I spent eleven years building AppNexus into a global enterprise with 1000 employees, then sold it to AT&T for $1.6B. Over that time, I learned about leadership, culture, diversity and inclusion, recruiting and nurturing talent, strategy, negotiation... the list goes on. Perhaps most importantly, I learned how important it is to be an ally and a mentor. I intend this syndicate to focus on women and people of color that may not have the same access to capital and mentorship that I had, and I plan to spend a significant portion of my time helping these founders build impactful companies.
Over the past decade, I have advised and invested in more than twenty companies. I built a network of colleagues, advisors, mentors, and friends that helped me build AppNexus. As I meet founders today, I am excited to share all that I have learned and to open up my network to them. I would love to be able to help them raise money, and this syndicate is intended to connect great companies with a broad base of investors.
I expect to invest primarily in NYC since I will be spending time with the companies I invest in. I will not invest in ad tech companies for a variety of reasons. I will invest almost exclusively in diverse teams, as I believe that is both a key success driver and a potential blind spot for traditional funds. I will generally invest in very early stage companies, and will hope to co-invest with others who share my passion for helping founders.
I will syndicate all of my early-stage deals.