Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United States based Principal operating in the Finance space. If you think a Principal 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.
Nicolas Dardenne
Principal of Y Combinator
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About Y Combinator: Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a wide range of startups twice a year.
Matt Bogrand
Principal, YC Continuity of Y Combinator
Matt Bogrand serves as a Principal for YC Continuity at Y Combinator.
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About Y Combinator: Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a wide range of startups twice a year.
Miles Clements
Principal and Partner of Accel
Miles Clements joined Accel in 2009 and helps lead the firm’s growth fund. He focuses on SaaS companies driving automation of core business processes, collaboration tools helping to reimagine workflows for the modern enterprise, and messaging platforms for the cloud-native workplace. He has helped lead Accel’s investments in Atlassian (TEAM), Bird, Bumble, DJI, Guru, Hudl, lynda.com (acquired by LinkedIn), MessageBird, Miro, Podium, SeatGeek, and UiPath. Previously Miles worked in product management at lynda.com. Miles is from New Orleans, Louisiana and graduated from the University of Virginia and Harvard Business School.
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About Accel: Accel is an early and growth-stage venture capital firm that helps a global community of entrepreneurs.
Monica Desai
Principal of Kleiner Perkins
Monica Desai is an investor at Kleiner Perkins and focuses on investments in blockchain, crypto, and fintech. Prior to joining Kleiner Perkins, she led Operations & Strategy at Blockchain, where she helped the company develop an institutional platform. She began her career as a bond trader at JPMorgan, where she managed TMT and industrial high-grade credit portfolios. She holds a Bachelor’s Degrees in Math and Economics from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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About Kleiner Perkins: Kleiner Perkins is a venture capital firm that specializes in investing in early-stage, incubation, and growth companies.
Nicholas Huber
Principal and Partner of Ribbit Capital
Nick Huber is a General Partner at Ribbit Capital.
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About Ribbit Capital: Ribbit Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies.
Ray Chua
Principal and Partner of Ribbit Capital
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About Ribbit Capital: Ribbit Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies.
Wretch Chien
Principal of AME Cloud Ventures
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About AME Cloud Ventures: AME Cloud Ventures invests in seed to later-stage tech companies that build infrastructure and value chains around data.
Katy Engle
Talent Principal of Gradient Ventures
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About Gradient Ventures: Gradient Ventures helps founders build transformational companies.
Mike Fernandez
Principal of B Capital Group
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About B Capital Group: B Capital Group is a venture capital firm that backs global entrepreneurs in the field of information technology.
Suman Natarajan
Principal of B Capital Group
Suman Natarajan is a Principal at B Capital. Previously, she was a Senior Vice President at Citi Ventures and an investor at Intel Capital. Suman received her MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and her BA in Economics and South Asian Studies from the University of Chicago.
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About B Capital Group: B Capital Group is a venture capital firm that backs global entrepreneurs in the field of information technology.
Antonio Gracias
Founder, Principal of Valor Equity Partners
Gracias serves as Valor’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Investment Committee. His duties include overall responsibility for the Firm’s management, operations, and investing. These include but are not limited to: human resources, management of the Firm’s board, raising capital, limited partner communication, deal generation, investment selection, investment strategy, investment committee management, transaction structuring, and portfolio company management and improvement. Gracias has over 15 years experience investing in a variety of sectors including private equity, public equity, and real estate transactions. Gracias is Valor’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to founding Valor in 2001, Gracias served as Founder and Managing Member of MG Capital from 1995 through 2000. MG Capital was a private equity firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. As the lead transaction principal, Gracias sourced investments in nine middle market manufacturing companies where MG Capital played the role of lead equity sponsor. He also sourced three non-lead investments in a diverse set of industries. Gracias served as the Chief Executive Officer of MG Capital’s electronic connector holdings, Connector Service Corporation. He managed the company through growth from $10 million to $125 million in revenue before exiting the investment in 2001. In addition, Gracias served as Chief Executive Officer of Industrial Powder Coatings, Inc., a $65 million revenue supplier to the auto parts and appliance sectors. Prior to MG Capital, Gracias was an Associate with Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York where he served the firm’s institutional clients in the International Equity Division. Gracias is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a member of the Board of Directors of the Grand Victoria Foundation, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Illinois Institute of Technology, a member of the Board of Directors of The Economic Club of Chicago, a Trustee of the Field Museum, and a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Chicago Law School. Gracias received the 2008 Immigrant & Refugee Contributions Award for Entrepreneurial & Business Leadership from Changing Worlds, an educational arts non-profit organization. Gracias is a 2009 Henry Crown Fellow, an Aspen Institute program designed to engage the next generation of leaders in the challenge of community-spirited leadership. He is also a member of several Valor portfolio company boards. Gracias holds a joint B.S. and M.S.F.S. (honors degree) in International Finance and Economics from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. He also studied corporate structures and economic development at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. Prior to completing his Masters, Gracias returned to Japan as a Nikko Securities Fellow. Gracias holds a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. He is fluent in Spanish, proficient in Portuguese, and has a working knowledge of Japanese.
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About Valor Equity Partners: Valor Equity Partners is an operational growth investment firm focused on high growth companies across various stages of development.
Damir Becirovic
Principal of Index Ventures
Damir joined Index Ventures in 2015 and focuses on venture and growth investments in e-commerce / retail and mobility. Prior to Index, Damir was at Goldman Sachs, where he worked on M&A and capital markets transactions for consumer / retail, healthcare, and cleantech companies, as well as at Coatue, where he was involved with the firm’s investments in Lyft and Avvo. Damir has also worked at Activision Blizzard, Apple, and Flextronics. Damir graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California with a B.S. in business administration. He currently lives in San Francisco and can be found on a soccer field in his spare time.
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About Index Ventures: Index Ventures is a venture capital firm that helps the entrepreneurs turn bold ideas into global businesses.
Erin Price-Wright
Principal of Index Ventures
Erin Price-Wright currently works as the Principal for Index Ventures. She previously worked at Palantir Technologies in Product Development.
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About Index Ventures: Index Ventures is a venture capital firm that helps the entrepreneurs turn bold ideas into global businesses.
Rex Woodbury
Principal of Index Ventures
Rex Woodbury is an investor at Index Ventures.
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About Index Ventures: Index Ventures is a venture capital firm that helps the entrepreneurs turn bold ideas into global businesses.
Dino Becirovic
Principal of Index Ventures
Dino Becirovic currently works as the Principal for Index Ventures. He previously worked at Sharespace as the Co-Founder.
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About Index Ventures: Index Ventures is a venture capital firm that helps the entrepreneurs turn bold ideas into global businesses.
Mark Fiorentino
Principal of Index Ventures
Mark Fiorentino is the Principal at Index Ventures.
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About Index Ventures: Index Ventures is a venture capital firm that helps the entrepreneurs turn bold ideas into global businesses.
Kyle Harrison
Principal of Index Ventures
Kyle Harrison is a Principal at Index Ventures.
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About Index Ventures: Index Ventures is a venture capital firm that helps the entrepreneurs turn bold ideas into global businesses.
Kelly Toole
Principal of Index Ventures
Kelly Toole currently works as the Principal for Index Ventures. She previously worked at Apple as the Software Engineering Manager.
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About Index Ventures: Index Ventures is a venture capital firm that helps the entrepreneurs turn bold ideas into global businesses.
Chris Ahn
Principal of Index Ventures
Chris Ahn currently works as the Principal for Index Ventures. He previously worked at GitHub as the Director.
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About Index Ventures: Index Ventures is a venture capital firm that helps the entrepreneurs turn bold ideas into global businesses.
Amelia Armour
Principal, Early Stage Funds of Amadeus Capital Partners
Amelia joined Amadeus Capital Partners in 2009. Her current investment focus is on autonomous systems, AI and machine learning, cloud computing, digital health and medical technology. Based in Cambridge, Amelia has an interest in supporting and nurturing university spin-outs. She is a Director on the board of Cambridge Touch Technologies, a company developing the next generation of ‘force touch’ for mobile phones and tablets and SLAMcore, a spin-out from Imperial College, developing spatial intelligence for autonomous robotics and drones. Amelia is an active board observer at Prowler.io, an AI company that has built a platform for general purpose decision-making; Paragraf, manufacturing graphene and other two-dimensional materials for real-world applications and Graphcore, the Bristol-based business building chips for the future of AI. Prior to Amadeus, she worked at Barclays Investment Bank as a manager in the structured capital markets team with responsibility for running a portfolio of multi jurisdiction transactions. Amelia has also worked in structured finance at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. She qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloitte in the corporate tax department. Amelia holds a BSc in Chemistry and Biology from Durham University and is a mentor on the Judge Business School’s Accelerate Programme.
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About Amadeus Capital Partners: Amadeus Capital Partners caters to the technology sector with seed, early, and later stage venture, and private equity investments.
Yoni Rechtman
Principal of Tusk Venture Partners
Yoni Rechtman is a Principal at Tusk Ventures.
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About Tusk Venture Partners: Tusk Venture Partners invests in early-stage technology startups operating in highly-regulated markets.
Jillian Williams
Principal of Cowboy Ventures
Jillian is an Investment Associate at Anthemis, where she helps discover, evaluate and execute investments. Prior to joining Anthemis, Jillian worked at Barclays in the Investment Banking division. She specialized in equity capital markets for financial institutions, helping a range of companies go public and raise capital in the public market. Born and raised in New York City, Jillian graduated from Yale University with a BA in Economics. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling and participating in sports. Jillian is a talented athlete and ran competitively for several years. She studied Mandarin and has spent a significant time working and studying the language in China.
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About Cowboy Ventures: Cowboy Ventures is a generalist seed-stage fund focused fund investing in technology startups.
Amanda Robson
Principal of Cowboy Ventures
Amanda focuses on early to late stage venture investments across a wide range of sectors at Norwest, with an emphasis on the enterprise and infrastructure spaces. Prior to joining Norwest, Amanda was a technology investment banking analyst at William Blair & Company. In this role she advised companies on mergers and acquisitions, equity transactions, and other business development and strategic objectives. Amanda previously held roles at Citigroup and Robson Technologies, Ltd. Amanda earned a bachelor of arts, Honors Business Administration (HBA) from Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.
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About Cowboy Ventures: Cowboy Ventures is a generalist seed-stage fund focused fund investing in technology startups.
Yuri Namikawa
Principal of Expa
Yuri Namikawa is an associate at Norwest Venture Partners. Her role is focused on early to late stage venture investments across a wide range of sectors at Norwest, with an emphasis on consumer Internet. Prior to joining Norwest, Yuri was a business operations associate at Udemy, where she worked closely with the CEO and in financial and strategic planning. In this role, she also helped to improve the operating model to support the company’s rapid growth, drove analysis to assist teams in regular tracking and goaling of KPIs, participated in multiple product development cycles, and collaborated cross-functionally with senior leaders in management for presenting updates to the board of directors. Before Udemy, Yuri was a technology investment banking analyst in Morgan Stanley’s Equity Capital Markets group. In this role, she advised technology companies on raising capital in public and private markets, with select deal experience including IPOs and follow-ons for Square, Fitbit, Pure Storage, Atlassian, and Tesla. Yuri holds a bachelor of science in management science & engineering from Stanford University.
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About Expa: Expa supports early-stage startups through expertise, access, and funding.
Kristin Stannard
Principal of Expa
Kristin Stannard is a Principal at Expa.
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About Expa: Expa supports early-stage startups through expertise, access, and funding.
Wesley Tillu
Senior Principal of Section 32
Wesley Tillu is a Senior Principal at Section 32.
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About Section 32: Section 32 is a venture capital fund that invests at the cutting edge of technology, healthcare, and life sciences.
Adina Tecklu
Principal of Khosla Ventures
Adina Tecklu is at Khosla Ventures where she focuses on Seed – Series B investments in SaaS and Fintech. Prior to KV, Adina was an investor at Canaan where she built and led the firm’s Seed practice. Before becoming an investor, she was a Product & Ops leader at Oracle and Zenefits. Adina holds degrees in Management Science & Engineering and Science, Technology & Society from Stanford University. She was featured on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List for Venture Capital. Adina cares deeply about increasing diversity across venture and venture-backed companies and is a Founding Board Member at BLCK VC and Co-Head of the VC Careers team at All Raise.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Khosla Ventures: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on environmentally friendly tech, internet, computing, mobile, and silicon tech.
Alice Brooks
Principal of Khosla Ventures
Alice Brooks currently works as the Principal for Khosla Ventures. She previously worked at Harvard Business School as an MBA Candidate.
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About Khosla Ventures: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on environmentally friendly tech, internet, computing, mobile, and silicon tech.
Kanu Gulati
Principal of Khosla Ventures
Kanu Gulati is a Principal at Khosla Ventures, focused on investments in data and ML-enabled enterprise applications. Kanu has over 10 years of operating experience as an engineer, scientist, and strategist. She developed advanced parallel CAD solutions and owned Intel’s multicore CAD algorithms research roadmap. Kanu has led early-stage investments in high performance computing (HPC), distributed systems and ML-enabled systems at Intel Capital and Zetta Venture Partners. Kanu was Employee #2 at MapD (hardware-accelerated data visualization) and has also held engineering roles at Nascentric (fast-circuit simulation tool, acquired by Cadence) and Atrenta (predictive analytics for design verification and optimization, acquired by Synopsys), among other startups. Kanu has co-authored 3 books, has had a chapter featured in a book, been published in 35+ peer-reviewed publications with 450+ citations, and holds a US patent on HPC and hardware acceleration. She has a PhD and master’s degree from Texas A&M University and an undergraduate degree from Delhi College of Engineering. Kanu completed her MBA at Harvard Business School, where she was co-president of the annual Venture Capital and Private Equity Conference.
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About Khosla Ventures: Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on environmentally friendly tech, internet, computing, mobile, and silicon tech.
Peter Briger
Principal & Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Fortress Investment Group
Briger is a principal and Co-Chairman of the board of directors of Fortress. He has served as a member of the board of directors of Fortress since November 2006 and was elected Co-Chairman in August 2009. Briger has been a member of the Management Committee of Fortress since March 2002. Briger is responsible for the Credit and Real Estate business at Fortress. Prior to joining Fortress in March 2002, Briger spent fifteen years at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he became a partner in 1996. Briger serves on the board of Tipping Point, a non-profit organization serving low income families in San Francisco. Briger also serves on the board of Caliber Schools, a network of charter schools committed to preparing students for success in competitive four-year colleges and beyond. Briger received a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Fortress Investment Group: Fortress is an investment management firm that manages alternative assets in private equity, liquid hedge funds, and credit funds.
Randal Nardone
Co-founder, Principal and Director of Fortress Investment Group
Randal A. Nardone is the interim CEO, co-founder, principal and director at investment management firm Fortress Investment Group LLC. He has been a part of the management committee at Fortress since 1998, and was appointed to the board of directors in November 2006.
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About Fortress Investment Group: Fortress is an investment management firm that manages alternative assets in private equity, liquid hedge funds, and credit funds.
Calvin Ling
Founder and Principal of Prefix Capital
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About 415, Prefix Capital: Prefix Capital is an early-stage, deep-tech VC that invests in foundational technologies.
Grygorii Yefremov
Principal of I2BF Global Ventures
Grygorii joined I2BF Global Ventures in 2013. Prior to I2BF he worked at Stroud Consulting, a boutique consultancy specialising in Industrial Operations & Management Consulting, first as an associate and later as a consultant. His responsibilities included optimization and ongoing improvement projects for various clients in the food & beverage, healthcare, and speciality chemicals industries. Before Stroud, Grygorii interned at Lux Research where he performed strategic analysis and market research in bio-based chemicals, bio-fuels, and bio-materials. Grygorii graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering.
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About I2BF Global Ventures: I2BF is a venture capital firm that focuses on early stage technology companies.
Patrick Chang
Principal of Cota Capital
Patrick Chang is an early stage investor at Samsung NEXT Ventures. He primarily focuses on seed to series B enterprise / B2B investing and specializes in blockchain, security, edge computing, and more. Prior to Samsung, Patrick was at Foundation Capital with a focus on SaaS and enterprise software. He has over 12 years of experience investing in enterprise software including IT security, infrastructure, developer tools, business intelligence/analytics and more ranging in various stages from seed to growth equity at Bain Capital Ventures, Investor Growth Capital, New York Angels and Updata. Patrick is also a recovering tech investment banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers, where he helped public and venture backed technology companies raise capital and execute M&A transactions.
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About Cota Capital, Samsung NEXT: Cota Capital is an SEC-registered multi-stage investment firm focused on private and public enterprise technology companies.
Eric Lee
Principal of Cota Capital
Eric Lee joined Cota in 2019 as a Senior Associate on the investment team, where he focuses on sourcing, evaluating, and monitoring of public investments. Prior to Cota, Eric was an Analyst at Partner Fund Management and an Associate at The Capital Group covering investments in the technology sector. He also held a summer Analyst position at Whale Rock Capital, a technology-focused equity long/short hedge fund. Eric began his career as an Analyst in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs. Eric graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering with a Minor in Jazz Studies from the University of Southern California, and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Cota Capital: Cota Capital is an SEC-registered multi-stage investment firm focused on private and public enterprise technology companies.
Diego Oliveira
Principal of Cota Capital
Diego Oliveira is a Principal at Cota Capital.
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About Cota Capital: Cota Capital is an SEC-registered multi-stage investment firm focused on private and public enterprise technology companies.
Roy Luo
Principal – Growth and Private Equity of ICONIQ Capital
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About Bill.com, Fuze, HighRadius, ICONIQ Capital: ICONIQ Capital is a privately-held investment firm that serves some influential families and organizations.
Andrew Schoen
Principal of New Enterprise Associates
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About New Enterprise Associates: New Enterprise Associates is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare.
Danielle Lay
Principal of New Enterprise Associates
Danielle joined NEA in 2017 as an investor on the Technology Team in New York. Prior to joining NEA, Danielle was a member of Goldman Sachs’ Financial Technology and Asset Management investment banking team. While at Goldman, she worked on a variety of M&A transactions across the payments, insurance technology and alternative asset management sectors, representing companies such as Nasdaq, Bridgewater, FIS, and Fiserv, among others. Danielle graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Economics and minors in Business Institutions and Chinese Culture & Language. While at Northwestern, she launched DesignWorks, a graphic design and web development company that exclusively hired student creators.
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About New Enterprise Associates: New Enterprise Associates is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare.
Luke Pappas
Principal of New Enterprise Associates
Luke joined NEA in 2017 as an investor in the technology team. Prior to joining NEA, Luke was a member of the Technology Investment Banking Team at Morgan Stanley in Menlo Park. While at Morgan Stanley, Luke worked on a variety of capital markets and M&A transactions across the software, semiconductor, consumer internet, and hardware sectors, with companies such as Airbnb, Nutanix, Nvidia, Pandora, and Snap. Luke graduated from Stanford University with dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science, with a focus on computer systems, and Management Science & Engineering, with a focus on finance and statistics. While at Stanford, Luke competed on the Varsity Baseball team, and launched QueueStatus to help manage the waiting lines that would often develop at office hours.
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About New Enterprise Associates: New Enterprise Associates is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare.
Chris Doppman
Principal, LP Relations of New Enterprise Associates
Chris joined NEA in 2019 as a Principal on the LP Relations team. He is focused on managing relationships with the firm’s Limited Partners and raising capital from investors globally. Prior to joining NEA, Chris was Principal, Investor Relations at IFC Asset Management Company, a $10 billion private equity firm focused on growth equity investments in emerging markets. In this role, he was responsible for building relationships with global investors and developing new products in the growth equity, venture capital, and credit space. Chris also worked at The Carlyle Group on the Investor Relations team and began his career in investment banking at Evercore and UBS. Chris received his BA from Georgetown University and his MBA from the Questrom School of Business at Boston University; he holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation.
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About New Enterprise Associates: New Enterprise Associates is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare.
Lily Huang
Principal, Healthcare VC of New Enterprise Associates
Lily Huang is a Principal on the Med Team at NEA and focuses on investments in healthcare services, healthcare IT, and medical devices. Prior to joining NEA, Lily was a member of TPG Capital’s North America Buyouts Group, focusing on investments in healthcare. At TPG, Lily worked on private equity transactions across biopharma, healthcare services, and other generalist industries including TPG’s acquisition of Beaver-Visitec and Ellucian Inc. Lily graduated summa cum laude from University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Biology and B.S.E. in Finance.
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About New Enterprise Associates: New Enterprise Associates is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare.
J.C. Lopez
Principal of New Enterprise Associates
J.C. joined NEA in 2020 as a Principal on the healthcare team; he focuses on biopharma investments. Prior to NEA, J.C. led Global Search and Evaluation for Neuroscience, Ophthalmology, and Rare Diseases for Roche/Genentech. While at Roche/Genentech, J.C. sourced, led, and closed Genentech’s collaboration with Clover Therapeutics and was involved with Genentech’s collaborations with Convelo Therapeutics and Atalanta Therapeutics. As Global Search and Evaluation Lead, he was responsible for the sourcing, triaging, and initial diligence of opportunities in neuroscience, ophthalmology, and rare diseases. Prior to Roche/Genentech, J.C. held various roles as an intern at Militia Hill Ventures, where he focused on biotech company creation and as a Tech Transfer Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Tech Transfer Office. J.C. received a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University, an MD from The Perelman School of Medicine at The University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from The Wharton School where he was a Joseph Wharton Fellow.
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About New Enterprise Associates: New Enterprise Associates is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare.
Nick Kline
Principal, LP Relations of New Enterprise Associates
Nick is a Principal on the LP Relations Team at NEA. He is responsible for maintaining relationships with existing Limited Partners, and introducing new investors to the firm on a global basis. Prior to joining NEA in 2019, Nick was a Director in the Institutional Client Business at BlackRock in San Francisco. In this role, he was responsible for the delivery of the firm’s entire investment capabilities to the institutional investor community. Nick began his career as a member of the business development team at AXA Rosenberg. Nick holds a BA in History, with honors, from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a CFA Charterholder.
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About New Enterprise Associates: New Enterprise Associates is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare.
Brandon Christie
Principal of New Enterprise Associates
Brandon joined NEA in 2014 as an Associate and is focused on investments in the technology sector. Prior to joining NEA, Brandon was a member of Barclays’ Financial Sponsors investment banking team in New York. At Barclays, Brandon worked on a variety of recapitalization, IPO, and LBO transactions for private equity clients across a number of industry verticals including technology, industrials, and retail. Brandon graduated from the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a dual set of Bachelor of Science degrees in Finance and Systems Engineering.
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About New Enterprise Associates: New Enterprise Associates is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare.
Lisa Molinaro
Principal of Kapor Capital
Lisa Molinaro focuses on sourcing deal opportunities, conducting due diligence, and supporting Kapor Capital’s portfolio companies, She is particularly interested in healthcare solutions that close equity gaps for low income communities and communities of color. Lisa is committed to elevating underrepresented founders who are striving to achieve catalytic social impact. Previously, Lisa worked at the Tara Health Foundation, a foundation dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of women and girls through grantmaking and impact investing. She led Tara Health’s early stage venture capital portfolio, which invests in companies that close equity gaps for women and girls, with a focus on underserved communities. Prior to Tara Health, Lisa served as a management consultant for the Camber Collective, a social impact strategy consulting firm and for Parthenon-EY, a boutique strategy consulting firm focused on private equity. She has designed and implemented social initiatives for leading companies, including Walmart, Cummins, and Genentech. Lisa received her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and her B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley. In her free time, you will find Lisa playing outside as much as possible. She enjoys backcountry hiking, cycling, yoga, and meditation.
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About Kapor Capital: Kapor Capital is an investment firm that invests in early-stage tech-enabled startups.
Brett Munster
Principal of Sway Ventures
As Principal at Sway Ventures, Brett Munster focuses most of his investment activities on the seed and earlier stages for the fund. In addition to evaluating new investments, Brett’s responsibilities include coordinating the due diligence process across all investment opportunities for the fund, monitoring performance of the fund and modeling portfolio allocation, and working directly with many of Sway’s existing portfolio companies.
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About Sway Ventures: Sway Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early to mid-stage technology companies.
Marston Litvinsky
Principal of Sway Ventures
Marston Litvinsky is a Principal at Sway Ventures.
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About Sway Ventures: Sway Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early to mid-stage technology companies.
Carlotta Siniscalco
Principal of Emergence
Principal at Emergence Capital & Board Member at Whistic.
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About Emergence, Kauffman Fellows: Emergence is a venture capital firm, investing in early and growth-stage cloud and SaaS visionaries that change the way the world works.
Andrew Kangpan
Principal of Two Sigma Ventures
Andy joined ff Venture Capital in 2015. As an associate, he’s focused on performing due diligence on potential investments, following industry trends, keeping a close eye on emerging technologies and working with entrepreneurs. Previously, Andy was a Senior Associate at Prophet, a global strategy consulting firm. He provided strategic advisory on a range of topics including customer acquisition and segmentation, new product and value proposition development, eCommerce strategy, new market entry, brand portfolio management and market positioning. Andy’s previous roles include internships at GOOD, BBDO, J.P. Morgan, BuyWithMe.com (acquired by Gilt), Lenox Advisors and AXA. Andy graduated from The Stern School of Business at NYU with a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Marketing.
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About Two Sigma Ventures: Two Sigma Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in companies run by highly driven people.
Chase Roberts
Principal of Vertex Ventures
Chase is Principal at Vertex Ventures, where he invests in early-stage b2b startups. Chase started his career in finance (VC/PE fund-of-funds and equity research) before seeking to join a venture-backed technology firm. This led him to Box, where he held sales, channel, and commercial partnership roles. Following a 5-year tenure at Box, Chase joined Segment, where he helped start the business development team and launch a startup program. Originally from Oklahoma, Chase graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oklahoma with dual degrees in Finance & Entrepreneurship/Venture Management. Chase earned his MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business.
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About Vertex US, Vertex Ventures: Vertex Ventures is a global network of operator-investors that manages portfolios.
Brent Murri
Principal of M13
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About M13: M13 provides strategic counsel and operational expertise to help founders grow their companies.
Tyler Churchill
Principal of Bonfire Ventures
Tyler Churchill is a Vice President at Bonfire Ventures and has been working with startups for several years. Previously Tyler worked in sales and business operations at EverString, a software company using machine learning to provide better insights and predictive analytics for sales and marketing teams. Prior to EverString he worked in sales at TechValidate (acquired by Survey Monkey), a bootstrapped software company automating the process of collecting customer feedback and converting it into usable content. Before entering the world of startups, he led business development for Rough House Pictures and worked across the motion picture and business development departments at Creative Artists Agency. Tyler received his BS from The University of Southern California and his MBA from Chicago Booth.
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About Bonfire Ventures: Bonfire Ventures leads Seed rounds for talented founders building the next generation of software giants.
Ion Yadigaroglu
Co-Founder & Managing Principal of Direct Investments of Capricorn Investment Group
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About Capricorn Investment Group: Capricorn Investment Group invests in the public equity, fixed income, private equity, and real assets markets.
Shaun Fitzgibbon
Principal of H.I.G. Capital
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About H.I.G. Capital, Staple Street Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Matthew Lozow
Principal of H.I.G. Capital
Matt is a Principal in H.I.G. Capital’s New York office. He is responsible for all aspects of the investment process including sourcing, transaction structuring, financing and executing post-closing growth, operational, and add-on acquisition strategies. Prior to joining H.I.G. in 2009, Matt worked with private equity firms including Behrman Capital and Audax Private Equity focusing on late stage buyouts and recapitalizations. Matt began his career as a consultant with Bain & Company. Matt received his undergraduate engineering degree from M.I.T. and his M.B.A. from Wharton.
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About H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Peter Gudwin
Principal of H.I.G. Capital
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About H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Jonathan Fox
Principal of H.I.G. Capital
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About H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Joe Zulli
Principal of H.I.G. Capital
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About H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Michael Kuritzky
Principal of H.I.G. Capital
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About H.I.G. Capital: H.I.G. Capital is a global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management.
Steven Kantor
General Partner andPrincipal of Backswing Ventures
Steven Kantor is Executive Vice President and Principal of KEH Insurance Agency, Inc. Steve has a vast and notable background in professional services sales, business development, business consulting, management liability, and risk management. He was a co-founder of Eldersearch.com. He was Managing Director of Jefferson Wells International’s Philadelphia office and served on the Advisory Board of the Krall Center for Corporate and Executive Education at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business. Steve created and is the founding Chair of the Technology Leaders of the Delaware Valley. In 2012, he started and is founding co-Chair of the Life Sciences Collaborative.
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About Backswing Ventures: Backswing Ventures is a $50m venture fund investing in early stage companies in a broad range of industries.
Pamela Yu
Director of US Tax, Senior Principal of TowerBrook Capital Partners
Pamela Yu is a Principal at TowerBrook and is Director of Tax Compliance. Prior to joining TowerBrook, she was a Tax Director at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, LLP where she worked in the Financial Services Tax practice. Ms. Yu earned her B.B.A. from University of Hawaii at Manoa, and is a certified public accountant and a member of AICPA.
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About TowerBrook Capital Partners: TowerBrook Capital Partners is a London-based investment management firm that funds European and North American companies.
David Winokur
Senior Principal of TowerBrook Capital Partners
David Winokur is a Principal at TowerBrook. Previously, he was an Investment Professional at Aquiline Capital Partners, a middle-market financial and business services focused private equity firm. Prior to that, he was as an Analyst in the Financial Institutions Group at BlackRock. He earned his B.B.A from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.
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About TowerBrook Capital Partners: TowerBrook Capital Partners is a London-based investment management firm that funds European and North American companies.
Jesse Lane
Principal of Summit Partners
Jesse Lane first joined Summit Partners in 2007. Prior to Summit, he worked for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, UBS Investment Bank and Charlesbank Capital Partners. Based in Summit’s Boston office, Jesse is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America and Europe, and focuses primarily on the technology and healthcare & life sciences sectors. His investment experience includes ApoCell, COMS Interactive, Heart to Heart Hospice, Modernizing Medicine and Winshuttle. Jesse holds an AB in government from Harvard University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Jesse has volunteered with Junior Achievement and Minds Matter in Boston, two non-profits focused on furthering educational opportunities for disadvantaged youths. Before joining Summit Partners, Jesse played two seasons of professional hockey and was drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes in the National Hockey League Entry Draft. He has also represented the United States as a member of two U.S. National Ice Hockey Teams in international competition.
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About Merrill Lynch, Summit Partners, UBS: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Mark T. Nordstrom
Principal, Capital Markets of Summit Partners
Mark T. Nordstrom joined Summit Partners in 2010. Prior to Summit, Mark worked for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Merrill Lynch & Co. and State Street Corporation. Based in Summit’s Boston office, Mark works on the firm’s capital markets activities, both for existing portfolio companies and for new acquisitions. In addition, he helps Summit manage its commercial and investment banking relationships. Mark holds a BA in economics from Wesleyan University. In addition, Mark is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
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About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Gabriel Carreiro
Principal of Summit Partners
Gabriel Carreiro is the Principal at Summit Partners
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About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Scott R. Ferguson
Principal of Summit Partners
Scott joined Summit Partners in 2009 and focuses primarily on the technology sector. His investment experience includes HelpSystems. Prior to Summit, Scott worked in the Technology Investment Banking Group at Piper Jaffray. He holds a BS in finance from the University of Kansas and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he was an F.C. Austin Scholar.
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About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Andrew R. McCarthy
Principal of Summit Partners
Andrew is a member of Summit Partners Credit Advisors, the credit affiliate of Summit Partners which addresses the borrowing needs of small and large companies. Prior to Summit, Andrew worked for Sankaty Advisors, the credit affiliate of Bain Capital, where he invested in public and private companies globally across the capital structure. He has also worked for MidOcean Partners and J.P. Morgan. Andrew holds a BA in Economics from Trinity College and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He has also studied at the London School of Economics. Andrew serves on the Seven Generations Board of City Year, a nonprofit organization focused on increasing graduation rates by providing individualized support to at-risk students while also establishing an overall positive learning environment.
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About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Gus Phelps
Principal of Summit Partners
Gus is a member of Summit Partners Credit Advisors, which addresses the borrowing needs of small and large companies. Prior to joining Summit, Gus was a founding partner at Seacoast Partners, and worked for Wachovia Securities and Tucker Anthony. Gus holds a BA from Trinity College and an MBA from Cornell University.
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About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Russel Bernard
Principal of Oaktree Capital Management
Russ Bernard is the Managing Principal at Westport Capital Partners LLC, an investment management company focused exclusively on opportunistic and distressed real estate investments. The company was founded in 2005, and invests in real estate through direct and indirect property ownership and through public and private real estate securities and financial instruments. It focuses specifically on distressed assets, value-added transactions, and domestic and international development opportunities. Westport Capital Partners was Endowment and Money Management Magazine’s 2010 Real Asset Manager of the Year.Prior to founding Westport Capital Partners, Mr. Bernard was a Principal at Oaktree and the Portfolio Manager for Oaktree’s real estate funds. He was responsible for the management of a series of closed-end real estate funds with over $2 billion in total committed capital. Prior to joining Oaktree in 1995, Mr. Bernard was a Managing Director at TCW and Portfolio Manager of the TCW Special Credits Distressed Mortgage Fund. Prior to that, he was a partner at Win Properties, Inc., a national real estate investment company for eight years. Before joining Win Properties, Mr. Bernard was with Time Equities, Inc., a New York real estate company for three years. He began his career as a Staff Accountant at Price Waterhouse in New York. Mr. Bernard has been on several corporate, university and charity boards. Mr. Bernard holds a B.S. in Business Management and Marketing from Cornell University.
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About Oaktree Capital Management, Westport Capital Partners: Oaktree Capital Management is a privately owned investment manager specializing in alternative investment strategies.
Sheldon Stone
Principal of Oaktree Capital Management
Sheldon Stone is the Principal at Oaktree Capital Management.
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About Oaktree Capital Management: Oaktree Capital Management is a privately owned investment manager specializing in alternative investment strategies.
James Zumberge
Principal of Providence Equity Partners
James Zumberge is a Vice President based in our New York office. He originally joined Providence in 2009 as an associate before attending business school. Previously, he was an analyst in Merrill Lynch’s media and telecommunications investment banking group. He received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University.
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About Providence Equity Partners: Providence Equity Partners is a private equity firm that focuses on media, entertainment, communications, and information investments.
Alexander Fayette
Principal of ACME Capital
Alex Fayette is a Principal at ACME. Prior to ACME, Alex was a Principal with Sherpa Capital. Alex is a frontline expert in frontier technology and has independently sourced and championed a number of investment opportunities for the firm. Alex currently serves as a board observer for Cymmetria, Light Field Lab, Quip, and a stealth space company. He previously served as a board observer for PillPack, which was acquired in July 2018 by Amazon. Previously, Alex was an Investment Banking Analyst for three years at J.P. Morgan, working across the Financial Institutions Investment Banking team in New York City and the Technology, Media & Telecom Investment Banking team in San Francisco. Alex received his B.A. from Yale University in Economics and is a former Yale Whiffenpoof. Alex lives in San Francisco. Board Observer: Cymmetria, Light Field Lab, Luka, Quip, and a stealth space company Former Board Observer: PillPack (acq. Amazon Sept 2018)
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About ACME Capital: ACME Capital invests in breakthrough technologies that fuel platform shifts and disruptive business models that capitalize on new platforms.
Aike (Tiffany) Ho
Principal of ACME Capital
Aike (Tiffany) Ho is a Principal at ACME. Prior to ACME, she was an Associate with Sherpa Capital. Aike spent most of her career at J.P. Morgan, where she played various intra-preneurial roles across the bank. In 2014, she helped launch the Investment Bank’s 150-person cross-asset electronic trading desk, named Execution Services. As Chief of Staff to the CEO of Chase Digital within the Consumer Bank, she led initial development for major strategic projects such as Chase Pay and digital account opening. Aike also co-founded a variety of businesses and served as an Entrepreneur-in- Residence at a private fund. Aike is a graduate of Yale University. Aike and her partner live in San Francisco. Board Observer: Beyond Games, Curology
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About ACME Capital: ACME Capital invests in breakthrough technologies that fuel platform shifts and disruptive business models that capitalize on new platforms.
Lisa Xu
Principal of FirstMark
Lisa Xu is the Principal at FirstMark.
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About FirstMark: FirstMark Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs.
Michael Fanfant
Principal of Runa Capital
Michael is a Senior Associate at Runa, where he works out of the firm’s Palo Alto office. He is on the Board of AppBuddy, Revegy, and ClearMechanic, and a Board Observer at Novi. Michael primarily focuses on regulated industries (fintech, edtech, healthcare, etc.) and B2B SaaS businesses. Prior to joining Runa, Michael was Co-Founder and COO at Octane Lending where he was responsible for overall strategy and customer acquisition. While at Octane Lending, he helped launch Roadrunner Financial, a near-prime lender for powersports vehicles. He continues to serve on Octane Lending’s Board of Directors. Michael graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Economics and is originally from Seattle, WA.
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About Runa Capital: Runa Capital is a VC focusing on B2B SaaS, machine intelligence, complex software, IT, fintech, edtech, and digital health.
Jacob Rubens
Principal of Flagship Pioneering
Jake is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Tessera Therapeutics, as well as a Principal at Flagship Pioneering. Jake joined Flagship Pioneering in 2015 and works as part of a venture-creation team, founding and growing companies based on new biotechnology. At Flagship, Jake launched Kaleido Biosciences and co-founded Sana Biotechnology. Jake was the Head of Innovation at Cobalt Biomedicine, where he invented and developed the company’s Fusosome platform prior to its merger with Sana Biotechnology. Before joining Flagship, Jake received his Ph.D. in microbiology from MIT, working in the Synthetic Biology Center with Professor Tim Lu with the support of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. At MIT Jacob invented gene circuits that allow engineered cells to do novel analog, digital, and hybrid computations, enabling the emerging field of “intelligent” cell therapies. Jake’s work has resulted in multiple pending patents and publications, including articles in Nature and Nature Communications. Jake was honored in 2017 in Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in science.
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About Flagship Pioneering, Tessera Therapeutics: Flagship Pioneering is a venture capital firm that invests in life sciences and healthcare companies.
Ewen Cameron
Principal of Flagship Pioneering
Ewen joined Flagship Pioneering in 2016 after completing the VentureLabs Fellows program. He works closely with Flagship’s partners as part of a venture creation team to explore areas of opportunity, create new science and launch breakthrough companies. Prior to joining Flagship, Ewen was a postdoctoral fellow in Jim Collins’ lab at MIT’s Institute of Medical Engineering and Science, where he used protein engineering to develop synthetic biology tools for antibiotic discovery and in vivo pathogen detection. Ewen earned his doctorate in microbiology and molecular genetics from Harvard University, where he developed high throughput screening platforms to study bacterial pathogenesis. He also spent time working in Africa with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, studying the transmission routes and immunopathology of blinding trachoma. Throughout his academic career, Ewen has received multiple awards and fellowships, and he is an author on several pending patents for his work on tunable protein degradation, chimeric receptor engineering and microbial kill switches. Ewen holds an undergraduate degree from Yale University in molecular, cellular and developmental biology.
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About Flagship Pioneering: Flagship Pioneering is a venture capital firm that invests in life sciences and healthcare companies.
Molly Gibson
Principal of Flagship Pioneering
Molly is an associate at Flagship Pioneering, working as part of a team of entrepreneurial scientists to conceive, create, resource and develop the next generation of Flagship’s first-in-category ventures. She joined Flagship from Kaleido Biosciences, a VentureLabs® company, and brings expertise in computational biology and computer science to the Flagship team. At Kaleido, Molly played a key role in establishing a data science platform from the ground-up and successfully integrating robust quantitative learnings into all aspects of research. In this role, she created the first computational platform for drug discovery and a predictive understanding of pharmacological control of the human microbiome. Molly has also held engineering and consulting roles at Boeing and The BALSA Group. Molly received her Ph.D. in computational and systems biology from Washington University in Saint Louis. Her graduate research led to novel methods for studying the transmission of antibiotic resistance genes between the environment and clinical pathogens. Molly applied these methods to model the emergence of antibiotic resistance in the developing infant gut microbiome in response to specific durations and classes of antibiotic treatments. Molly’s research was supported by several competitive fellowships, including a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and she is co-author on multiple papers in top-tier journals. While at Washington University, Molly was a leader in science outreach and education. She served as director and was on the board of the Young Scientist Program for three years, leading over 100 active volunteer scientists with the mission of bringing inquiry-based science to disadvantaged K-12 students. At the graduate level, Molly conceived and developed a bioinformatics course that is now standard for all incoming graduate students in biology and biomedical sciences. Molly holds a B.S. in computer science from Truman State University in Missouri.
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About Flagship Pioneering: Flagship Pioneering is a venture capital firm that invests in life sciences and healthcare companies.
Jason Park
Principal of Flagship Pioneering
Jason Park joined Flagship in 2015 and focuses on life science investments. He is based in New York City, where he is helping lead the firm’s activities in the development of the city’s life sciences industry. Prior to joining Flagship, Jason was with the Boston Consulting Group where he was a core member of the Health Care, Strategy, and Technology teams. Jason led projects across a broad variety of topics, including early stage R&D, portfolio investment strategy, biopharmaceutical manufacturing, strategic and commercial due diligence, and global health. His time at BCG included wide geographic exposure, including years abroad as a member of the Mumbai and Paris offices. Earlier in his career, Jason was a director at an early stage biotech start-up focused on targeted drug delivery as well as the co-founder of an internet advertising firm. Jason holds a Ph.D., an M.S. and a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Yale University where he continues to serve as an external venture creation mentor. His research focused on the use of nanotechnology for immunomodulatory purposes and he is the author of several book chapters and numerous peer-reviewed publications.
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About Flagship Pioneering: Flagship Pioneering is a venture capital firm that invests in life sciences and healthcare companies.
Freddie Martignetti
Principal of Highland Capital Partners
Freddie Martignetti is a founding member of ROSALUNA. Prior to founding the firm in the winter of 2011 Freddie worked in the Securitized Products Division of both Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, as well as the Investment Banking Division of Morgan Stanley. Freddie is a member of the Liquor.com Board of Directors.
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About FIGS, Highland Capital Partners, OneSpace, Rosaluna: Highland Capital Partners is a venture capital firm that offers seed, early, and growth-stage funding solutions.
Claire Fauquier
Principal of Highland Capital Partners
Claire is a Principal with Corigin Ventures. She is responsible for sourcing and analyzing deals, along with working with, and supporting portfolio companies. She began her career working in Investment Banking with Credit Suisse, both in their Toronto and New York offices. She did a stint working for the Nairobi-based growth private equity firm, Jacana Partners. Claire spent time working in the UK for the FinTech company Ebury, leading their M&A growth strategy efforts and working to prepare the company for a capital raise. Claire earned an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Commerce from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.
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About Highland Capital Partners: Highland Capital Partners is a venture capital firm that offers seed, early, and growth-stage funding solutions.
Sean Judge
Principal of Highland Capital Partners
Sean Judge is the Principal at Highland Capital Partners.
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About Highland Capital Partners, LovePop, Trilogy Education Services, WhyHotel: Highland Capital Partners is a venture capital firm that offers seed, early, and growth-stage funding solutions.
Cameron Winklevoss
Principal of Winklevoss Capital
Cameron Winklevoss is the Co-founder and President of Gemini, a next generation Bitcoin exchange. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Economics and earned an MBA from Oxford University. In 2008, he represented the United States at the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing, China, placing 6th. Cameron has been an angel investor and entrepreneur in emerging technologies since 2003. He began participating in the Bitcoin economy through direct investment in 2012. In addition to being President of Gemini, he and his brother Tyler are currently seeking SEC approval for the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, a bitcoin ETF, and have launched the WinkDex, a bitcoin price index that will price the ETF.
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About Gemini, Gemini Frontier Fund, WinkDex, Winklevoss Capital: We believe in determined entrepreneurs and reinforce their pursuit of a frictionless world.
Cameron Winklevoss
Principal of Winklevoss Capital
Cameron Winklevoss is the Co-founder and President of Gemini, a next generation Bitcoin exchange. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Economics and earned an MBA from Oxford University. In 2008, he represented the United States at the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing, China, placing 6th. Cameron has been an angel investor and entrepreneur in emerging technologies since 2003. He began participating in the Bitcoin economy through direct investment in 2012. In addition to being President of Gemini, he and his brother Tyler are currently seeking SEC approval for the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, a bitcoin ETF, and have launched the WinkDex, a bitcoin price index that will price the ETF.
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About Gemini, Gemini Frontier Fund, WinkDex, Winklevoss Capital: We believe in determined entrepreneurs and reinforce their pursuit of a frictionless world.
Ilse Calderon
Senior Associate and Principal of OVO Fund
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About OVO Fund: OVO Fund is a venture capital firm specializing in seed investments in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Zaz Floreani
Principal of Next Coast Ventures
Zaz is responsible for building long-lasting strategic partnerships between Dropoff and Fortune 500 companies. She has spent her career helping startups build growth-generating relationships with enterprises – from new product integrations to new sales channels. Prior to Dropoff, Zaz spent three years at Spredfast (formerly Mass Relevance), building their business development practice and coordinating their M&A efforts. She was previously the Director of Business Development at Austin Ventures, Texas’ largest and most active venture fund. Zaz earned her MBA and MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas in Austin and her BA from UCLA. Together with her local entrepreneur husband, daughter and two dogs, Zaz enjoys family dinners and traveling.
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About Next Coast Ventures: Next Coast Ventures is a venture capital firm founded by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs in ‘Next Coast’ markets.
Inga Deakin
Principal of Molten Ventures
Inga is an Analyst in the Healthcare Ventures team evaluating investments across therapeutics, medical devices and healthcare. She also works with the Technology Transfer team investigating commercialisation and development opportunities. Inga joined Innovations in April 2011 from the technology transfer and business development team at the Royal Veterinary College in London. She currently sits on the Members Services committee of PraxisUnico, the UK’s representative organisation for research commercialisation professionals. She completed a DPhil and an MSc in Neuroscience from the University of Oxford, sponsored by the Wellcome Trust, and has a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.
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About Molten Ventures: Molten Ventures is Europe’s largest listed tech VC firm. We inject the most visionary companies with energy to help them transform and grow.
Craig Nolan
Principal of Akkadian Ventures
Craig Nolan is a principal at Akkadian Ventures. He focuses primarily on due diligence for prospective transactions and also assists in sourcing and execution. Prior to Akkadian, Craig Nolan was a director at Arcstone Parters, a leading valuation firm. Arcstone’s clients include some of the world’s leading private companies. Craig Nolan has researched and valued countless companies for transactional and regulatory purposes. His experience encompasses entities of virtually every size and industry, with an emphasis on fast-growing private companies supported by institutional venture capital and private equity funds. At Arcstone, Craig helped establish Arcstone Equity Research, a research firm that served the direct secondary marketplace. Craig Nolan earned an MBA and BS from the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver and is a CFA charterholder.
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About Akkadian Ventures: Akkadian Ventures is a direct secondary investment firm that offers liquidity to early employees and investors of venture-backed businesses.
Medha Agarwal
Principal of Redpoint
Medha Agarwal is an investor on Redpoint’s early stage consumer team. Prior to Redpoint, Medha worked at Thumbtack, skedge.me, and Bain & Company. She also co-founded Roomidex, a social roommate finding website to help people find roommates within their network. Outside of work, Medha is a founding Board Member and current Advisor to Project HEAL, a non-profit that funds treatment for those with eating disorders and promotes healthy body image. Medha earned her M.B.A from Harvard Business School and her A.B. from Harvard University, where she was on the lightweight crew team and graduated with high honors.
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About Redpoint, Rough Draft Ventures: Redpoint Ventures partners with visionary founders to create new markets or redefine existing ones at the seed, early, and growth stages.
Jenny Wang
Principal of Owl Ventures
As a first-generation immigrant from a low-income family, Jenny has experienced first-hand the difference that a quality education can make in someone’s life and is fully committed to investing in and building organizations that are making significant advancement in improving the quality, accessibility, and reach of education. Jenny has worked closely with several companies in Owl’s portfolio, including Hazel Health and SV Academy. Before joining Owl Ventures, Jenny was an investor at George Soros’ Family Office, Soros Fund Management, where she evaluated and executed growth equity and buyout opportunities across sectors in partnership with top-tier management teams. Prior to Soros, Jenny was an investment banker at Barclays where she advised clients on M&A transactions. Jenny is an Education Pioneer Fellow and is a graduate of Queen’s University, where she earned a Bachelor of Commerce, with First Class Honours with Distinction, and was a varsity athlete. She is currently completing her M.B.A from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she is an Arbuckle Leadership Fellow, and will be re-joining Owl in Summer 2020.
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About Owl Ventures: Owl Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies.
Ross Darwin
Principal of Owl Ventures
Ross joins the team directly from Stanford Business School and brings a strong foundation of investment and education experience to the Owl team. Prior to receiving his MBA, Ross spent 3.5 years at TA Associates as an Associate where he was active in deal sourcing, due diligence, deal execution and portfolio support. Ross evaluated a number of opportunities in the education space and was an integral member of one of the major education deals that TA closed. Prior to TA Associates, Ross was an Associate at The Parthenon Group, a consulting firm that specializes in education and private equity work. Ross worked on numerous client projects including a unique education assignment where he developed classification and intervention programs for CORE, the largest 8 school districts in CA to seek US Department of Education approval for a custom program to replace the requirements of No Child Left Behind.
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About Owl Ventures: Owl Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies.
Kriti Bansal
Principal of Owl Ventures
Kriti Bansal serves as a Principal at Owl Ventures.
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About Owl Ventures: Owl Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies.
Eric Noeth
Principal of Advent International
Eric Noeth is a Principal at Advent International.
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About Advent International: Advent International is a global private equity firm that invests in the business and financial services.
Vignesh Ravikumar
Principal of Sierra Ventures
Vignesh joined Sierra Ventures in 2013 and focuses on SaaS and Vertical Apps. Vignesh has a background in M&A transactions for enterprise software companies, having worked at AGC Partners, a Boston-based investment bank. Vignesh holds a BS in Management Science and a Minor in Math from UC San Diego. Outside of work, he is an avid golfer and a big Golden State Warriors fan.
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About Sierra Ventures: Sierra Ventures is an early-stage venture firm investing globally with a focus on next generation enterprise and emerging technologies.
Malte Janzarik
Principal of TPG
Malte Janzarik is a Principal of TPG, based in London. Malte Janzarik focuses on new media, tech and digital space as well as activities in the German speaking markets. TPG transactions he has been involved in include Victoria Plumb, Grohe, ProSight, Gate Gourmet and Findexa. Prior to joining TPG in 2005 he spent a number of years working at UBS Investment Bank as an Associate Director. Malte Janzarik holds a First Class Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge and a Master in Business Administration from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar. Malte Janzarik serves on the Board of Directors of Victoria Plumb.
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About TPG: TPG is a private investment firm that manages capital across a family of funds.
Jonathan Waldstreicher
Principal of Apple Tree Partners
Jonathan Waldstreicher, MD, brings medical device investing and development experience to Apple Tree Partners. Prior to joining Apple Tree, Jon was a Director, Global Surgery R&D, at Johnson & Johnson where he initiated and led an investment strategy and R&D development program in a new growth platform technology area. He started at Johnson & Johnson as an Associate Director in the Corporate Office of Science & Technology where he executed numerous seed grants to startup companies and participated in technical diligence of venture capital investments. Before medical school, Jon worked in Equity Research at Bear Stearns. Jon received a B.A. from Brandeis University in Economics and an M.D. and M.B.A. from Tufts University School of Medicine where he was awarded the Norman Stearns award for highest achievement and overall excellence within the dual degree program. Between his third and fourth year of medical school, Jon worked as a fellow at the Corporate Office of Science & Technology at J&J. He completed a General Surgery Internship at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
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About Apple Tree Partners, Galaxy Medical, Johnson & Johnson: Apple Tree Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in pharmaceuticals, biotech, medtech, and healthcare services.
Stephanie Khoo
Principal of Nyca Partners
Prior to joining Nyca, Stephanie was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in the Investment Banking Division. Stephanie has worked across both Sydney and New York as part of the Financial Institutions Group, with a focus on financial technology. Stephanie received her Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales.
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About Nyca Partners: Nyca Partners is a venture capital and advisory firm that focuses on the fintech sector.
Sol Lee
Principal of Nyca Partners
Prior to joining Nyca, Sol was on the Payments team at Uber, focusing on analytics and optimization of card, cash and wallet disbursements and collections globally. Before Uber, Sol was an analyst at Mastercard in Strategy & Analytics, working both on the issuer and merchant side of the business. Sol received her BBA from University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
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About Nyca Partners: Nyca Partners is a venture capital and advisory firm that focuses on the fintech sector.
Duncan Gills
Principal of Battery Ventures
Duncan is a vice president at Battery, focusing on later-stage enterprise-software investments, including buyouts, carve-outs, take-privates, PIPES, and growth-equity. Prior to Battery, Duncan was a principal at True Wind Capital, a middle-market technology private equity firm. Earlier in his career, Duncan was a vice president at Thoma Bravo where he sourced and executed new platform investments and portfolio company add-on acquisitions within the infrastructure software sector. Duncan began his carrier as a leveraged finance analyst at Citigroup. Duncan earned a BS in management with concentrations in finance and economics from Boston College.
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About Battery Ventures: Battery Ventures finances technology sector companies with venture capital, private equity, and debt financing investments.
Satoshi Harris-Koizumi
Principal of Battery Ventures
Toshi joined Battery in 2012 as an Analyst and focuses on later stage investments, including growth equity, buyouts, rollups, PIPES, and take-privates. Prior to Battery, he spent time with North Bridge Growth Equity in Waltham, Massachusetts. Toshi graduated from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Economics.
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About Battery Ventures: Battery Ventures finances technology sector companies with venture capital, private equity, and debt financing investments.
