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Jennifer Fonstad

Jennifer Fonstad

Jennifer Fonstad is a serial entrepreneur and veteran venture investor with over two decades of experience in Mobile and Enterprise technology, including Healthcare IT.  She co-founded Aspect Ventures in 2014, an early stage investment firm with $350MM under management.

Prior to Aspect, Jennifer was a Managing Director with Draper Fisher Jurvetson for 17 years where she helped grow the firm from $150MM under management to over $3.5Billion before she left to found Aspect. While at DFJ she invested in 22 software and healthcare companies with 3 IPOs and 6 M&A exits.  In addition, Jennifer led the formation of and sat on the investment committees of several DFJ affiliate funds including DFJ Vietnam and DFJ Israel, as well as serving as an advisor to DFJ China.  She is also a co-founder of Broadway Angels, a San Francisco-based angel network with over 40 investments and 50 women members drawing from the VC and technology communities.

Jennifer’s success as an investor has landed her on the Forbes Midas List twice and in 2016 she was named Deloitte’s “Venture Capitalist of the Year.”  In 2017, Working Mother named her one of “The 50 Most Powerful Moms.” She is a graduate, Cum Laude, from Georgetown University and holds an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School. Prior to venture investing, Jennifer was a consultant with Bain & Company and spent a year teaching math to high school students in sub-Sahara(n) Africa.  She is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  Most weekends Jennifer can be found running around with her four children.

Theresia Gouw

Theresia Gouw

Theresia Gouw is co-founder of Aspect Ventures, a leading early stage venture firm with a unique focus on bridging the funding gap between angels and the larger multi-stage VC platforms through collaboration and diversity. Aspect invests across sectors but has particular expertise in cybersecurity, enterprise software and solutions targeting the future of work, and digital health. Theresia has led the firm’s early investments in Cato Networks, Deserve, Exabeam, ForeScout (FSCT), The Muse, Crew, ShieldX and PredictHQ. Prior to Aspect, Theresia was a Managing General Partner at Accel where she championed many successful companies through IPOs or acquisitions including Imperva (IMPV), Trulia (TRLA), LearnVest (Northwestern Mutual), Jasper Design (CDNS), Kosmix (WMT), HotelTonight (acquired by AirBnB) and Astro (acquired by Slack (WORK)).

As an entrepreneur, Theresia was founding Vice President of Business Development and Sales at Release Software, a venture-backed company that provided SaaS to enable digital rights management and payment technologies for the software industry. Earlier, she worked at Bain & Company and as a product manager at Silicon Graphics. Theresia holds an ScB in Engineering from Brown University, magna cum laude, and an MBA from Stanford University.

Theresia serves as Treasurer of Brown University’s Corporation board, Vice-Chair of Donorschoose.org, is a member of the Global Leadership Circle of ONE.org, the Castilleja School board, and at Stanford co-teaches a course on Venture Capital at the GSB. She also serves on the GSB Advisory Council and DAPER investment fund.

Theresia is a first generation immigrant and a passionate supporter of educational causes and increasing diversity in the tech industry. Theresia was named to Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women list, has been recognized 8 times on the Forbes Midas List as one of the “world’s smartest tech investors”, was named one of the 40 most influential minds in tech by Time Magazine, as well as

Chad Herrin

Chad Herrin

Chad is a technology investor and software executive with 20+ years of experience in business and cloud software applications and services. Chad’s mission at Aspect is to share this experience with entrepreneurs working to build transformational software companies.

Chad first met Aspect co-founder Theresia Gouw in 1997 at the tiny startup offices of Release Software, where they worked to help leading software companies transition from selling software in a box at Fry’s to distributing software securely over the internet.

Most recently Chad was a VP at SuccessFactors, where he was responsible for M&A and corporate strategy, including SuccessFactors’ $300 million acquisition of Plateau Systems. After SuccessFactors was acquired by SAP for $3.6B, Chad was VP Corporate Development working on SAP’s rapidly evolving cloud businesses.

Prior to SuccessFactors, Chad was an investment professional at TPG and Austin Ventures. He is also an active angel investor, looking to support innovative people who want to make an impact.

Chad earned his MBA from Stanford in 2001. He and his wife Jessica found love at first sight at a Stanford Industrial Engineering BBQ and are the proud parents of two girls.

Chad is an avid skier, having grown up in Reno NV and getting his first experience in the 3rd grade at Mt. Rose. He loves adventures in the mountains with family, dear friends, and often times complete strangers.

Asad Khaliq

Asad Khaliq

Asad Khaliq is an investor at Aspect; focused on sourcing investment opportunities, conducting diligence, and supporting Aspect portfolio companies. Asad focuses primarily on applications of AI, software infrastructure, blockchain, and mobility.

Previously, Asad spent time at PwC, where he advised clients on platform strategy and growth; and helped manage a network of volunteers striving to improve Computer Science education for children in the Middle East.

Asad studied Management Science & Engineering at Stanford University, where he was part of Stanford’s CS + Mental Health Organization helping turn academic research into real-world healthcare products.

Lauren Kolodny

Lauren Kolodny

Lauren Kolodny is an experienced marketer, product manager and early stage investor. She is focused primarily on SaaS, fintech and emerging technologies. Within these areas, she is particularly excited about teams leveraging AI, NLP, and voice technologies.

At Aspect Ventures, Lauren has led or co-led Aspect’s investments in Chime, Future Family, Pie, Gusto, EvidentID, Tara.ai, and TalkIQ (acq by Dialpad), among others.

Previously, Lauren worked in product marketing at Google, where she led a number of launches for the G suite  team, including Google Drive. Lauren began her career in clean technology partnership development for the Clinton Foundation in India.

Lauren earned her BA, magna cum laude, from Brown University and her MBA from Stanford GSB. Lauren also completed an MS in Sustainable Design from Stanford.

Lauren is a Trustee Emerita at Brown University where she served as the university’s youngest board member. She is currently a member of the President’s Leadership Council and the Advisory Committee on Computing and Information Technology, where she continues to advise university leadership on digital strategy. Lauren was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital in 2016.

In her free time, Lauren enjoys exploring the Bay Area, cooking big meals for her friends, skiing when there’s snow, playing lawn games, and traveling.

Mark Kraynak

Mark Kraynak

Mark Kraynak is a technology executive, company builder and erstwhile poet/engineer. He originally joined Aspect Ventures as Entrepreneur in Residence and converted to a full time investor at the end of 2017.  Mark is also currently an advisor to Exabeam, Indegy, Kloudless, and Aqua Security.

Prior to Aspect, Mark was at Imperva for nearly 13 years, where he held a number of marketing, product, and strategy roles, most recently SVP and GM of Imperva’s Enterprise Business, as well as being a board director for Incapsula prior to the Imperva acquisition in 2014.

Prior to Imperva, Mark led product marketing at Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. and worked in marketing at CacheFlow. Earlier in his career, he provided technology architecture consulting for Fortune 500 clients with Ernst & Young’s Center for Technology Enablement. Mark holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering and English from Duke University, summa cum laude, and an MFA in Literature from American University.

In the last 5 years, Mark has learned to ride a horse and to surf, though with 3 small children at home, he rarely has time for either. He does make time, however, to barrel age his proprietary Manhattan recipe to enjoy once they go to bed.

 

Vishal Lugani

Vishal Lugani

Vishal Lugani is focused on leading investments for Aspect in the fintech, digital health and logistics sectors, across enterprise and consumer. At Aspect, Vishal has led, co-led or works closely with the firm's investments in: PredictHQ, Stem.is, BaubleBar, Integris, Future Family, Pie Insurance, Eden Health, Shipwell, Worklete, The RealReal, Hotel Tonight and Coinbase.

Previously, Vishal spent several years at Greycroft Partners, a New York and Los Angeles based venture capital firm. During his time at Greycroft, he supported several portfolio companies, including: Acorns, App Annie, The RealReal, among others. Prior in his career, Vishal worked at Bain & Company in the firm’s New York and Los Angeles offices and was involved in projects across the media, healthcare and technology sectors.

Vishal holds an AB in economics, cum laude, from Harvard University.  While in school, he first experienced the start-up world as a part of the team at Unithrive, a peer-to-peer lending platform. Thereafter, he launched his alma mater’s chapter of the Kairos Society, an organization supporting young entrepreneurs globally, and helped form the expansion strategy. At Kairos, he continues to be involved in an advisory capacity.

In his free time, Vishal is likely reading a spy thriller, playing pick-up basketball, practicing yoga, or trying to figure out how to become a better poker player. Please reach out to him if you have any top rate, neighborhood restaurant recommendations.

Kamil Saeid

Kamil Saeid

Kamil Saeid is on the investing team at Aspect Ventures where he sources investment opportunities and supports Aspect companies.

Prior to Aspect, Kamil was an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company where he advised clients on strategy, growth, and performance improvement across the Tech, CPG and Utility spaces. He was also a member of Bain’s Inspire team, which worked with leading non-profit organizations in the Los Angeles area as well as G-Dev, Bain’s Global Development Network.

Kamil graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Biomechanical Engineering and was involved in Student Government, as well as Stanford Student Enterprises.

In his free time, Kamil enjoys exploring new places with friends and having his heart broken by Philly sports teams.

Rebecca Hu

Rebecca Hu

Rebecca is part of the investment team at Aspect, where she spends her time looking across industries but has a particular passion about the future of healthcare. She comes from a healthcare technology investing background as one of the early employees for the Earlybird Health-Tech Fund in Berlin, and has previously spent time in healthcare banking (UBS) and management consulting (Bain & Company).

She received her BA in Neurobiology and Economics from Harvard College, where she was an integral part of the Harvard Crimson and the Asian American Dance Troupe. She received her MS in Molecular Photonics and Biotechnology as a Fulbright Scholar from École Normale Supérieure de Cachan in Paris, where she conducted research on developing an early-stage diagnostic platform for Alzheimer's.

Rebecca is a fan of learning languages, beach volleyball, Chinese folk dance, and exploring different music varieties (classical, jazz, minimalist techno, experimental music, etc.). Like any good millennial, she also loves traveling and photography.