Deborah Carrillo

As General Counsel, Deborah Carrillo draws on deep expertise in corporate law to advise the Menlo team, steering them through all aspects of the business, including portfolio investments, exit transactions, fundraising, fund structuring, policy development, and regulatory compliance.

Deborah joined Menlo Ventures from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. As a partner working in the firm’s San Francisco office, the business and technology culture of Silicon Valley shaped her focus. She advised startups throughout their lifecycle, from formation to exit, as well as venture capital funds and corporate venture arms in their investments in startups and emerging growth companies. While at Pillsbury, she represented Menlo Ventures as outside counsel on its portfolio investments.

As GC of an investment firm, she combines years of legal practice with a proclivity for numbers. Although Deborah always planned to attend law school, she first earned a master’s degree in education at Stanford and spent the subsequent five years teaching math in public schools. She then pursued a career in law. While attending UC Berkeley’s School of Law, she had a natural affinity for cap tables in her venture law class, tax law and the technical rules for legal citations she applied as the Executive Editor of the California Law Review. Her passion for math parallels with her interest in the startup world. For Deborah, math is about problem-solving—a drive she shares with founders and startups.

Deborah lives with her husband and two sons in Alameda and believes everyone should want to move there. Her love of travel once inspired a journey from St. Petersburg to Beijing on the trans-Siberian railroad.