I hope you enjoy! I did! These are some of the world's brightest VC investors and CEO/Founders. I'm thankful sooo much for their time!!
Itamar Novick (Founder & VC)
General Partner at Recursive Ventures (~$70 Million Fund I + Fund II).
Founder of Life360 (NASDAQ: LIF, $5 Billion).
Investor in RapidAPI (Valuation ~$1 Billion).
Niko Bonatsos (VC)
Managing Director of General Catalyst (~$40 Billion AUM).
Investor in Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP; ~$24B IPO valuation).
Investor in Discord Inc. (~$15B valuation).
Investor in Livongo Health (Acquired by Teladoc, NYSE: TDOC; $18.5B deal).
Brandon Farwell (VC)
General Partner at Xfund (~$120 Million Fund III).
Investor in Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD).
Investor in Matterport (NASDAQ: MTTR).
Investor in Anduril ($30.5 Billion Valuation).
Gene Munster (VC)
Managing Partner & Co-Founder of Deepwater Asset Management (100M+ AUM).
Contributor to CNBC / Business Insider / Tech media on tech & markets.
Named “Top Stock Picker” by Forbes and “Best on the Street” by The Wall Street Journal.
Peter Rojas (Founder & VC)
Founder of Engadget (tens of millions of monthly readers; acquired by AOL).
Founder of Gizmodo (Gawker Media; one of the largest tech blogs globally).
Founding Partner at Betaworks Ventures (early fund behind GIPHY, Dots, Bitly).
Former executive roles at Meta & Mozilla (new products).
Nanea Reeves (Founder & CEO)
Founder & CEO of TRIPP, and advised Oculus in its early days.
Veteran gaming executive with ~$1.6 Billion in combined exits.
Former Chief Strategy Officer at Gaikai (acquired by Sony).
Former COO at Machinima (acquired by Warner Bros.).
Shan Padda (CEO)
Founder & CEO of Harvard MedTech. Serial entrepreneur who has sold 3 healthcare companies.
Previously led a medical device company through a successful IPO on Nasdaq and strategic sale.
Recognized in the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame and as KPMG High Tech Entrepreneur of the Year (Illinois).
Ryan Engle (Founder)
Founder & CEO of GOLF+, the leading VR golf game on Meta Quest.
Raised $6 Million+ from athlete investors including Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Mike Trout, and Ben Crenshaw.
700,000+ players using GOLF+ to practice and play golf in VR, PGA Tour partner.
Dave Haynes (VC)
Founding Partner at FOV Ventures (~€25 Million specialist fund for AI, XR).
Early team at SoundCloud, helping scale one of the world’s largest audio platforms.
Mark Linao (VC)
Co-Founder & General Partner at Progression Fund (~$30 Million pre-seed / seed consumer fund).
Backer of next-gen consumer brands including Drone Racing League, FaZe Clan, and Popshop Live.
Previously led investments at AET Fund, a $50 Million consumer tech fund backed by Akatsuki.
Catalin Voss (Founder & CTO)
Co-Founder & CTO of Ello, Stanford PhD in AI / Neurosciences focused on computer vision and behavior.
Ello has raised ~$40M+ across multiple rounds, including a $15M Series A led by Goodwater Capital with angels like Reed Hastings (Netflix) and Jeff Weiner (LinkedIn).
Previously founded machine learning startups in autism support and computer vision, both acquired.
Sam Cole (Founder & CEO)
Co-Founder & CEO of FitXR, one of the leading VR fitness platforms on Meta Quest.
FitXR has raised ~$20M+ in venture funding (incl. Series A led by Hiro Capital) to build immersive fitness studios in VR.
FitXR has delivered millions of workouts globally across boxing, HIIT, and dance formats.
Richard White (Founder & CEO)
Founder & CEO of Fathom, an AI meeting assistant used by thousands of teams.
Fathom has raised ~$20M+ in funding, including a $17M+ Series A to scale its AI notetaker for Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams.
YC alum (Y Combinator W21) with prior founder experience in SaaS and productivity tools.
Bertrand Nepveu & JP Mintos (Founder & VC)
Bertrand Nepveu is the Founder of VRvana, a mixed reality headset company acquired by Apple in a deal reported around ~$30M.
JP Mintos is a Partner at Hartmann Capital, a frontier-tech firm managing roughly ~$40–50M across crypto and metaverse vehicles.
Jonathan Ovadia (Founder & CEO)
Founder & CEO of AEXLAB, the VR studio behind competitive shooter VAIL VR.
AEXLAB has raised $15M+ across equity crowdfunding and VC, including a $5M Series A led by Fuel Venture Capital.
Generated $5.5M+ in revenue and reached 1M+ players.
Miami-based founder helping position South Florida as a hub for competitive VR gaming and esports.
Renji Bijoy (Founder & CEO)
Founder & CEO of Immersed, a leading XR hardware platform.
Raised $20M+ from investors including a top crowdfund campaign.
Luke Wilson (Founder & CEO)
Founder & CEO of ManageXR, and Stanford-educated engineer.
ManageXR has raised ~$4M+ in seed funding to power large-scale XR deployments in schools, hospitals, and enterprises.
Platform manages tens of thousands of headsets across hundreds of organizations worldwide.
Angelo Del Priore (VC)
Founding Partner at HP Tech Ventures, the corporate VC arm of HP Inc.
Led deals in companies like Mobalytics, Parsec, Mojo Vision, Owl Labs, and other frontier-tech startups.
Former VP of Business Development & Strategy at Couchsurfing, helping raise ~$23M and scale to 5M+ members.
Ryan Engle (Founder – Part 1)
Founder & CEO of GOLF+, the leading VR golf simulator on Meta Quest.
Raised $6M+ from athletes like Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Mike Trout, and Ben Crenshaw.
GOLF+ is the Official VR Golf Game of the PGA TOUR, with 700K+ players worldwide.
Nanea Reeves (Founder & CEO – Part 1)
Founder & CEO of TRIPP, wellness platform blending psychedelics-inspired design with AI.
TRIPP has raised ~$26M+ from investors including Mayfield, BITKRAFT Ventures, Amazon Alexa Fund.
30+ year veteran of gaming / media with executive roles at Gaikai (acq by Sony) and Machinima (acq by Warner Bros.).
Esteban Castaño (Founder)
Co-Founder & CEO of TRM Labs.
Raised $150M+ in funding from Tiger Global, Thoma Bravo, JPMorgan, PayPal Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and others.
TRM Labs is used by hundreds of institutions to monitor crypto risk, AML and fraud across thousands of digital assets.
Leen Segers (VC)
Managing Director at ForsVC, an early-stage games & immersive tech fund (~€20M+).
Founder of LucidWeb, a WebVR / WebXR platform used by European broadcasters and festivals.
Co-Founder of Women in Immersive Tech, a community supporting 3,000+ XR professionals across Europe.
Moritz Baier-Lentz (VC)
Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, leading gaming & interactive media investing (~$29 Billion AUM).
Former Vice President at Goldman Sachs, where he built and led the global gaming investment banking practice.
Investor in category-defining companies across games, AI and consumer platforms.
Ross Finman (Founder)
Founder & CEO of Augmodo, building large-scale augmented reality infrastructure.
Previously Co-Founder & CEO of Escher Reality (YC S17), acquired by Niantic (makers of Pokémon GO).
MIT-trained roboticist and long-time AR pioneer, with multiple AR startups and exits.
Jack Soslow (VC)
Partner on the Games team at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z, $35B+ AUM), focused on next-gen games & infrastructure.
Leads investments across AR/VR, AI-native games, creator tools and gaming platforms.
Previously investor at TPG and in tech investment banking at Qatalyst Partners.
Arian Ghashghai (VC)
Founder & General Partner at Earthling VC, backing pre-seed frontier tech founders in AI, AR/VR and robotics.
Former Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Meta Reality Labs (Oculus), working on next-gen spatial computing.
Engineer-turned-investor focused on technical founding teams building “post-smartphone” products.
Danny Freed (Founder)
Founder & CEO of Blueprint, a measurement-based mental health platform for therapists and health systems.
Blueprint helps thousands of clinicians track outcomes and personalize care using data and digital tools.
Serial founder at the intersection of software and mental health, building tech that scales care quality.
Arian Ghashghai (VC, Pt 2)
Expands Earthling VC’s thesis around “human-first AI,” spatial interfaces and ambient computing.
Backer of early-stage founders building tools for creators, engineers and knowledge workers in XR / AI.
Combines deep ML engineering background with hands-on support around product and go-to-market.
Greg Castle (VC)
Founder & Managing Partner at Anorak Ventures, an early-stage fund focused on VR/AR, robotics and frontier tech.
Early angel investor in Oculus VR (acquired by Facebook / Meta for ~$2 Billion).
Seed investor in Anduril Industries, a defense tech company valued at $30B+.
Paola Origel (VC)
Co-Founder & CEO of Hyla, a platform connecting allocators with top-tier crypto and digital asset funds.
Former General Partner at ChainLink Capital, a crypto fund-of-funds ranked #1 globally in 2021 performance tables.
Has overseen allocations into dozens of leading crypto funds and managers worldwide.
Jack Saba (Founder)
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Bequall, building modular Single Family Studios™ to accelerate ADU housing supply.
Second-time founder with experience in venture capital, web3 and real estate development.
Previously Managing Partner of Day One Investments and CEO / Co-Founder of Ledger Atlas (blockchain infrastructure).
Leen Segers (VC, Pt 1)
Managing Director at ForsVC, backing early-stage games, esports and immersive entertainment founders.
Built LucidWeb into a pan-European WebXR distribution platform before focusing full-time on investing.
Prominent ecosystem builder in European XR, mentoring and backing dozens of founders.
Anand Dass (Product & Partnerships)
Former Director of XR / Oculus content and app partnerships at Meta, helping scale the VR ecosystem.
Previously led strategic partnerships across startups, developers and major IP holders in gaming and entertainment.
Now building at the intersection of AI, spatial computing and developer platforms.
Michael Rucker (Founder)
Co-Founder & CEO of Omnivirt, a VR / 360° advertising platform acquired by Meta.
Former Product Manager at Google, working on ads and monetization products.
Stanford MBA with a decade+ of experience in immersive media and adtech.
Andrew Steinwold (VC)
Managing Partner at Sfermion, an investment firm focused on NFTs and the immersive internet.
Early investor in leading NFT and Web3 projects such as OpenSea, SuperRare, Art Blocks and others.
Host of the “Zima Red” podcast and one of the earliest institutional investors in NFT infrastructure.
Daniel Landau (Artist & Founder)
Immersive artist, researcher and entrepreneur working at the intersection of VR, performance and identity.
Creator of critically acclaimed VR installations exploring embodiment, presence and human–machine boundaries.
Founder of XR initiatives that bring together artists, technologists and researchers around virtual embodiment.
Tony Parisi (Founder)
XR / metaverse pioneer and co-creator of VRML, one of the first 3D standards for the web.
Former Head of AR/VR Ad Strategy at Unity Technologies, helping define immersive advertising.
Author of multiple O’Reilly books on VR/AR and long-time advocate for open metaverse standards.
Larry Braitman (Angel Investor)
Co-Founder of Flycast Communications, an early online ad network that IPO’d in 1999 and was acquired by CMGI for ~$2.3 Billion.
Co-Founder of Adify, an ad platform acquired by Cox Enterprises for ~$300 Million.
Top angel investor with early checks into Udemy, Carbon Health, TRM, Flixster and other breakout companies.
Bing Gordon (VC)
Chief Creative Officer at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998-2008; early executive and founding marketer from EA’s launch in 1982.
Joined Kleiner Perkins as Partner in 2008.
Served on Boards of Amazon (2003-2017), Zynga (IPO 2011).
Don Stein (Founder & Investor)
Raised ~$11M from top VCs including General Catalyst, Betaworks Ventures, and Lightspeed Scout Fund.
Invested in 30+ startups from his fund, built a leading AngelList syndicate and has operated a 20-person company as CEO in London.
Core life lesson: “Put yourself out there. Don’t be afraid to get embarrassed.”
Adam Draper, Andrea Wang & Ben Taft (VC Panel)
Adam Draper: Managing Director at Boost VC (~$300M AUM; 400+ deep-tech startups backed, including Coinbase).
Andrea Wang: Partner at SV Angel.
Ben Taft: Founder Genius Ventures, and Mira. Raised ~$20M from Sequoia, Founders Fund & Benioff. Acquired by Apple.
Anand Dass (Exec) Part 1
Former senior leader at Meta Reality Labs and Workplace by Facebook, focused on VR/AR applications and platform partnerships.
Helped grow Workplace to ~7M paying enterprise subscribers, partnering with companies like Cisco and Microsoft.
Sophie Thompson (Founder)
Co-Founder & CEO of VirtualSpeech, an award-winning VR + AI platform for soft-skills training (public speaking, sales, leadership).
VirtualSpeech has trained 550,000+ learners across 125–130+ countries and works with Fortune 500 companies and top universities.
Inga Petryaevskaya (Founder)
Founder & CEO of ShapesXR, an award-winning spatial design and collaboration platform for building VR/AR/MR products.
Former Siemens Corporate Technology, focused on emerging tech and innovation.
Previously Director of New Business Development at Dell EMC, where she led M&A within the Office of the CTO.
Ori Inbar (Founder)
Co-Founder of Augmented World Expo (AWE), the world’s largest AR/VR conference (7,000+ attendees and 250+ exhibitors by its 10th year).
Founder of Super Ventures, the first early-stage venture fund dedicated solely to augmented reality.
Dean Takahashi & Ben Lang (Media)
Dean Takahashi – Editorial Director for GamesBeat; tech journalist since the late 1980s and lead games writer since 2008, author of “Opening the Xbox” and “The Xbox 360 Uncloaked.”
Ben Lang – Co-Founder & Executive Editor of Road to VR, the leading independent XR news site founded in 2011; has written 3,000+ articles on VR/AR over more than a decade.