DL

David Lerner

Founder | Angel Investor 150+ companies | Director of Entrepreneurship @ Columbia University

New York, New York

Invests in

  • Min Investment:

    $250,000.00
  • Max Investment:

    $1,500,000.00
  • Target Investment:

    $600,000.00

Skills

Entrepreneurship
Venture Capital
Angel Investing
Entrepreneur
Start-ups
Investments
Corporate Development
Social Entrepreneurship
Strategic Partnerships
Strategic Consulting
Mergers
Strategy
Mergers & Acquisitions
Strategic Planning
International Business
Due Diligence
Joint Ventures
Social Media
Licensing
Business Planning

Education

Work Experience

  • Director of Entrepreneurship

    2013

    Harnessing the enormous entrepreneurial energy and talents of the Columbia University student and alumni entrepreneurship community. Launched the Columbia Startup Lab (now with 400+ alumni companies), the Columbia Design Studio, Startup Law Studio, CTech (Columbia Tech Founders Track) and multiple other ongoing programs.

  • Adjunct Professor Entrepreneurship

    2012

    Teach Entrepreneurship courses and Business Skills to Engineering Masters students and Business School students at Columbia

  • Director, Venture Lab

    2006 - 2013

    Managed Columbia's portfolio of more than 80 spin-off companies, launched approximately 12-15 new startups each year and operated Columbia Seed Fund. Spun off 60+ technology companies during tenure. Held rolling Entrepreneur-Office-Hours for the benefit of entire university community including students, faculty and alumni.

  • Founder & Host

    2011

    Dave Lerner interviews the founders, angel and venture capital investors and other personalities that comprise New York City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and beyond in one-on-one interviews & discussions. Show has been syndicated on Mashable and has partnered for various series with General Electric and Square 1 Bank. Check it out at www.venturestudio.org and follow us on twitter @VentureStudio.

Columbia University Graduate School of Business

2012

  • Adjunct Professor: Entrepreneurship

    2012

    Teach "Launching New Ventures" and run the Greenhouse Accelerator for 2nd year students at Columbia Business School. Real-world, practical immersion- students all launch their own businesses. Not about writing a business plan. This is all about immersion into the reality of "going from zero to one" and launching a startup.

Totius Group | Rugged Ventures

2001

  • Founder

    2001

    Incubating multiple startups & have made 150+ angel investments since 2001

  • Board Member

    2010 - 2020

    NY Tech Meetup now has over 40,000 members, representing professionals from all parts of the New York technology community. NYTM centers around its monthly events, where members gather to watch emerging companies demo new ideas, hear leading-edge thinking on technology topics, and build their networks to develop their businesses. NYTM has been integral in the birth of New York’s new Silicon Alley, with nearly every notable new company, including Foursquare and Tumblr, making their debut at a NYTM demo. NYTM is a not-for-profit, community-led organization.

Startup Genome

2010 - 2016

  • Creator, Founder

    2010 - 2016

    Launched globally with curators in hundreds of cities around the world and are relentlessly pursuing our vision to continually improve upon our free, locally-curated, up-to-date and accessible database of all the world’s startup ecosystems and present it in useful, novel and beautiful ways. Acquired in 2016

Columbia Venture Community

2009 - 2015

  • Board Member

    2009 - 2015

    Columbia Venture Community (CVC) is a private community for Columbia students, alumni and employees interested in all aspects entrepreneurship. The group welcomes members from any school, sector or industry function (e.g., entrepreneur, VC, lawyer, etc.). CVC seeks to foster entrepreneurship by facilitating communication, providing access to resources and creating community. Through CVC members meet every few weeks to participate in an array of events. Event formats include idea incubation, demo events, educational panel and speaker events and happy hours.

  • Board Member and Venture Advisor

    2004 - 2015

    The mission of The Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center is to instill entrepreneurial thinking in all Columbia Business School students and to create a community of business practitioners with a lifelong commitment to achieving social and economic progress through entrepreneurship. As the resident venture advisor I work with students to help them launch and get funding for their fledgling companies.

New York Venture Community

2010 - 2014

  • Board Member

    2010 - 2014

    The New York Venture Community is the group for entrepreneurs, startup teams, venture capitalists and venture service providers in the New York Metro region. Joining this group will enable you to find other like minded venture people in the region and it will also enable them to find you.

LLS, Inc.

1994 - 2001

  • Co-Founder

    1994 - 2001

    Healthcare Company. Over seven year period pioneered new approach to treatment for lymphatic condition that affects 1% of population. This treatment became state-of-art in US. Built-out multiple treatment centers on east coast as well as a teaching school and affiliated these facilities with the Mass. General, Brigham & Womens’, Dana Farber, Memorial Sloan Kettering. Led strategic merger in 1998 and was acquired by one of the nation's leading providers of physical medicine and rehabilitative services in 2001.