MV

Michelle Volz

American Dynamism @ a16z 🇺🇸🚀

San Francisco Bay Area

Invests in

  • Min Investment:

    $1,000,000.00
  • Max Investment:

    $50,000,000.00
  • Target Investment:

    $5,000,000.00

Work Experience

  • Investment Partner | American Dynamism

    2022

    The American Dynamism practice invests in founders and companies that support the national interest, including but not limited to aerospace, defense, public safety, education, housing, supply chain, industrials and manufacturing. We believe that mission-driven and civic-minded founders often build companies that transcend verticals and business models in their quest to solve important national problems. These companies view government as a customer, competitor or key stakeholder—and the success of these companies supports the flourishing of all Americans. Dynamic companies exist in all 50 states, as there is no center of gravity for solving America’s biggest problems. Partner to: Apex Space, Cape, Radiant Nuclear, Air Space Intelligence, Aerodome, Kodex, Saronic, Castelion, Crux, CX2, and others unannounced. Board observer on Radiant, Air Space Intelligence, Superhuman, and Opengov

2018 - 2022

  • Startup Product and Growth Strategy

    2018 - 2022

    Early stage product and go-to-market consultant for top venture-backed startup companies and non-profits. Highlighted companies include: - Meter (meter.com): GTM and product marketing strategy - BravoSierra (bravosierra.com): Growth and new product development - Code for America (www.codeforamerica.org): New product research and scoping - Thorn (thorn.org): Product development - Airdev (airdev.co): Content marketing strategy

2021 - 2021

  • Venture Fellow

    2021 - 2021

    Palumni VC is an angel syndicate focused on investing in Palantir alumni founders.

  • Autonomy Team Fellow

    2020 - 2021

    Co-authored research focused on leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), unmanned aircraft system traffic management (UTM), and advanced air mobility (AAM) for investing in enterprises building autonomous applications within the U.S. national security tech market.

2016 - 2018

  • Product Lead, founding team

    2016 - 2018

    Haus is building the new way to buy and sell homes in the digital era. Our platform allows homeowners to seamlessly list and sell their home and homebuyers to make real offers on properties online without the need for middlemen. As the 3rd person in the company, I've worn many hats including strategic relationships, business development, marketing, growth, recruiting, and operations, and taken the company through several early concepts and iterations. We created a real estate marketplace to streamline the process of buying and selling residential real estate in the digital era and built our product from the ground up. As the Head of Product, I set the roadmap and product strategy while managing a team of designers and engineers. Haus was funded by Expa, a startup Studio in San Francisco started by Garrett Camp, co-founder and Chairman of Uber.

2015 - 2016

  • Manager, Security Programs

    2015 - 2016

    Synack has created the leading crowdsourced vulnerability management platform, helping to protect companies' most valuable assets with the world's top security researchers. I was the first hire for Synack's program management team, building out processes and structure while managing day-to-day activities for all of Synack's customers. My responsibilities included scoping engagements, analyzing security improvements and progress, presenting to security executives, and negotiating renewals. I also built out and hired a team.

2014 - 2015

  • Customer Success and Marketing Operations

    2014 - 2015

    Managed Quartzy’s participation at major science conferences, including negotiating presence, handling all logistics, and presenting site to attendees for 10-12 conferences per year leading to a user increase of 25%. Collected and consolidated feedback from users and discussed it with engineering and product teams to build out a features roadmap. Presented customized product demos to scientists online and in-person; concurrently managed >300 accounts.

2013 - 2014

  • Product Operations

    2013 - 2014

    Supported 10 product leads and their respective teams handling day-to-day product and organizational needs, overall team logistics, and project management for various initiatives. Created demos and documentation of software products including installation instructions, data integration processes, and feature descriptions. Coded a training plugin detailing proper use of a product, deployed to the largest customer.