As a founder, mentor and venture capital investor, I support young entrepreneurs for their entire start-up journey. I love big ideas and being able to establish leaders in a new field that isn’t already saturated with a flock of similar companies. If you’re going into a market or a region where others got there first, you can’t be just a little better. To be a leader, you have to be at least ten times better. Better yet is charting new territory. Then you get to define a space, make something out of nothing and define leadership.

I spent my entrepreneurial career building travel, specialty/targeted consumer-direct commerce and consumer fintech businesses before starting General Catalyst with my friend David Fialkow. That experience has served me well in helping entrepreneurs build really new and next-generation consumer products and services.

In the early days of General Catalyst, I was fortunate to partner with Paul English and Steve Hafner to start KAYAK in our offices to provide consumers with an easy and transparent way to purchase travel services online.

I like working with great teams that relentlessly focus on creating real inflection points in consumer experiences. One of my favorite things is to think through the confluence of new technology platforms and disruptive business models that can be the foundation of new consumer experiences. Sample companies currently involved with: Multiverse, Empathy, Warby Parker (NYSE: WRBY), Sesame Health, WellDot, TravelPerk, Zego, Beauty Pie, Blank Street Coffee. Sample past companies include: Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB), Lemonade (NYSE:LMND), Oscar Health (NYSE:OSCR), KAYAK (IPO and acquired by Booking (NASDAQ: BKNG), ITA Software (acquired by Google), Handy (acquired by ANGI), OLX (acquired by Naspers), Venmo (part of PayPal).

I graduated from Colby College and Boston College Law School. Along with the boards of companies I am involved with, I also serve on the boards of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children’s Hospital Trust, and NYU Stern Tech MBA Advisory Board.