Background
I invest primarily in artificial intelligence, software, fintech and defense. I spend a lot of time thinking about technology catalysts, the broad waves of disruption they create and the new companies that emerge from these waves.
My Interest in Artificial Intelligence
I am particularly interested in businesses driven by artificial intelligence. AI is making software radically smarter, unlocking the value of unstructured data and creating fundamentally new capabilities, from autonomous driving to real-time information discovery. AI is enabling a new set of software applications that were not possible or even conceivable just a few years ago. These applications tend to emerge first in the most data-intensive verticals, including technology, financial services and defense. The three core fuels of artificial intelligence – data, computing power and more efficient algorithms – continue to grow at a rapid pace, suggesting that the current AI innovation boom will be a long and productive one.
Importance of Great People
As much as I try to understand the specifics of these trends, I frequently meet brilliant entrepreneurs who are many steps ahead of me and who have developed a clear vision of what the world will look like in a particular space and have outlined a compelling new business idea to pursue in it. This is the most fun part of my job, and above all I spend my time trying to find the great new entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
When I Like to Invest
I like to invest early in companies I think have significant disruptive potential and help them develop their product and business strategies and build out their teams. This is the time where I feel I can add the most value to these companies. Most of the companies I invest in have less than 10 employees, and most have not yet launched a product. I’m happy to invest however much an entrepreneur needs, and my initial investments generally range from $500K to $15m.
My Investments
My current investments include Dataminr, a real-time AI platform that identifies critical breaking information from publicly available data sets; Interos, a multi-tier, multi-factor third-party risk management platform; Rebellion Defense, which develops products using AI that serve the mission of national defense; Percipient.ai, an advanced computer vision and machine learning analytics platform; Altruist, a digital investment platform for financial advisors; Vanilla, an estate planning platform for financial advisors; Quiq, an enterprise application enabling messaging-based customer service; and Ombud, an enterprise application enabling intelligent sales content collaboration.
My past investments include JBoss, the leading open source application server (acquired by Red Hat); Care.com, a global online marketplace for care services (IPO); the Gilt Groupe, a private sale ecommerce company (acquired by Hudson’s Bay); OatSystems, the pioneering RFID application platform (acquired by Check Point Systems); and Conductor, a SaaS application for SEO optimization.
My Interest in NYC
I live in New York City and am a big advocate of the New York startup ecosystem. I started investing in New York in 2003, when the venture capital industry viewed it as an unconventional idea. New York is now one of the largest and fastest-growing startup ecosystems in the world, and in my view its growth will only accelerate in the decades ahead.
Other Interests
I think a lot about over-the-horizon technologies and how to improve the U.S. system of basic research that created many of the foundational technologies that made Silicon Valley possible, including the semiconductor, the internet, modern microelectronics, genetic sequencing and GPS. I serve on the board of America’s Frontier Fund, a non-profit deep tech fund that seeks to accelerate the development of new foundational technologies that will move the needle the most for U.S. innovation.
I have deep interests in public policy and in particular how technology is changing the nature of geopolitics and national security. I serve on the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, a foreign policy think thank, and participated on Task Forces there on Innovation and National Security: Keeping Our Edge and Confronting Reality in Cyberspace: Foreign Policy for a Fragmented Internet.
I care a lot about international development and serve on the Board of Directors of Endeavor, a particularly cool non-profit organization that supports high-impact entrepreneurs globally and helps catalyze startup ecosystems in countries and regions underserved by venture capital markets. To date Endeavor has supported over 2,000 high-impact entrepreneurs, and today their companies generate over $10 billion in revenue and have created over 3 million jobs. Tom Friedman called Endeavor “the best anti-poverty program of all.”
When I’m not chasing the next big idea or my three children around the house, you might find me windsurfing or kiteboarding wherever I can find a strong enough wind.