A team of
builders
We’re committed to building companies alongside you, not just writing checks. We are former founders, operators, and executives; we aren’t afraid to roll up our sleeves.
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HOMETOWN
Pacific Palisades, CA
EDUCATION
Industrial Engineering at Stanford and MBA at Stanford
NEVER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT
My journal—I’m always reflecting on growth opportunities and trying to better prioritize my time in support of my values and goals
HOW DO YOU PASS TIME IN LA TRAFFIC?
Podcasts and Spotify playlists—a lot of Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday interviews
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?
I delivered airline tickets (before they were digital) all over LA for my mom’s travel agency
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BEACH IN LA?
Station 15, Jetty at Will Rogers State Beach, where my parents would drop us at 8 am and pick us up at sunset. It’s where I learned to surf, did Junior Lifeguards, and watched them film Baywatch.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE ROAD TRIP FROM LA?
Driving up PCH through Malibu up to Ojai or Santa Barbara. They are so close but so different than LA and you get to stare at the ocean all the way.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CITY BESIDES LA?
I’ve held on to my infatuation with Auckland after my wife and I honeymooned there in 2001. It’s a modern, SF-like city with short ferry rides to beautiful small islands covered in wineries and abandoned beaches.
What's your favorite LA neighborhood?
Palisades is the best family community, but I’ve always regretted not moving to Manhattan Beach back in 2001. I’d be surfing more and playing more volleyball.
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Best piece of life advice you've gotten?
“Let the game come to you.” I think Phil Jackson said this to MJ, but Theresa Ranzetta-Gouw shared this wisdom with me while she was at Accel. At the time, I was trying to build Crosscut and launch StyleSaint at the same time. She noticed I was trying to force success and urged me to relax and let things develop in a more natural rhythm. Her advice really helped me at a time when I was overwhelmed by stress and doubt.
What did you learn as an entrepreneur at StyleSaint?
Empathy. My failure as an entrepreneur made me a better investor—more capable of understanding the plight of the entrepreneur and more accepting of the idea that good ideas and great effort can often still lead to failure.
What have you learned as an investor at Crosscut?
Infinite patience and confidence in yourself. This is a tough career—one of the few where you can still question if you are any good at it after 18 years on the job. I try not to take each failure personally and stay focused on the collective body of work. There are great highs, and low lows, so you can’t live in a constant state of self-doubt. I try to stay focused on the quality of the relationships that I build with my entrepreneurs—both in success and in failure.
How did you decide to found Crosscut?
Rick and I saw a bunch of high-growth, successful LA-based businesses scaling in LA while we were at a firm focused on Enterprise IT. We started spending time chasing deals in new markets, convincing ourselves that we knew something that the other firms didn’t. We had a thesis that venture investors benefit from brand and reputation that is best built locally, one deal at a time and we bet that LA had the right ingredients to be a long-term sustainable tech ecosystem. It took a little longer than we had hoped, but we are quite fortunate now to have been in the right place at the right time!
What originally brought you to LA?
I was born here and spent my childhood surfing, fishing and playing volleyball. I missed that lifestyle after 10 years in the Bay Area. My wife and I were both unemployed after the first tech bubble burst, deciding that we wanted to start our family together in LA, so we moved back in 2001 after I finished business school.
What do you look for in partners?
In general, I seek relationships that are built on integrity, honesty, and vulnerability. I believe that we are all flawed, and those that show self-awareness and a constant desire to improve as human beings resonate with me. If you can build a partnership with that type of foundation, I think you have a much better chance of making good decisions and finding creative solutions to the infinite problems we will face in helping our portfolio companies win.
Where can people find you on the weekends?
I’m usually at a sports complex coaching and watching my boys play volleyball. If I happen to have a free weekend, I do my best to surf or play volleyball down at the beach.
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HOMETOWN & CURRENT LOCATION
Hometown - Chicago, IL
Currently reside in Arlington, VA
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science, Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
MBA at UCLA Anderson School of Management
NEVER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT
Coffee and AirPods – caffeinated, consuming podcasts and market news
What was your first job?
Kitchen assistant and busser. Great high school job for pocket cash and the perk of getting fed well by the chef.
What originally brought you to LA? Why DC now?
After years in management consulting, I pursued my MBA at UCLA and dove into the booming LA aerospace and defense start-up scene. After 5 in space launch start ups, I ventured to the DC area for a new career chapter in space and defense tech and frontier tech investing.
What is your favorite place in VA?
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The SR-71 Blackbird is a marvel and stunning to see in person. I spend hours there checking out all the fighter jets and space hardware.
What’s your favorite beach in LA?
Having lived in LA for 7 years while getting my MBA, Lot 8 at Santa Monica beach was a special place featuring many beach volleyball games with friends.
What’s your favorite road trip from VA?
Driving west from DC taking in the beautiful Virginia countryside, historical sites, hiking in Shenandoah Valley, and ultimately ending in quaint Charlottesville, VA. It is especially gorgeous when fall colors are on full display.
What’s your favorite city besides LA?
Paris. I enjoy bouncing around museums and neighborhoods - amazing art, history, and a great energy. Plus, the south of France is an easy escape.
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Nerdiest thing about you?
Built a 7-foot rocket in undergrad with a few classmates. We integrated the solid rocket motor, wired up an accelerometer plus altimeter and temp/pressure sensors, mounted a GoPro, and wrote the code to capture flight data – then launched it from a remote field in central Illinois. The parachute didn’t deploy right, so it drifted off course and vanished into a dense cornfield…leaving us with some wild descent data to analyze. We recruited nearby farmers for a search party who were happy to help - we actually found it in the maze. It felt like we were living “October Sky”. It was my first real engineering build and the moment rocket science became a lifelong passion.
Best piece of life advice?
Nothing ventured, nothing gained – put in the work, trust yourself, and don’t be afraid to fail. You’ll learn valuable lessons along the journey.
What was your first entrepreneurial endeavor and how did it go?
In high school, I built an Excel-based trading model to find the most undervalued “player stocks” on a sports stock-exchange platform. It scraped ESPN player stats daily, pulled the platform’s latest prices every 15 minutes, and pushed real-time RSS sports alerts so I could adjust positions - basically a hacked-together mini-Bloomberg terminal for fantasy sports markets.
The countless hours spent trading probably didn’t make a great ROI given it was "play money", but I did well enough to cash out Best Buy gift cards to buy a first-gen iPod Touch (revolutionary!). More importantly, it was my first real exposure to building models and learning investing fundamentals.
What did you learn as an entrepreneur?
Working at early-stage rocket startups taught me that the single biggest lever is people. A strong team creates force multiplication, leverage, faster execution, and the confidence to push past what you thought was possible.
What have you learned as an investor?
Building trust with founders is everything. It enables you to provide real support, have honest conversations, and ask the right questions to be a truly value-added partner.
What did you do immediately before Crosscut?
Corporate Strategy and Development at Raytheon/RTX executing M&A transactions and strategy projects focusing on space and defense businesses.
What was the first lesson you learned about business?
It’s all in the preparation. A former consulting partner and mentor drilled that into me – do the diligence, question the assumptions, and you will produce strong work. When you prep the right way, the presentation and Q&A feel like you are hitting play on a movie you’ve already seen.
Who are your mentors?
My parents and uncle. They are incredible people and I am grateful for their wisdom.
Where can people find you on the weekends?
Trying the latest new restaurant (always taking recommendations), golfing, or exploring a historical site in the DMV area.
Favorite recent tech invention?
Reusable rockets. It flipped the cost curve to enable the space economy to flourish.
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HOMETOWN
Decatur, Illinois...the Soybean Processing Capital of the World!
EDUCATION
BS in Finance at University of Illinois, JD at Harvard Law School
NEVER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT
A sense of optimism that most people are good and deserve respect...even that person who just cut me off on the 10!
HOW DO YOU PASS TIME IN LA TRAFFIC?
Malcolm Gladwell podcasts. He’s the best. And NPR: No rant/no slant.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?
Lifeguard at a community pool in Decatur, IL. Got paid $2 an hour but was an awesome way to spend hot and humid Central Illinois summers.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE IN LA?
Our conference room—we get some of the world’s smartest, most driven dreamers coming through every week. It still fires me up to meet a passionate entrepreneur hell-bent on building a large company.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BEACH IN LA?
Confession: I love the ocean but I’m probably more of a mountain guy. Telluride is my favorite.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CITY BESIDES LA?
New York City. Love the energy and the hyper-competitive atmosphere.
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WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST ENTREPRENEURIAL ENDEAVOR?
I was the classic midwestern blue-collar kid trying (needing) to make money any way I could: delivering newspapers, shoveling driveways, and mowing yards.
WHAT IMPORTANT LESSON HAVE YOU LEARNED AS AN INVESTOR?
The only thing that matters is the entrepreneur. Their drive and passion are way more important than anything we do as investors.
WHAT DID YOU DO IMMEDIATELY BEFORE CROSSCUT?
I took some extended time off, to focus on my kids and take care of my ailing parents back in Illinois. It was an important time of reflection and introspection for me.
HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO FOUND CROSSCUT?
During that extended period of time that I took off, I was trying to figure out what was next. I had a conversation with my gardener, where he noted how passionate I was in describing venture capital compared to the other paths. I made the decision right there to follow my passion and get back into venture capital by founding Crosscut.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST LESSON YOU LEARNED ABOUT BUSINESS?
I learned there is no substitute for hard work. I also learned the importance of entering the right market at the right time and never discounting the role of luck in any outsized success.
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN FOUNDERS?
Grit and hustle. Not being afraid to say “I don’t know”.
WHERE CAN PEOPLE FIND YOU ON THE WEEKENDS?
Golfing and yoga...and Dan Tana’s
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HOMETOWN
Barrington Hills, IL; Current: Montecito, CA
EDUCATION
College of Charleston (BA History, BS Economics)
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CO-FOUNDER
Brett Brewer
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HOMETOWN
Turlock, California
EDUCATION
A proud UCLA Bruin
How do you pass the time in LA traffic?
I always have my call back list with me. I start at the top and start dialing.
What was your first job?
I started a “pencil selling business” in 4th grade that grew to be quite large but one of the jobs that had an impact on me was selling books door to door while I was at UCLA. Very tough business as you literally get hundreds of doors slammed in your face but you just have to keep knocking.
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How did you decide to found Crosscut?
Between Intermix Media (MIX) and Adknowledge, I raised money from TCV, TPG, Redpoint, Vantage Point, JMI, Nokia and more… but I never even thought about raising from a venture firm based in LA. Based on that experience, it felt like there must be an opportunity to “plant the flag in LA” and become the “go-to” LA-based venture firm. By teaming up with Rick and Brian (2 very experienced venture capitalists who know the business well), we were able to launch our proof of concept fund in LA in 2008. We’ve never looked back!
What was the first lesson you learned about business?
One of my first lessons in business was around team building and team dynamics. For the most part, businesses succeed or fail based on leadership and the decisions they make. At Intermix Media, I was obsessed with team building but occasionally I would get so excited about a new category (dating as an example) that I’d be willing to start a new business with a sub-optimal team. It didn’t take long to see that most of our failures (and there were many) stemmed from when I liked the business idea much more than the team I was able to quickly spin up. My focus today is almost completely around the quality of the founding team. Once we make an investment, I immediately help teams figure out the holes and how we can fill them. Lesson learned: it’s all about the quality of the team.
Why have you completely avoided being on social media yourself?
People often get a kick of this given my Myspace roots and all, but the truth is that I have never been a “social media” person. From early 2003 and the launch of Myspace, I have been fascinated with watching the way people interact with social media and the way it has shifted human behavior. But I have always been content watching as an amateur social scientist from the outside. I don’t see that changing soon, and for the most part, I think people need to spend less time on their phones and more time talking to each other!
