Menlo pursues companies with the potential to disrupt huge markets and invests primarily in early-stage consumer, enterprise, and life science technologies.

Venture Capital

Menlo Ventures

As head of network development for Menlo, Kayla leverages the Menlo network to facilitate the success of its portfolio companies, building community across the portfolio and startup ecosystem. Community has emerged as a core pillar of Menlo’s value proposition: By creating opportunities for portfolio companies to connect with each other, the firm is able to scale the value it provides beyond the capability of individual partners.

Kayla’s efforts connect the Menlo portfolio both online and in person. She is responsible for curating engagements in Menlo’s C-Suite Series, which brings together industry leaders and subject matter experts who guide professional development training and peer learning opportunities across all major functional areas relevant to company growth and success. 

Before joining Menlo in 2013, she worked for TPG Special Opportunities Partners and RS Investments. Kayla holds a bachelor of arts in business entrepreneurship and public relations from the University of St. Thomas. For fun, Kayla enjoys spending time with her family and new adventures in wine country!

Kayla Hinderscheid

Jordan leads talent strategy at Menlo Ventures. He is responsible for building the firm’s network of next-generation entrepreneurs, executives, and locks arms with founders on their team-building journey. Jordan has spent the past 20 years coaching CEOs and founders on how to build world-class management teams and boards.

Prior to joining Menlo, Jordan was a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, where he helped shape the firm’s talent strategy. At Kleiner Perkins, he supported entrepreneurs in organization design, board recruiting, and executive team-building. Prior to Kleiner Perkins, Jordan was a principal at Howard Fischer Associates, where he built executive teams for many of Silicon Valley’s top venture-backed enterprise networking, software, e-commerce, media, and consumer electronics companies. Earlier in his career, Jordan founded NewPoint Ventures, a boutique recruiting firm that specialized in building sales and marketing teams for high-tech companies internationally. Jordan also spent four years at Century Associates, a Philadelphia-based search firm. He holds a bachelor of arts degree from Bloomsburg University.

Jordan Ormont

Tiffany leads marketing at Menlo Ventures, working to raise the profile of the firm, our partners, and our portfolio as a member of the Fuel Team. In this capacity, Tiffany provides strategic counsel to startups and lends support around major milestones including new funding, product launches, and IPOs.

Tiffany joined Menlo after five years as vice president of marketing and communications for Bessemer Venture Partners. She previously built a successful consulting practice focused on launch strategy for early-stage companies. Her clients came from a broad range of B2B and B2C technology sectors including mobile, consumer internet, e-commerce, fintech, hardware, and developer tools. During this period, she designed a record-setting Kickstarter campaign (raising $8.6M in 28 days) and earned a place on Business Insider’s “The PR 50: The Best Communications Pros in Technology” list. Her strategic instincts developed through years in consumer technology, launching hundreds of products for industry leaders including EA, Sony, and Microsoft.

She began her career at Edelman Worldwide, the largest independent public relations firm. At Edelman, she specialized in internet startups and was a member of the three-person team that founded the firm’s West Coast Consumer Technology Practice. Tiffany graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor of arts in rhetoric. She is a published illustrator.

Tiffany Spencer

With over a decade of executive placement experience, Kandace has been dubbed a “ninja of recruiting” by her peers. As Director of GTM Talent at Menlo, she spends her time cultivating relationships with top sales and marketing executives across Menlo’s focus areas, concentrating on SaaS, infrastructure, and cybersecurity. She also plays a critical role in helping founders build out their boards, with an eye toward diversity. Kandace views talent placement as fitting pieces into the larger puzzle of an organization, so her approach is thoughtful and methodical. She looks for candidates that can help the business meet its long-term goals, who have the personal fortitude to push through tough moments. In addition, she asks, “Are they a good storyteller?” She believes that a sign of a great executive is someone who can take complex ideas and paint a picture that anyone can understand.

Kandace’s first exposure to executive search was through an internship at [Heidrick & Struggles](/org/heidrick-struggles) during her junior year of college. Upon graduation, she joined [Daversa Partners](/org/daversa-partners), where she spent 10 years as an executive recruiter. In her most recent role as Head of Talent Networks, Kandace helped build a new division within Daversa called [Dreamscape](/org/dreamscape), creating more Black representation at the board and executive levels of tech companies.

Kandace earned her bachelor’s degree in foreign affairs from the [University of Virginia](/org/university-of-virginia) and completed additional coursework at Black Venture Institute—a program dedicated to teaching Black operators how to become angel and venture investors—hosted by [UC Berkeley](/org/uc-berkeley) in partnership with [BLCK VC](/org/blck-vc), Operator Collective, and Salesforce Ventures. Based on the East Coast, she spends her free time chasing adventure and staying active, whether it’s trail riding, bouldering, or practicing yoga.

Kandace Elam

Mark Siegel is a partner at [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures). Mark has over 25 years of experience in the technology industry. Mark was previously at Netscape Communications, where they were responsible for business development, and at Oracle Corporation, where they were director of product management for the Massively Parallel Systems Division.

Mark Siegel has an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Physics and Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mark Siegel

Croom is a principal at [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures) focused on financial technology, healthcare IT, and enterprise SaaS. Since joining Menlo in 2017, he led the firm’s Series A investment in [Rivet](/org/rivet) and has also invested in [BitPay](/org/bitpay), [Fieldwire](/org/fieldwire), [Fleetsmith](/org/fleetsmith) (acquired by Apple), [HOVER](/org/hover-to), [Particle Health](/org/particle-health), [ShipBob](/org/shipbob), [Skip](/org/skip), and [Zylo](/org/zylo). He also led diligence on Menlo’s investments in [Benchling](/org/benchling), [BlueVine](/org/bluevine), Bread Finance, and JUMP Bikes (acquired by [Uber](/org/uber)).

Previously, Croom worked in strategy at [Payoneer](/org/payoneer), where he launched and ran its first credit business line, which provided working capital solutions to small businesses in emerging markets. Before that, Croom started his investing career at [Susquehanna Growth Equity](/org/sge), where he focused on growth-stage financial technology companies and worked on investments in [Credit Karma](/org/credit-karma), [Payoneer](/org/payoneer), [PaySimple](/org/paysimple), and others.

Croom graduated from [Princeton University](/org/princeton) with a BA in history. In his free time, Croom enjoys going on very long walks (thru-hiked the 2,660-mile Pacific Crest Trail), running ultramarathons, skiing, and reading fiction. He currently lives on a cold and windy hill in SF with his wife, Sara, and dog, Ernie.

Croom Beatty

Jean-Paul Sanday is a partner at [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures). Jean-Paul has previously worked at H1, [Photomath](/org/photomath), [Abnormal Security](/org/abnormal-security), [CodeSignal](/org/codesignal), [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures), Teaching Strategies, LLC, [Smartsheet](/org/smartsheet), Ascentis Human Capital Management Software, and [Summit Partners](/org/summit-partners). Sanday has held the position of board member at Teaching Strategies, LLC and Ascentis Human Capital Management Software. Jean-Paul has also served as an investor at [Smartsheet](/org/smartsheet) and as vice president at [Summit Partners](/org/summit-partners).

Jean-Paul Sanday received their MBA from [Stanford University](/org/stanford)'s Graduate School of Business and their Bachelor of Science in Management from [Boston College](/org/boston-college).

Jean-Paul Sanday

As Business Development Partner and a member of Menlo’s Fuel team, Houman’s priority is to accelerate growth for the firm’s portfolio companies. He works closely with the management teams of Menlo portfolio companies to identify mutually beneficial customer engagements, strategic partnerships, and to help catalyze additional rounds of financing. Houman brings his extensive network and experience helping accelerate companies’ growth. He fosters an ecosystem of industry-leading companies and individuals committed to partnering with Menlo portfolio companies.

Before joining [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures), Houman spent 15 years at [Qualcomm](/org/qualcomm) where he held positions in engineering, project management, and product development. One of his memorable product development efforts was creating and launching Whispernet, which was the magic behind book delivery for the Amazon Kindle. During the last seven years, he ran business development for the [Qualcomm](/org/qualcomm) Ventures division, where he worked closely with companies including, [AttackIQ](/org/attackiq), [Clarifai](/org/clarifai), [Cohesity](/org/cohesity), [Fitbit](/org/fitbit), Ring, [RetailNext](/org/retailnext), Thundersoft, and [Zoom](/org/zoom). Houman was a founding member of [Qualcomm](/org/qualcomm) Robotics Accelerator, which he ran in partnership with TechStars, and invested in ten early-stage AI and robotics companies in the nascent days of robotics investments. Houman is also an inventor and has been granted two U.S. Patents in the field of radio frequency modulation in mobile phones.

Houman has always been fascinated by the function of the human brain, computers, and—at times—the marriage of the two. He found the perfect harmony of the two fields in his undergraduate studies at [UC San Diego](/org/uc-san-diego), where he majored in computational cognitive science. Houman is a Stanford Certified Project Manager and has completed additional coursework at [Harvard Business School](/org/harvard-business-school)’s Executive Program with a focus on venture capital and private equity.

Houman Haghighi

Brent joined Menlo Ventures in 2015 after advising a variety of VC clients as PwC tax manager in San Jose. Brent studied mechanical engineering at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, but ended up graduating with a bachelor of science in accounting and masters of science in taxation. He is humble, curious, passionate about his “why”, and is a licensed CPA. He lives in Austin with his loving wife, loves raising his two kids, and enjoys finding new adventures, CrossFit, BBQ, and all things outdoors.

Brent Fellows

Kirsten Mello was previously a Senior at Ernst & Young LLP from January 1996 to December 1999. Kirsten is currently the Chief Financial Officer at [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures).

Kirsten Mello started their educational career at [Santa Clara University](/org/santa-clara-university).

and Brent Fellows - Controller & Tax Director reports to Kirsten Mello.

Kirsten Mello

As an investor at Menlo Ventures, Feyza focuses on soon-to-breakout consumer, fintech, and enterprise SaaS companies. 

Prior to Menlo, Feyza worked as an engineer at various companies in different growth stages, including Nucleus Scientific (now Indigotech), Fitbit, and Analog Devices. Her exposure to a wide range of tasks and opportunities led Feyza to grow curious about the way companies operate. Feyza pursued a career in business management when she joined McKinsey & Company after graduating from MIT. At McKinsey, she consulted multi-billion-dollar technology companies on strategy and operations, in addition to early-stage startups. Working with startups piqued her interest in venture capital and she joined Insight Partners. After working on a slew of successful investments, Feyza became even more inspired to work closely with founders throughout their journey from series seed and beyond. 

Feyza hails from Turkey, where her father and grandfather—both entrepreneurs—often discussed business at the dinner table. She credits them with inspiring and encouraging her interest in how early businesses gain traction. 

Feyza holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Passionate about STEM education, she previously taught science in Nepal and Malawi. When she’s not working, you can find Feyza running, playing tennis, and critiquing indie movies.

Feyza Haskaraman

Shawn Carolan is a Partner at [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures). Prior to joining Menlo, Shawn served on the Board of Directors for JUMP Bikes through their acquisition by UBER. Shawn was also the Founding CEO of Handle, Inc., a productivity system that helps users stay focused on what matters most. Shawn has also served on the Board of Directors for Rocketship Education.

Shawn Carolan attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for both their BS in Electrical Engineering and their MS in Electrical Engineering. Shawn then went on to [Stanford University](/org/stanford) for their MBA.

Shawn Carolan

Ian O'Donnell is the current Director of Validation at Menlo Labs and was previously an Adjunct Professor at Parsons School of Design - The New School. Ian has also worked as a Director, Strategic Design at [BCG Digital Ventures](/org/bcg-digital-ventures) and as a Design and Innovation Consultant at Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.

O'Donnell has led multiple sprints spanning automotive, financial services, energy, supply chain, utilities and federal government clients resulting in $30M+ of investment. Ian's responsibilities have included leading market research, idea validation, prototype design, and creation of investment pitches; overseeing teams of 20+ designers, product managers, engineers, and business strategists in day-to-day execution of multiple product builds; hiring leadership and design teams for seed level startup in Singapore; and managing day-to-day client relationships with C-Suite executives. Ian has also formalized methodologies on user-centered research, design ideation, and future scenario envisioning.

Ian O'Donnell has a Master of Design from the Institute of Design (ID), with a focus in product design and design strategy. Ian also has a B.A. from [Northwestern University](/org/northwestern-university) in economics and mathematics.

Ian O'Donnell reports to Croom Beatty, Partner.

Ian O'Donnell

Naomi Pilosof Ionita is a partner at [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures). Naomi has also served on the board of directors for [Fleetsmith](/org/fleetsmith) and JVS - San Francisco. In addition, they were the vice president of growth at [Invoice2go](/org/invoice2go) from 2014 to 2017.

Ionita began their career in the tech industry as a product manager. Naomi then transitioned into growth and user experience roles. In their most recent role as vice president of growth at [Invoice2go](/org/invoice2go), they were responsible for driving revenue strategy, pricing and packaging, and funnel metrics across activation, conversion, upgrades, and retention.

Ionita is a strong advocate for using both quantitative and qualitative data to drive compounding double and triple-digit improvements across all funnel metrics. Under their leadership, [Invoice2go](/org/invoice2go) became the #1 Top Grossing Business app in the App Store, in over 50 countries, without investing in Sales/Marketing.

Naomi Pilosof Ionita has a MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from [Northwestern University](/org/northwestern-university).

Naomi Pilosof Ionita

Iris Liu

Naomi Ionita

Tyler is a partner at [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures) focused on investing in technology-enabled services and products that are positioned to compound their growth efficiently for a very long time, vis-à-vis sticky long-term relationships with customers and partners. He has coined these businesses “layer cakes” (resulting from customer revenues looking like annuities, stacked on top of each other). He often finds that these businesses are the beneficiaries of network effects, liquidity moats, replenishment channels, habit formation (driven by high frequency transactions), real switching costs (i.e. data lock-in) and perceived switching costs (i.e. the avoidance of cognitive burden). He jokes that his goal is to back a business that one day Warren Buffett would like to buy because of its enduring value. He knows he’s running out of time.

Tyler Sosin

Steve is a partner at Menlo. He joined the firm in 2015 as an associate, became a principal in 2017, and a partner in 2019. He is focused on investments in Menlo’s Inflection Fund, which looks to write $20M-$30M checks into fast-growing Series B/C companies in the $5M-$15M ARR range. He has invested across robotics, fintech, and marketplace companies (Chime, [6 River Systems](/org/6-river-systems), and Rover) and enterprise SaaS applications (Observe, Enable, Scout RFP, Carta).

Prior to Menlo, Steve worked in growth-stage investing at Insight Venture Partners in New York and founded a YC-backed company in the social space. Steve graduated from [Princeton University](/org/princeton) with bachelor’s degrees in both mechanical and aerospace engineering and a minor in robotics and intelligent systems. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, following the [New York Giants](/org/new-york-giants), and running (with a 2:45 marathon PR).

Steve Sloane

As a Head of Strategy and Operations for Menlo Labs, Michelle focuses on incubating and launching the next highest potential companies. 

Michelle honed her business acumen working with companies at Boston Consulting Group across a range of sectors like technology, financial services, consumer products, travel and tourism, and industrial goods. Her work with Fortune 500 companies at BCG exposed her to how a successful organization operates—a lens she applies to her work with early-stage companies now. 

Having lived and worked in nearly 10 different cities, Michelle infuses a diverse background of experiences into her work. Her experience servicing some of the CEO’s biggest problems across various sectors has led Michelle to acutely understand the context under which a founder is operating, and in parallel, determine if an opportunity makes sense within its given industry and geography. 

Michelle is equal parts focused on ideation and operations within Menlo Labs. She uses her creative side to source, develop, and vet new opportunities, while interfacing with customers to understand market needs and partnering with entrepreneurs to conceptualize those opportunities into successful businesses.  

Michelle graduated valedictorian from [Indiana University](/org/indiana-university)’s Kelley School of Business and earned her MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Michelle is fluent in Spanish and English. She’s also a black belt in Taekwondo. 

Michelle Aguinis

Tim is a partner at [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures) focused on early-stage investments that speak to his passion for the next-generation cloud, the new data stack, and AI/ML. He’s committed to helping Menlo double down on the future of the cloud, where things continue to accelerate at a blinding pace. He’ll also be advising on early-growth investments considered by Menlo’s Inflection Fund.

Over his career, Tim has partnered with countless individuals that have pushed the technical and creative envelope. A technologist and developer at heart, he has deep technical knowledge and years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience developing and managing teams that will be helpful to many entrepreneurs as they navigate finding their product-market fit and then executing to get there as they grow their companies and teams. Additionally, he spent many years at [Splunk](/org/splunk) in the field helping drive go-to-market execution, providing a unique and rare blend of technical depth, large-scale management experience and sales expertise.

Before joining Menlo, Tim was CTO of [Splunk](/org/splunk) and oversaw the company’s shift from on-prem software to a cloud-first organization. Under Tim’s leadership running both product and engineering as well as IT and security, he massively scaled [Splunk](/org/splunk)’s product, design, IT and engineering teams, tripling its product team from 600 to 1,800 in less than three years. He helped the company more than double its sales revenue from $950M in 2017 to $2.25B in 2020, increasing [Splunk](/org/splunk)’s market cap to nearly $25B in the process. He was also responsible for 10 of [Splunk](/org/splunk)’s acquisitions (SignalFx, Omnition, Phantom Cyber, Victorops, Streamlio, Plumbr, Flowmill, Rigor, Rocana, and SignalSense) and also worked with [Splunk](/org/splunk)’s venture capital arm.

Prior to [Splunk](/org/splunk), Tim spent over a decade in various technical roles at [Yahoo!](/org/yahoo), Sun Microsystems, and several startups. At [Yahoo!](/org/yahoo), he rose from a data engineer to Chief Data Architect and worked closely on several important open source projects including the internal systems that led to Hadoop. He went on to lead engineering across Yahoo Media products, including Yahoo.com, Yahoo Finance, Fantasy Sports, Tumblr and more. 

As a former developer, operator, architect, and leader of thousands of engineers and projects across both [Splunk](/org/splunk) and Yahoo, Tim’s technical background will resonate with early-stage founders that want an investor who deeply understands their industry. Tim holds an M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University and a B.S. from the University of California, Davis. In his spare time, Tim hacks on side projects: enterprise-grade wireless networking in his home, crypto mining Ethereum in his basement, as well as coding recreationally. Most recently he developed a Unity-based first-person shooter inspired by Cyberpunk 2077 for the [Splunk](/org/splunk) engineering teams.

Tim Tully

Greg is a partner at [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures), where he invests in teams trying to solve major problems in life science and healthcare, with a special interest in novel therapeutic platforms, patient-focused digital health, and transformative technologies. Since joining Menlo in 2017, Greg has led investments in [Clear Labs](/org/clear-labs), [Delfi Diagnostics](/org/delfi-diagnostics), [Encoded Therapeutics](/org/encoded-therapeutics), [Epiodyne](/org/epiodyne), [Pliant Therapeutics](/org/pliant-therapeutics), [Senti Biosciences](/org/senti-biosciences), and Vital Labs.

Greg Yap

Matt Murphy

Venky Ganesan

Grace is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs at their most vulnerable stage to enable the growth of emerging technologies. At Menlo, Grace advocates for new investments while also supporting existing portfolio companies. She has furthered Menlo’s existing theses and investments in departmental SaaS, the next-gen GTM and customer experience stack, data, and productivity tooling. These areas of interest are a natural extension of Grace’s work prior to venture. Before VC, Grace was a builder and buyer of tooling for a swath of departments at different tech companies (Google – ML and ops, NetApp – product and sales, eBay – marketing and analytics, Facebook – internal productivity). Many of the companies she was bringing in to solve company pain points were early-stage startups and she quickly realized she would rather be helping founding teams than tech behemoths.

Prior to Menlo, Grace was also an investor at RRE Ventures and President of the rising venture community in NY.

Grace graduated with honors from Rice University in Mathematical Economic Analysis and Political Science. She is an advocate for diversity in tech and venture—championing not just gender, racial, and ethnic diversity, but the inclusion and representation of people from different educational and socioeconomic backgrounds. She has served as co-lead of Pitching to the Partnership, a monthly series that connects emerging women in venture with partners from other firms, an advisor to the Board of the Made organization, which supports local startups and founders in New York and San Francisco, and a mentor to first-generation college students through the SWAG organization. For fun, Grace is an adventurous traveler. Her favorite trip? Spending a month in a campervan in New Zealand. Today, you can catch her exploring the beautiful Californian terrain with her husky Max.

Grace Ge

Charlotte joins Menlo Ventures as Head of Investor Relations where she manages investor communications and partnerships, and leads fundraising and capital formation for the firm.  

Charlotte works in lockstep with our Limited Partners (LPs) around the globe. She believes in working collaboratively and cross-functionally, and has honed her approach to working with LPs through many years in private and public equity and venture capital. At Menlo, she’s excited to engage the investment, finance, legal and marketing teams to strategically drive firm growth and champion Menlo’s core values to our new and existing LP base. 

Charlotte is highly qualified to lead the investor relations function at Menlo. She comes from SVB Capital, where she oversaw their direct venture strategies. Prior to that, Charlotte had her own company advising both public and private equity funds on how to attract capital. She worked with many top firms in Silicon Valley where she helped craft strategy and branding. Charlotte was also a Partner in Investor Relations and Marketing for both Sofinnova and Sanderling Ventures. She started her career on the sell side working at both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in the equities division and prime brokerage.  

Charlotte has a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A from New York University. In her free time, you can find her playing squash or skiing. However, her true happiness comes from hiking with her ten year old Australian shepherd. 

Charlotte Shropshire

Shimali Puri

Katie is an investor at [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures), focusing on investments in SaaS and cloud infrastructure. With her background in product management, an interest in entrepreneurship, and a lifelong pursuit of knowledge, venture capital was a natural next step in her career. She enjoys helping companies build tools that make day-to-day work easier and improve people’s lives, and relishes the opportunity to dive deep into the computer infrastructure that supports those tools.

Prior to Menlo, Katie was a product manager at [Salesforce](/org/salesforce). Upon graduation from Stanford, she joined [Salesforce](/org/salesforce)’s second-ever Associate Product Manager (APM) program, where she became immersed in the product development lifecycle. She worked on projects ranging from CRM and e-commerce to field service management and healthcare, and also helped shape recruiting and mentorship within the APM program.

At Stanford, Katie received a B.A. in economics and a Master’s in computer science. Outside of her studies, she reported for the Stanford Daily on politics and local news; she then went on to serve as managing editor for the Stanford Daily Magazine, a bi-quarterly, long-form publication. In another life, she would have liked to be a beat reporter on Capitol Hill.

Katie Keller

Aunkur is a Venture Partner at [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures) focused on fintech. He draws on his deep experience as both an early-stage and public company operator at [Braintree](/org/braintree), [PayPal](/org/paypal), and Google to find promising teams and ideas that will become enduring companies. Aunkur is excited to lock arms with founders who are passionate about and have experienced a “hair on fire” problem firsthand and therefore are uniquely equipped to solve it. He enjoys doing the real work of startup-building alongside founders – making introductions, hiring, thinking through product features, and helping structure partnerships and go-to-market teams.  

Throughout his career, Aunkur has worked with entrepreneurs and investors to build and bring new products to market, focusing on API-first services that help companies create new consumer experiences at the intersection of payments, mobile, and advertising. Before joining [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures), Aunkur was an executive at [PayPal](/org/paypal) and SVP/GM of Business Development at [Braintree](/org/braintree). There he led the company’s growth and market launch of new products across both merchant and peer-to-peer payments, including what eventually became [PayPal](/org/paypal) One Touch, a reincarnation of Venmo’s merchant checkout product. During this time, Aunkur started to see problem patterns that were adjacent to payments and needed solving. For example, while partnering with companies like [Uber](/org/uber) and [Airbnb](/org/airbnb), he noticed how much friction their internal teams encountered moving money between themselves, banks, and their customers and partners. Within [Braintree](/org/braintree)’s own underwriting function, he saw the amount of manual work required to verify and manage ongoing checks of businesses on the platform. His desire to solve these problems led to his interest and subsequent investments in [Modern Treasury](/org/modern-treasury) and MidDesk.  Aunkur has invested personally in several other fintech companies, including Parafin and Canopy Servicing, among others. He has a deep interest in the infrastructure and connective tissue that binds the fintech ecosystem together.

Prior to [Braintree](/org/braintree), Aunkur spent a few years at Google working on their early digital wallet products. He came to Google through the acquisition of AdMob, where he was an early employee and led the buildout of its app developer business. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Aunkur Arya

Weber Wong

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](/org/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](/org/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](/org/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.

Deborah Carrillo

Greg Rudin leads Menlo Labs, a venture studio and incubator. Greg first connected with Menlo as a portfolio executive and later joined the firm as an Executive-in-Residence in 2019, before partnering with Shawn Carolan to build the next great startup through Menlo Labs.

Greg brings more than 20 years of working with notable e-commerce brands and a variety of fast-growing software companies to his leadership role at Menlo Labs. With deep experience operating within technology companies from pre-funding through post-IPO in a variety of contributor and leadership roles, Greg provides guidance that stems from real-world lessons building and running companies.

Greg’s been fortunate enough to have had only five jobs over his 20 years in business—four of which he joined at the seed stage, and one during Series A. Those companies spanned multiple industries, including e-commerce (ShopAround), digital music (MusicNow, acquired by AOL), online storage (Cleversafe, acquired by IBM), ad tech (MediaBank/MediaOcean, acquired by [Vista Equity Partners](/org/vista-equity-partners)), and local marketplace/e-commerce (Groupon, GRPN). Working directly with founders has been the common thread across all of his jobs. Greg has helped to distill, shape, and execute on their visions while empathizing with and meeting customer needs.

He’s taken his love of early stage company building to angel investing, advising, and working with dozens of founders across multiple sectors including travel, digital health, entertainment, IoT, ed tech, food, SaaS, future of work, and more.  

Greg was born and raised in Chicago, and earned a BA in History at the University of Illinois, where he graduated as captain of the varsity wrestling team. He later earned a JD from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

When he’s not helping launch, operate, invest in, or advise a company, Greg can typically be found spending time at home in Lafayette, CA, with his wife Beth, their two teenage sons, Levi and Truman, and their Cavachon, Suki. And given that he completed his final and 37th season as coach for his sons' sports teams in February 2020, you may find him filling time playing basketball with his boys in their driveway or hiking the trails of Northern CA.

Greg Rudin

H. Dubose Montgomery

Doug Carlisle

John Jarve was previously a partner at [Menlo Ventures](/org/menlo-ventures), and is now Partner Emeritus. John was also previously CEO of [Credit Sesame](/org/credit-sesame).

John Jarve has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Teams at Menlo Ventures

Discover similar companies