markets and Serviz, Inc. He received his BA from Dartmouth College with a degree in English.
Follow Andy Sheehan:
About Sutter Hill Ventures, Tippet Venture Partners: Sutter Hill Ventures primarily invests in technology-based start-ups.
Stefan Dyckerhoff
Managing Director of Sutter Hill Ventures
Stefan is a Managing Director at Sutter Hill Ventures. Previously he has held technical, marketing and executive leadership positions at Juniper Networks and Cisco. He has been an advisor and on the board of several startups.
Follow Stefan Dyckerhoff:
About Sutter Hill Ventures: Sutter Hill Ventures primarily invests in technology-based start-ups.
Len Baker
Managing Director of Sutter Hill Ventures
Follow Len Baker:
About Sutter Hill Ventures: Sutter Hill Ventures primarily invests in technology-based start-ups.
Jason A. Kreuziger
Managing Director of Goldman Sachs
Jason Kreuziger is a member of the Growth Equity Investing Group within the Merchant Banking Division (MBD) at Goldman Sachs. He is responsible for leading the private equity investments of high-growth businesses in the Software, Business Services and Healthcare sectors in North America. Jason joined Goldman Sachs first in 2008 as a member of the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Investment Banking Group, and returned to Goldman Sachs in 2014. He now serves as a Managing Director in the Growth Equity Investment Group. Prior to re-joining the firm, Jason was a member of the private equity investment team at Summit Partners where he focused on investments in the communications technology and software sectors. Before that, he worked as an investment banker at the Royal Bank of Canada and as a management consultant at ZS Associates. Jason is a CFA charterholder, and holds both Series 7 and Series 79 securities licenses. Jason earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2008, and a BBA with honors degree in (i) Finance, Investment and Banking, and (ii) Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2002. Outside of work, Jason is an outdoors enthusiast, enjoying distance running, triathlons, hiking, cycling, snowboarding, skiing, and sailing. He also enjoys international travel and collecting local currency from countries he visits.
Follow Jason A. Kreuziger:
About Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.
Joe Porter
Managing Director – Tech Investment Banking of Goldman Sachs
Joe Porter is a Managing Director – Tech Investment Banking at Goldman Sach. He was a managing director in the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) Group and the Merger & Acquisitions Group within the Investment Banking Division (IBD). Before moving to San Francisco and his current role, he worked in the Executive Office in New York City from 2012 to 2013 with the firm’s executive leadership to develop and execute strategic and client initiatives. Earlier in his career, Joe was a member of the Global Consumer Retail Group in IBD from 2007-2012 and a member of the PSI Group from 2005-2007. He joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst in 2005 and was named Managing Director in 2017 Joe earned a BS in Accounting from Brigham Young University in 2005.
Follow Joe Porter:
About Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.
Mark Midle
Managing Director of Goldman Sachs
Mark Midle joined Limelight’s Board of Directors in June 2015. Midle is a Vice President in Goldman, Sachs & Co.’s Merchant Banking Division, where he oversees investments in growth stage, technology-driven companies. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Midle spent over a decade investing in technology and technology-enabled services companies while at firms including Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group. Previously, Midle was a consultant at McKinsey & Co., and he began his career in Morgan Stanley & Co.’s Investment Banking Division. Midle has a B.A. from the University of North Carolina and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Follow Mark Midle:
About Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.
Mark Winkelman
Senior Director of Goldman Sachs
Mark is an independent Board member. Born in 1946, he is a citizen of the Netherlands and holds a Degree in Economics from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is a trustee and chairman of the Penn Medicine Board. He served as a Management Committee member of Goldman Sachs & Co. from 1988 to 1994, where he is now a Senior Director. Before joining Goldman Sachs & Co. in 1978, he served at the World Bank for four years as a senior investment officer.
Follow Mark Winkelman:
About Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.
Marcus Chan
Director of Content of NerdWallet
Follow Marcus Chan:
About NerdWallet: NerdWallet develops a financial platform to help people find the right credit cards and mortgage rates.
David Weiden
Founding Partner & Managing Director of Khosla Ventures
David is a Founding Partner and Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, where he focuses on Internet software and services. A number of his investments have led to significant exits, including AppNexus (acquired by AT&T), Climate Corporation (acquired by Monsanto), Okta (NASDAQ: OKTA), RingCentral (NYSE: RNG) and Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST). David has also been recognized by Fortune and Forbes as one of the top technology investors. Prior to Khosla Ventures, David spent five years at Tellme Networks as VP of marketing and business development. Using the quantitative decision making framework, RIFLE, the company drove revenue to over $100 million, and was ultimately acquired by Microsoft for more than $700 million. Previously, he led AOL’s communications, community and instant messaging product divisions as they surpassed 50 million users worldwide. In 1995, after being told by his employer Morgan Stanley that email would never be used for business, David jumped at the chance to join Netscape, where he learned many lessons in product management. David’s career began in door to door sales, where one sales pitch led to his new career in technology via McCaw Cellular, now AT&T. David holds a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude with highest honors in organizational behavior and economics from Harvard University.
Follow David Weiden:
About Khosla Ventures: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on environmentally friendly tech, internet, computing, mobile, and silicon tech.
Sven Strohband
Partner & Managing Director of Khosla Ventures
Sven is a Partner and Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, and led the firm’s investments in Berkshire Grey, GitLab, and Rocket Lab, among others. An engineer at heart, Sven is passionate about technologies that forge new industries and enable novel user experiences. Sven spent six years at Mohr Davidow Ventures where he led technical diligence for the infrastructure IT and sustainability practices. He also worked with the firm’s companies, recruiting technical talent, running product-market fit experiments and crafting fundraising strategies. Previously, Sven was a project manager for the Electronics Research Lab of Volkswagen, where he led technical projects for Volkswagen brands ranging from LED front lighting, electro chromic glass, and driver assistance systems and robotics. Sven also served as lead engineer and project lead for the Stanford racing team’s autonomous car, Stanley, which went on to win the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. Now on display at the Smithsonian Museum, Stanley became the foundation for the Google self-driving car project. He also co-founded AI company Metamind and served as CEO. Metamind is now part of Salesforce and a key component of Salesforce Einstein. Sven sits on the boards of numerous companies, including Berkshire Grey, Fulfil, Openwater, Rocket Lab, Velo3D, Vicarious, Voyage, and Uhnder. He holds a bachelor’s of science degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, as well as a Ph.D. in mechanics and computation from Stanford. In his spare time, Sven enjoys teaching his kids to code, flying autonomous drones and cycling.
Follow Sven Strohband:
About Khosla Ventures: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on environmentally friendly tech, internet, computing, mobile, and silicon tech.
Ted Maguire
Director, Executive Search of Khosla Ventures
Ted Maguire currently works as the Director, Executive Search for Khosla Ventures. He previously worked at Uber as the Executive Search.
Follow Ted Maguire:
About Khosla Ventures: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on environmentally friendly tech, internet, computing, mobile, and silicon tech.
Eric Ward
Creative Director of NFX
Born and raised in Lake Tahoe, Eric developed a sense of adventure at an early age. He quickly moved into a creative mindset and followed his passion of filmmaking to Chapman University’s acclaimed Dodge College of Film & Media Arts. He created commercials and creative visuals for multiple tech companies during his collegiate years that generated a high density network in Silicon Valley, leading him to relocate to San Francisco after graduation. Eric’s mission at NFX is to innovate content surrounding the venture capital industry by utilizing high quality film production, design, and animation through a creative approach to strengthen our brand, team, and audience.
Follow Eric Ward:
About NFX: NFX operates as a pre-seed and seed stage VC that is transforming how true innovators are funded.
Brian Dunlap
Managing Director of Blackstone Group
Brian Dunlap is the Sector Lead for Technology, Media & Telecommunications for The Rise Fund and is based in San Francisco. Prior to joining TPG, Brian worked at General Atlantic and JMI Equity, where he led investments in enterprise software / SaaS, consumer internet, financial technology and financial services in the U.S. and Latin America. Brian received a B.A., and M.A. from Stanford University, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Brian speaks Spanish and Portuguese and serves on the Boards of Directors at EverFi, HotSchedules, Noodle AI, and Resultados Digitais.
Follow Brian Dunlap:
About Blackstone Group: Blackstone is an investment and advisory firm providing financial solutions for investors and clients.
Paul Morrissey
Managing Director of Blackstone Group
Paul joined Battery as an Associate and focuses on later stage investments, including growth equity, buyouts, rollups, PIPES and take-privates. Prior to Battery, Paul spent time with Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division focusing on the technology, media & telecom sectors. While Paul was at Goldman, he worked on a variety of debt and equity financings, M&A transactions and strategic advisory assignments. Paul graduated from Stanford University, where he earned a BS in Economics.
Follow Paul Morrissey:
About Battery Ventures, Battery Ventures, Blackstone Group: Blackstone is an investment and advisory firm providing financial solutions for investors and clients.
Kelley Morrell
Managing Director of Blackstone Group
Kelley Morrell is Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. She is responsible for leading the evaluation and execution of a wide range of strategic initiatives, including large-scale strategic mergers and acquisitions, as well as for partnering with senior leaders across the organization to develop the Company’s strategy and execute its strategic priorities.
Follow Kelley Morrell:
About Blackstone Group, CIT Group: Blackstone is an investment and advisory firm providing financial solutions for investors and clients.
Daniel Friedland
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Goldcrest Capital
Daniel Friedland is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Goldcrest Capital.
Follow Daniel Friedland:
About Goldcrest Capital: Goldcrest is a venture capital fund that invests in private technology companies.
Ashkan Marsh
Partner & Director of Research of Cota Capital
Ashkan Marsh joined Cota in 2019 as a Principal, where he focuses on sourcing, evaluating, and monitoring of public investments. Prior to Cota, Ashkan was an Investment Partner at Crimson Investment Partners making private equity investments in founder-led companies to accelerate growth through digital transformation and corporate processes. Prior to CIP, Ashkan was a public equity Investment Analyst at Newbrook Capital, a $1+ billion long/short equity fund. Previously, Ashkan was an Investment Analyst and Investment Associate at Goldman Sachs in private equity at the firm’s Special Situations Group, a $25 billion proprietary investment fund. Ashkan was Founder and CEO of SilverIP Communications, which became the leading gigabit internet service provider in Illinois and exited to private equity. Ashkan received a B.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a graduate of Harvard Business School.
Follow Ashkan Marsh:
About Cota Capital: Cota Capital is an SEC-registered multi-stage investment firm focused on private and public enterprise technology companies.
Ashley Mitchell
Director of Marketing of New Enterprise Associates
Follow Ashley Mitchell:
About New Enterprise Associates: New Enterprise Associates is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare.
Shanna Hendriks
Director, Portfolio Services – Business Development of New Enterprise Associates
Shanna joined NEA as a Director, Portfolio Services – Business Development in 2014. She focuses on communications and marketing support for the portfolio which includes supporting the PR needs of early-stage companies, acting as a resource to later-stage companies, and developing educational programs and events at NEA for portfolio companies of all levels of growth. She also supports the portfolio through business development and executive briefings. Shanna brings more than eight years of PR agency work at some of the leading PR agencies in the Bay Area to her role with NEA. She was one of the first hires at LaunchSquad where she learned the ropes of emerging tech PR. She then worked with a boutique firm where she represented some of the most well-known winter sport brands doing consumer PR. Realizing that she missed crafting the story that has become so important for technology companies, she went on to join Hill & Knowlton’s tech practice working with Fortune 500 companies such as Qualcomm, HP, and Yahoo!. Shanna then transitioned in-house to communications at Shutterfly working on corporate communications and the company’s photobooks and share site products. In 2012, Shanna joined Tesla Motors where she among other things, launched Model S, the Supercharger network, and provided comms support to the company’s retail rollout. Shanna moved to the Bay Area from Canada in 2004. Prior to that move, Shanna worked in PR at Ottawa’s famous Fairmont Chateau Laurier. She attended Algonquin College for Public Relations in Ottawa, Ontario.
Follow Shanna Hendriks:
About New Enterprise Associates: New Enterprise Associates is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare.
Philipp Stauffer
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Fyrfly Venture Partners
Philipp Stauffer is a co-founder and managing director at Fyrfly Venture Partners.
Follow Philipp Stauffer:
About Containn, Fyrfly Venture Partners, Gmelius, rready: Fyrfly Venture Partners is a venture capital firm with a focus on data and intelligence.
Esther Tricoche
Director of Investments of Kapor Capital
Esther Tricoche is an Associate Partner on NewSchools’ Tools & Services team. Prior to joining NewSchools Venture Fund, Esther was a founding team member, Program Manager and Acting Vice President at the Laura & John Arnold Foundation, where she led the Foundation’s education team and directed over $130 million in grants to sustainable, scalable, and transformative initiatives in K-12 Public Education. Prior to that, Esther worked as a policy researcher for a Fortune 500 company focusing on international human rights and corporate sustainable development. She also served as a cultural affairs policy researcher through a partnership with the Houston Mayor’s Office and is a former member of a Rice University research team that focused on memory and cognition in relation to learning. As an inaugural Pahara Institute NextGen Fellow, Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans National Scholar, and community volunteer, Esther brings deep passion to the NewSchools Venture Fund to transform the United States’ public education system. Esther holds a degree in Cognitive Science from Rice University, with a concentration in Neuroscience.
Follow Esther Tricoche:
About Kapor Capital, National Immigration Forum: Kapor Capital is an investment firm that invests in early-stage tech-enabled startups.
Karla Fornell
Sr. Director, Growth Marketing of Credit Karma
Follow Karla Fornell:
About Credit Karma, Credit Karma: Credit Karma offers a range of tools and personalized recommendations designed to help customers make the most of their money.
Simon Wu
Investment Director of Cathay Innovation
Simon Wu is an Investment Director at Cathay Innovation, a global venture capital firm investing across North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Based in San Francisco, he focuses on software, fintech, and consumer investments. Prior to joining Cathay Innovation, Simon spent almost four years at VMware in the Strategy & Corporate Development team which was responsible for leading acquisitions, investments, and strategy. As a Manager, he was involved in numerous transactions focusing on a number of enterprise software sectors. Before joining VMware, he was at UBS in the investment banking division as part of the technology, media, and telecommunications group. During his time at UBS, Simon advised on equity and debt capital raises, corporate strategy, and M&A for companies in the technology sector. Simon holds both a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. in Operations Research and Management Science from University of California, Berkeley.
Follow Simon Wu:
About Cathay Innovation: Cathay Innovation is a global multi-stage venture capital firm investing in startups impacting the world.
William McGlashan
Managing Director of TPG Growth
Bill is a founding Partner of TPG Growth, the growth equity and smaller buyout investment platform of TPG, the global private investment firm. With more than $2 billion under management, TPG Growth targets investments in technology, life sciences, renewables and consumer companies utilizing growth equity, public equity and leveraged buyout structures. Prior to joining TPG in 2004, Bill was the Chairman and CEO of Critical Path (NASDAQ: CPTH). He joined Critical Path in April of 2001 to undertake a major financial and operational restructuring of the company. Previously, he co-founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of Vectis Group, a venture corporation that capitalized and built companies in emerging markets, in partnership with leading U.S. technology businesses. Bill also co-founded and served as President of Pharmanex Inc., a leading phyto-pharmaceutical and dietary supplement company with annual sales of approximately $500 million in 20 countries and significant operations in the People’s Republic of China. The company was sold to NSE (NYSE: NUS) in 1999. Prior to Pharmanex, he was a senior associate with Bain Capital and Information Partners. Bill earned a BA with honors from Yale University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Young Presidents’ Organization in the San Francisco Barbary Coast chapter, and serves on the Advisory Council for the Yale School of Management as well as the Boards of XOJet, David’s Bridal, AgraQuest, SuccessFactors, Elevance, the Bay Area Discovery Museum and Backroads.
Follow William McGlashan:
About TPG Growth: TPG Growth specializes in growth equity and middle-market buyout opportunities.
Fred Paulenich
Partner, Managing Director -Human Capital Partner of TPG Growth
Mr. Paulenich is a Human Capital Partner based in San Francisco. He is responsible for actively leading a highly collaborative process with the investment and operating professionals and the portfolio companies to help evaluate, build and improve the key human capital elements required for profitable growth. Prior to TPG, he was Senior Vice President, Human Resources for Walmart’s high growth, $10B global eCommerce business. He was one of the original and key leaders involved in architecting this business unit which develops strategies, platforms and applications that combine the latest in online innovation with physical stores to create a unique, seamless shopping experience for customers. He also served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources for Levi Strauss & Co., a leading global apparel company with over $4B in sales in more than 110 countries. He was an integral part of the leadership team credited with restoring the company’s financial strength, restructuring its competitiveness across all business dimensions and revitalizing the brand around the world. He began his career at PepsiCo where he held a series of increasingly senior human resources positions over 15 years, culminating in his assignment as Vice President, Human Resources for Pepsi-Cola North America. In that role, he led a complete redefinition and integration of the go-to-market process and organizational structure post the spin off and IPO of the company-owned bottling operations.
Follow Fred Paulenich:
About TPG Growth: TPG Growth specializes in growth equity and middle-market buyout opportunities.
Ambar Bhattacharyya
Managing Director of Maverick Ventures
Ambar Bhattacharyya currently works as the Managing Director for Maverick Capital. He previously worked at Collective Medical as the Series A Investor and Board Observer.
Follow Ambar Bhattacharyya:
About Artemis Health, Centivo, Cityblock Health, Hims & Hers, Maverick Ventures: Maverick Ventures is a registered investment advisor managing private investment funds for qualified investors.
Prateesh Maheshwari
Managing Director of Maverick Ventures
Prateesh Maheshwari serves as a Managing Director at Maverick Capital.
Follow Prateesh Maheshwari:
About Maverick Ventures: Maverick Ventures is a registered investment advisor managing private investment funds for qualified investors.
Mitchell Kertzman
Managing Director of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Mitchell Kertzman is a Managing Director at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. He has over 30 years of experience as a CEO of public and private software companies. Most recently, Mitchell was Chairman and CEO of Liberate Technologies, a provider of platform software for the delivery of digital services by cable television companies. Before joining Liberate, he was chairman of the board and CEO of Sybase, Inc. Mitchell was founder and CEO of Powersoft, which merged with Sybase in February 1995. A former programmer, Mitchell founded Powersoft in 1974 as Computer Solutions. He renamed the company and became a member of the Hummer Winblad family in 1991 when Hummer Winblad invested in the company, which became the leading provider of client-server development tools with its flagship product, PowerBuilder. The merger with Sybase in 1995 was, at the time, the most valuable in the history of the software industry. Mitchell served as President of the Massachusetts Software Council from 1994 to 1996 and was 1990 chairman of the American Electronics Association. He is founder and former chairman of the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC), a think tank focused on issues related to the standard of living and quality of life of America’s middle class. He served on the New York State Commission on Industrial Competitiveness and chaired its task force on industrial policy. Mitchell was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He currently sits on the Boards of AspireIQ, Blissfully, 6connect and Symbium.
Follow Mitchell Kertzman:
About 6connect, Blissfully, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, MassINC: Hummer Winblad Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage enterprise software companies.
Aaron Tolson
Managing Director of H.I.G. Capital
Follow Aaron Tolson:
About H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Rob Wolfson
Managing Director of H.I.G. Capital
Follow Rob Wolfson:
About H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Kevin Van Culin
Managing Director of H.I.G. Capital
Follow Kevin Van Culin:
About H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Andrew Freeman
Managing Director of H.I.G. Capital
Follow Andrew Freeman:
About H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Sunil Kurkure
Managing Director of Intel Capital
Sunil is a Managing Director at Intel Capital driving early-venture and growth-equity investments in the Software and Security Sector across cloud infrastructure, big data, security and next-generation enterprise applications. He is actively involved with Intel Capital portfolio companies Kaltura, Eclypsium, Synack, SecurityScorecard, Vectra Networks, Fortanix, Lightbend, Preempt Security, Catalytic, Capsul8 and ZeroFox. Prior to joining Intel Capital, Sunil worked as an enterprise-focused venture capitalist at Mirador Capital, Greenspring Associates and Charter Ventures; and product strategy in the Client Computing Group at Intel. Sunil has held board or advisory roles at Ellie Mae (NYSE: ELLI), Deem, Sumo Logic, Snowflake Computing, Xensource (NASDAQ: CTXS), Clear Standards (NYSE: SAP), Splunk (NASDAQ: SPLK), DATAllegro (NASDAQ: MSFT), Solidcore (NASDAQ: INTC), TeleNav (NASDAQ: TNAV), Winery Exchange, and SysteamUS. Previously, Sunil spent several years at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse in M&A and equity financing, working with leading technology companies including Cisco, Yahoo, HP, Oracle, and Applied Materials among others. Sunil holds a BS in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. Sunil is actively involved in several youth sports organizations including AYSO and NJB, and previously served as a regional board member of BUILD, an organization that uses entrepreneurship to help children in under-resourced communities.
Follow Sunil Kurkure:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Mark Lydon
Managing Director of Intel Capital
Mark Lydon is a Managing Director at Intel Capital and leads investments in the IOT, Edge Computing and Autonomy sectors. Mark joined Intel Capital in 2000 and brings over 30 years of experience in venture capital investing, business development, engineering and operations spanning both high tech startups and Fortune 100 companies. Prior to Intel Capital, Mark held a variety of management positions in engineering, business development, sales and marketing at Dialogic Corporation, helping the company grow from a startup to a worldwide leader in telecommunications technology. Mark began his career as an engineer at IBM, where he contributed to the development of the industry’s first integration of computer systems and telecom private branch exchanges. Mark invested in and managed exits for a number of companies including XEVO (acquired by Lear), Fibocom (IPO on SHE), Vocera Communications (IPO on NYSE), Rapid Bridge (acquired by Qualcomm), Skyhook Wireless (acquired by Liberty Media), Bocom (acquired by BGTC), Continuous Computing Corporation (acquired by Radisys Corporation), China ITS (IPO on HKSE), IPTego (acquired by Acme Packets), Crossbeam (acquired by Blue Coat Systems) and Telera (acquired by Alcatel). Mark has a BS in Electrical Engineering from California Polytechnic University.
Follow Mark Lydon:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Trina Van Pelt
Vice President, Senior Managing Director of Intel Capital
Trina Van Pelt is Vice President & Senior Managing Director of Intel Capital; Vice Chair of its Investment Committee; and Chair of its diversity & inclusion investing initiative. She focuses on investments in artificial intelligence, autonomous things, mobility management, sports technology, and data centric business models. Trina currently serves on multiple, early to growth stage, portfolio company boards (Cognitive Scale, GoodData, Mighty Networks, Moovit, Paxata). In February 2019, she was named to the Power 200 list of the world’s most influential data economy leaders. She is a sought out advisor to Intel’s executive team on transformational growth strategies for Intel’s data centric businesses. Van Pelt has more than 23 years of experience in technology investments, M&A, strategic planning and business development. She has led more than 85 technology acquisitions and investments worth >$50B over the course of her career, spanning the computing, communications, software, IoT and mobile industry segments. She has built, developed, led, inspired and managed large teams of investors and strategic business development professionals negotiating equity and complex buy-and sell-side transactions and partnerships. Before joining Intel in 2004, Van Pelt was a director of corporate development at CNET Networks and an investment associate at TA Associates. She began her career in investment banking at Lehman Brothers and Ernst & Young’s financial advisory services group. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan and earned a master’s degree in management from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
Follow Trina Van Pelt:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Ranjeet Alexis
Investment Director, United States of Intel Capital
Ranjeet’s current focus is in in the health, genomics and life sciences sector to identify disruptions through technology. He joined Intel Capital in 2000. He started his investment career with a successful investment Sirf Technologies in 2000 and since has invested in perceptual computing, (emotion recognition, gesture recognition and eyetracking), VR, AR, 3D and robotics companies in silicon, systems and software. Ranjeet currently serves as a member or observer on the board of Savioke, Occipital, Worldviz and Witricity. He has invested and managed exits including Sirf Technologies (IPO), Tobii ( IPO), Omek (acquired by Intel) Mobile 365 (acquired by Sybase), Sychip (acquired by Murata), Sasken (IPO), Jamdat (IPO), Techfaith (IPO), Azure (acquired by Subex), Integrant (acquired by Analog devices) and LGC (acquired by Andrews) to name a few. Prior to Intel Capital, he spent several years in senior operating roles at Intel. Ranjeet led the team that designed and manufactured the earliest non-volatile memory solutions for the cellular market. In his subsequent strategic role he launched the stacking memory solution for mobile that evolved into a $1 billion revenue business for Intel. He has authored over 10 patents covering various solutions for mobile. He is a winner of the Lewis W. award for technical excellence at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in 1993. Ranjeet has Masters in Electrical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Follow Ranjeet Alexis:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Arun Chetty
Managing Director of Intel Capital
Arun Chetty has been with Intel Capital since 2004 and focuses on investments in the wireless ecosystem covering the latest in 5G and wireless connectivity technologies, in Edge Compute/Intelligence, Sensors, HMI, Enterprise AI and conversational AI platforms, Gaming/Esports, and AR/VR in consumer and enterprise. Arun has led investments in Bluestacks, Avaamo, NextInput, Mindmeld, OnScale, Axonne, Telink Semiconductor, Espressif, Delta ID, AdHawk Microsystems, Babble Labs, VeriSilicon, Aicent, mFoundry, Insyde Software, LANDesk, and many others during his tenure with Intel Capital. Some of his successful exits include VeriSilicon (IPO), Telink (M&A), Espressif (IPO), Babble Labs (M&A), Mindmeld (M&A), Delta ID (M&A), Aicent (M&A), LANDesk (M&A), LGC Wireless (M&A), Circle Lending (M&A), and many others. Prior to Intel Capital, Arun spent several years as M&A Director at Intel, leading and executing over 15 M&A deals, and as a Controller in Intel’s Finance organization. Arun also worked as an engineer in R&D groups at GE, DuPont, and Brookhaven National Labs after his B.S.E. from Princeton and M.S. from MIT. Arun received an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Follow Arun Chetty:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Sean Doyle
Managing Director of Intel Capital
Sean is a Director in Intel Capital focused on manufacturing, semiconductor and supply chain investments for Intel’s core business and on new emerging silicon-related “adjacency” opportunities. From 1997 to 2001 he was a Sr. Treasury Manager responsible for financial due diligence and structuring of over 50 investments across a variety of sectors including media, content, enterprise computing and software. During this time period Sean also provided financial oversight of Intel 64 Fund operations and supported merger and acquisition transactions. In 2001 Sean joined Intel Capital as Sector Director, Technology and Manufacturing, to lead a team of investment managers supporting Intel’s global technology development and manufacturing operations. Notable investments by Sean’s team included ALIS, Clearshape, Epichem, Epion, Lotes, TriChem Labs and Xtreme Technologies. Sean’s transactional experience at Intel Capital ranges from seed stage venture financings to public company debt and equity investments with business development agreements worldwide. He has served as a lead investment manager on some of Intel Capital’s largest or most notable investments worldwide including ASM International, ASM Lithography, Elpida Memory, Ion Microfabrication Systems, Nikon Corporation, Pacific Biosciences, Photronics and Micron Corporation. Sean serves as board observer at several Intel Capital portfolio companies. Prior to Intel Capital, Sean worked in corporate finance for the investment bank Laidlaw Equities and was a marketing manager at Oracle Corporation. Sean holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MBA from UCLA.
Follow Sean Doyle:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Andrew Fligel
Senior Managing Director of Intel Capital
Andy is a Senior Managing Director and a voting member of Intel Capital’s investment committee. Andy focuses on investments in enterprise software, cloud and datacenter technologies driving digital transformation. He currently serves as a Board Member of ScienceLogic and Maana and acts as a Board Observer of Mirantis and Immuta. Andy’s prior investments include Virtustream (acquired by EMC), LogMeIn (NASDAQ: LOGM), Elastic (NYSE: ESTC), Spot.io (acquired by NetApp), CloudGenix (acquired by Palo Alto Networks), CoreOS (acquired by Red Hat), Prelert (acquired by Elastic), Joyent (acquired by Samsung), DynamicOps (acquired by VMware), JBoss (acquired by Red Hat), Managed Objects (acquired by Novell) among others. Prior to Intel Capital, Andy worked in the investment banking group at Robinson-Humphrey. Andy has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a B.S. in Commerce and a minor in mathematics from the University of Virginia, where he was an Echols Scholar.
Follow Andrew Fligel:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Dave Johnson
Managing Director of Intel Capital
Dave joined Intel Capital in 2003, following 10 years in Intel’s Finance and Treasury organization where he held financial management positions supporting Intel’s microprocessor and manufacturing groups and was a founding member of Intel’s Treasury M&A group where he completed over a dozen acquisitions. Joining Intel Capital’s investment team in 2003, Dave invested in WiMAX, LTE, Connectivity, RF, wireless services / spectrum companies before joining the Edge Intelligence, 5G and Autonomous Systems group in 2015 where he is a Managing Director. Dave’s current investment focus areas include industrial systems, computer vision, robotics and autonomy, 5G and network infrastructure. Dave serves as a board member for Foghorn and K4Connect, and board observer for Keyssa. He is on the investment team for Matroid, Landing.ai, Cloudleaf and Cellwize. Dave was named #2 on Global Corporate Venturing’s Emerging Leader list for 2020. Before joining Intel, Dave held management positions with Procter and Gamble and Chevron Corporation. Dave has an MBA from Cornell University and a BA from Vanderbilt University.
Follow Dave Johnson:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Don Faria
Investment Director of Intel Capital
Don Faria is an Investment Director for Intel Capital, where he manages investments for Intel’s (formerly Altera) FPGA technology, products and solutions. Don also is responsible for a variety of other Intel Capital portfolio companies, primary in Semiconductor, Communications, and Data Center end markets. Currently, He serves as a board observer for AnDapt, Bigstream, Element AI, Envoix, Falcon Computing, Inrix, Jariet, Lumita, Mocana, Nexant, rENIAC, Swarm64, Qnovo, and Zumigo. Don’s recent exit success include Luxtera (acquired by Cisco) and eBrisk (acquired by Intel). Don also led the acquisition of eASIC by Intel. Don joined Intel Capital in 2015 as part of Intel’s acquisition of Altera Corporation. He has 38 years of experience in the semiconductor and EDA industries, with 8 years in Equity and M&A. He is considered one of the pioneers of the FPGA industry. Previous to Intel Capital, Don has held senior and executive level management positions at Altera, Synopsys, QuickLogic, and Chip Express, where he was responsible for leading business units, corporate strategy, M&A and equity investments, as well as marketing and technical support functions. Don also is an Advisor for SK Telecom Innopartners incubator program.
Follow Don Faria:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Tammi Smorynski
Managing Director of Intel Capital
Tammi is a Managing Director in Intel Capital and since 2005 has been focused on emerging technologies, see General Interest. Tammi is a board member of Embodied, Savioke, and Silkroad and holds various board observer seats including Cubeworks, CY Vision, and OnDot. From 2000-2005, Tammi was a Treasury Manager supporting Intel Capital and responsible for financial due diligence and structuring of over 70 investments across a variety of sectors including wireless, sensors/RFID and software. Prior to Intel Capital, Tammi was with J.P. Morgan & Co., focused on leveraged buyout transactions and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to that, she was an Audit Officer at J.P. Morgan & Co. covering a diverse set of investment banking operations from derivatives trading to global custody. She passed the CPA Exam in 1991. Tammi earned an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and a bachelor’s degree in Accounting/International Management from Georgetown University.
Follow Tammi Smorynski:
About Intel Capital: Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies.
Shahi Ghanem
Managing Director of WI Harper Group
Shahi Ghanem is a technology industry veteran, serial entrepreneur, and venture capital investor and advisor. Prior to joining BitTorrent, Shahi served as the president and CEO of STL, a digital media company that helps Fortune 500 companies manage, distribute and measure digital assets. He has also held similar roles at EmpowHER, a Health Media Company dedicated to female health and wellness, and Brickfish, an Internet advertising and social media company that delivers social media campaigns and metrics to clients in the fashion, sports, electronics and consumer products industries. Most notably, Shahi previously served as president of DivX, Inc., one of the world’s leading developers of video compression, digital rights management and media language technologies. During his tenure he helped grow the company from a pre-revenue startup into a profitable, multi-national, public company. Shahi was educated at Cal State Long Beach and the University of California at Irvine, where he majored in both economics and pre-med.
Follow Shahi Ghanem:
About WI Harper Group: WI Harper Group is a venture capital firm that focuses on early and expansion investments in Mainland China, Taiwan and Silicon Valley.
Jimmy Lu
Managing Director of WI Harper Group
Follow Jimmy Lu:
About WI Harper Group: WI Harper Group is a venture capital firm that focuses on early and expansion investments in Mainland China, Taiwan and Silicon Valley.
Charles Wu
Managing Director of WI Harper Group
Follow Charles Wu:
About WI Harper Group: WI Harper Group is a venture capital firm that focuses on early and expansion investments in Mainland China, Taiwan and Silicon Valley.
Derrick Hsiang
Director of WI Harper Group
Derrick Hsiang focuses on identifying, evaluating, investing and supporting WI Harper’s investments in the software & services, mobile, internet and digital media space. Derrick is actively involved with numerous portfolio companies including Quixey, a leading B2B functional search engine tailored for apps, Maxthon, the world’s #5 internet browser, and Innovation Works, a leading business creation platform led by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee. Derrick gained valuable operating experience at Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, the world’s largest IC packaging and test manufacturer, where he managed regional production and focused on business development initiatives. Prior to ASE, Derrick was at Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking and Investment Group.
Follow Derrick Hsiang:
About Merrill Lynch, WI Harper Group: WI Harper Group is a venture capital firm that focuses on early and expansion investments in Mainland China, Taiwan and Silicon Valley.
Anuj Mathur
Managing Director of Moelis & Company
Follow Anuj Mathur:
About Moelis & Company: Moelis & Company is an investment bank that provides innovative strategic advice and solutions to a diverse client base.
Andrew J. Collins
Managing Director of Summit Partners
Andrew Collins joined Summit Partners in 2008. Prior to Summit, he worked as an investment banking analyst in the Mergers and Acquisitions group at Banc of America Securities and ABN Amro Financial Services in Chicago. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Andrew is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America and Asia, and focuses primarily on the technology and healthcare sectors. His investment and board experience includes Cloudmark, Delphix, NetWitness (acquired by EMC Corporation), Philz Coffee, RiskIQ, Rocket Fuel, TeleSign Holdings, Ubiquiti Networks (NASDAQ: UBNT), Visier, WebAction, Wildfire Interactive (acquired by Google), Winshuttle Holdings and Wowza Media Systems. Andrew holds a BS in finance from Miami University. Andrew is a member of the Associates Board of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Foundation (UCCRF), an organization that seeks funds to underwrite basic clinical research programs for the treatment of cancer
Follow Andrew J. Collins:
About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Craig Frances
Managing Director of Summit Partners
Craig Frances joined Managing Director at Summit Partners in 2003.
Follow Craig Frances:
About HCPEA, Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Greg Goldfarb
Managing Director of Summit Partners
Greg Goldfarb joined Summit Partners in 2002. Prior to Summit, he worked for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide where he was Director of E-Commerce and Director of Starwood’s Innovation Lab. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Greg is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America, Europe and Asia, and focuses primarily on the technology and healthcare & life sciences sectors. His board directorships and investments include Clearwater Analytics, Cloudmark, IntelliChem (acquired by Symyx Technologies), LiveOffice (acquired by Symantec Corporation), Philz Coffee, ProClarity Corporation (acquired by Microsoft), RiskIQ, Rocket Fuel, TeleSign Holdings, The Mutual Fund Store (acquired by Warburg Pincus), Tiny Prints (acquired by Shutterfly), Visier, Web Reservations International (acquired by Hellman & Friedman), Winshuttle Holdings, and Wowza Media Systems. Greg holds an AB, magna cum laude, in government from Harvard University.
Follow Greg Goldfarb:
About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Harrison B. Miller
Senior Advisor, Former Managing Director of Summit Partners
Harrison B. Miller first joined Summit Partners in 1988. After then attending business school, he was part of the founding management team at Lightspan, an online education company that completed its initial public offering in 2000. At Amazon.com from 1998 to 2003, Harrison was the founding VP and GM of Platform Services, a $180 million unit of the company developing and deploying Amazon’s technology infrastructure as a managed service for major retailers and other customers. Harrison rejoined Summit in 2003. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Harrison today co-heads the firm’s venture capital activities in North America, Europe and Asia, and focuses primarily on the technology and healthcare & life sciences sectors. Harrison’s directorships and investments include Autobase (acquired by Dominion Enterprises), Clearwater Analytics, Cloudmark, Delphix, LiveOffice (acquired by Symantec Corporation), NetWitness Corporation (acquired by EMC Corporation), Postini (acquired by Google), Software Spectrum (acquired by Level 3 Communications),Tiny Prints (acquired by Shutterfly), Wildfire Interactive (acquired by Google), AdvaCare (acquired by Medaphis Corporation), Diagnostic Hybrids (acquired by Quidel Corporation), and The Mutual Fund Store (acquired by Warburg Pincus). Harrison holds an AB in religion, cum laude, from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford Business School. He serves numerous nonprofit organizations in an advisory or board capacity, including Common Sense Media, Opportunity Fund and Worldreader.org.
Follow Harrison B. Miller:
About Autobase, LiveOffice, Postini, Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Leonard C. Ferrington
Managing Director of Summit Partners
Leonard C. Ferrington joined Summit Partners in 2006. Prior to Summit, he worked for Celerity Partners and Baxter Healthcare International. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Len is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America, and focuses primarily on the technology and education sectors. His board directorships and investments include Access Information Management, Heald College (acquired by Corinthian Colleges), RuffaloCODY, Trident University International and Ubiquiti Networks (NASDAQ: UBNT). Len received a BS in accounting from the Leventhal School of Accounting at the University of Southern California.
Follow Leonard C. Ferrington:
About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Peter L. Rottier
Managing Director of Summit Partners
Peter L. Rottier joined Summit Partners in 2006. Prior to Summit, he worked for KSL Capital Partners, Stone Arch Capital and RBC Capital Markets. Based in Summit’s Menlo Park office, Peter is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America, and focuses primarily on the technology sector. His board directorships and investments include Answers, Help/Systems, Infor, ISH (acquired by PwC), Salient Partners, Snap Fitness, Solid State Equipment and Tivoli Audio. Peter received a BS in finance from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Follow Peter L. Rottier:
About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Garrett Henn
Managing Director, Head of Life Sciences Credit – West of Oxford Finance LLC
Henn has over 10 years of commercial lending experience to public and venture-backed life sciences and technology companies. He became part of the Oxford team in 2008, and is responsible for overseeing the firm’s portfolio of loans in western United States and western Canada. Prior to joining Oxford, Mr. Henn held various positions at Silicon Valley Bank where he managed a portfolio of loans primarily comprised of early and late-stage life sciences and technology companies. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from California State University, Los Angeles.
Follow Garrett Henn:
About Oxford Finance LLC: Oxford Finance delivers flexible financial solutions to healthcare and life sciences companies worldwide.
Ravi K. Paidipaty
Managing DirectorSan Francisco of Farallon Capital Management
Mr. Paidipaty rejoined us in 2008, having been a summer analyst in 2007. Previously, Mr. Paidipaty worked as a private equity associate at Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. and as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Paidipaty graduated with Distinction from Yale College with a B.A. in Ethics, Politics & Economics and received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Follow Ravi K. Paidipaty:
About Farallon Capital Management: Farallon Capital Management operates as a global institutional asset management firm.
Adam Nelson
Managing Director of FirstMark
Adam is a Partner at Social Capital where he focuses on early stage venture investing in enterprise SaaS and marketplaces. He brings experience in building and executing go-to-market strategies in both SMB and Enterprise, most recently at Dropbox. Prior to that, Adam was a Private Equity investor at Lindsay Goldberg, an investment firm in New York.
Follow Adam Nelson:
About FirstMark: FirstMark Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs.
Santiago Corredoira-Jack
US Managing Director of Speedinvest
Santiago is a seasoned European entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, where he co-founded 10darts, a communications platform as-a-sevice (CPaaS), and Onpublico, a citizen journalism community leader in local news in the US hispanic market. His experience in startups and network in the Valley made the Spanish Government choose him to set up their startups incubator in San Francisco. Prior to that, Santiago joined the most successful Spanish startup created in the 2000’s, Lanetro – Zed, taking it from scratch to a pre-IPO status within 9 years. Santiago was one of the four C-class team members that took it from a non-revenue status to generating $500m in yearly revenue, managing 150m users worldwide and having operations in 14 countries. In this company, he set up and launched several new business divisions, including the Global Business Development and the Strategic Partnerships and Alliances, managed the operations in the UK, the largest market, and headed the legal department. Santiago graduated from law school in Madrid and holds 2 masters degrees from the University of London (LLM) and the IESE Business School (Global Executive MBA). He has enjoyed pitching top-notch Sand Hill Road VCs (including Sequoia, Greylock and Andreessen Horowitz) and has also suffered the vertigo of not having enough cash for the payroll 2 weeks before it is due. A strategic thinker and thoroughly data-driven, Santiago is resilient, very curious, an outstanding communicator, skilled negotiator and trusted advisor. He has been collaborating with Students Rising Above for the last 5 years, where he mentors high school seniors with challenging social conditions and outstanding personal and academic potential. Coming from a large family with 7 siblings, the usual startup chaos makes him feel truly at home and comprehensively challenged.
Follow Santiago Corredoira-Jack:
About Onpublico, Speedinvest: Speedinvest is a venture capital fund investing in pre-seed, seed, and early-stage tech startups.
Ilan Cohen
Director Hardware Outreach of Indiegogo
Follow Ilan Cohen:
About Indiegogo: Indiegogo is a crowdfunding platform empowering people around the world to fund projects that matter to them.
Robert Bassman
Executive Director of Morgan Stanley
Follow Robert Bassman:
About AEA Investors, Morgan Stanley: Morgan Stanley is a financial services company that offers securities, asset management, and credit services.
Ankur Luther
Executive Director of Morgan Stanley
Ankur Luther is an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley and has been focused on software and internet banking for more than a decade. He has been focused on leading M&A transactions.
Follow Ankur Luther:
About Morgan Stanley: Morgan Stanley is a financial services company that offers securities, asset management, and credit services.
Esther Berg
Executive Director of Morgan Stanley
Follow Esther Berg:
About Morgan Stanley: Morgan Stanley is a financial services company that offers securities, asset management, and credit services.
Jack Wadsworth
Advisory Director of Morgan Stanley
Follow Jack Wadsworth:
About Morgan Stanley: Morgan Stanley is a financial services company that offers securities, asset management, and credit services.
Rob Ward
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Meritech Capital Partners
Rob co-founded Meritech in 1999. His current areas of investment interest include Big Data, cloud computing, Saas, security and online consumer services. Rob led Meritech’s successful investments in Acclarent (JNJ), BigFix (IBM), Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD), Counterpane (BT), Fortinet (FTNT), Greenplum (EMC), Imperva (IMPV), Netezza (IBM), NetSuite (N), PopCap Games (ERTS), Quigo (AOL), Reliant (SLTM) and Zipcar (ZIP). Prior to Meritech, Rob was a principal in the Private Equity Group at Montgomery Securities, and worked in the New York and San Francisco Corporate Finance Departments at Smith Barney.
Follow Rob Ward:
About Eastside College Preparatory School, Meritech Capital Partners: Meritech Capital provides late-stage venture capital to technology companies.
Greg Callman
Global Head, Energy Technology & Solutions, Senior Managing Director of Macquarie Group
Follow Greg Callman:
About Macquarie Group: Macquarie Group is a global provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment and funds management services.
Nan Li
Managing Director of Obvious Ventures
Investor, Board Observer, Advisor at Zymergen, Dexterity, Recursion & Octave. Managing Director at Obvious Ventures.
Follow Nan Li:
About Obvious Ventures, Octave, Stanford University: Obvious Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in the early and growth stages.
Vishal Vasishth
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Obvious Ventures
Vishal is the Managing Director of Obvious Ventures. Board Observer at Tomorrow Health, Galileo & Corvus Insurance.
Follow Vishal Vasishth:
About Devoted Health, Good Eggs, Myro, Obvious Ventures, The Aspen Institute: Obvious Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in the early and growth stages.
James Joaquin
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Obvious Ventures
James has over twenty-five years of experience building and leading technology companies from early stage company ideation to global market leadership. He helped create entirely new categories such as online photography, web-based calendaring and the Personal Digital Assistant. James is the former CEO of Ofoto, Xoom, and Xmarks. James is the co-founder of Obvious Ventures, investing in #worldpositive startups that combine profit and purpose.
Follow James Joaquin:
About Breezeworks, Obvious Ventures: Obvious Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in the early and growth stages.
Andrew Beebe
Managing Director of Obvious Ventures
Managing Director at Obvious Ventures. Board Observer at AMPLY Power, Inc, RenoRun & Lyric.
Follow Andrew Beebe:
About Elemental Excelerator, Obvious Ventures: Obvious Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in the early and growth stages.
Brian Nicholson
Managing Director of Sonoma Brands
Brian joined Sonoma Brands in 2018 as a Principal, bringing eight years of experience as a growth investor in leading eCommerce, Digital Media and Direct-to-Consumer businesses. At Sonoma Brands, Brian is focused on sourcing, executing and leading growth-stage investments in emerging consumer brands. Prior to joining Sonoma Brian spent over 5 years at Stripes Group, a leading growth equity firm in New York City, where he directly sourced and led growth investments in companies including Refinery29, Reformation, The Black Tux and Pond5. With these investments, Brian served as a Board Director or Observer and supported management in areas such as teambuilding, business development and strategic planning. Additionally, Brian has helped lead growth investments in disruptive consumer brands like Daily Harvest and ClassPass. Previously, Brian founded a direct-to-consumer apparel brand and spent several years in the Technology Investment Banking Group at JMP Securities in San Francisco. Brian received a B.A. (Honors) from Brown University.
Follow Brian Nicholson:
About Sonoma Brands: Sonoma Brands Capital is a private equity firm focused on the growth sectors of the consumer economy.
Benjamin Black
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Akkadian Ventures
Benjamin Black is the Co-founder & Chief Investment Officer of Akkadian Ventures, LLC. An eleven-year veteran of the private equity space, Ben co-founded Akkadian with Peter Smith, to specialize in offering early liquidity to entrepreneurs, early employees, and investors in successful private companies. In 2011, Ben co-founded, with Chris Tarr, the Momentum Index (www.momentumindex.com) which tracks the top performing private venture-backed companies. With the understanding that it often takes more than ten years for entrepreneurs to achieve liquidity, Akkadian Ventures created unique deal structures for entrepreneurs and employees to generate liquidity and diversify their risk by selling or leveraging private stock. Focusing exclusively on purchasing small stakes in successful growing companies, Akkadian helps innovators manage risk and reap financial reward during that hard climb to the top. Among many, Ben has managed notable investments in RocketFuel, Splunk, DocuSign, Lithium Technologies, Cloudmark, Ooyala, Citizenhawk, The Villa, Automattic and Telephia. Ben co-founded New Cycle Capital with Josh Becker to bring socially responsible investing to sectors like clean energy and social finance with angel investments in Renewable Funding and Opower. He spent nearly four years at Seattle venture capital firm Maveron, focusing on consumer businesses such as Allconnect (Inc. 500 winner). Prior to Maveron, he spent 3 years at private equity firm Rosewood Capital where he focused on branded consumer products and services, including Under Armour. As an entrepreneur, Ben was part of the founding team at Harris Interactive, which was a pioneer in Internet-based market research. During Ben’s tenure, the company completed a successful IPO and generated $200M in revenue. Ben received his undergraduate degree at Cornell University and his JD at the Cornell School of Law. He is the author of a book on American Politics titled ‘The Politics of American Discontent’ which can be bought on Amazon for $0.12.
Follow Benjamin Black:
About Akkadian Ventures: Akkadian Ventures is a direct secondary investment firm that offers liquidity to early employees and investors of venture-backed businesses.
Mike Gridley
Managing Director of Akkadian Ventures
Mike is a Managing Director and Partner of Akkadian Ventures. Previously, he was a member of the founding team of Industry Ventures, where he served as a Managing Director since 2004. Mike led Industry’s investments in Facebook (FB), Twitter, Pandora (P), LifeLock (LOCK), Jajah (Acquired by Telefonica), Cloudmark, Lowercase Capital (Twitter, Uber, Instagram), Walden Venture Capital (Pandora, Glam, SoundHound) and Madrona (Isilon), among others. He also helped grow Industry Ventures from less then $10 million AUM to over $1 billion AUM. Prior to Industry, Mike worked at BV Capital (formerly Bertelsmann Ventures) in San Francisco, a $275 million international venture capital fund. At BV, he sourced, structured, and managed direct venture investments. Earlier in his career, Mike worked in Business Development at Personify, a CRM analytics software company. Mike holds a BA from University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Regents and Alumni Scholar, and an MS from the London School of Economics.
Follow Mike Gridley:
About Akkadian Ventures: Akkadian Ventures is a direct secondary investment firm that offers liquidity to early employees and investors of venture-backed businesses.
Mike Dinsdale
Managing Director of Akkadian Ventures
Mike Dinsdale joined DocuSign as chief financial officer in May 2010. Mike’s broad experience is highlighted by a proven track record of driving organizations to hyper growth. Most recently, he served as CFO of Lithium, a Software-as-a-Service platform and application suite provider. At Lithium, Mike raised millions in equity financing over three rounds and was also responsible for two strategic acquisitions. During his tenure Lithium’s valuation increased, positioning the company as the clear leader in social CRM. Prior to Lithium, Mike was employee #10 of Velocity11, a life sciences technology company, where he was instrumental in setting business strategy and aggressively driving revenue growth to $50M. Mike further fueled the growth of Velocity11 by dramatically increasing revenue, securing funding and playing a key role during the firm’s acquisition by Agilent Technologies in 2007. Mike holds a B.E.Sc in mechanical engineering from the University of Western Ontario, an MBA from McMaster University and the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Follow Mike Dinsdale:
About Akkadian Ventures, Plum Partners, TMD Ventures: Akkadian Ventures is a direct secondary investment firm that offers liquidity to early employees and investors of venture-backed businesses.
Jed Katz
Managing Director of Javelin Venture Partners
Jed Katz is the Managing Director at Javelin Venture Partners.
Follow Jed Katz:
About Javelin Venture Partners: Javelin Venture Partners invests in and partners closely with early-stage, software-enabled technology companies.
Alex Gurevich
Managing Director of Javelin Venture Partners
Alex is an early stage technology investor and Managing Director at Javelin Venture Partners. He led Javelin’s investments in Thumbtack, MasterClass, Clutter, Mythical Games, Stensul, Rinse, HitRecord, Estimote, Wheels, Telerivet, and Vendigo. Prior to joining Javelin, Alex was a Principal at DFJ Aurora, where he helped establish one of the first venture capital funds focused on high tech investments in Eastern Europe. Prior to DFJ, Alex was the first employee at ooma, a venture-backed company in the consumer electronics, VoIP (voice over IP) space, where he led the company’s initial product roll out, customer acquisition, and retail distribution strategy in product management and business development roles. Alex was also co-founder of Say-Hey-Hey.com, one of the web’s first free video dating sites, where he was in charge of all product development, fundraising, and business development efforts. Alex is also an angel investor in Citizen and a mentor at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Alex holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was co-President of the Venture Capital Club, a leader of a Global Study Trip, and a Board Fellow. He also holds a B.S. in Management Science and Engineering, a B.A. in International Relations, and an M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. During his time at Stanford, Alex was a Mayfield Fellow and led major technology centered research projects at General Motors and IBM for Stanford’s Center for Work, Technology, and Organization.
Follow Alex Gurevich:
About Clutter, FEM, Javelin Venture Partners, Telerivet, Weddington Way, WorkPatterns: Javelin Venture Partners invests in and partners closely with early-stage, software-enabled technology companies.
Jason Warner
Managing Director of Redpoint
Jason Warner is the MD at Redpoint. Jason cares deeply about the future of technology, developer experience, and growing companies. He is a people-oriented product technologist, who is passionate about building both the technical and human systems needed for scale and growth. Prior to joining GitHub, Jason was Vice President of Engineering at Heroku, the world’s leading PaaS and one of the largest cloud computing providers in the world. Before Heroku, Jason worked to make Linux accessible to everyone by leading product engineering for Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Phone at Canonical. Jason is also an active speaker, writer, and advisor on cloud computing, technology and leadership. His activities include formally and informally advising startup and established executives, as well as active coaching and mentoring future product and technology leaders. Jason graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a BS in Computer Science, and Rensselaer University with an MS in Computer Science. He lives with his family in Victoria, British Columbia, where he writes, sketches and enjoys the water as much as possible.
Follow Jason Warner:
About Redpoint: Redpoint Ventures partners with visionary founders to create new markets or redefine existing ones at the seed, early, and growth stages.
Tomasz Tunguz
Managing Director of Redpoint
Tomasz Tunguz is a venture capitalist at [Redpoint Ventures](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/redpoint-ventures). He is also a board member of Looker, ERPLY, Electric imp, inc., AxialMarket, Quantifind, Expensify, and more. Prior to joining Redpoint, Tomasz was the product manager for Google’s social media monetization team, including the Google-MySpace partnership. In addition, he managed the launches of AdSense into six new markets in Europe and Asia. Before Google, Tomasz developed systems for the Department of Homeland Security at Appian Corporation. Tomasz also co-founded Perquimans Systems, a provider of bilingual, tri-currency automated time billing and document management systems for top tier law firms in Chile. Tomasz holds a B.A. in mechanical engineering, a B.E. in system identification and control systems and Master of Engineering Management from Dartmouth College.
Follow Tomasz Tunguz:
About Redpoint: Redpoint Ventures partners with visionary founders to create new markets or redefine existing ones at the seed, early, and growth stages.
Elliot Geidt
Managing Director of Redpoint
Elliot Geidt is a Vice President with Redpoint Ventures where he helps lead the firm’s growth equity practice and focuses on opportunities in the software, infrastructure, Internet and mobile sectors. Prior to joining Redpoint, Elliot was with Spectrum Equity Investors, a $4 billion growth equity firm. Prior to Spectrum, Elliot worked for Goldman Sachs & Co. in the Investment Banking Group. Elliot holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Follow Elliot Geidt:
About Bright HealthCare, Nubank, Redpoint: Redpoint Ventures partners with visionary founders to create new markets or redefine existing ones at the seed, early, and growth stages.
Satish Dharmaraj
Managing Director of Redpoint
Satish Dharmaraj is a Managing Director of Redpoint Ventures. Prior to Redpoint, Satish was the founder/CEO of Zimbra. At Zimbra, he grew sales from inception to $20M in subscription sales in the first year of selling and nearly doubled sales the next year. Satish was directly responsible for leading the product vision, PR and the open source distribution strategy. Prior to founding Zimbra, Satish was VP of the Messaging Product Division at Openwave Systems, responsible for the email, unified messaging, voicemail, and instant messaging product lines. Satish managed the engineering and product management teams which had over 200 people and a $45 million budget. While at Openwave, Satish’s division deployed 180 million mailboxes worldwide with the largest deployments being 20 million mailboxes at JPhone and KDDI in Japan. Satish previously was part of the founding team at the unified messaging company Onebox, where he led engineering and network operations, and was instrumental in the sale of Onebox to Phone.com for $850 million. Prior to Onebox, Satish was at Sun Microsystems’ JavaSoft Division where he was responsible for the conception, design and implementation of Java Server Pages (JSPs); in addition, he led the team that designed and implemented the Java Servlet API.Satish previously held several positions at IBM and Transarc Corporations. Satish has BS and MS degrees in Computer Sciences and an executive management degree from Harvard Business School.
Follow Satish Dharmaraj:
About Redpoint: Redpoint Ventures partners with visionary founders to create new markets or redefine existing ones at the seed, early, and growth stages.
Tory Patterson
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Owl Ventures
Tory is the co-founder and Managing Director of Owl Ventures where he is actively involved with all facets of the firm and serves on the board of directors for Accelerate Learning (acquired by Carlyle Group), BetterLesson, Degreed, DreamBox Learning (acquired by TPG), Gather, Hazel Health, Kiddom, Labster, Newsela, Noodle Partners, Quizlet, Remind and uLesson. As one of the early pioneers in the next generation of leading EdTech companies, Tory has led investments in some of the most successful companies in the sector. As a lead investor and board member he has played a hands-on role helping leading edtech companies across all facets of development including core definition and measurement of value proposition, sales & distribution, hiring, funding and eventual paths to successful exit. Prior to Owl Ventures, Tory was a Partner at Catamount Ventures where he founded and ran one of the venture industry’s first education investment practices. There he led investments in education companies TenMarks (acquired by Amazon), MasteryConnect (acquired by Instructure), PresenceLearning and EdSurge (acquired by ISTE). Tory is a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow and holds a B.A. in Economics from Williams College and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Follow Tory Patterson:
About Catamount Ventures, Owl Ventures: Owl Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies.
Amit Patel
Managing Director of Owl Ventures
Amit Patel is a Partner at Owl Ventures. He has experience scaling several education startups and is deeply committed to building new organizations that will create sustainable and higher quality education solutions. Amit has worked closely with several education companies, including PresenceLearning, Revolution Foods, TenMarks (acquired by Amazon), Raise, MasteryConnect, LearnZillion and EdSurge. Amit is a board observer for Panorama Education. Before joining Owl, he founded Personal Academic Trainers, an after-school tutoring company, and created the quality assurance program and institutionalized sales training for Mathnasium Learning Centers, an after-school math learning center franchise with over 450 locations on four continents. Amit also served as the Director of Technology for Success Academy Charter Schools, a premiere charter school network in New York City with 32 schools. Amit was an Education Pioneers Graduate School Fellow, and he earned a MBA/MA in Education from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Graduate School of Education. He also received a BA in Mathematical Economic Analysis from Rice University and studied theatre/film at The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts and New York University.
Follow Amit Patel:
About Catamount Ventures, Owl Ventures: Owl Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies.
Ian Chiu
Managing Director of Owl Ventures
Ian is a Managing Director at Owl Ventures, the world’s largest venture capital fund exclusively focused on education technology. Across his career, Ian has been an investor, entrepreneur, and advisor to education and technology companies. He currently serves on the boards of Degreed, Benchprep, LeLe Ketang, Sanjieke, and Abl. Prior to joining Owl Ventures, Ian was an education and technology investor at Warburg Pincus and Silver Lake Partners and a consultant at Bain & Company. He also helped launch BigMachines a SaaS company which was acquired by Oracle. Ian serves on the Advisory Board for SEO, a non-profit that provides educational, career, and mentoring programs for young people from underserved and underrepresented communities. He is also a member of the Advisory Council for Gladeo, a social enterprise dedicated to helping underserved youth from diverse backgrounds gain awareness, preparedness, and access to upwardly mobile careers. Ian is a graduate of Stanford University, where he earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering, with Distinction, and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering, with a concentration in technology management and entrepreneurship. He also received his M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar and Arbuckle Leadership Fellow.
Follow Ian Chiu:
About Owl Ventures: Owl Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies.
Tom Costin
Managing Director of Owl Ventures
Tom is a Partner at Owl Ventures. Tom has held numerous investment, managerial and advisory roles. Before joining Owl, he was a Private Investments Specialist at Cambridge Associates where he advised, or invested on behalf of, families, nonprofits, endowments and pension funds with assets ranging from $700 million to over $150 billion on their venture capital, private equity and hard assets investments. Tom has also served as a Managing Director at SoleTech, a leading supplier of materials and products for the footwear and orthopedic industries. As an MBA intern, Tom worked with the founding team at Castlight Health (NYSE: CSLT) where he helped create the company’s business plan and constructed revenue models. Prior to business school, Tom served as an Associate at FLAG Capital and as a Senior Associate at Cambridge Associates. Tom serves on the Advisory Board of Match Education. Tom received an M.B.A. from Stanford University and a B.A. from Bowdoin College.
Follow Tom Costin:
About Owl Ventures: Owl Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies.
Todd Chaffee
Managing Director & General Partner of Institutional Venture Partners
Todd Chaffee joined IVP as a Managing Director and General Partner in March 2000. He focuses on venture capital investments in rapidly growing media, travel, and technology companies. Todd has been recognized by Forbes and The New York Times as one of the world’s top venture capitalists. He is ranked #6 on the Forbes Midas List of Top 10 Founder VCs and has appeared on every Forbes Midas List for the past eight years. He was also selected for the New York Times / CB Insights List of Top 100 Venture Capitalists and the Morgan Stanley / AlwaysOn Top 100 VC List. Todd is known for his investments in such high profile companies such as HomeAway (AWAY), Kayak (PCLN), Netflix (NFLX), Twitter (TWTR), and Yahoo (YHOO). He has also led investments in AdRoll, Akamai (AKAM), ArcSight (HPQ), Ariba (ARBA), Business Insider (Axel Springer), Compass, ComScore (SCOR), CyberSource (CYBS), Digital River (DRIV), Domo, Epiphany (EPNY), Extensity (EXTN), General Assembly, H5 Technologies, Hipmunk, InphoMatch (SAP), Inspirato, Klarna, LivingSocial, LoopNet (CSGP), Mobile 365 (SAP), Mobileway (SAP), Nuance Communications (NUAN), Omniture (ADBE), Open Market (OMKT), Pandora (P), Trintech (TTPA), VeriSign (VRSN), Verisity (VRST), Vessel, and Whip Networks. Todd was also the supporting partner for IVP’s investments in Advent Software (ADVS), Artisan Components (ARTI), At Road (TRMB), Business.com (DEXO), CafePress (PRSS), Carbonite (CARB), Concur Technologies (CNQR), Danger (MSFT), Datalogix, Dropcam, MarkMonitor (TRI), Mindbody, One Kings Lane, Personal Capital, POPSUGAR, Quigo Technologies (TWX), RetailMeNot (SALE), Snapchat, SoundCloud, The Honest Company, Tripwire (Thoma Bravo), TuneIn, Websense (WBSN), Yodlee, ZEFR, and ZipRecruiter. Prior to IVP, Todd was Executive Vice President of Visa International. His responsibilities included overseeing the Advanced Technology, Strategic Planning, Corporate Development, and Equity Investment divisions for Visa. He was also the President of Visa Marketplace, Inc. (Visa’s investment subsidiary) and managed Visa’s global technology investment portfolio. Under Todd’s leadership, Visa’s venture capital operation generated more than $1.2 billion in gains and his investments produced a 32.8x multiple of invested capital with an IRR of 243.4%. Todd joined Visa in 1994 as Senior Vice President of Advanced Payment Systems. After establishing and growing Visa’s highly successful venture capital business, he was promoted to Executive Vice President of Visa International, becoming the youngest Executive Vice President in Visa’s history. Prior to Visa, Todd held management positions at Fortune 500 companies such as American Express and TRW Information Systems Group. During his career, he also founded Grand Expeditions, Inc., a global luxury and adventure travel company with revenues in excess of $200 million. Todd earned a B.S. with honors from the University of Minnesota Carlson Business School. He also completed the Stanford Graduate Business School Advanced Management Program and the Harvard Business School Venture Capital Program.
Follow Todd Chaffee:
About Institutional Venture Partners: Institutional Venture Partners is a later-stage venture capital firm that focuses on technology and media companies.
Mary Cranston
Director/ Chair of the Audit Committee of Visa
Mary B. Cranston is a Retired Senior Partner of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, an international law firm. She was the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Pillsbury from January 1999 until April 2006, and continued to serve as Chair of the firm until December 2006. She was Firm Senior Partner until January 2012. Mary Cranston also serves as a director of the Chemours Company. She previously served as a member of the boards of Juniper Networks, Inc. until May 2015, International Rectifier Corporation until January 2015 and of Exponent, Inc. and GrafTech International, Inc., until May 2014. Ms. Cranston holds an A.B. degree in Political Science from Stanford University, a Juris Doctor degree
Follow Mary Cranston:
About Broadway Angels, MyoKardia, Visa: Visa is a multinational financial services company that facilitates electronic payment systems throughout the world.
Abhishek Guglani
Director of Product Management of Visa
Follow Abhishek Guglani:
About Product School, Visa: Visa is a multinational financial services company that facilitates electronic payment systems throughout the world.
