Your organization’s greatest investment will always be its people. Sure, we’re excited about ChatGPT too, but nothing beats a strategic hire with experience and drive. That’s why we are thrilled to share more about our latest team members with you!
As a former LP herself, our new Head of Investor Relations knows the ins and outs of the investor experience. Meanwhile, our new Head of Community has already begun joining our special group of geeks and visionaries together through valuable meetups and learning events. And our latest addition to the investor team bid adieu to the Seattle rain to help us deepen our relationships within the cybersecurity and intelligent software investment verticals.
More info 👇 on what you can expect from these fantastic new hires!
As our New Head of Investor Relations, Lara will develop and strengthen relationships with new and existing investors as well as design and manage future fundraising and communication strategies from inception to outcome. Expect high-value experiences and opportunities for investors to engage and deepen their understanding of the Innovation Endeavors portfolio, and join as a community.
Lara joins Innovation Endeavors with 14 years of investing experience. Most recently, she was the Director of Investments at Point Olema Capital Partners, a multi-family office founded by the former CIO of both the Stanford Endowment and Makena Capital. Before Point Olema, Lara spent ten years at Maverick Capital where she sourced, analyzed, and evaluated hedge fund opportunities across long/short equity, multi-strategy, and credit for the firm’s fund of funds and seeding efforts. Prior to her allocator role, Lara was a long/short equity analyst who picked stocks for Maverick’s emerging markets and small-cap teams.
Lara graduated from the New York University Stern School of Business with a BS in Finance and Marketing, where she graduated cum laude.
Jennifer is the Innovation Endeavors Head of Community. Before joining Innovation Endeavors, Jennifer was busy providing the immense group of seed and series A founders at 500 Global with meaningful connections through curated networks, events, and resources (particularly in areas of fundraising, market expansion, partnerships, and founder connections). Most importantly, Jennifer is already proving to be a huge asset to the Innovation Endeavors community!
Expect more opportunities to connect with the broader Innovation Endeavors community, opportunities to learn through meetups and webinars, and so much more.
She held previous roles at Rocketspace in corporate innovation and was a management consultant at IBM, where she focused on strategy and new technology integration. Jennifer has an MBA from INSEAD and a BA from Columbia University.
Dhruv is the newest member of the investment team. He focuses on the intersection of cybersecurity, software and data infrastructure, and artificial intelligence. He is most compelled by companies defining new standards for protecting critical data and infrastructure while making security faster, cheaper, and easier to integrate into existing systems. Above all else, Dhruv loves working with founders who complement customer obsession with a bias toward action.
Prior to joining Innovation Endeavors, Dhruv was a product manager at Microsoft, where he worked on cryptographic key management, data encryption, and infrastructure security for the Azure cloud. He previously interned as a software engineer at Intel and Livongo Health and was a 2019 Kleiner Perkins Fellow. He graduated summa cum laude from the Management and Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania with a BSE in computer science and a BS in economics from the Wharton School.
Our growth benefits you
Thanks to these amazing new team members, entrepreneurs can expect more support and connection, and investors will better understand our work. Not to mention their varied industry experience and expertise will inspire further experimentation and thought-provoking conversations for all of the Innovation Endeavors team. Truly, nothing beats a good team.
Visit our fantastic new website for a closer look at our team and our thesis of work.
On behalf of all of us at Innovation Endeavors, welcome to the team!
