Invests in
Stages:
Sectors:
Locations:
Min Investment:
$50,000.00Max Investment:
$10,000,000.00Target Investment:
$5,000,000.00
Skills
Education
Lists including Todd
Work Experience
Managing Partner
2021
Spike Ventures is the Stanford affinity fund of Alumni Ventures (AV), America's largest venture firm for individual investors, with a portfolio of >1,300 companies and an alumni community of 600,000+ members from 27 leading universities (Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley, Dartmouth, Yale, etc.). With a total raised of >$1.25B and growing, AV is trusted by 10,000+ accredited investors for their venture investing. A Top 20 Venture Firm (CB Insights 2024), AV is also recognized by PitchBook as the #1 most active VC firm in the US and the #3 globally (2022 and 2023). Spike co-invests in great companies alongside well-known VC firms such as a16z, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, NEA, Sequoia, and many others. Example Spike portfolio companies include: Lacework, Humio (acquired by CrowdStrike), Cohere, Capella Space, Coda, RapidSOS, Deliverr (acquired by Shopify), SecureFrame, Yassir and Jeeves. Spike's name pays homage to the golden spike that was driven by Leland Stanford to finish the First Transcontinental Railroad across the nation, ushering in a new era of commerce, transportation and expansion for the US. At Spike Ventures, we take inspiration from Leland Stanford’s audacious vision as we endeavor to invest in compelling venture opportunities on behalf of the Stanford alumni network.
Managing Partner
2023
Deep Tech Fund invests in companies tackling hard problems with world-changing potential. Our portfolio includes AirMyne, Axiom Space, Cambrian Biopharma, Chef Robotics, Frore Systems, Hayden AI, Q-CTRL, Unlearn AI, Xanadu, Zendar, and many others.
2021
Venture Advisor
2021
2015 - 2020
Founder and Managing Partner
2015 - 2020
Managing Partner at Grey Sky Venture Partners, an early-stage investment fund providing capital and intellectual property to passionate entrepreneurs building innovative, next-generation life sciences companies. - Conceived and co-founded this venture capital fund, which pioneered an innovative hybrid venture capital model, linking equity capital investment to fund-owned intellectual property - Secured backing from one of the top private investors in the world - Sourced and qualified investment opportunities and built strong investor syndicates around portfolio companies - Provided mentoring, active board oversight and guidance to portfolio companies on business and product strategy, marketing, operations and fundraising - Led licensing of large 500+ patent portfolio - Built strong relationships with subject matter experts in variety of disciplines - Optimized all aspects of ongoing fund operations, including systems, regulatory and tax compliance, financial management, audits, LP reporting
2007 - 2015
Vice President, Business Development
2007 - 2015
Responsible for commercialization of a large portfolio of patented technologies, across multiple disciplines, through the incubation of new spinout companies and out-licensing. - Partnered with development teams to conceive compelling product offerings that are technologically feasible, and well aligned with customer needs and market trends. - Engaged prospective customers to validate value proposition, confirm market potential and inform product requirements. - Generated models and forecasts to articulate business case to risk investors and third parties. - Played leading role in all elements of startup and capital formation of five incubated companies, including TerraPower, Kymeta Corporation, Evolv Technology, Echodyne Corporation and Pivotal Commware
Board Director
2011 - 2014
While serving on the board, provided strategic direction to Carbon management and advised on successful acquisition by Oculus VR (Facebook) in June 2014.
2009 - 2012
Board Advisor
2009 - 2012
1996 - 2006
Senior Vice President, Global Strategic Marketing | Corporate Development
1996 - 2006
Responsible for corporate strategic business development activities including: - Corporate strategic planning - Development and implementation of growth initiatives - Global strategic partnership development - M&A activity, in/out licensing, spin-outs, etc. Member of founding management team. IPO 1996. Author, "Advantages of scanned-beam MOEMS approach to microdisplay and related applications," Proc. SPIE, Vol. 4178, 158 (2000)
1998 - 2000
Founder and Interim CEO
1998 - 2000
Led the establishment and funding of a subsidiary company focused on commercializing nanomaterials-based optical signal processing technology for the telecommunications and biomedical analysis industries. Board Advisor. IPO 2004.
1994 - 1995
Director, Business Development
1994 - 1995
Generated partner relationships to drive marketing of first-of-kind boxed web connectivity software product. SPRY successfully exited in 1995.