Dayna Grayson

Dayna was one of the first venture capitalists to build a portfolio around the transformation of industrial sectors of our economy. She co-founded Construct to expand this focus and pursue the next generation of massive companies to be built in the tech sector, establishing the partnership with Rachel around complementary investing skills and an early-stage only focus. Prior to launching Construct, she was a partner at NEA where she backed companies creating new advances in manufacturing, automation, and vertically integrated consumer brands. She led investments in companies including Desktop Metal, Onshape, Framebridge, Tulip, Formlabs, and Guideline. In 2020, Desktop Metal (NYSE: DM) went public where she remains on the board as chair of the compensation committee. Onshape was acquired for $525m by PTC in 2019 and Framebridge was acquired by Graham Holdings in 2020.

Prior to joining NEA, Dayna was an investor at North Bridge Venture Partners in Boston. She started her career in product development and led design efforts at Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the leading global provider of software to nonprofit organizations, as the company grew to over $130 million in revenue and completed a successful public offering.

She is a graduate of University of Virginia with a B.Sc. in Systems Engineering, and while there she built a startup using computer vision and eye-tracking for the physically handicapped. She received an MBA from Harvard Business School, where, today, she serves as a venture partner and an advisor to the MS/MBA program. Dayna is a founding member of All Raise, with the mission of improving diversity in venture capital.