Alan Patricof
Alan J. Patricof is the Co-Founder and Chairperson of Primetime Partners, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on servicing the aging population. A longtime innovator and advocate for venture capital, he entered the industry in its formative days with the creation of Patricof & Co. Ventures Inc., a predecessor to Apax Partners -today, one of the world's leading private equity firms with $75 billion under management. In 2006, he founded Greycroft Partners, a venture capital firm where he is currently Chairman Emeritus, to invest in leading early and expansion stage investments in digital media. With offices in New York and Los Angeles, Greycroft has $2B+under management. With a 50-plus year career in venture capital, Patricof has been instrumental in growing the venture capital field from a base of high net-worth individuals to its position today with broad institutional backing, as well as playing a key role in the essential legislative initiatives that have guided its evolution. He has helped build and foster the growth of numerous major global companies, including, among others, America Online, Office Depot, Cadence Systems, Cellular Communications, Inc., Apple Computer, FORE Systems, NTL, lntraLinks, Audible, Huffington Post and Axios. He was also a founder and Chairman of the Board of New York Magazine, which later acquired the Village Voice and New West magazine. He recently released his memoir, No Red Lights: Reflections on Life, 50 Years in Venture Capital and Never Driving Alone, detailing his life and career in VC, PE, politics, philanthropy and more. He is currently a board member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, the Finance Committee of Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem, The Board of Overseers of Columbia School of Business and The Fortune Society. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Patricof holds a BS in Finance from Ohio State University and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
Bill Gross
Bill Gross, the founder and chairman of Idealab, is a lifelong entrepreneur who has started more than 175 groundbreaking companies in the last 50 years. More than 50 of those companies have had successful IPOs or acquisitions. Those companies have also created more than 10,000 jobs and have raised more than $4 Billion.
Among Bill’s transformative changes is the invention of the business model that powers most of the monetization of the internet. Bill invented the “paid click” or CPC (cost-per-click) bidded-keyword model with the company GoTo/Overture, which he founded in 1998. After a successful IPO and becoming the global market leader in paid search, the company was acquired by Yahoo in 2003. Today, Bill’s pioneering idea is used by Google and millions of websites around the world and remains one of his most significantly impactful inventions.
Bill’s dream is to make a positive impact on the world’s most pressing problems with technological and entrepreneurial innovation and helping them spread globally. He is currently focused on climate mitigation technologies and artificial intelligence. Bill has authored more than 100 patents in search, solar, robotics, energy and AI.
In addition to serving as Idealab’s board chairman, Bill is a member of the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, Caltech, and leads the Technology Transfer and Innovation Committee. Bill also serves on the Board of Trustees of the ArtCenter College of Design.
Brian Singerman
Brian Singerman is a partner at Founders Fund, where he relentlessly seeks out companies that can deliver massive returns to investors while also providing real value to humankind. He invests across sectors and stages, with a passion for companies reinventing huge industries like healthcare, biotechnology and education. Brian is a board director for Affirm, Cloud9, Emerald Therapeutics, The Long-Term Stock Exchange, Oscar and Postmates, and a board observer for Airbnb, Wish, Anduril and Forward. He was a board director for Misfit prior to the company’s acquisition by Fossil in 2015, and Stemcentrx before the company was acquired by AbbVie in 2016 in the largest private biotech acquisition of all time.
Prior to Founders Fund, Brian spent four years as an engineer and executive at Google. During this time Brian began investing through his own angel fund, The XGYC Fund. He began his career as an engineer at a startup, There, Inc. Brian graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Computer Science.
Dan Senor
Dan Senor is co-author of The New York Times-bestselling book The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World, as well as The New York Times bestseller Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, which has been translated into more than 30 languages.
He was a senior advisor to former Speaker Paul Ryan’s campaign for vice president and foreign policy advisor to Senator Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns. A former Defense Department official, Dan was based in Iraq and at U.S. Central Command in Qatar in 2003 and 2004 as chief spokesperson for the U.S.-led coalition. He has written for The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA TODAY, and The Washington Post. In addition, he is also the host of the podcast “Call Me Back” and appears frequently on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” and “CBS Mornings”.
Dan was educated at the University of Western Ontario, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Harvard Business School, and is currently a partner at an investment management firm. He lives in New York City with his wife and two sons.
David Frankel
David is co-founder and Managing Partner of Founder Collective, a seed-stage VC fund. FC's portfolio includes Uber (NYSE: UBER) and TheTradeDesk (NYSE: TTD). Frankel was ranked as the #1 seed investor on the 2022 & 2023 Midas lists. He is the lead investor for Founder Collective in Coupang (NYSE: CPNG), Seatgeek & PillPack (acquired by Amazon). Previously, David was co-founder and CEO of Internet Solutions (IS), the largest ISP in Africa, ultimately acquired by NTT. Before Founder Collective, David provided the first capital for numerous companies including Olo (NYSE: OLO) where David continues to work closely with the company’s founder, Noah Glass. David is the co-founder of NextUp - a youth employment accelerator in South Africa (https://nextup.org.za/about-us/). In 2000, he was voted the South African Technology Achiever of the Century. The World Economic Forum later selected him for the Global Leader of Tomorrow (GLT) program. David holds an honors degree in Electrical Engineering (Wits) and, post selection for the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Program, earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard.
Hemant Taneja
Hemant Taneja is the CEO and Managing Director of the global venture capital firm General Catalyst. He is a multi-year Midas List investor, a best-selling author and a founder. His career includes early investments in market-leading companies like Stripe, Samsara (NYSE: IOT), Snap (NYSE: SNAP), ClassDojo, Grammarly, Gusto, Applied Intuition, and Anduril. He has also hatched numerous companies like Commure, Tendo and Livongo, which was acquired by Teladoc in an $18.5B merger, the largest in digital health history. He is author of the best selling book Intended Consequences and the co-founder of Responsible Innovation Labs, a non-profit aiming to re-center technology as a force for good. Hemant holds five degrees from MIT and serves on the Stanford School of Medicine Board of Fellows, is the co-founder and Chairman of Advanced Energy Economy, and is a founding board member of Khan Lab School.
Hide Kobayashi
Hide Kobayashi is Head of Digital Innovation for the Tokio Marine Innovation Lab, based in Silicon Valley, which is part of Tokio Marine Holdings, the parent company of Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance (TMNF). TMNF is the oldest non-life insurance company in Japan, and one of the largest insurance companies in the world. Mr. Kobayashi leads innovation initiatives across the company on a global scale, addressing societal issues that go far beyond insurance. He also oversees the Group’s investment strategy. Before that, he was the General Manager leading strategic planning for the claims department of the property and casualty insurance company, Tokio Marine, overseeing 200 branches and 10,000 employees. There, he promoted digital transformation (DX) within the claims division by leveraging advanced digital technologies and optimizing business processes.
Mr. Kobayashi has a Master’s degree in Economics from Kwansei-Gakuin University.
Howard Morgan
Howard Lee Morgan is Chair of B Capital Group, a multi stage global fund based in Singapore and Manhattan Beach, CA and Co-Founder of First Round Capital, established in 2004 as an early stage venture fund based in Philadelphia, PA, New York and San Francisco. He is also President of Arca Group Inc. in New York and a Director of Idealab, the Pasadena , CA based creator and operator of internet companies, where he was a founding investor in 1996. He holds a B.S. in Physics from the City College of New York, a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Cornell University, and an M.S.(hc) from the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Morgan served as Professor of Decision Sciences at The Wharton School, and Professor of Computer and Information Sciences at The Moore School of the University of Pennsylvania from 1972 through 1985. He started his career as Assistant Professor of Operations Research and Computer Science at Cornell University. He has been a Visiting Professor at the California Institute of Technology and the Harvard Business School. His research on user interface technology and on optimization of computer networks led to his bringing the ARPAnet to Philadelphia in 1974.
From 1982 to 1989, he served as the first President of Renaissance Technologies Corp. in New York, where he supervised venture capital investments in high technology companies. Since 1989, he has been President of the Arca Group, Inc., a consulting and venture capital investment management firm specializing in the area of computer and communications technologies. Arca Group has taken many ventures from seed stage through initial public offerings. He also runs M5Invest LLC and the Morgan Family Common Investment Fund, MFCIF LLC.
He is currently helping to nurture a number of startups in both early stage venture and quantitative investing including Precision Neuroscience, EeroQ, MyndYou and Augury Systems. He worked with numerous Idealab companies, serving on the board of Evolution Robotics (since sold to IRobot) and as Chairman of Internet Brands, the leading internet media company through its public offering and subsequent sale to Hellman Friedman.
Dr. Morgan serves as a Trustee of Cornell University, a Foundation Director of the New York Public Library, Trustee of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, a Director and Executive Committee member of Math for America and as a Chair of the Mabel Mercer Foundation. He was named Delaware Valley Entrepreneur of the Year in the prestigious Ernst & Young competition.
Jonathan Van Ness
Jonathan Van Ness is an Emmy-winning television personality, 2x New York Times best-selling author, podcaster, comedian, celebrity hairstylist, founder of JVN Hair and Co-Founder of Yummers Pets. He stars on Netflix’s Emmy Award-winning reboot series “Queer Eye,” where he shines as the hair guru and self-care advocate; and he hosts the popular podcast, “Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness.” Jonathan also starred on the Emmy-nominated web series “Gay of Thrones,” a witty social commentary series recapping HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” Launched in 2013, the series garnered three Emmy nominations for ‘Outstanding Short Form Variety Series.’ Fresh off of two successful worldwide comedy tours, Jonathan Van Ness: Road to Beijing and Imaginary Living Room Olympian, which sold out theaters in 40 cities in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, Jonathan is bringing their new show, Fun & Slutty, A Night with Jonathan Van Ness, to cities around the US, Canada and abroad. Unfiltered comedy, wildly entertaining and fun, the show is a celebration of joy and a showcase for all the sides of JVN you have never seen before.
Keisuke Seki
Keisuke Seki is Deputy General Manager of the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), responsible for VC investments in Japanese start-ups and LP investments to Global/Domestic VC funds. Since Mr. Seki joined DBJ in 2000 he has been focused on the PE/VC area, including direct investments, fund investments, LBO finance, mezzanine finance, distressed finance, etc. From 2016 to 2020, he was the MD in DBJ’s Asset Management, responsible for global PE/PD fund investments for Japanese institutional investors.
From 2014 to 2016, he worked as a Senior Manager for GROHE (DBJ’s investee company), a global sanitary company in Germany.
Mr. Seki has Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Hitotsubashi University, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Lady Gaga
Academy Award, SAG Award, Golden Globe and 13-time GRAMMY-winner Lady Gaga is a one-of-a kind artist, songwriter, performer, actress, philanthropist and innovator. She has amassed an outstanding 87 million global album sales, 96 billion streams and 516 million in song consumption, making her one of the best-selling artists of all time. As a musician, Lady Gaga knows no bounds in her artistic innovation, from creating chart-topping, platinum-selling, and genre-defining pop hits, to producing Academy Award and GRAMMY Award-winning soundtracks, to reimagining classics from the Great American Songbook. She has had 6 consecutive #1 albums, making her the first female artist to do so over a ten-year period (2011-2020). Lady Gaga continues to push the boundaries of success, harnessing her transformative power of creativity and strategic vision across music, film, beauty, philanthropy, and more.
Lady Gaga has conquered some of the world’s biggest stages, captivating audiences across the globe. From her electrifying halftime show at Super Bowl LI in 2017, to her unforgettable Academy Awards performances showcasing her vocal prowess and versatility, Gaga consistently paves the way for what it means to be an entertainer. She has been honored with countless awards and recognitions, including in TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the World, as Billboard’s “Woman of the Year,” and on Forbes’ “World's 100 Most Powerful Women” list.
Lady Gaga is the founder of Haus Labs, a science-forward beauty brand with a mission to create high-performing products that push the boundaries of innovation, leveraging cutting-edge technology to create next-level formulas. Haus Labs boasts an array of award-winning, skincare-infused clean makeup products including a best-selling line of complexion products. Offering a wide range of shades and undertones, TriClone™ Skin Tech Medium Coverage Foundation has received over 20 awards including the prestigious Allure Best of Beauty 2023 Award, and has broken TikTok records with over 10 billion views. The brand is sold exclusively at Sephora online and in all stores across US, Canada and the UK. In March, the brand will expand to Sephora Europe across 12 countries.
Lady Gaga is also an outspoken activist, philanthropist and supporter of many important issues including mental health and LGBTQIA+ rights. In 2012, she launched Born This Way Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports youth mental health and works with young people to build a kinder and braver world. Born This Way Foundation’s programs all aim at connecting young people with resources to build communities that understand, prioritize, and foster mental health. In 2020, Lady Gaga curated the record-breaking Global Citizen broadcast event: One World: Together At Home, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) to fight COVID-19 impacts, from housing to health care. As part of this event, she helped raise over $128M to support WHO's Solidarity Response Fund and local and regional responders.
Matt Murphy
Matt is a partner at Menlo Ventures and invests multi-stage across SaaS (AI-first, vertical apps, DevOps, API platforms) and robotics. Since joining Menlo in 2015, Matt has led investments in Airbase, Alloy.AI, Benchling, 6 River Systems (acquired by Shopify), Canvas, Clarifai, Carta, Envoy, Finch, FireHydrant, Harness, Heap Analytics, HOVER, Netlify, Observable, Relyance AI, Scout RFP (acquired by Workday), Sleuth, Usermind (acquired by Qualtrics), Veriflow (acquired by VMware), Vivun, and Zylo. He also serves as a board member at Egnyte and a board observer at Datastax.
Previously, Matt was a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers for over 15 years. In addition to Egnyte and Datastax, he was also an observer at Google (from initial investment to IPO), launched the iFund in ’08 (a collaborative initiative with Apple to build the defining iOS apps), sourced the firm’s investment in DocuSign, and led investments in Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST), Noom, Puppet (acquired by Perforce in 2022), SessionM (acquired by Mastercard in 2019), Drawbridge (acquired by LinkedIn in 2019), Shazam (acquired by Apple in 2018), AppDynamics (acquired by Cisco for $3.7B in 2017), Simplivity (acquired by HPE for $650M in 2017), PernixData (acquired by Nutanix in 2016), Shopkick (acquired by SK Planet 2014), Aerohive Networks (NASDAQ: HIVE, 2014), Ocarina Networks (acquired by Dell in 2010), and AutoNavi (NASDAQ: AMAP, 2010).
Before joining Kleiner Perkins, Matt worked at data networking startup Netboost (acquired by Intel), where he led product management; and, prior to that, at Sun Microsystems, where he led business development for the Network Systems Group and was a product line manager for networking platforms. Matt holds a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Tufts University and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He serves as the vice chairman of the Stanford University Engineering Venture Fund and is co-chair of the computer science committee on the Board of Visitors at Duke University.
Michael Mignano
Michael joined Lightspeed’s Consumer practice as a Partner in 2022 after most recently serving as Head of Talk for Spotify where he led the podcast, live, and video businesses for the world’s leading audio streaming platform. Michael cofounded Anchor, which was acquired by Spotify in 2019, and is credited for democratizing podcasting globally, transforming it from a small, niche medium into a universal form of creative expression adopted by millions of people worldwide. At Lightspeed, he’s primarily focused on investing in Generative AI and Creator Supply Chain companies, and recent deals include Tome, Circle Labs, Granola and Pika Labs.
Nicole Quinn
Nicole is a General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, where she focuses on Consumer, FinTech and Health investing. Consumer behavior, founder insights, and company brand are core in Nicole’s mind. She is on the board of beehiiv, Lightyear, Multiverse, Calm, Goop, Cameo and Lady Gaga's Haus Labs. Earlier, she sourced Rothy's and Zola. Prior to joining Lightspeed, Nicole had her own startup in the wearables space and worked at the European FinTech startup Nutmeg. Earlier in her career she was at Morgan Stanley where she worked on the IPOs for Facebook, Pandora and Groupon. Nicole has been featured in The Wall Street Journal's VC Women to Watch, Marie Claire New Guard Awards and The Forbes Midas Brink List.. She is on Lightspeed's Diversity and Inclusion Committee and an advocate for change around diversity. Nicole received a B.A. in Economics and Math from York, England and an MBA from Stanford.
Nina Achadjian
Nina Achadjian is a Partner at Index Ventures where she focuses on venture and growth investments in enterprise SaaS, vertical SaaS, and AI. Some of her investments include ServiceTitan, Gong, DeepScribe, and Class Companion.
Prior to joining Index, Nina was an FP&A Lead for Google’s AdSense team where she managed a multi-billion dollar book of business covering Amazon, IAC, and eBay. Nina started her career as a high-yield bond trader at Citigroup. She also started HIVE Ventures, the first seed venture fund focusing on Armenian entrepreneurs, where she invested in over 30 companies.
Nina graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in government and is a recipient of the Michael C. Rockefeller Scholarship. Nina currently lives in San Francisco and enjoys watching football and Formula 1.
Olaf Carlson-Wee
Olaf Carlson-Wee is the founder and CIO of Polychain Capital. He is the former Head of Risk at Coinbase, the largest digital asset exchange in the United States, where he was hired as the first employee. During his three year tenure at Coinbase, Olaf built a 40 person operations team, conducted agent training on blockchain analysis for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), and the Treasury Department, and designed fraud protection and account security mechanisms protecting billions of dollars in transactional value occurring in over 30 countries. He received a civilian award from Homeland Security for technical analysis of the blockchain in a $10,000,000 cyber crime case and has a patent pending for the Bitcoin Host Computer System, a multi-authorization bitcoin storage mechanism. Olaf also educated the economic advisor to President Obama on blockchain technology and has given numerous public facing technical talks on private key security and fraud prevention at scale. He received a BA from Vassar College after completing his thesis on distributed networking and financial cryptography.
Ray Lane
Ray Lane is a Managing Partner at GreatPoint Ventures, a fund focused on using resources more efficiently (agriculture, water, energy, etc.), living longer and healthier lives (food, biotechnology, and healthcare), and increasing productivity (robotics, software, etc.). Ray is also a strategic advisor for Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, after serving as a managing partner with the firm for 14 years. Since 2000, Ray has focused on helping entrepreneurs with technological and market insight, organizational development, team building, selling and managing growth.
Ray serves on the board of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and was the former Chairman of Hewlett-Packard Inc. He also serves on the board of trustees of Carnegie Mellon University and was its Chairman from 2009 to 2016. He serves as a Vice Chairman of Special Olympics International and just completed eight years of service on the Board of Governors for West Virginia University. Ray dedicated the majority of his time serving on several start-up boards that are associated with GPV investments.
Prior to 2000, Ray was president and chief operating officer of Oracle Corp., one of the world’s largest software companies. During his eight-year tenure, Oracle grew from $800 million to more than $10 billion with a market cap exceeding $200 billion. Earlier in his career, Ray was a senior partner with Booz Allen Hamilton, where he pioneered and led the Information Systems Group, a worldwide technology consulting group for global enterprises. He served on Booz Allen Hamilton’s board of directors and executive management committee.
Ray received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and an honorary Ph.D. in science from West Virginia University. He was elected to the Academy of Distinguished Graduates and the Order of the Vandalia at WVU. The university honored Ray by naming the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in its College of Engineering. Ray was an active campaigner and planner for Carnegie Mellon’s establishment in 2002 of a Silicon Valley campus. He helped create and fund Carnegie Mellon's Lane Computational Biology Department, one of six permanent degree-granting departments in the School of Computer Science. He was also recognized with an honorary Ph.D. from Golden Gate University in 1995. And in 2011, Ray was honored by TechAmerica as its recipient of the David Packard Medal of Lifetime Achievement Award.
Rebecca Rudisch
Rebecca Rudisch is a Senior Global Business Leader, business innovator and transformation expert with deep expertise in retail, ecommerce, marketing, brand and product development in the U.S. and internationally. She is valued for decisive leadership, strategic thinking, international perspective, strategy development, P&L and team leadership, and omnichannel merchandising and marketing. She is a visionary with notable accomplishments creating new brands, value propositions, business models, business ventures and partnerships.
Rebecca is CEO of Yummers, a pet food and lifestyle brand that is improving the lives of pets and their parents by making every meal extremely delicious and highly nutritious. Additionally, Rebecca is a Partner in Caravan, a premier brand incubator, founded by Creative Artists Agency (CAA). She serves as Chief Commercial Officer, leads go-to-market strategy for brands in the Pet, Home, Health and Wellness and Beverage sectors. Through her own company, Rebecca advises consumer goods and retail companies ranging from start-ups to $5+ billion in revenue on strategic omnichannel and digital growth opportunities. The companies span functional nutrition, beverages, beauty, baby and pet businesses. She serves as Operating Advisor to Aria Growth Partners, a start-up PE fund focused on small-cap consumer growth companies, and has been active in the Bain expert network.
As Senior Vice President, Head of Own Brand & Selling Experience at H-E-B, a private, omnichannel grocery, health & wellness and general merchandise retailer, Rebecca led all aspects of a $9 billion Private Brand business for stores and digital channels. She grew sales at two-times company rate, share by more than 120 bps and margin by 35 bps, and created and implemented long-range strategies to expand new brands and product lines. She created and launched new brands and products focused on key customer trends around the cooking and culinary experience, convenient meal solutions, sustainability, health, wellness and beauty, and kitchen and home, and built the digital cooking and culinary customer experience platform to enable in-home demonstrations, food and wine events.
At Petco Health & Wellness, Rebecca was promoted to be Executive Vice President, Chief Merchandising & Marketing Officer where she led Merchandising, Marketing, Product Innovation, Design & Development and Sourcing. In this role, she drove growth in the core business, grew private and exclusive brand business by more than 40%, led go-to-market strategy, built a customer-focused marketing strategy, improved profitability and expanded the International Wholesale business of Petco Private Brands into Canada, Europe and Asia.
Prior to this, Rebecca was Senior Vice President of Merchandising at 7-Eleven, Inc., where she led the $11 billion North America Merchandise business, global Private Brands and Field Merchandising organization. Earlier, she held a number of leadership positions at Target Corporation, culminating in Vice President, Divisional Merchandise Manager – Healthcare, where she led all aspects of the $6.5 billion Pharmacy, Over-the-Counter & Optical business. Before this, Rebecca had a number of positions of increasing responsibility at Accenture.
Rebecca brings extensive board experience, and is currently on the Boards of Pet Honesty, a $85M Pet Supplement company, Smart Sweets, a $110M better for you candy brand, and Mikuna, an innovative plant protein company. She also served as a Member of the Outward Hound Board of Directors, the Petco Foundation Board, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Retail Advisory Board and the Nielsen Retail Advisory Board. She has been Co-Chair of the Network of Executive Women, North Texas, as well as a Member of the Network of Executive Women, Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Rebecca earned a Master of Business Administration, with a concentration in International Marketing and Finance, at Purdue University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Communication at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. She has completed Yale University’s Fostering Inclusion & Diversity, the University of California – Berkeley’s Enterprise Digital Transformation, the Executive Leadership Program at West Point and Target’s Talent Development Program. She has been a sought-after speaker and guest lecturer at the Retail Leaders Forum and MBA courses at the Texas Christian University Neeley School of Business and the University of Indiana Kelley School of Business.
Rebecca enjoys spending time with her husband, Doug, and Goldendoodle, Will. She and Doug are foodies who love to travel, golf and enjoy time with family and friends.
Samir Kaji
Prior to Allocate, Samir spent nearly 22 years in venture banking between SVB and First Republic Bank and closely worked with and advised over 700 venture capital and private equity firms. During this time, he completed over $12B in structured debt transactions and invested personally in over 60 funds and companies, including early-stage investments into Carta (seed), Side (seed), PolicyGenius (Series A), and FanDuel (Series B) as well as Growth investments into Reddit, Alto Pharmacy, and Carbon Health.
Samir completed a finance undergraduate degree at San Jose State University, an MBA from Santa Clara University, and completed the prestigious Kauffman Fellows venture program.
He is also an active writer on venture capital and is the host of a top venture podcast called Venture Unlocked.
Sassie Duggleby
Sassie Duggleby is CEO and co-founder of Venus Aerospace, a deep-tech startup focused on building the fastest, reusable hypersonic aircraft in the world to make one-hour global transport possible.
Their groundbreaking technology, the Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE), boosts engine thrust and efficiency dramatically. This innovation represents a major leap in aerospace, a game changer for national security, and the key to unlocking the hypersonic economy. Under Sassie’s leadership, Venus has raised over $60M in venture capital, achieved a top 20 ranking on the NatSec100, and established partnerships with NASA, DARPA, and the U.S. Air Force.
Sassie's influence extends beyond the confines of her industry, with features in prominent media outlets such as CNN, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, and Gizmodo. She also earned a spot on Inc's 2023 Female Founders 200 list and founded the "Bada$$ Women in Aerospace" networking group to support women in the industry.
An engineer with an MBA, Sassie boasts a diverse background in high-tech startups. Prior to founding Venus, she helped launch rockets off the wing of a 747 at Virgin Orbit and grow businesses in everything from fiber optics and biotech to hazardous trailer manufacturing.
Sassie is responsible for Venus’ commitment to innovation by forging a team that changes the world and yet still gets home for dinner — a core company value. She is a devoted wife (to her co-founder), mother of two, and passionate outdoor enthusiast. Known by the nickname she gave herself at age two (no - Sassie is not her real name), Sassie is beyond honored to be working on this adventure of a lifetime.
Shardul Shah
Shardul Shah is a Partner at Index Ventures. His primary areas of investestment include security, cloud infrastructure and enterprise software. Shardul is a board member at Wiz, Coalition, Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG), Expel, and AttackIQ, among others. Shardul was previously a director of Adallom (Microsoft), Sourceclear (CA Technologies), Koality (Docker), Lacoon (Check Point), Base (Zendesk), and an investor in Duo Security (Cisco). After graduating from the University of Chicago, Shardul worked with Summit Partners where he focused on healthcare and internet technologies.
Alda Leu Dennis
Alda is a managing partner of Hawktail VC, a venture fund focused on deep tech, and board member of OuterBio. She invests in inspirational founders solving real world problems. She also serves as a Board Partner at Initialized Capital where she was previously a General Partner. Prior to joining Initialized, she was a managing partner at 137 Ventures where she led investments in Planet (IPO), Wish (IPO), Coupang (IPO), CourseHero, and Work Market (acquired by ADP). Additionally, she made personal early-stage investments in Maven, Tia, Legalzoom (acquired by Permira), SpaceX, and Knowde. Before that, she was COO at an early stage start up and also worked as an IP litigator.
Alex Heath
Alex Heath is a deputy editor for The Verge and the author of Command Line, a newsletter about the tech industry’s inside conversation. He has been covering tech for more than a decade in previous roles at The Information, Insider, and other outlets. His work has been cited in congressional hearings and recognized by the Livingston Awards and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. He has appeared as an expert voice on CNBC, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and NPR, among other programs.
Anita Ramaswamy
Anita Ramaswamy is a technology columnist at Reuters Breakingviews, the financial commentary arm of Reuters. She came to Reuters from TechCrunch, where she worked as a senior cryptocurrency and fintech reporter, helping launch and host the web3-focused “Chain Reaction” podcast in addition to writing articles. She is a recurring contributor to American Public Media’s “Marketplace Tech” program and a frequent on-stage interviewer at tech industry conferences and events. A former investment banking analyst, Anita earned her M.A. in Business and Economic Reporting from New York University and her B.A. from Tufts University.
Berber Jin
Berber Jin writes about startups and venture capital out of The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco office. He previously covered the same topic for the Information, where he won a Best in Business award from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing for his coverage of the venture capital boom of 2021. Berber is from Scarsdale, N.Y., and graduated from Stanford University.
Michael Yanover
Michael Yanover is the Head of Business Development at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), a leading entertainment and sports agency. CAA’s Business Development group creates new companies in partnership with today’s most influential cultural tastemakers. Their playbook involves concepting the business, building the business model, recruiting the management team, attaching celebrity talent and raising financing for the business.
Yanover has spearheaded the formation of about a dozen companies and currently sits on the board of several CAA co-founded and venture-financed companies, including: HAUS Labs by Lady Gaga, backed by Lightspeed Ventures; De Soi, a Katy Perry co-founded non-alcoholic aperitif, backed by Willow Growth Partners; Yummers Pet Supply with Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness and Antoni Porowski, backed by LCatterton; and OAM Skin by Ciara, backed by New Mountain Capital.
Yanover has also led many investments at CAA, including JBrand Jeans (since sold to Fast Retailing), Charlotte Tilbury (since sold to Puig), Patreon and Skydio; and, on behalf of CAA, has launched Star Avenue Capital, a growth-stage consumer retail fund, CAA Ventures, an early-stage technology fund, and CAA China.
Yanover earned his JD at the University of Toronto and his MBA at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Paige Craig
After serving in the Marine Corps, Paige combined his natural entrepreneurial instinct with his passion for national security and bootstrapped a private military company. Starting by driving solo into Iraq with $10k, he scaled his business to over $300M in revenue in four years, with programs across the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. He has used his experience from the first half of his career focused on national security and its success to form his approach to investing.
Paige spent the next six years angel investing and crafting his investing methodology. During this period more than ten percent of his seed investments have become unicorns, including Lyft, Wish, Gusto, Postmates, and Twitter. He credits this success to his life experiences, including many from his military service, that taught him the importance of the human element and the ability to be a contrarian thinker. Based on these beliefs and his early success, he created the 38-point Outlander Founder Framework that serves as the foundation of his institutional investing strategy today.
Since then Paige has led three funds—Outlander Archimedes (2015), Outlander Edison (2020), and Outlander Magellan (2023)—implementing and refining his Founder Framework to find incredible founders and drive superior returns. Since investing, over the course of over 140+ investments, he has driven blended returns in the top 5% of VCs globally, including seed investments such as OpenDoor, ClassPass, Scale, and Andela.
As the Managing Partner of Outlander VC, Paige leads a team that continues to invest in brilliant founders from across the US through the use of a scalable and repeatable framework, which has underpinned his success to date. He remains constantly on the hunt for the outlandish and contrarian thinking that will help Outlander VC lead the industry in early-stage investing.
Phillip Sarofim
Phillip Sarofim, founder of Trousdale Ventures, is recognized for his forward-thinking and sustainable investment practices. His portfolio spans diverse sectors such as space, mobility, advanced tech, climate technology, and wellness brands, marking a unique approach that couples technological investment with societal growth.
Among his achievements is the revival of the Meyers Manx dune buggy brand where he demonstrates his leadership as the acting Chairman. Sarofim’s other investments include advanced battery company Coreshell, where he holds a board position, and Venus Aerospace, an industry leader in green hypersonic aviation, reflecting his commitment to sustainable fuel solutions.
Sarofim is an active investor in the wellness sector, holding board positions with well-known brands like Lemon Perfect and Super Coffee. Beyond the business realm, he contributes his expertise to academic institutions such as the ArtCenter College of Design and the Petersen Automotive Museum, enhancing both the cultural and educational community.
In his personal life, Sarofim is a motoring enthusiast and frequently participates in global automotive events, a testament to his passion for mobility and design. Sarofim attended Rice University and has used his education to drive positive change across industries.
Sarofim's investments aim to create a future where innovation and sustainability coexist, fostering a beneficial environment for future generations.
Rob Freelen
Rob is a Managing Director and Investing Partner at Sozo Ventures. Prior to joining Sozo in 2022, he was an executive at Silicon Valley Bank, where he led both technology and healthcare teams over his 17-years there. Most recently, Rob was Head of VC Relationship Management for SVB, serving as principal advisor to SVB Capital’s Fund-of-Funds and the primary relationship manager for many of the most-active US Venture firms, including A16Z, Sequoia, Emergence and Felicis. Earlier in his SVB career, he opened the bank’s Santa Monica office and led the Los Angeles region to the fastest growth of any region in the US, was the bank’s first Chief of Staff, and spent 6 years leading business development for the healthcare practice.
Rob has a B.A. in Psychology from Whitman College and regularly lectures at UCLA, USC and Stanford University on venture capital and venture lending. Rob serves on the boards of Carbon Robotics and Atomic Machines, and is a board observer to Haus Labs and Mercy Bio.
Kobie Fuller
Kobie has been a partner at Upfront since 2016, with a core investing focus in SaaS, marketing technology, and emerging technologies including VR and AR. Notable investments include Cordial, Wave, MetaImpact and Martie.
Prior to joining Upfront, Kobie was an investor at Accel, helped found OpenView Venture Partners, and was an investor at Insight Venture Partners. Over his career he invested early in companies including Exact Target (sold to Salesforce for $2.5B) and Oculus (sold to Facebook for $2B). Previously, Kobie was the Chief Marketing Officer at LA-based REVOLVE, one of the largest global fashion e-commerce players. Kobie graduated from Harvard College.
Stuart Lander
Stuart has been a Partner at Upfront since 2014, where he runs all non-investment activities. Before joining Upfront, Stuart was CMO at CareerArc, a social recruiting platform and CMO at Internships.com, the world's largest internships marketplace which was acquired by Chegg. He was also COO at BuildOnline, a SaaS document management company that was acquired by SWORD Group. Earlier in his career, Stuart was an attorney with the international law firm Herbert Smith, where he worked on M&A and corporate finance transactions. Stuart received a first class honors degree in International History and Politics from the University of Leeds and a law degree with distinction from the College of Law in London, England.
Aditi Maliwal
Aditi Maliwal is a partner at Upfront Ventures, investing in early stage companies across financial technology and enterprise software. Aditi partners with founders at their earliest stages of inception and supports them throughout the stages of company building. While at Upfront, she has partnered deeply in this way with Arcade, Clair, Renew, Stem, WriterAI and ZestAI amongst others.
Before joining Upfront, Aditi was at Google, first on the Corporate Development team leading acquisitions across various sectors including AI, commerce and fintech, and then on the Next Billion Users team building products for users in emerging markets. Prior to Google she worked in early stage venture at Crosslink Capital where she invested in Chime, BetterUp, and PowerToFly among other companies. She began her career in investment banking at Deutsche Bank, in the technology banking group. She has a B.A. from Stanford University. She has lived between Mumbai, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Singapore and San Francisco.
Yair Riemer
Yair leads investor relations at Upfront. Prior to joining the firm, he held various leadership positions at tech companies in Los Angeles, including most recently as CEO at Intoo, an HRTech company, where he led global expansion efforts. Prior to that, he was President of CareerArc’s career development and transition business, which was acquired by Gi Group Holding. He was also the first employee and served in various leadership positions at Internships.com, the world’s largest internships marketplace, which was acquired by Chegg. Earlier in his career, Yair worked at Putnam, a strategy consulting firm. Yair received a BA from Vanderbilt University and MBA from Bar-Ilan University in Israel.
Kevin Zhang
Kevin Zhang is a partner at Upfront, where he has a focus in healthcare and interactive gaming. Notable investments include Bionaut Labs, Canvas Medical, Pragma, and Seriously (acquired by Playtika). Prior to joining Upfront in 2012, Kevin was at The Boston Consulting Group, where he advised on strategy, M&A and operations for technology, healthcare, and industrial goods clients in the US and Asia. Previously, Kevin worked at Verisk Health (now Cotiviti), a healthcare software startup in Boston, focusing on data analytics product development selling into payers and providers. Kevin studied Biology at Harvard College.