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 United States based Partner operating in the Security 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.
Yash Patel
General Partner of Telstra Ventures
Yash Patel is a General Partner at Telstra Ventures. He joined the organization in 2014 and leads TV’s consumer investing efforts, with an emphasis on esports/gaming, social media, commerce, AR and SaaS apps. Yash has sourced and led TV’s investments in BigCommerce (Nasdaq: BIGC), Snapchat (NYSE: SNAP), Skillz (NYSE: SKLZ), Mobile Premier League, Snapcommerce, Omaze, Sleeper, Team SoloMid (tsm.gg), FitOn, Swish Analytics, OpenGov, Singular, and Near. He is particularly interested in products that can reach massive scale and exhibit network effects. Previously, he was a Director of Corporate Development and Strategy at Adknowledge, an online advertising technology platform whose investors include TCV, JMI, TPG, and Nokia. While at Adknowledge, Yash sourced and executed acquisitions and lead strategic planning for the business. Prior to Adknowledge, Yash was an investment banker at Jefferies LLC where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and strategic advisory in the technology sector. Yash holds a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Biology from University College London. Yash is a native of the Bay Area, enjoys tropical travel, his golden retriever, and is a hardcore Golden State Warriors fan.
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About Telstra Ventures: Telstra Ventures invests in technology companies and offers synergy revenues to its portfolio companies.
Tom Noonan
General Partner and Co-Founder of TechOperators
Tom Noonan is a General Partner at TechOperators. Tom is the former chairman, president and chief executive officer of Internet Security Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISSX), which was acquired in 2007 by IBM for $1.3B. Tom Noonan and Chris Klaus launched ISS in 1994 to commercialize and develop a premier network security management company. Under Tom’s leadership, ISS revenue soared from startup in 1995 to nearly $400 million dollars in its first decade. The company grew to more than 2,000 employees, with operations in more than 36 countries. Prior to co-founding ISS, Tom held senior management positions at Dun and Bradstreet Software, where he was vice president, worldwide marketing. Before joining D&B Software, he specialized in real-time, automated control systems for computer-integrated manufacturing. Earlier, Tom founded two successful technology companies while residing in Boston: Actuation Electronics, a precision motion-control company and Leapfrog Technologies, a software development company designed for networked applications. Tom’s management style and vision has been widely recognized by industry-leading publications including Forbes, Business Week and Fortune. In 1999, Ernst and Young recognized him as “Entrepreneur of the Year.” Tom was recognized with the “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the RSA Security conference, the world’s largest conference dedicated to information security. Tom was also elected to the National Board of Directors for the American Electronics Association (AeA), whose mission is to serve as “the voice of the American high-tech community.” In 2002, President Bush appointed Tom to serve on the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC), a White House homeland defense initiative that protects information systems critical to the nation’s infrastructure. He currently chairs the NIAC Evaluation and Enhancement of Information Sharing and Analysis Working Group. Tom is a frequent speaker at leading industry events and has delivered keynote addresses at such venues as the G8 Summits in Kyoto, Japan and Sea Island, Georgia, Interop Las Vegas, the RSA Conference, SUMAQ Summit, CSIA Town Hall, Japan External Trade Organization, Atlanta Rotary Club, and Forbes CEO events in the United States, Singapore and Mexico. Tom holds a mechanical engineering degree from Georgia Tech and a business degree from Harvard University. He is an active participant and speaker in numerous professional societies, and serves on the board of directors for Woodruff Arts Center, Georgia Tech Foundation, Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, the Carter Center’s Board of Counselors, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Young President’s Organization. He serves on the boards of Manhattan Associates (NASDAQ: MANH) and a number of privately held technology companies. He is also an active philanthropist through the work of the Thomas E. Noonan Family foundation which supports education, environmental and healthcare causes locally and nationally. Most recently, Tom was named a “Most Admired CEO” in Atlanta in 2015 by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Tom is currently Chairman of Ionic Security, a TechOperators investment and a leading innovator in data security for enterprise customers.
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About TechOperators: TechOperators is a venture capital firm which focuses on solutions in software, internet, cloud computing, security, and infrastructure.
David Gould
General Partner of TechOperators
Dave Gould is a Partner at TechOperators. Having held leadership roles with both start-ups and larger technology companies, Dave offers a broad range of experience that touches every aspect of the business. A proven industry leader with a breadth of knowledge in launching and growing businesses in emerging markets, he possesses sound experience in predicting market developments, setting and adjusting strategy, and leading organizations amidst changing market dynamics. Dave was formerly the Chairman & CEO of Witness Systems. During his eight-year tenure, he led the company through a successful IPO (Red Herring #13 in 2000), and to the leading position in the workforce optimization market. Through strong execution and successful acquisitions, Witness grew from less than $10 million of annual revenue to close to $250 million, with operating margins in the 20% range. The company was sold in the spring of 2007 to Verint for ~ $1.1 billion. Dave joined Witness Systems from Boston-based InStream Corporation, where he was Chairman & CEO of the early-stage Internet electronic commerce company targeting the healthcare market. Prior to his roles there, he served as president of DCA’s Remote Access Division (now Attachmate Corporation) and held management positions with Management Science America (MSA). Dave holds a bachelor’s in economics degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a MBA from Emory University.
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About TechOperators: TechOperators is a venture capital firm which focuses on solutions in software, internet, cloud computing, security, and infrastructure.
Said Mohammadioun
Managing Partner of TechOperators
Said Mohammadioun serves as the Managing Partner at TechOperators.
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About TechOperators: TechOperators is a venture capital firm which focuses on solutions in software, internet, cloud computing, security, and 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.
Tom Peterson
Co-Founder & General Partner of Social Leverage
Tom is a General Partner and Co-Founder of Social Leverage. Tom and Howard were recognized by Institutional Investor as one of the “super angels,” where they were depicted as helping to reorganize early-stage investing with disciplined capital, uniform investing rules, and a sense of community that traditional venture capital took notice of. As an angel investor and fund manager for over a decade, Peterson has closed 100+ investments. He manages the day-to-day business of Social Leverage and assists portfolio companies in need with operational and corporate development expertise. He has a strong fiduciary presence with experience as President & COO of NASDAQ ($NTRL) prior to leading the privatization of the company.
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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.
Matt Ocko
Co-Managing Partner and Co-Founder of DCVC
Matt has nearly three decades of experience as a technology entrepreneur, operating executive and venture capitalist, with over 20 patents granted or pending in areas as diverse as hardware systems and social games. He still reads C++ code but admits to occasional struggles with Erlang. Matt is a cofounder of Data Collective, a venture fund with a unique team of experienced venture capitalists, technology entrepreneurs and practicing engineers, investing together in seed and early stage Big Data and IT infrastructure companies. During his venture capital tenure, he has invested in and/or helped grow a variety of companies including XenSource (CTRX), Zynga (ZNGA), Impermium, Verisign (VRSN), Facebook (FB), Virtuata (CSCO), Akimbi Systems (VMW), Cotendo (AKAM), Tango.me, MetaWeb (GOOG), FlashSoft (SNDK), DataMirror (IBM), UltraDNS (NSR), Kenshoo, Metamarkets, Fortinet (FTNT), SupportSoft (SPRT), Alantro (TXN), CouchBase, Spool (FB), BranchOut, On-Ramp Wireless, and many others.
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About AngelList, Archimedes Capital, DCVC, Uber: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
James Hardiman
Partner of DCVC
James has more than five years of experience advising both Fortune 50 and pre-revenue healthcare and biotech companies on their sales and marketing strategy. Previously, he was a consultant at ZS Associates where he advised management teams using insights gained from the analysis of large amounts of healthcare data. Most recently, while at Booth, James worked with technology executives during a stint in The Blackstone Group’s M&A Advisory Practice. James holds a BS in Engineering Physics from the University Of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School Of Business.
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About DCVC: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
John Hamer
Managing Partner of DCVC
John is a Managing Partner at DCVC Bio. Prior to DCVC Bio, John was an Investment Director for Monsanto Growth Ventures. Monsanto is a leading global, agricultural company providing products to growers worldwide. Monsanto Growth Ventures, through investment and partnership encourages entrepreneurs, and innovative start-up companies, to take on the challenge of a more sustainable future for world food production. John Hamer’s career spans more than three decades of research, senior management and investment experience in the life sciences. Prior to joining Monsanto, he was Entrepreneur-in-Residence and later Managing Director and General Partner at Burrill & Company, a San Francisco-based life sciences merchant bank with activities in venture capital, merchant banking and media. John Hamer led investments in numerous of Ag-related start-ups in the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Prior to joining Burrill, John Hamer was the CSO and later CEO of Paradigm Genetics/ICORIA, a leading genomics and ag-biotechnology company that completed its IPO on NASDAQ in 2000 and was later acquired by Monsanto. John Hamer received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of California at Davis and was a Visiting Scientist in Dupont’s Central Research & Development Group. He later joined Purdue University and rose to the rank of full Professor and was the recipient of several national awards including the David Lucille Packard Award, and The National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellowship. At Purdue, John Hamer’s research focused on crop diseases, where he pioneered molecular approaches to disease management and control and worked with numerous international agencies in China, the Philippines and South America. John Hamer lectures widely on innovation, agriculture and venture capital and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and serves on the Board of Directors for Golden Pine Ventures, a microVC fund in RTP, North Carolina. He is a passionate believer in new growth opportunities that are emerging in the agricultural value chain in food, health, energy, materials and chemicals.
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About DCVC: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Alan Cohen
Partner of DCVC
Alan Cohen Is The Partner at DCVC.
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About DCVC, Evolv Technology: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Bruno Bowden
Equity Partner of DCVC
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About DCVC, MUrgency: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Michael Driscoll
Founding Partner of DCVC
Mike Driscoll founded Metamarkets in 2010 after spending more than a decade developing data analytics solutions for online retail, life sciences, digital media, insurance, and banking. Prior to Metamarkets, Mike successfully founded and sold two companies: Dataspora, a life science analytics company, and CustomInk, an early pioneer in customized apparel. He began his career as a software engineer for the Human Genome Project. Mike holds an A.B. in Government from Harvard and a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from Boston University.
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About DCVC, Metamarkets, Rill Data: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Armen A. Vidian
Partner of DCVC
For the entire length of his career, Armen has worked at the intersection of data and decision-making, primarily in Product Marketing roles. He has a long track record of successfully launching first-in-class products globally and accessing new markets. Armen has an M.S. in Management Science from Stanford University, and an S.B. in Applied Mechanical Engineering with a Minor in French Language and Literature from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also advises numerous technology startups in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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About DCVC: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Kiersten Stead
Managing Partner – DCVC Bio of DCVC
Kiersten is a Managing Partner at DCVC Bio. Prior to DCVC Bio, Kiersten was an Investment Director at Monsanto Growth Ventures (MGV), the Venture Capital arm of Monsanto, which was one of the most active investors globally in agriculture. Kiersten has over 15 years of experience in Biotechnology. Prior to joining MGV, Kiersten worked at Burrill & Company, which invested broadly in Life Sciences and Industrial Biotechnology. Kiersten is a co-founder and Director of Pairwise, is on the Board of Atomwise, Farmlead, Plant Response Biotech, VitalFields (acquired), Understory Weather and Blue River Technology (acquired). She is also a member of the Investment Committee of Genome Canada GAAP, The Keystone Symposia Scientific Advisory Board, and the EULC, a sport-not-for-profit.
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About DCVC: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Zachary Bogue
Co-Managing Partner and Co-Founder of DCVC
Zack has over a decade of experience in Silicon Valley as an entrepreneur, lawyer, angel investor and advisor for big data startups. Zack is a cofounder of Data Collective, a venture fund with a unique team of experienced venture capitalists, technology entrepreneurs and practicing engineers, investing together in seed and early stage Big Data and IT infrastructure companies. Zack also is a cofounder and managing partner of Founders Den, a shared workspace for experienced technology entrepreneurs. He was previously an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and a law partner at Virtual Law Partners, where he worked with numerous start-ups and their founders, and developed expertise in technology law and Silicon Valley business practices.
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About aWhere, Cask, Citus Data, Cotendo, DCVC, Founders Den, Montara Capital Partners, Square, The World Economic Forum, Uber: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Chris Boshuizen
Operating Partner of DCVC
Dr. Chris Boshuizen is an Operating Partner at DCVC.
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About DCVC: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Jason Pontin
Partner of DCVC
Jason Pontin FRSA is the editor in chief and publisher of M.I.T.’s Technology Review. He was hired as the editor of Technology Review in July 2004, and in August 2005 was named publisher. From 1996 to 2002, Pontin was the editor of Red Herring, a business and technology publication that was popular during the dot-com boom. From 2002 to 2004, he was the editor of The Acumen Journal, a now-defunct magazine about the life sciences that he founded. Pontin has written for a number of national and international magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Believer Magazine, and Wired. He is also a frequent guest on broadcast, public, and cable television news. Finally, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
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About DCVC, MIT’s Technology Review Magazine: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Gloria Lau
Equity Partner of DCVC
Gloria Lau joined Alpha Medical as Cofounder/CEO in 2017.Gloria Lau is the cofounder of Unity Medical, which brings AI to healthcare for improved clinical workflow. Previously, she headed up data products at Linkedin, and was VP of Data at Timeful which was acquired by Google. She is also a consulting faculty at Stanford.
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About Alpha Medical, AV8 Ventures, DCVC: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Ali Tamaseb
Partner of DCVC
Ali Tamaseb is a partner at Data Collective (DCVC), a highly reputable early-stage venture capital firm in Silicon Valley with about $2 billion under management. He holds several leadership and board positions at companies across the U.S. and globally. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Ali was a successful entrepreneur. He holds a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College London and studied General Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Ali was an honoree of the British Alumni Award of 2018 by the British Council, and Imperial College President’s Medal for Outstanding Achievement. Ali and his work has been featured in BBC, Guardian, Forbes, The Telegraph, among others, and he has given talks and appeared on panels at major events and conferences, including two TEDx talks. He lives in San Francisco Bay Area.
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About DCVC: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Kelly Chen
Partner of DCVC
Kelly’s interest has always been how to use data and optimization to push boundaries, faster. From her career running a fixed income trading desk to building out a new quant product line for a global investment bank, she has focused closely on building the best models, structuring, and sales teams to optimize outcomes. At DCVC, she enjoys working on problems arising from fundamental population and labor driven shifts. She spends the majority of her time in hardware, where she believes we will see a massive transformation in the next 5-10 years. She is especially excited about teams building revolutionary tech in AI, robotics, manufacturing, and future of work. Kelly received a joint BS/MS in Financial Engineering and Operations Research with honors from Columbia University and an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from Wharton, where she served as President of the Entrepreneurship Club.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), DCVC: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Todd Papaioannou
Equity Partner of DCVC
Todd Papaioannou is one of the co-founders of portfolio company Continuuity, a result of his tenure as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Battery, where he worked alongside the Enterprise IT investment team to evaluate investments in Big Data, Analytics, and Cloud Computing infrastructure. Todd has more than 15 years of Internet and Enterprise software experience covering a variety of senior leadership roles in R&D, product and corporate strategy, marketing and professional services. Prior to joining Battery, Todd was most recently VP, Distinguished Fellow and Chief Cloud Architect for Yahoo!. There, he was responsible for driving the technical and strategic direction of the Yahoo! Cloud and Hadoop teams, and was identified as one of the Top 10 Cloud Computing Leaders of 2011 by TechTarget. Additionally, Todd was responsible for leading and defining the overall Yahoo! corporate technology strategy. Prior to Yahoo!, Todd held a series of increasingly senior leadership roles at Teradata including CTO, Client Software and VP, Architecture and Emerging Technologies. Over the course of five years he was responsible for transforming the Teradata client software portfolio, conceiving and launching the overall Teradata Enterprise Analytics Cloud computing program, and played an instrumental role in evolving Teradata’s corporate product and M&A strategy. Earlier in his career, Todd was an early employee at Greenplum Inc. (formerly Metapa Inc.) serving as Chief Architect and Director of Engineering, where he initially built and led the early Engineering team before running the Field Services group. Before that, Todd was Co-Founder and CEO of DALi, Inc, an early stage distributed social gaming company. Todd holds a PhD in artificial intelligence and distributed systems.
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About DCVC: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Spencer Punter
Partner, COO and CFO of DCVC
Spencer has over two decades of experience in Silicon Valley, starting as an investment banker and then becoming a venture capitalist, an entrepreneur, a manager of a venture capital fund of funds, and eventually a CFO/COO of venture-backed enterprise SaaS companies. He brings this diverse skill set to Data Collective where, as COO, he works on the internal operations of the firm and, as an operating partner, he assists the current portfolio with fund raising, FP&A, and M&A. Immediately prior to joining Data Collective, he was COO/CFO of Appcelerator, the maker of the leading cross-platform mobile application development suite, which was acquired by Axway. He has worked in various roles from Associate to General Partner at firms such as Morgan Stanley, Integral Capital Partners, Bowman Capital, Bay Partners, and Capital Dynamics.
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About DCVC: DCVC backs entrepreneurs using Deep Tech to solve problems and multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its cost.
Andrew Gershfeld
General Partner of Flint Capital
Andrew Gershfeld is the General Partner at Flint Capital.
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About Flint Capital, Job Today, Kauffman Fellows: Flint Capital is an international venture capital fund investing in technology-driven companies.
Dmitry Smirnov
General Partner of Flint Capital
General Partner at Flint Capital investment fund
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About Flint Capital: Flint Capital is an international venture capital fund investing in technology-driven companies.
Sergey Gribov
General Partner of Flint Capital
Sergey Gribov is a General Partner at Flint Capital.
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About Flint Capital: Flint Capital is an international venture capital fund investing in technology-driven companies.
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.
Umesh Padval
Venture Partner of Thomvest Ventures
Umesh Padval is a partner at Thomvest partner at Thomvest Ventures in San Francisco, California. He focusses on venture capital investments in cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure. He currently serves on the private company boards of Bolster, Shiftleft, Clari, Shield X, Avalanche Technology and Tactus and public company board of Impinj. He is also an investor in Baffle and Harness.He has extensive board experience serving on over 30 public and private company boards and several audit, compensation and nominating and governance committees. Prior to joining Thomvest, Umesh was a successful entrepreneur, investor and CEO of a public company. He most recently worked for over 8 years at Bessemer Venture Partners in their office in Menlo Park. Prior to Bessemer, he worked as an executive vice president at LSI after its acquisition of a public video infrastructure and distribution company, C-Cube Microsystems. At C-Cube, Umesh served as president and CEO and grew the company profitably to over $300m in revenue and 500 employees with a global presence. Previously he was a Board Member at Lastline(Private,Sold to VMware),Blue Willow Systems (Private, Sold to Philips), Avnera (Private, Sold to Skyworks), Skyhigh Networks (Private, Sold to McAfee), Mellanox (Public, Sold to Nvidia), IDT(Public, Sold to Renesas), C-Cube Microsystems (Public, Sold to LSI), Entropic Communications (Public, Sold to Maxlinear), Silicon Image (Public, Sold to Lattice), Elantec (Public, Sold to Intersil), Berkeley Design Automation (Private, Sold to Mentor Graphics), Monolithic Power Systems (Public), Tilera (Private, Sold to EZchip) and PA Semi (Private, Sold to Apple). He was also an investor in Thousand Eyes( Private, Sold to Cisco) and Cylance( Private, Sold to Blackberry). Umesh holds a Bachelor’s in Technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and a Master’s in Engineering from Stanford University. He has served on several advisory boards at Stanford University and currently serves on the board of Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Sutter Medical Group.
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About Thomvest Ventures: Thomvest Ventures provides companies with cross-stage venture capital fund.
Jonathan Barker
Venture Partner of Thomvest Ventures
Jonathan’s diverse background includes managing the China subsidiaries of two Fortune 500 companies: Commercial Metals Company and EchoStar Communications Corporation; co-founding a Silicon Valley-based video search technology company – MeeVee – as well as developing strategic marketing and distribution plans, structuring and negotiating financial and commercial transactions, and carrying out due diligence for more than two dozen multinational companies and investment banks. Jonathan sits on the board of Tactus Technology. He holds a Master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s degree in Chinese from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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About EchoStar, Thomvest Ventures: Thomvest Ventures provides companies with cross-stage venture capital fund.
Kip Knight
Operating Partner of Thomvest Ventures
Operating Partner at Thomvest Ventures, Founder of CMO Coaches, Co-Author of “Crafting Persuasion”.
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About CMO Coaches, Thomvest Ventures: Thomvest Ventures provides companies with cross-stage venture capital fund.
Andrew Pinkerton
Partner of Thomvest Ventures
Andrew Pinkerton is a Partner at Thomvest Ventures.
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About Thomvest Ventures: Thomvest Ventures provides companies with cross-stage venture capital fund.
Bob Pape
Venture Partner of Thomvest Ventures
Bob Pape is an Operating Partner at Thomvest, advising portfolio companies on financial and operational best practices. He has served as CFO of several high-tech venture-backed companies, most recently NetBase Solutions, a leading social media analytics company. Bob has managed 3 IPO’s, a secondary offering and several early and late-stage Venture Capital financings. He has managed the acquisition and sale of companies, products, divisions and product lines. In addition to the traditional CFO role, Bob has a wide-range of experience, having served as CEO, COO, Division General Manager and SVP-Manufacturing at various times. In addition to Thomvest, Bob has worked with investors and Board members of several prominent venture capital firms including Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Sierra Ventures, Austin Ventures and Granite Global. Bob has a BSBA degree from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, MO.
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About Tactus Technology, Thomvest Ventures: Thomvest Ventures provides companies with cross-stage venture capital fund.
Alex Salazar
Partner of Neotribe Ventures
Alex Salazar Before starting Stormpath, Alex was a senior sales executive at IBM where he managed $30M+ accounts at ESPN, Viacom, Bloomberg, NBC/Universal, and Government. Prior to IBM, Alex was an enterprise software developer. He has a BS in Computer Science from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Stanford.
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About Neotribe Ventures: Neotribe Ventures is an early stage-venture capital firm which invests in breakthrough technologies that stretch the imagination.
Rebecca Mitchem
Partner of Neotribe Ventures
Rebecca spent the first decade of her career at JPMorgan. She is experienced in both public and private markets and spent the last five years investing in Growth Stage companies as well as in private equity funds. She has worked as a board member or observor with private companies across sectors including Menlo Security, Callsign, ClearMotion and Top Aces. In her spare time, you’ll often find her hiking with her 75 pound pup, Auggie.
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About Neotribe Ventures: Neotribe Ventures is an early stage-venture capital firm which invests in breakthrough technologies that stretch the imagination.
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.
Eric Benhamou
Founder & General Partner of Benhamou Global Ventures
Eric Benhamou is the CEO and founder of Benhamou Global Ventures, LLC. Benhamou Global Ventures, started in 2003, invests and plays an active role in innovative high tech firms throughout the world. He is an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD. He is also a visiting professor at IDC Herzliya’s Arison School of Business. He served as chairman of the board of directors of Palm, Inc. from 1999 until 2007 and as chief executive officer of Palm from 2001 until 2003. Benhamou served as chief executive officer of 3Com Corporation from 1990 until 2000 and as chairman of the board of directors until its sale to HP in April 2010. Previously, he held a variety of senior management positions at 3Com. In 1981, Mr. Benhamou co-founded Bridge Communications, an early networking pioneer, and was vice president of engineering until its merger with 3Com in 1987. In 2003, Eric Benhamou was appointed to the Joint High Level Advisory Panel of the U.S.- Israel Science and Technology Commission by U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans. He currently serves as chairman of the board of Cypress Semiconductor and as a member of the board of RealNetworks, Inc and of Silicon Valley Bancshares. He serves on the board of directors of several privately held companies. He is the chairman of the Israel Venture Network, a venture philanthropy organization for a stronger Israeli society. Eric Benhamou received a Masters degree from Stanford University’s School of Engineering. He also holds a Diplome d’Ingénieur and a doctorate from Arts et Metiers ParisTech.
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About Benhamou Global Ventures, IDC Herzliya: Benhamou Global Ventures is a venture capital firm sourcing startups to build them into the next-generation of B2B technology companies.
Yashwanth Hemaraj
Partner of Benhamou Global Ventures
Board Observer at Blendid.
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About Arka Venture Labs, Benhamou Global Ventures: Benhamou Global Ventures is a venture capital firm sourcing startups to build them into the next-generation of B2B technology companies.
Eric Buatois
General Partner of Benhamou Global Ventures
Eric joined Sofinnova Ventures as a General Partner in 2001 with more than 20 years of experience in the wireless industry. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, he held several senior management and operational roles at Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard and Ericsson, also having negotiated, created and managed a joint venture in Sweden between H-P and Ericsson. In his corporate roles, Eric pioneered and developed several very successful products such as Texas Instruments’ digital signal processors for the cellular market, Hewlett-Packard’s telecommunications products Opencall and Openview, and Ericsson’s operational support systems for telecom networks. Eric has also driven several acquisitions and major partnering activities. At Sofinnova Ventures, Eric specializes in investment in the wireless ecosystem. He is a lead investor who truly enjoys building global companies and has demonstrated experience in executing spin-outs from large companies. He actively serves on the boards of companies in the US and in Europe, including Cortina Systems, Crestatech, Crocus Technology, Hellosoft (acquired by Imagination Technologies, LSE: IMG), Laszlo Systems, Upek (Acquired by AuthenTec, Nasdaq: AUTH) and Volubill. Eric served as Chairman of the Board of Upek from inception until 2009, Chairman of Crocus Technology from inception until Janaury 2010, and is currently Chairman of Laszlo systems. Eric Buatois holds an M.S. in Computer Science and Communications Engineering from Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications in France.
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About Benhamou Global Ventures: Benhamou Global Ventures is a venture capital firm sourcing startups to build them into the next-generation of B2B technology companies.
Anik Bose
General Partner of Benhamou Global Ventures
Anik Bose is a General Partner at BGV. BGV is an early stage venture fund that assists entrepreneurs in building a new generation of high technology companies. Prior to joining BGV, he headed business development at 3Com – in this role he managed a $250MM corporate venture fund, spearheaded dozens of venture capital investments and executed numerous M&A transactions. Key venture investments include – Mesh Networks (acquired by Motorola), Parthus (IPO), Cicada Semiconductor (acquired by Vitesse), Microtune (IPO), ADMTek (acquired by Infineon), Atrica (acquired by Nokia/Siemens), Sheer Networks (acquired by Cisco), Air Prime (Acquired by Sierra Wireless), Healthetec (IPO) and Intransa. Most recently Mr. Bose architected the launch of H3C (3Com’s joint venture with Huawei), which achieved annual revenues of over $700 million and a market valuation of $1.8Bn within 36 months of launch. Prior to joining 3Com, Mr. Bose served as a Partner in the High Technology Practice of Deloitte Management Consulting in San Francisco. Mr. Bose holds a MBA from Boston College and BA in Economics from the University of Delhi, India.
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About Benhamou Global Ventures: Benhamou Global Ventures is a venture capital firm sourcing startups to build them into the next-generation of B2B technology companies.
John Frankel
Partner of ff Venture Capital
John Frankel is the founding partner of ff Venture Capital. He founded the firm in 2008 and has been a seed- and early-stage investor since late 1999. John focuses on advising and growing technology and technology-enabled companies across emerging industries, including artificial intelligence, cyber security, drones, enterprise software, crowdfunding, and data analytics, among others. He has served on the boards of more than 35 companies and has led investments in more than 80 companies, including Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD), Indiegogo, Ionic Security, Unikey, Skycatch, Plated, 500px, Distil Networks, Pebblepost, and Owlet. John also sits on The NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s Board of Overseers. Prior to founding ffVC, John worked at Goldman Sachs for 21 years in a variety of roles that involved technology development, reengineering and capital markets. At Goldman Sachs, he worked closely with some of the world’s leading hedge fund managers and developed a keen understanding of emerging technologies and portfolio risk/return management. John started his business career in London with Arthur Andersen having earned a Master of Arts from New College, Oxford, where he studied Mathematics, Philosophy and Logic. He is a Fellow Chartered Accountant of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
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About ff Venture Capital: ff Venture Capital is a technology venture capital firm that invests in cybersecurity, AI, machine learning, drones, and cloud software.
Adam Plotkin
Partner of ff Venture Capital
Adam Plotkin is a Partner at ff Venture Capital. A life-long technology early adopter and enthusiast, Adam spent several years prior to joining ff Venture Capital in business development, advisory and operational roles with a number of startups in New York and Los Angeles. Previously, Adam was the first hire at Lake Baldwin Management, a Princeton, New Jersey opportunistic hedge fund, where he was a generalist investor, managing an array of public and private market investments. Adam began his career at Goldman Sachs in the Leveraged Finance Group, where he devoted a substantial portion of his time advising clients in the telecom and insurance industries, and in the Risk Markets Group, where he was involved in the design, structure and marketing of two of the early catastrophe risk-linked bonds. Adam holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School. He also holds Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Applied Sciences, and Bachelor of Science in Economics degrees, cum laude with distinction from the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Wharton School, at the University of Pennsylvania, as a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and a Joseph Wharton Scholar. He grew up in New Jersey, where he operated a Commodore-64 based BBS before Middle School.
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About ff Venture Capital: ff Venture Capital is a technology venture capital firm that invests in cybersecurity, AI, machine learning, drones, and cloud software.
Andrew Hong
Venture Partner of ff Venture Capital
Andrew currently serves on the investments team at ff Venture Capital and focuses on areas of interest such as A.I., fin-tech, healthcare, robotics, energy, and computing. Prior to ffVC, Andrew founded several companies in the A.I., fin-tech, and health-tech sectors. His previous experience also includes consulting for Oracle, working within Nielsen’s digital analytics division, and joining DeltaOne Solutions which was later acquired. Andrew graduated from Boston College with a B.S. in Marketing & Management Leadership.
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About Dashbot, ff Venture Capital: ff Venture Capital is a technology venture capital firm that invests in cybersecurity, AI, machine learning, drones, and cloud software.
Alex Katz
Partner of ff Venture Capital
Alex Katz is a Founder & Managing Partner at WIN Venture Partners and partner and the Chief Financial Officer at ff Venture Capital. He has been working with seed-, early-stage and growth companies for over 30 years. As a CPA and an attorney, Alex manages the firm’s accounting and legal operations, investment processes, regulatory compliance, and the establishment and implementation of other policies and procedures. Alex also manages the firm’s Finance Acceleration Suite, which provides ff Venture Capital’s portfolio companies with a broad range of financial services, including: management reporting; FP&A services; annual tax and financial reporting; payroll; general ledger; accounts payable/expenses tracking; and accounts receivable/revenue tracking. Alex has experience serving as a board member and/or adviser to numerous ffVC companies including Skycatch, Ionic and InteraXon. Prior to ff Venture Capital, Alex practiced law with Mesirov Gelman and was a founding partner of Katz and Miele, LLP, a tax and corporate law specialty firm. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Fastener Distribution and Marketing Company, Inc., a $21m industrial supply company, and was responsible for driving its strategy of obtaining market share through internal growth and five external acquisitions. In addition, Alex was Chief Financial Officer of Lenape Dynamic, Inc., a $15m metal forging company, and was responsible for dramatically increasing that company’s operating margins. He has also worked as a Certified Public Accountant. Alex earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Drexel University and a Juris Doctor degree from Temple University School of Law.
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About ff Venture Capital, WIN Venture Partners, WIN Venture Partners: ff Venture Capital is a technology venture capital firm that invests in cybersecurity, AI, machine learning, drones, and cloud software.
Florin Mihoc
Venture Partner of ff Venture Capital
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About ff Venture Capital: ff Venture Capital is a technology venture capital firm that invests in cybersecurity, AI, machine learning, drones, and cloud software.
Oliver Mitchell
Venture Partner of ff Venture Capital
Oliver joined ff Venture Capital in 2018 as a Venture Partner. He is the founding partner at Autonomy Ventures, a venture firm focused on early stage investments in business and industrial automation technologies, including robotics, smart mobility, remote sensing and machine intelligence. Oliver’s portfolio has returned over six exits in the past five years with two IPOs. Previous transactions have included selling Holmes Protection to ADT/Tyco, Americash to American Express, and launching RobotGalaxy, a national EdTech brand. He is an active member of New York Angels and holds 14 patents. Oliver speaks often at international trade shows and writes syndicated articles that reaches thousands of weekly readers.
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About ff Venture Capital, New York Angels: ff Venture Capital is a technology venture capital firm that invests in cybersecurity, AI, machine learning, drones, and cloud software.
Dan Kanninen
Partner and CEO of STG Group
Dan is an established political voice in the beltway, featured frequently on MSNBC, CNN, FOX news and FOX business, as well as being on the record in publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Politico. Dan Kanninen has spent more than 15 years in influential positions at all levels of government and politics, playing key roles in policy making, campaigns, and political management. He has advised presidential candidates, cabinet members, governors, major private sector CEOs, non-profits and coalitions, and foreign heads of state. He is a Partner and CEO of the political and public affairs consulting firm STG. Dan played a critical role in President Obama’s 2008 election as the State Director in Wisconsin after working in leadership positions in Wisconsin, Ohio and North Carolina during the primaries. Dan served the re-elect by overseeing the northeastern United States (a nine state, $20 million operation including the critical battlegrounds of New Hamp- shire and Pennsylvania) from Chicago headquarters before leading the Virginia operation as Senior Advisor, turning that state blue for just the second time since 1964.
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About STG Group: STG Group is a provider of mission-critical technology, cyber, and data solutions.
Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf
Managing Partner of YL Ventures
Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf founded YL Ventures, which invests early in core-technology software companies in and around the Internet, and accelerates their evolution via value-added involvement and Silicon Valley-based business development. Yoav has been a successful entrepreneur, investor, and consultant in the technology and new media fields for the past two decades. He is the founder and managing partner of YL Ventures, a global venture capital firm that invests in high-technology start-up companies and, within a short time, brings them to market. In addition to 6Scan, Yoav serves on the board of directors of ClickTale (customer experience analytics), Upstream Commerce (automated competitive pricing analytics) and BlazeMeter (self-service load testing cloud) and is the lead investor of Seculert (security threat intelligence). Yoav served on the board of AcceloWeb (browser experience optimization) until it was acquired by Limelight Networks. Yoav was the CEO and cofounder of Movota (mobile gaming) acquired by Bertelsmann, the CTO and cofounder of ExchangePath (online payments) acquired by CMGI, and the CEO and cofounder of PcEnterntainer Magazine. Yoav was also an associate at DFJ Gotham Ventures, studied at IMD, and holds an MBA from Columbia University.
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About YL Ventures: YL Ventures funds and supports seed-stage entrepreneurs in the cybersecurity sector.
John Brennan
Partner of YL Ventures
John, Partner at YL Ventures, is focused on investment due diligence, portfolio company value-add, industry research, expanding the firm’s U.S. platform, and various aspects of fund management. John currently serves as a board observer of Vulcan Cyber (continuous vulnerability remediation), Axonius (unified visibility & control of endpoint devices), Karamba Security (embedded security for connect systems), Ride Vision (advanced driver assistance systems for two-wheeled vehicles) and Hunters.AI (autonomous threat hunting platform). Prior to YL Ventures, John was at Data Collective, where he evaluated early stage investment opportunities and worked in an operating role, incubating multiple machine learning-driven startups, including Merlon Intelligence, an anti-money laundering compliance risk management platform. Before that, he worked on the investment team at OCA Ventures in Chicago, where he focused on early stage deals across various sectors.
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About YL Ventures: YL Ventures funds and supports seed-stage entrepreneurs in the cybersecurity sector.
Jonathan Roberts
Founder & Partner Emeritus of Ignition Partners
Jonathan Roberts is a founder and partner of Ignition. He invests in business application and services companies and represents Ignition as director on the boards of DocuSign, AVST, HyperQuality, Spoken Communications and Earth Class Mail. Prior to Ignition, Jonathan spent 13 years at Microsoft, most recently as general manager of the Windows CE Intelligent Appliance Division, where he was responsible for developing new WinCE products, product marketing, business development and long-term planning for the Windows CE platform, as well as the retargeting of the Microsoft’s PocketPC effort. Jonathan led the marketing and business efforts for Windows 3.1, 3.11, Windows NT 3.51, NT 4.0, BackOffice 1.0, Windows 98 and NT 4.0 on the Desktop, and finally all of Windows CE including embedded, Pocket PC, Auto, Phones, Set-top, Games, etc. Jonathan received his BA in history from the University of Washington where he was also student body president.
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About Ignition Partners: Ignition Partners is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping the best entrepreneurs seize opportunity.
John Connors
Managing Partner of Ignition Partners
John Connors is the Operating Partner of Fuse Venture Partners. He is also managing partner at Ignition, joining in 2005 after lengthy career as a software-industry executive, principally at Microsoft. John spent sixteen years at Microsoft in several high-level, strategic roles. From January 2000 to April 2005 he was senior vice president of finance and administration, as well as the company’s chief financial officer. He also served as vice president of the Worldwide Enterprise Group and vice president and chief information officer (CIO). Before becoming CIO, John held a number of positions within and outside finance, including corporate controller; general manager of worldwide financial operations; director of business operations at Microsoft’s European headquarters in Paris; and director of business operations for the Worldwide Sales and Support Strategy Group. John is a member of the board of directors of Nike (NKE), FiREapps, Scout Analytics, Datasphere, Motif Investing, Splunk (SPLK), Opscode, Parse and Tier 3. He was also a board member of Heroku, which was sold to Salesforce.com in 2010, and Xensource, acquired by Citrix in 2007. John received his BA in accounting from the University of Montana. He also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Montana.
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About FUSE, Ignition Partners: Ignition Partners is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping the best entrepreneurs seize opportunity.
Cameron Myhrvold
General Partner of Ignition Partners
Cameron Myhrvold is the General Partner at Ignition Partners.
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About Ignition Partners: Ignition Partners is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping the best entrepreneurs seize opportunity.
Richard Fade
Partner Prior fund of Ignition Partners
Richard Fade has more than 35 years of operational, business development and investment experience.He is currently a Partner at Ignition Partners, a venture capital firm in Bellevue Washington investing in early stage technology, software and services companies. Mr. Fade’s prior investments include more than a dozen virtualization, software as a service, cloud, and storage technology companies. Most recently Appature (IMS Health 2013), Azaleos (Avanade 2012), Likewise (Isilon/EMC 2012), StorSimple (Microsoft 2012) and Whiptail (Cisco 2013). He currently serves on the boards of Onehub, Talyst and Spaceflight Industries and is a Board advisor and angel investor in several early stage technology companies in the Northwest. Prior to joining Ignition, Mr. Fade was 16 years at Microsoft Corporation in leadership roles including serving on Microsoft’s Executive Staff for 10 years as a division level vice president. His positions included; Senior Vice President of the OEM division responsible for Microsoft’s business with PC OEM and embedded software business, VP Desktop and Consumer Applications, overseeing the creation of Office 97 and other desktop applications, Vice President of the Internet Business Unit and Vice President Far East Region including product development for Japan, China and Korea. Mr. Fade led the teams that produced the first successful Asian language versions of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office applications. Mr. Fade has served on several non-profit boards and independent schools including presently Whitman College.
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About Ignition Partners, StorSimple: Ignition Partners is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping the best entrepreneurs seize opportunity.
Steve Hooper
Partner of Ignition Partners
Steve Hooper is the Partner at Ignition Partners.
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About Ignition Partners: Ignition Partners is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping the best entrepreneurs seize opportunity.
Scott Coleman
Partner of Ignition Partners
Scott joined Ignition as Business Development Partner to help our portfolio companies identify and win customers and partners on a global scale. Scott has spent 20 years working at the intersection of technology and finance and has worked with startups and large companies on partnerships, go-to-market, acquisitions, and investments. Scott’s prior roles have placed him at the forefront of how software-defined infrastructure, devops, advanced analytics, cyber, and digital transformation are changing our notion of the tech stack and how enterprises source and consumer solutions. Prior to joining Ignition, Scott led Microsoft Startup Growth Partners, was responsible for Microsoft’s global accelerator program and brought together colleagues across the company to drive engagement and partnership with the start-up and venture capital ecosystem. Before Microsoft, Scott led the Technology Innovation Portfolio team at Bank of America. The team’s mission was finding innovative solutions to emerging business and technology opportunities by partnering with the technology community, including venture capital firms, and their portfolio companies. Prior to Bank of America, Scott ran Technology Business Development at Morgan Stanley where his responsibilities included technology strategy and partnering with the banking and equities businesses to drive revenue for the Firm. In this role, Scott created a structured innovation practice that cultivated relationships with VCs, technology entrepreneurs, CEOs, CTOs and other leaders at both large and small technology companies. Prior to his role in Technology Business Development, Scott spent 10 years in equity research at Morgan Stanley, covering the networking and communications equipment sector, and before that Scott ran finance at Covista, a publicly-traded telecom company.
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About Ignition Partners: Ignition Partners is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping the best entrepreneurs seize opportunity.
Robert Headley
Partner of Ignition Partners
Robert Headley is Ignition’s administrative partner, overseeing the firm’s day-to- day operations. He joined the firm in 2000. Robert also represents Ignition as a director on the boards of Enclarity and Earth Class Mail. He previously served as director on Extend America (acquired by Sprint) and FiREapps. Prior to joining Ignition, Robert spent seven years at Starbucks Coffee Company, most recently as vice president, finance & treasurer. In that role, he managed Starbucks’ investor-relations, corporate-development, Treasury, business planning & analysis, and profit-improvement functions. Before Starbucks, Robert spent three years in the principal-investment area and investment-banking division of Goldman Sachs in New York and Sydney, Australia. Robert holds MS and BS degrees with distinction in industrial engineering from Stanford University. He is currently a board bember with the Evergreen Venture Capital Association (EVCA), a partnership of Washington State venture capital firms working to nurture the venture capital community in the region.
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About Ignition Partners: Ignition Partners is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping the best entrepreneurs seize opportunity.
Adrian Smith
Partner Prior Fund of Ignition Partners
Adrian is a Partner at Ignition. Adrian invests in telecommunications and mobile companies and represented Ignition as a director on the board of Twisted Pair Solutions (acquired by Motorola Solutions, Inc.) and was an observer on the board of mFoundry (acquired by FIS). Adrian also represented Ignition on the board of Melodeo (acquired by HP) and was the shareholder representative for Swype (acquired by Nuance). Prior to Ignition, Adrian spent 12 years in leading technology roles at Nextlink, AT&T Wireless, McCaw Cellular Communication and British Telecom Research Laboratories. Adrian’s responsibilities have included the radio architecture and evolution of the LMDS broadband fixed wireless technology, the browser transport mechanism for integrated cellular voice and data solutions and the TDMA air interface design and specification. Adrian joined British Telecom Research Laboratories in the UK in 1989 and worked on the ETSI standards for the Digital European Cordless Telecommunication (DECT) technology, developing DECT testbeds for voice, data and wireless video applications. Adrian is the author of a number of patents associated with cellular technology as well as co-author of the book “IS-136 TDMA Technology, Economics and Services.
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About Ignition Partners, Swype, Twisted Pair Solutions, Xeround: Ignition Partners is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping the best entrepreneurs seize opportunity.
Rudina Seseri
Founder & Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures
Rudina Seseri is a Founder and Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm dedicated to investing in the next generation of AI-powered technology companies that connect consumers and enterprises and secure the ecosystem. With over 15 years of investing and transactional experience, Rudina has led technology investments and acquisitions in startup companies in the fields of robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), SaaS marketing technologies and digital media. Rudina’s portfolio investments include Talla, Celtra, CrowdTwist, Jibo and SocialFlow. Rudina has been appointed by the Dean of the Harvard Business School (HBS) for a fourth consecutive year to serve as Entrepreneur-In-Residence for the Business School, as Executive-In-Residence for Harvard University’s innovation-Lab and has most recently been named to the 2018 HBS inaugural group of Rock Venture Capital Partners. She is also a Member of the Business Leadership Council of Wellesley College. Rudina also serves as Advisor for L’Oreal USA Women in Digital, as Director on the Board of the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange (MITX) and on the Board of Overseers for Boston Children’s Hospital. She has been named a 2017 Boston Business Journal Power 50: Newsmaker, a 2014 Women to Watch honoree by Mass High Tech and a 2011 Boston Business Journal 40-under-40 honoree for her professional accomplishments and community involvement. She graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Economics and International Relations and with an MBA from the Harvard Business School (HBS). She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Epsilon honor societies.
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About ChaosSearch, Glasswing Ventures, Harvard Business School, Inrupt: Glasswing Ventures is an early-stage VC firm investing in next gen AI and frontier technology startups enabling the intelligent enterprise.
Rick Grinnell
Founder, Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures
Rick co-founded TD Capital Ventures in 2001 and Fairhaven Capital Partners in 2007. He has invested and served on the boards of companies including: Brabeion, Bridgeport Networks (acquired by Counterpath), Dataupia, Everypoint and EqualLogic (acquired by Dell). Rick held senior marketing positions at Adero, Inc and ClearOne Communications, and held senior engineering and marketing positions at PictureTel. He worked for General Electric and Fidelity Ventures. Rick earned BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from The Harvard Business School.
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About Glasswing Ventures: Glasswing Ventures is an early-stage VC firm investing in next gen AI and frontier technology startups enabling the intelligent enterprise.
Vlad Sejnoha
Venture Partner of Glasswing Ventures
As Nuance’s Chief Technology Officer, Vlad Sejnoha oversees Nuance’s research and focuses on core technology and product strategy, with an emphasis on emerging areas including natural language processing and mobile applications. Prior to joining Nuance, Vlad was the Chief Scientist at L&H, and earlier at Kurzweil AI, where he was responsible for creating technology for a number of commercially successful speech recognition products, including large vocabulary continuous speech dictation systems. Vlad has over 20 years’ experience in the field of speech recognition and holds thirteen U.S. patents. He earned a BS and Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from McGill University.
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About Glasswing Ventures: Glasswing Ventures is an early-stage VC firm investing in next gen AI and frontier technology startups enabling the intelligent enterprise.
Pen King
Co Founder and Partner of Innovating Capital
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About Innovating Capital, PKJ Ventures: Innovating Capital is a premier technology fund with a focus on financial, cybersecurity, insurance, and life sciences.
David Magerman
Managing Partner and Lead Technologist of Differential Ventures
David Magerman is a co-founder and managing partner at Differential Ventures. Previously, he spent the entirety of his career at Renaissance Technologies, widely recognized as the best quantitative hedge fund management company in the world. He helped found the equities trading group at Renaissance, joining the group in its earliest days, playing a lead role in designing and building the trading, simulation, and estimation software. On an extended garden leave from quantitative finance, he is looking to use his data science, software development, and statistical modeling expertise to help Israeli startups succeed in the global marketplace. David holds a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University where his thesis on Natural Language Parsing as Statistical Pattern Recognition was an early and successful attempt to use large-scale data to produce fully-automated syntactic analysis of text. David also earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Sciences and Information from the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Differential Ventures: Differential Ventures is a seed-stage VC fund that invests in B2B data-oriented technology solutions
Nick Adams
Managing Partner and Co-founder of Differential Ventures
Nick Adams is a managing partner and co-founder at Differential Ventures.
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About Differential Ventures: Differential Ventures is a seed-stage VC fund that invests in B2B data-oriented technology solutions
Mitchell Kleinhandler
Managing Partner and Co-founder of Differential Ventures
Mitch Kleinhandler is a serial entrepreneur, a founding partner and senior level executive of numerous startup and growth businesses in both the United States and Europe. He has extensive expertise in the financing, development, operations and management of early stage and growth companies across diverse industry verticals. He is also a Venture Partner and Advisor at Scout Ventures, LLC, an early stage technology venture capital fund located in New York City.
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About Differential Ventures: Differential Ventures is a seed-stage VC fund that invests in B2B data-oriented technology solutions
Mark Hatfield
Co-Founder, General Partner of TenEleven Ventures
Mark Hatfield joined Ten Eleven Ventures as Founder and General Partner in 2015.
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About Axis Security, Digital Shadows, GoSecure, Immuta, Kasada, KnowBe4, Offensive Security, Optiv, Ordr, ReliaQuest, Revelock, Sonrai Security, TenEleven Ventures, Valid Network – Blockchain Security: TenEleven Ventures is a venture capital company that focuses on cybersecurity startups.
Alex Doll
Founder and Managing General Partner of TenEleven Ventures
Alex Doll is the Co-Founder and Managing General Partner at Ten Eleven Ventures.
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About Cado Security Ltd, CyberGRX, Darktrace, Digital Shadows, Drizly, GoSecure, Immuta, Ionic Security, KnowBe4, Offensive Security, Optiv, Ordr, Revelock, TenEleven Ventures, Vulcan Cyber: TenEleven Ventures is a venture capital company that focuses on cybersecurity startups.
Brian Draves
Partner & COO of TenEleven Ventures
As General Counsel, Brian is responsible for all legal matters at Techstars. Brian began his legal career at Cooley and then moved in-house to serve as General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer for numerous software companies in Silicon Valley including PGP Corporation (acquired by Symantec), Reputation.com, OneID, and Scale Eight. Brian has recently returned from a two-year working sabbatical in Spain where, in addition to perfecting authentic paella, he provided outsourced General Counsel services to U.S. and Spanish startups and served as a mentor for Espacio RES, the first incubator in Andalusia, Spain.
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About TenEleven Ventures: TenEleven Ventures is a venture capital company that focuses on cybersecurity startups.
Megan Dubofsky
Operating Partner & CMO of TenEleven Ventures
Megan Dubofsky is the Operating Partner and CMO at Ten Eleven Ventures.
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About TenEleven Ventures: TenEleven Ventures is a venture capital company that focuses on cybersecurity startups.
Pat Wilkison
Managing Partner of Integrity Partners
Partner for Building Amazing Companies with Amazing People. Providing Effort, Integrity, Commitment, Creativity.
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About Exponential Partners, Integrity Partners, Integrity Partners, Western Digital: Modern Mobility Venture Investment Team
Jeff Margolies
SVP, Strategy & Strategic Partnership of FireEye
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About FireEye: FireEye is an intelligence-led security company that protects customers using innovative technology and expertise from the front lines.
Morgan Aitken-Young
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Ventures Program Manager – Marketing, Partnerships, Business Development of Hewlett Packard Enterprise
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About Hewlett Packard Enterprise: Hewlett Packard Enterprise is an industry technology company that enables customers to go further and faster.
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Partner & Chief Marketing Officer of Shield AI
Gayle is the New York Times best-selling author of two books about the post-9/11 wars, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and Ashley’s War, and an adjunct fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She began writing about entrepreneurship in conflict and post-conflict zones while studying for her MBA at Harvard following a decade covering politics at the ABC News Political Unit. This work from Afghanistan, Rwanda, Liberia, Bosnia and beyond, which earned her the 2006 Dean’s Award, has been published by the World Bank, Harvard Business School, the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review and CNN, among others. Gayle is a frequent speaker on national security topics, including at the Aspen Security Forum, Clinton Global Initiative, and TED forums, and has given talks at West Point, the Naval Academy, and the National Infantry Museum. From 2006 to 2010 she served as a vice president at the global investment firm PIMCO, where she led public policy analysis during the global financial crisis. A Fulbright Scholar and Robert Bosch Fellow, she is conversant in Spanish, German, French and Farsi.
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About Shield AI: Building the world’s best AI pilot.
Brian Losey
Partner of Shield AI
Brian served in the U.S. Navy for 33 years. He commanded U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command, U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, Naval Special Warfare Development Group, and SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team ONE. He worked alongside teammates in Task Forces deployed to the Middle East, Central Asia, the Balkans and Africa, and has significant operational experience in contingency operations around the world. He served as a Director for Combating Terrorism and Director for Maritime Security on the National Security Council Staff under the Bush and Obama Administrations.
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About Shield AI: Building the world’s best AI pilot.
Patrick Spaulding Ryan, PhD
General Partner and Investment Committee of Leawood Venture Capital
Dr. Patrick SpauldingRyan serves as General Partner & Member of the Investment Committee at Leawood Venture Capital and as an independent Angel Investor. He serves on the Board of Clupp and is Board Observer at Bttn.. Dr. Ryan wored 9 years as a Googler leading launch strategy for various regulated products, including aerospace, telecom, and developed the broker/dealer product for Google cloud.. Dr. Ryan previously served as the Faculty Director of the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Ryan regularly authors academic articles and lectures on technology policy internationally.His publications are available on SSRN, https://ssrn.com/author=355448.
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About ByteDance, Leawood Venture Capital, Sand Hill Angels: Investing in Disruptive Early-Stage Technology Companies Nationwide
Brendan Fallis
Founder/General Partner/Investment Committee Member of Leawood Venture Capital
Brendan Fallis is the Founder, General Partner, and Investment Committee Member at Leawood Venture Capital. He is the former President of a $2 Billion Verizon unit and experienced technology executive in both domestic and international markets. Over 20+ years’ experience in senior leadership roles in sales, distribution, go-to-market, business development, and strategy. Technical expertise in wireless, IoT, SaaS, PaaS, and Cloud solutions. He increased revenue from $1 Billion to $2 Billion in six years as a Region President with Verizon Wireless, personally executed revenue committed contracts with 25% of the Fortune 500, led a $250 million technology and infrastructure acquisition and integration, lead negotiator for a $7.7 Billion long term services contract, named to the top 40 under 40 business leaders. He earned a B.A. from Pomona College, an M.B.A. at the Norwich University, and executive programs at Harvard and Stanford.
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About Leawood Venture Capital: Investing in Disruptive Early-Stage Technology Companies Nationwide
Karl Gemperli
Founding Partner of Leawood Venture Capital
Founding Partner at Leawood Venture Capital, Karl Gemperli is a seasoned public company CEO and Board Member who has generated significant long-term shareholder value through visionary technical leadership, strategic business development, and disciplined operations management. He is the Founder and CEO of Elecsys Corporation, a pioneer of industrial wireless, M2M, IoT, and cloud data management solutions that was acquired by Lindsay Corporation (NYSE: LNN) in 2015. Previously President of DCI, Inc., Vice President of Airport Systems International, and Director of Manufacturing at Goodrich Aerospace. Member of the Castor Ventures Fund Investment Committee. He quintupled revenue and increased Elecsys (NASDAQ: ESYS) market cap more than 3,500%, named 3 times to Fortune’s “Small Business 100” list of fastest growing public companies, names to Forbes “America’s Best Small Companies” in 2014, and spearheaded over a dozen business and technology acquisitions in the US and Europe. He holds a B.S. from MIT and M.Eng. from Boston University.
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About Analytical Flavor Systems, Castor Ventures, HyperQube, Leawood Venture Capital, PreNav, Sorcero, Storewise: Investing in Disruptive Early-Stage Technology Companies Nationwide
Todd Daniels
Managing Director and General Partner of Leawood Venture Capital
Todd Daniels is the Managing Director and General Partner at Leawood Venture Capital. He is an experienced CFO for both publicly traded and private companies with over 25 years’ experience managing financial and administrative operations at multiple technology businesses. Most recently, CFO of Pivot International, an electronic design and manufacturing organization operating ten facilities in six countries on three continents. Previously CFO of Elecsys Corporation (NASDAQ: ESYS), Manager of Corporate Reporting at Epiq Systems (NASDAQ: EPIQ), and various financial management roles at Honeywell Aerospace, KPMG, and Deloitte. A native of Kansas City and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
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About Leawood Venture Capital: Investing in Disruptive Early-Stage Technology Companies Nationwide
Jeff Kearl
General Partner of Pelion Venture Partners
Jeff Kearl is a Managing Director at Pelion Ventures. He previously served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Stance. He previously Co-founded Precedent Investments in 2012. He previously served as a Venture Partner at Zetta Venture Partners.He previously served as Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of Arteis, Inc. He previously served as Director of Strategy and New Ventures for Hewlett Packard. Jeff previously worked as an Associate at vSpring Capital. Jeff founded Freeport.com, Inc. and served as its Vice President of Business Development & Product Marketing. He served as the Chairman of Skullcandy, Inc. (NASDAQ: SKUL) from 2005 to 2013. He is currently on the board of directors of Scopely, Just Water and Domo (NASDAQ: DOMO). Jeff Kearl holds a BA in Marketing from Brigham Young University.
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About Domo, Dynamic Signal, Pelion Venture Partners, Stance: Pelion Venture Partners helps entrepreneurs and invests in early-stage B2B software-based companies.
Chad Packard
General Partner of Pelion Venture Partners
Chad Packard joined Pelion Venture Partners in 2008. Prior to Pelion, he was a Director of Cougar Capital, a venture fund managed by Brigham Young University. He is a member of the state bar association of California. Chad holds a B.A. in Economics from Brigham Young University, a J.D. from Santa Clara University, and a M.B.A. from Brigham Young University.
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About BookClub, Cacheflow, Canopy, Firefly, Nomi Health, Owlet Baby Care, Pelion Venture Partners, Rivet, Shoptrue, SteadyMD, Vouch Insurance: Pelion Venture Partners helps entrepreneurs and invests in early-stage B2B software-based companies.
Blake Modersitzki
General Partner of Pelion Venture Partners
Blake Modersitzki joined Pelion Venture Partners in 2002 after 13 years as an executive with Novell and WordPerfect Corporation. Blake has deep industry operating experience as well as a long, successful investment track record. Prior to joining Pelion Venture Partners, Blake was Managing Director for Novell Ventures and Vice President of Strategic Business Development. He directed Novell’s venture strategy including both its direct investments in companies and indirect investments in venture capital funds. Prior to managing Novell’s venture capital organization, Blake held a number of sales, marketing, product management, global channel sales development and business development positions within Novell and Word Perfect. Blake’s current investments and board affiliations are M-Factor, Fusion-io, Soasta and Infopia. Blake previously served on the boards of Riverbed Technology (IPO), Red Hat Software (IPO), Confluent Software (acquired by Oblix/Oracle), Bowstreet (acquired by IBM), Business Layers (acquired by Netegrity), Caldera Systems (IPO), Digital Cement (acquired by Pitney Bowes), enCommerce (acquired by Entrust), GlobalCast (acquired by Talarian), Indus River Networks (acquired by Enterasys), NetPro (acquired by Quest Software), Netfish Technologies (acquired by IONA), NetObjects (IPO), Orbital Software (IPO), TurboLinux (IPO), and WR Hambrecht & Co. Blake has a Bachelors degree in Economics from Brigham Young University.
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About Brigham Young University (BYU), Domo, Pelion Venture Partners: Pelion Venture Partners helps entrepreneurs and invests in early-stage B2B software-based companies.
Chris Cooper
General Partner of Pelion Venture Partners
Chris Cooper joined Pelion Venture Partners in 2007. Chris has over seventeen years of operational experience in the software industry and has held senior positions in sales management, field marketing, business development, and engineering. Most recently, he was Director of Partner Engineering and Developer Services at Novell, Inc. where he was responsible for the companies partner support and certification programs. Chris also served as General Manager of Novell’s Strategic Alliances, in which role he was responsible for the company’s relationships with global business partners, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, EMC, and Cisco Systems. Chris served as both a business and technical adviser for Novell Ventures and managed relationships between the fund’s portfolio companies and industry leaders. Prior to joining Novell, Chris served as East Coast Regional Sales Director for the WordPerfect Corporation. Chris serves on the board of directors of the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association. He studied at the University of Utah and the University of Phoenix.
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About Macrometa, Novell, Pelion Venture Partners: Pelion Venture Partners helps entrepreneurs and invests in early-stage B2B software-based companies.
Benjamin Lambert
General Partner of Pelion Venture Partners
Ben joined Pelion’s investing team in 2015, and has been an integral part of both their culture and investing success. He has sourced, led, or co-led 16 investments since becoming an intern in the spring of 2014, including Owlet, Deserve, Omadi, and Neighbor. He currently sits on 6 portfolio company boards, including Neurala, Divvy, and FastData.io. Ben spends his time and efforts investing in Fintech, Marketplaces, Frontier Tech, and AI/ML, choosing to invest in special entrepreneurs that have disruptive businesses in large and underserved markets. Before Pelion, Ben worked for Jefferies Financial Group, Inc. (J.F.G.) in their strategy and operations group where he invested in and managed 4 operating companies (with over $10B in annual revenue), including their largest investment of $868M in to National Beef Packing (N.B.P.) in 2011. Since the investment, N.B.P. has returned over $1.6B. Prior to J.F.G., Ben worked at Sears Holdings Co. on the Corporate Strategy and Analytics team where he analyzed potential capital investments using statistical, financial and data frameworks. Ben holds a B.A. in Economics and M.B.A. from Brigham Young University.
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About Divvy, fastdata.io, Misapplied Sciences, Neurala, Pelion Venture Partners: Pelion Venture Partners helps entrepreneurs and invests in early-stage B2B software-based companies.
Matt Mosman
General Partner of Pelion Venture Partners
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About Pelion Venture Partners: Pelion Venture Partners helps entrepreneurs and invests in early-stage B2B software-based companies.
Bart Peczkowski
Venture Partner of Flashpoint
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About Flashpoint: Flashpoint is an international asset management firm investing in tech businesses.
Nicolas Jabbour
Managing Partner of Cedrus
A technology veteran and entrepreneur with over 20 years dedicated to thought leadership, design and implementation of sophisticated enterprise solutions.
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About Cedrus: Cedrus is a New York City based boutique IT advisory firm focused on Digital Transformation
Deepak Verma
Partner of Innospark Ventures
Deepak is a Partner at Innospark Ventures, an early stage AI-focused Venture Fund. Early in his career, Deepak was a consultant with McKinsey. He joined eCredit on the completion of its Series B funding, to lead strategy and business development. Subsequently, after the dot-com crash, he became CEO and led the turnaround of the Company. More recently, Deepak co-founded and led a solar power company to develop and construct ground-mounted solar plants in several Asian countries. The Company was acquired in 2018. Deepak has spent several years in the non-profit sector, with the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI). He joined as a volunteer, and then served as COO and subsequently as CEO. During this time, CHAI tackled some incredibly hard problems: strengthening health systems in developing countries (primarily in Africa and Asia) to enable them to identify, diagnose, monitor, and provide affordable lifelong treatment to HIV/AIDS patients. Deepak has an MBA from MIT Sloan and holds graduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Notre Dame and Computer Science from University of Minnesota. He is a graduate of IIT Delhi.
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About Innospark Ventures: Innospark Ventures is a new breed of early-stage venture capital firm, investing in impact-driven AI startups in Boston/New England.
Ambi Moorthy
Global Head of Partner Development of Zoho
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About Zoho: Zoho offers a suite of business, collaboration, and productivity applications.
Christopher Lynch
Founder and Partner of Reverb Advisors
Chris Lynch is Chairman of the Board at Azuki and a partner at Atlas Venture. He focuses on big data and disruptive infrastructure. Chris is also an advisor to many Boston area startups and is a mentor to many of the region’s entrepreneurs.He is the founder of hack/reduce, a newly formed non-profit community space in Cambridge focused on big data technology, for which he also serves on the board. Prior to joining Atlas in 2012, Chris successfully drove growth and led several companies to exit, generating billions of dollars in proceeds. Most recently, Chris was president and chief executive officer of Vertica Systems, where he led the company from late stage startup to the top ranked big data company globally. Chris joined Vertica out of Atlas’ entrepreneur-in-residence program. HP acquired Vertica in March 2011, and following the acquisition Chris served as senior vice president and general manager of HP’s Database Business Unit. Previously, Chris was president and chief executive officer of Acopia Networks, which was acquired by F5 Networks. At F5 Networks, Chris served as senior vice president of data solutions where he was responsible for building the company’s vision in the data management space. Prior to F5 and Acopia, Chris led global sales and marketing for Arrowpoint Communications through its $5.7 billion acquisition by Cisco. Chris then joined Cisco as vice president of sales and marketing for its content management business. Chris’ track record of success continues back through Lucent, which acquired Prominet; Bay Networks, which acquired Wellfleet Communications; and Digital. In each of Prominet, Bay Networks, Wellfleet Communications, and Digital, Chris served in sales leadership positions. Chris received an MBA from the McCallum Graduate School of Business at Bentley University, and a BS in business administration from Suffolk University. He received an honorary doctor of commercial science from Bentley University. When he’s not working to establish Boston as the technical hub for big data, Chris supports St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to pediatric cancer research.
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About AtScale, Cyberhaven, Hack Secure, Reverb Advisors: Reverb helps cyber security and data science companies achieve their entrepreneurial goals.