TOUCHDOWN VENTURES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Analyst
- Instructor
- Mechanical Engineer
- Analyst / Philadelphia, PA
Abigail joined Touchdown Ventures in 2024 and focuses on healthcare investments.
Abigail is a mechanical engineer, having worked in orthopedic and prosthetic robotics and product development. Before Touchdown, she worked on the investment team at Hyperplane VC, an early-stage A.I. fund based in Boston.
Abigail holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Biomedical Engineering from UMass Amherst's Commonwealth Honors College. She serves on the boards of digital health companies MedEssist and Patient First AI.
In her free time, Abigail is a spin instructor who enjoys spontaneous and last-minute travel and has a German Shepherd named Stella.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Associate / San Francisco, CA
AJ Tomas joined Touchdown Ventures in 2021.
He is an early-stage investor in 5G edge computing, security, gaming, and the future of work. AJ developed his interest in entrepreneurship at a home appliance software company participating in The University of Chicago, Booth's New Venture Challenge, and corporate startup accelerator programs.
Prior to Touchdown, AJ was an Analyst at J.P. Morgan's investment bank, where he gained transaction experience in strategic and capital markets advisory. As a board member of TechTeam at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, he ideated, organized, and led the inaugural hackathon focused on technology for social good.
AJ received his B.A. from the University of Chicago, where he studied Economics and History. He brings a global perspective, having grown up in Manila, Los Angeles, and Geneva.
Job Titles:
- Venture Advisor
- Venture Advisor / Philadelphia, PA
Allison Goldberg joined Touchdown Ventures in 2020 and has been a venture investor in the digital media and consumer technology sectors for over 20 years. Allison is currently a Partner at VC fund Saints Capital Media Ventures, a buyout of her strategic venture portfolio from Time Warner. Prior to that, she was a Partner at Advancit Capital, focusing on early-stage investments in consumer and media technology companies. She previously served as Group Managing Director & Senior Vice President of Time Warner Investments, where she ran the group focused on investing up to $25 million in private companies to generate both strategic value and financial returns for Time Warner Inc. Prior to joining Time Warner in July 2001, Allison was an Associate at Groupe Arnault, investing in and managing new media and technology equity investments for the private holding company of the Chairman of LVMH. Allison started her career in the Global Media Group, Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley.
Allison currently serves on the boards of FirstMark Horizon Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: FMAC.U), Vostok Emerging Finance (VEMF-SDB), video game company Proletariat and advertising technology company YieldMo. She is an active observer on the boards of Above Average, Amino, Bustle Digital Group, and Dynamic Signal. Previously, she was a director or active observer on the boards of several companies including Adify, Discord, FanDuel, Fuse Media, iStreamPlanet, Mashable, MediaVast, SambaTV, Simulmedia, Trion Worlds, and Visible World.
Allison received a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in NYC with her husband and two daughters.
Job Titles:
- Analyst
- Analyst / San Francisco, CA
Aneri Patel joined Touchdown Ventures in 2023. Prior to Touchdown, Aneri worked as a public equities research analyst at Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co. Her passion for startups began during her first job in high school where she interned for Farmlogix, a startup focused on providing the foodservice industry with software-driven ingredient and sourcing transparency.
Aneri received her B.S. in Management Science and Engineering with a minor in Digital Humanities from Stanford University. At Stanford, she participated in the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Society and worked as an analyst for Robert Bosch Venture Capital, focused on investments in early stage, deep tech companies.
Aneri enjoys painting, skiing, hiking and global cinema; she is a diehard chocolate lover.
Job Titles:
- Analyst
- Analyst / Los Angeles, CA
Anthony joined Touchdown in 2023, focusing on investments in the industrial and sustainability sectors.
Prior to joining Touchdown, Anthony worked as a systems engineer at Lockheed Martin. His passion for startups and venture capital developed as a student researching opportunities for innovation in African and Latin American health system supply chains. His interest in venture capital grew as he progressed through the HBCUvc program in 2023.
Anthony graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in aerospace engineering. He was involved with the National Society of Black Engineers campus chapter and startup ecosystem in Austin.
Outside of work, Anthony enjoys reading, attending farmers markets, watching & playing soccer, and organizing trips to Panama for friends & family.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Member of the Investment Team
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Member of the Investment Team
- Managing Director / Los Angeles, CA
Beth Kearns joined Touchdown after working with the team for three years while leading the investment program at Twentieth Century Fox (TCF). She started her career as a venture associate at Digital Coast Ventures and then spent the next 16 years at TCF focused on emerging technology. In her most recent role as Executive Vice President of Operations Strategy, she oversaw investments, strategic partnerships, and operational transformations that fueled growth across film, TV, and digital platforms. With this blend of operational and strategic experience, she is passionate about leveraging commercial partnerships with startups as a key component of any corporate innovation program.
Beth graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in political science and a minor in feminist and gender studies. She earned her MBA at UCLA's Anderson School, where she currently teaches corporate entrepreneurship and innovation. Beth serves on the board of Boom! Studios, a leading independent comic book publisher with a first-look television deal at Netflix. She is also on the board of the St. James Inn, a Los Angeles-based non-profit which provides lodging to hospital outpatients or family members who have loved ones in the hospital.
Job Titles:
- Venture Partner
- Independent Investment Committee Member and Advisor for Vitalize VC
- Touchdown in 2021 As a Venture Partner
- Venture Partner / Philadelphia, PA
Bill Carson joined Touchdown in 2021 as a venture partner after being in the startup world for 25 years as both a VC investor and operating executive. Bill spent the last 18 years at Hudson Ventures, an early stage technology fund investing in B2B companies. He has held CFO and other financial positions in multiple early stage companies over the last 10 years and is currently VP of Finance at Princeton Infrared Technologies.
Bill is an independent investment committee member and advisor for Vitalize VC, and is both an advisor and board member to multiple startup companies.
Bill began his investment career at Citigroup where he co-founded and ran two venture portfolios including Citigroup's initial strategic corporate venture fund. While at Citigroup, he invested in 27 companies totaling over $230 million. Prior to his investing career, Bill led Citigroup's internal merger and acquisition group where he completed numerous mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and IPOs across all of Citigroup's divisions. Earlier in his career, Bill was a senior product engineer for IBM.
Bill has a MBA from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, and undergraduate degrees in both engineering and economics from the University of Notre Dame.
Bill and his wife live in Princeton Junction, NJ, and they have three adult children.
Job Titles:
- Analyst
- Analyst / Los Angeles, CA
Brandon Gunning joined Touchdown Ventures as an analyst in 2022. Prior to Touchdown, Brandon worked at Include Ventures focusing on fund of funds investments as well as startups in cleantech & fintech. His prior experience also includes time at Wells Fargo's technology investment banking group and the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator.
Brandon holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business where he graduated magna cum laude with departmental honors and an emphasis in finance. Brandon wrote his thesis on the topic of private equity compensation & incentivization post Great Financial Crisis. He was one of the university's first paid student-athletes as part of their esports program.
In his free time, Brandon enjoys testing new baking recipes, watching & playing basketball, hiking, and tasting California wines.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Member of the Investment Team
- Managing Director / San Francisco, CA
Brett joined Touchdown Ventures in 2016. He is focused on investing in early stage consumer-facing businesses as well as the underlying technology that enables them.
Prior to Touchdown, Brett's experience spans financial services to early stage consumer products, allowing him to bring both an entrepreneur and investor perspective to the market. He has worked in the strategic growth markets group of Ernst & Young, helped lead strategy at Ridemakerz while managing its ecommerce business, and held various roles at Versant Ventures, Bullpen Capital, Velos Partners, and UCLA Ventures.
Brett holds a BA in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management. He earned Technology Management designations from each.
Originally from Philadelphia, Brett spent several years in Southern California and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He's visited over 50 countries and maintains his childhood goal to visit all 196.
Brian Dawkins - Weapon X. "Like Wolverine, Brian Dawkins wasn't the largest warrior on the battlefield, but he was famously resilient, never backed down from a challenge, was loyal to his team and was feared as one of the league's hardest hitters," as described by Marvel's Bill Rosemann.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Principal
- Principal / Chicago, IL
Brian Laegeler joined Touchdown Ventures in the Fall of 2018 to source and execute corporate venture capital investments. He is currently focused on tech-enabled solutions for the pharmaceutical sector. Brian brings over 20 years of investment and corporate advisory experience across multiple industries, geographies, and stages.
Prior to Touchdown, Brian most recently served as vice president of mergers & acquisitions for Loop Capital Markets, where he led transaction execution across sectors such as consumer/retail, software, VR gaming, biotech, industrials, utilities and infrastructure. Prior to Loop, Brian was an equity analyst for Morningstar where he covered generic and specialty pharmaceuticals. His successful recommendations led to the creation of his own hedge fund, Shimpaku Capital, L.P., which significantly outperformed the S&P 500. Earlier in his career, Brian was an associate with RoundTable Healthcare Partners and a senior financial analyst in the mergers & acquisitions group at Bear Stearns.
Brian received a BS in Business Administration, with distinction, from Indiana University and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is also a CPA.
He resides in the Chicago area with his wife and daughter where they support the local food movement via their small-scale farm.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Senior Associate
- in 2022 As a Senior Associate
- Senior Associate / Los Angeles, CA
Chris Cronin joined Touchdown Ventures in 2022 as a Senior Associate. At Touchdown, he focuses on investments in materials science, retail, supply chain, sustainability, circular economy, and industrial technology. Chris brings more than ten years of combined experience in venture capital, M&A, leveraged finance, business development, and corporate finance.
Prior to joining Touchdown, Chris worked in corporate and business development at Amazon. He began his career in banking, holding roles with Bank of America Merrill Lynch in technology investment banking coverage and with Wells Fargo executing leveraged finance transactions.
Chris earned his MBA and a Graduate Certificate in technology commercialization from the USC Marshall School of Business. He earned his Bachelor's degree in finance with honors from the Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business.
Chris is a world traveler, an avid runner & skier, and a lifelong fan of Boston sports & Formula 1 racing.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate / Los Angeles, CA
Christina Tsai joined Touchdown Ventures in 2023.
Prior to Touchdown, Christina was part of the founding team at Creative People, a New York based recruitment startup that specialized in building teams for VC-backed startups. She worked directly with founders across a range of industries and stages to help grow their design, marketing, and product teams. Her experience in helping build and grow startups is what sparked her interest in corporate innovation and venture capital.
Christina holds a BA in Communication from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
In her spare time, Christina enjoys exploring art museums, frequenting her local plant nursery, and experimenting with film photography and ceramics.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Operations Team
- Office Manager
- Office Manager / San Francisco, CA
Cynthia joined Touchdown in March 2023 as an Operations Associate in San Francisco.
Outside of work, Cynthia is an ardent supporter of the Miss Asian Global and Miss Asian America pageants. She is committed to the pageants' mission of women's empowerment and supporting the professional growth of Asian women through scholarships, mentorship, and networking.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Member of the Investment Team
- Associate / Philadelphia, PA
David joined Touchdown in 2021. He is currently focused on financial technology, insurance technology, and food & beverage investment opportunities.
Prior to Touchdown, David spent four years working in institutional venture capital at Indicator Ventures, an early-stage venture fund based in Boston and New York. At Indicator, he focused on enterprise SaaS businesses in various industries. Before his role at Indicator, David was an operator at an education technology company called Examity, where he worked with the sales and marketing, finance, and operations teams to grow the company.
David holds a BS in Finance from Elon University in North Carolina, as well as course certifications for Artificial Intelligence and Macro-Economics from MIT Sloan and the London School of Economics, respectively.
Outside of work, David is an active member of the Friend's Council at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston and has participated in several disaster and humanitarian relief programs in Costa Rica. David is also an active skier, golfer, and surfer.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Co - Founder
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Co - Founder & CEO / Philadelphia, PA
David Horowitz is the co-founder and CEO of Touchdown Ventures and is based in the firm's Philadelphia area office. He co-founded Touchdown Ventures in 2014 after spending 14 years in corporate venture capital with Comcast Ventures. David joined Comcast Ventures in 2000 as one of the first employees of the venture capital group. At Comcast Ventures, he led investments in digital media, advertising technology, digital home, education, and financial technology. David also was a founder and partner at Genacast Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund backed by Comcast Ventures. His career began as an investment banker at Bear Stearns.
David graduated from the University of Michigan with highest honors with a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in both accounting and finance.
David started the South Jersey Tech Collective (a networking group comprising of local tech entrepreneurs and investors), and currently serves as an advisor to the Philadelphia Greenlight Fund, the Internet of Things Consortium, and Venture University.
David lives in the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia with his wife and 2 boys.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Member of the Investment Team
- Managing Director / Philadelphia, PA
Deborah Zajac joined Touchdown Ventures in 2016, has launched and run multiple corporate venture funds, and helped found the healthcare practice at Touchdown. She has over 15 years' experience in investment, innovation, and development in healthcare, IoT, consumer, industrials, retail, mobile, energy, and frontier tech.
Prior to joining Touchdown, Deborah worked at GE Ventures and with four of its predecessor funds at GE Corporate, where she also crafted partnerships to develop novel products and businesses globally. Deborah began her career as a management consultant at Andersen and joined Celarix.com and GE to grow and transform their businesses in enterprise software, aerospace, industrials, manufacturing, and logistics.
Deborah received an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and BS in Finance and a BA in Asian Studies from Lehigh University, where she was an Iacocca and Trustee Scholar. Deborah served two terms as a Trustee of Lehigh University, founding Advisor for Lehigh's Baker Center for Entrepreneurship, Creativity, and Innovation, and as Exec-In-Residence at Columbia University's Tech Ventures.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Senior Associate
- Co - Founder of Hackers
- Senior Associate / San Francisco, CA
Doreen joined Touchdown Ventures in August 2023.
Prior to Touchdown Ventures, she spent 8 years in the finance and investing space, as an investment banker, private equity investor, and more recently, a growth equity investor.
Doreen graduated magna cum laude and with High Honors from Harvard University with an AB in Economics and East Asian Studies.
Outside Touchdown, Doreen is the co-founder of Hackers and Backers, a group of almost 200 investors and VCs in the Bay area. She is also an advisor for NEC-X and loves supporting entrepreneurs and startups in all capacities.
She's an avid traveler and Barry's Bootcamper.
Job Titles:
- Venture Partner
- Touchdown in 2023 As a Venture Partner
- Venture Partner / Philadelphia, PA
Dr. Peter Ulrich joined Touchdown in 2023 as a Venture Partner. Peter brings a wealth of experience in strategy consulting, digital technologies, sustainability, M&A, and venture capital. Having served in senior roles at BCG, EY and IBM, Peter is well versed in working with leading companies to shape their company's strategies, drive innovation, and transform their businesses. His expertise lies in helping companies successfully implement innovation by setting up their CVC funds, driving startup M&A, and forging strategic partnerships.
Peter holds a PhD in economics from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and a degree in business administration from the University of Cologne. He has lived in the US, Europe, and Latin America, and speaks English, German, and Portuguese fluently.
Peter lives in Miami with his wife and two daughters and is based out of Touchdown's Philadelphia office.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Operations Team
- Learning & Development
Eileen joined Touchdown Ventures in April 2021.
Prior to Touchdown Ventures, Eileen spent 9+ years in the continued learning industry, most notably at Wharton Executive Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Throughout her career, she has successfully managed 150+ global educational programs in more than 20 countries on 6 continents with responsibilities leading all related strategic program functions, including program development, design, execution and ongoing maintenance, relationship management, staff mentorship, and process optimization.
Eileen graduated from the Catholic University of America with a BA in History, where she played field hockey and took several service trips including New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina relief and Belize to build a school. While studying abroad in Leuven, Belgium, she interned at the European Parliament as the lead ‘stagiaire' for an Irish MEP representing Connacht and Ulster.
Outside of work, Eileen is an avid traveler and her goal is to visit all 63 (29 done so far) National Parks in the USA.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Managing Director / Philadelphia, PA
Eric Budin joined Touchdown Ventures in 2016 and is responsible for managing multiple funds as well as running Touchdown's analyst program.
Eric spent the previous 13 years as an executive at Comcast and Liberty Global, the largest cable companies in the US and Europe, respectively. At both companies, his focus was innovation and new business opportunities. At Comcast, he was VP of Business Development, and helped launch Xfinity Home, their next-gen home security business. He also led the company's efforts in the SVOD, advertising, and video conferencing spaces, and worked closely with Comcast Ventures to identify and invest in VC backed partners. While living in Amsterdam, he was Liberty Global's VP of Product Strategy and Incubation, and helped launch their advanced advertising business.
Prior to Comcast, Eric worked in Silicon Valley for venture backed companies, including more.com which he co-founded. More.com was a top 10 e-commerce company and had filed to go public in 2000, before being sold. More.com was Eric's first taste of corporate venturing, as more.com backers included Bergen Brunswig and Phar-mor. Earlier in his career, Eric worked for McKinsey & Co.
Eric has a B.A. from The University of Michigan in psychology and economics, with high honors, and an M.B.A. from Stanford's Graduate School of Business. He lives outside Philadelphia with his wife and two daughters.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Member of the Investment Team
- Associate / Chicago, IL
Felicia joined Touchdown Ventures in 2023 and focuses on investments in MedTech and life sciences.
Prior to Touchdown, Felicia worked for five years at Aspire Capital sourcing and evaluating public biotech companies in pre-clinical and clinical stages. She conducted scientific and financial due diligence on therapeutics companies across all disease indications and technologies with a primary focus in oncology, drug delivery technologies, gene therapy, and ophthalmology.
She has consulted for OMX Ventures, a venture firm focused on investments in tools and instrumentation for life sciences and novel technology platforms for therapeutics. She has also consulted for Dimension Inx, a Chicago-based startup developing therapeutics to restore tissue and organ function.
Felicia graduated from Vanderbilt University with a B.E. in biomedical engineering.
In her free time, she enjoys playing volleyball, hiking, and enjoying summers by Lake Michigan.
Job Titles:
- Venture Advisor
- Chairman of Hixon Properties
- Venture Advisor / Los Angeles, CA
Frank H. Foster joined Touchdown in May 2021 as a venture partner specializing in venture capital and education programs for family enterprises (family business & family office).
Frank currently serves as the Chairman of Hixon Properties and the Managing General Partner of the Gideon for Hixon Fund (venture capital) for the Hixon family of San Antonio, Texas. He has served as a General Partner for three institutional venture capital funds, DFJ Frontier I &II and Allen & Buckeridge. Previously, Frank was the CEO and Executive Chairman for Prolacta Bioscience and the COO of Virtual Music (Sold to Namco). Currently, he is a director of Hixon Properties, Skincential Sciences, Shotzoom, Boka Sciences, GlycosBio Food Science, Good Dye Young, Onsert Media, and Girl-Science, as well as a special advisor to the board of Prolacta Biosciences. In addition, Frank serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Cancer Foundation of Santa Barbara and the Pacer Foundation.
Recently, Frank founded the Legacy Center for Next Generation Leaders at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, an academic institution and program dedicated to the development of next-gen talent in Family Enterprises. The program will offer an accredited Masters of Science in Family Enterprise and a curriculum that includes Personal Development, Fundamental Business Skills, and experiential learning in an operating venture capital environment.
Frank received his MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA cum laude from Harvard University. He has taught classes in entrepreneurship and family business at Stanford GSB, UCSB, Cal Poly, and Portland State University.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Member of the Investment Team
- Managing Director / Philadelphia, PA
Greg Bergamesco joined Touchdown Ventures in 2016 and is primarily focused on executing and managing corporate venture capital investments within the media eco-system. Greg possesses over 18 years of various business strategy and operations experience across the media & entertainment, healthcare, insurance, and energy sectors. Prior to Touchdown, Greg was responsible for identifying, evaluating, and incubating new revenue generating businesses at Comcast Corporation. Greg also spent six years in strategy consulting with Booz Allen Hamilton and PwC, primarily building business cases and leading large-scale business transformations.
He began his career as a financial analyst at Prudential Financial.Greg received a BA in Economics at Rutgers University while playing Division I Men's Tennis, and earned an MBA from the University of Notre Dame, graduating with honors. Greg is active with the Notre Dame community, serving as an alumni fellow to graduate students attending the Mendoza College of Business. When he's not cheering on the Irish, Greg can typically be found on the golf course or practice range. Greg resides in the Philadelphia suburbs with his wife and two boys.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate / Los Angeles, CA
Harout Nazerian joined Touchdown Ventures in 2022 and focuses on investments in retail, industrial technology, and sustainability. Prior to Touchdown, he spent 4 years at Nex Cubed and Sway Ventures investing in and launching startups, handling investor relations, and supporting fundraising efforts for the company and portfolio.
Prior to venture capital, Harout was as an entrepreneur running a gourmet food truck business and spent six years as a structural engineer leading teams on billion-dollar projects for some of the world's largest oil and gas corporations.
Throughout Harout's career he developed experience in evaluating opportunities, and leading and executing on strategic initiatives for small and large corporations.
Harout graduated Cum Laude from the University of Southern California with a BS and MS in Engineering and Construction Management and received his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management with a specialization in Marketing.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Harout enjoys cooking and BBQing, exploring restaurants in LA and when traveling, and rooting for the LA Clippers as one of their few long-time fans. He loves soccer and futsal and is always up for playing any team sport.
Imane joined Touchdown Ventures in 2023 and focuses on investments in the industrial and sustainability sectors.
Her passion for startups began during her time at Magma Technology, a Paris-based startup that provides supply chain visibility for corporate customers. She later worked for Phoenix Tailings, a Boston-based startup in clean mining and metals production.
Imane earned a BS and MS in Industrial Engineering from Arts et Métiers ParisTech in France before pursuing a Master of Engineering in Advanced Manufacturing and Design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, she actively participated in the Climate Clock team, contributing to projects related to climate change awareness.
Originally from Morocco, Imane is fluent in Arabic and French. In her free time, she enjoys staying active, practicing yoga, trying new recipes, and embarking on DIY projects.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Member of the Investment Team
- Managing Director / Philadelphia, PA
Jack Taylor joined Touchdown Ventures in 2017 and focuses on investments within the built world and physical security sectors.
Before Touchdown, Jack was co-founder and President of the Philadelphia InSITE Fellowship chapter and gained operating experience at Personal Capital, a fintech startup in Silicon Valley. He also worked within the New York venture ecosystem evaluating investment opportunities at Laconia Capital Group, New York Angels, and Virgil Capital, where he collaborated with investors on all due diligence aspects, including sourcing, business plan reviews, industry research, financial modeling, and portfolio support. Jack began his career on Wall Street, working for three years at the Royal Bank of Scotland where he specialized in short-term interest rate products.
Jack holds a BA in History from Duke University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with honors.
Outside Touchdown, Jack is a mentor at New York's Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, and is an avid skier, golfer, and New York Giants fan.
Jack Warning joined Touchdown Ventures in 2022. At Touchdown, he focuses on investments in the materials science, supply chain, sustainability & circular economy, and industrial technology sectors. Before joining Touchdown, Jack worked at a children's nutrition startup, Yumi, advising and executing on projects in strategy and innovation. Jack started his corporate venture capital career at Pegasus Tech Ventures, where he was a sector generalist and invested in both early and later stage companies.
Jack graduated from the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa with a degree in Finance.
In Jack's free time he will be at the beach playing volleyball or finding a river to fly fish in. He is an avid sports fan, cheering on his favorite teams, the Chicago Cubs and Chicago Bears.
Job Titles:
- Head of Operations
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Head of Operations / Philadelphia, PA
Jane Simons joined Touchdown Ventures in 2018 and is the Head of Operations and leads the firm on key strategic operations.
Prior to joining Touchdown Ventures, Jane had a robust senior management career in higher education with increasing responsibilities for nearly 13 years at the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania ranging from strategic operations roles to different facets of programming, marketing and communications, executive board management and alumni relations. She has extensive experience with strategic planning, program management, complex communications and relationship building. Under Jane's leadership, new, effective policies and processes were developed and implemented across the School and adopted as best practices across the University. Jane began her career working at a tech start-up as the International Project Manager, focusing on business development, operations, marketing and communications for an innovative electric propulsion system with diverse applications.
Jane graduated with honors in her Master's degree in Organizational Dynamics from University of Pennsylvania , and was summa cum laude for her double Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and International Relations from State University of New York at Geneseo.
Jane speaks (or has received instruction on) 6 different languages and is an avid traveler, having visited 40+ countries. She lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband and two children and is a passionate and enthusiastic Philadelphia Eagles fan.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate / San Francisco, CA
Before joining Touchdown, John spent several years operating as a product manager at different technology startups, most recently at Thrasio where he built software to inform product strategy and acquisition decisions. Prior to product management, John worked as an investment consultant at Cambridge Associates advising clients on portfolio construction and performing due diligence on investment managers.
John graduated from the Boston College Carroll School of Management with a BS in finance.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Senior Associate
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Member of the Investment Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Principal
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Member of the Investment Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Principal
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Senior Associate
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Senior Associate
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Principal
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Senior Associate
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Member of the Investment Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Principal
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Member of the Investment Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Principal
Job Titles:
- Member of the Operations Team
- Talent Acquisition
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Member of the Investment Team
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant
- Member of the Operations Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Operations Team
- Business Operations
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Principal
Job Titles:
- Member of the Investment Team
- Senior Associate
Rich Grant - Founder, Managing Director
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Managing Director
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Operations Team
- Venture Partner
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Member of the Executive Committee
- President
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Member of the Investment Team
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Member of the Investment Team