I use my operator’s knowledge of the essential fundamentals of a successful startup, alongside my experience as CEO of a VC-funded enterprise SaaS business from inception to exit, to help me selectively invest in 3-5 companies per year who have the potential to impact $10 Billion+ markets. I invest primarily in companies who are trying to solve messy and complicated problems that affect the largest global markets. My focus is primarily on enterprise SaaS, and I have specialty knowledge in evaluating business models that apply machine learning/AI to large network datasets.

I spent the majority of my time over the past 10 years as founder/CEO of a venture-funded enterprise SaaS business. The company I founded, Evolv, largely defined one of the biggest segments of enterprise predictive analytics (HR/human capital analytics), and after signing several very large customers (AT&T, Xerox, Harte Hanks among others), raising money from top-tier VCs (Lightspeed, Khosla, GGV Capital) and being named one of the 10 most innovative big data companies in the world by Fast Company, we were acquired by Cornerstone (Nasdaq: CSOD) in late 2014. My experience as a Founder/CEO gave me a unique inside look at the rare combination of ingredients that make for a successful company. Where I’ve selectively done investments or taken on advisor roles those companies have all either significantly increased their valuation through financing from top-tier investors (Grovo, Percolate) or been acquired by very large publicly-traded companies (Bureau of Trade to eBay, Identified to Workday).

I invest both as an individual and as an "Open Angel," a program created by Bloomberg Beta (http://tiny.cc/manual), the early-stage venture fund.

Bloomberg Beta created the Open Angel program to deepen relationships with a handful of angels they trust. They will back every deal I syndicate at a fixed ratio with my personal investment. (In my case, Bloomberg Beta invests $3 for every $1 from me.) While a portion of each allocation I bring will therefore be reserved for Bloomberg Beta, they will not be direct investors in my portfolio companies and I will manage the syndicate's relationship with companies. Bloomberg Beta's intent is to support people they trust as investors, and extend their fund to support many more companies, not to create direct deal flow for them.

In my time as a Founder/CEO of an enterprise SaaS business I spent a lot of time getting to know other Founder/CEOs of enterprise SaaS businesses. These people connect me to a large number of new enterprise SaaS companies being formed every month and thus I get exposed to a steady stream of opportunities—all of them via people I respect and trust. While I plan on doing only 3-5 deals per year, my goal with this syndicate is to syndicate every one of these deals. I expect the companies/founders I invest in to be in it for the long haul (10+ years) and by their very nature willing to take a good deal of risk. As such, please understand that any return you may see on your invested capital may be decades away and additionally you run the risk of losing all of your money in any investment you do as a part of this syndicate.