Former Slack Chief Product Officer April Underwood Joins Obvious Ventures

April Underwood, the former chief product officer of Slack, has joined Obvious Ventures as a venture partner. She is one of three venture partners who are working with the San Francisco-based venture firm. She joins serial entrepreneur, investor and advisor Julie Hanna, and Di-Ann Eisnor, who was previously the director of urban systems at Google’s Area 120.

Underwood announced the move on Twitter on Monday saying she will “invest in great companies seeking to solve the big problems facing humanity: our climate, human health and wellness, and how we work.” She added “Obvious has a unique focus on backing companies with world positive impact, which couldn’t possibly feel more needed than it does in this particular moment.”

During her four years at Slack, Underwood led the company’s most transformative product initiatives, including the launch of the Slack Platform and Enterprise Grid, Slack CEO Stuart Butterfield said in a blog post at the time of her departure in early 2019. Prior to joining Slack, Underworld was director of product at Twitter from 2010 to 2015. She has also held product, partnerships, and engineering roles at Google, Travelocity and Intel.

Underwood said in her tweet that she will continue her work with the angel investing collective #Angels unabated. She co-founded #Angels, an organization of women angel investors focused on investing in female founders, together with five female colleagues from Twitter in 2015. Underwood also sits on the board of Zillow Group.

Earlier this year, Obvious Ventures, which was co-founded by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, closed its third fund of around $270 million. The six-year-old firm saw its first portfolio exits in 2019, including Beyond Meat’s IPO and Unilever's acquisition of Olly Nutrition.