Our team

You’re different, so are we.

About us

Only 1.1% of the $73 trillion of private funds are managed by women or POC*.

Illustration of overlapping circles representing a mix of Gen X, Millenial, and Gen Z

There are 3 generations represented on our founding team.

Illustration of concentric circles representing depth of experience

In our prior lives, we’ve worked to build tech companies like Apple, Google, LearnVest, OneMedical, Rothy’s, Sofi, Stubhub, Upstart and Yodlee. We’ve invested at VCs including Accel, Aspect Ventures, DAG, Greycroft and Vista.

Illustration of 3 circles increasing in size representing results

We’ve created over $100BN of market value and over $2BN in returns to LPs. We’ve delivered over 10 IPOs, over 25 M&A transactions and over 150 rounds of follow-on capital raises.

Investing team

Angela Azem

Angela Azem

Chief of Staff

Angela Azem
\ an-j-EH-la \ n.
Angela Azem

A scuba diver who takes an annual pilgrimage to Giants spring training, Angela is a first gen Mexican-American and second gen Filipino American who was the first in her family to graduate college. She doesn’t cook all that much but if you’re lucky, she’ll make you her amazing turkey bolognese sauce from scratch.

Angela is a member of the operations team, where she serves as Chief of Staff to the Acrew investment team. She works with investors to provide current and prospective entrepreneurs operational support.



Jessica Baron

Jessica Baron

Chief Operating Officer

Jessica Baron
\ JES-i-kuh \ n
Jessica Baron

A former NCAA champion swimmer who sang to herself the best of the eighties while doing millions of laps in the nineties, Jessica can now be found in child’s pose on her yoga mat or forever searching for a healthy and tasty family meal for five which can be made in less than five minutes.

Jessica has over 20 years in finance and operations leadership roles in private and public investment companies. Prior to joining Acrew to lead operations, Jessica was COO of SVB Capital, overseeing all aspects of operations, including finance and reporting, investor relations, corporate compliance, risk and administration. She previously served as CFO of SVB Capital, Cordillera Investment Partners and Hercules Capital (NYSE: HTGC). She worked in various finance roles at Cisco Systems and Levi Strauss. Jessica started her career at PwC where she led audit teams serving asset management. Jessica holds an MBA from UC Berkeley-Haas, a Master’s in Sociology and a Bachelor’s in Human Biology from Stanford University.

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

Venture Advisor

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy
\ suk-hjin-der \ n.
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

A wakesurfer in the summer, a skier in the winter and a lover of fashion year-round, Sukhinder’s most sustained passion is her three kids. She has not-so-hidden talents in knitting and making killer desserts.

Sukhinder has over 20 years of experience as a top tier tech CEO, entrepreneur, board member and investor. Prior to joining Acrew DCF, Sukhinder was President of Stubhub where she led the company to launch new fan offerings, increase operational efficiency, and also the successful sale transaction to Viagogo for $4bn+ in 2020. Sukhinder previously has held senior leadership positions at Google, President of Asia Pacific and Latin America, and has served on the boards of Ericsson (ERIC), TripAdvisor (TRIP), Urban Outfitters (URBN), Upstart and #TimesUp Global Board. She has been profiled in NYT, WSJ, Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg, Recode, Vanity Fair and more, as well as several leadership books. She was named to the Top 100 Most Creative People in Business, Fast Company (2017), and Top 100 Women in the Valley (multiple years).

Kerry Whorton Cooper

Kerry Whorton Cooper

Venture Advisor

Kerry Whorton Cooper
\ keh-ree \ n.
Kerry Whorton Cooper

A third-generation New Mexican, Kery runs a small farm in Sonoma where she makes small batch olive oil, wine and grows more veggies than she could ever eat.

Kerry has over 20 years of experience as an operator, executive and board member. Most recently, Kerry was the President & COO of Rothy’s, a stylish shoe company made of eco-friendly materials. Prior to Rothy’s, Kerry was CEO of Choose Energy (Red Ventures) and has an extensive marketing background with some of the top consumer brands. Kerry is an EIR of Harvard Business School; a current board member of PG&E, Fernish, and Treau; has served on the boards of BevMo!, Choose Energy, Weddington Way (GPS); and as an Advisory Board member of Wirecutter (NY Times). She has been recognized by the National Retail Foundation as one of the 5 People Shaping Retail (2020).

John Gardner

John Gardner

Venture Partner

John Gardner
\ j-AH-n \ n.
John Gardner

A practitioner of transcendental meditation and a lover of Broadway.

John Gardner has spent his 25+ year career as a serial entrepreneur and business leader in financial services. Most recently he was the Head of Invest at SoFi, where he led the creation and management of the retail brokerage, robo-advisor, crypto, and ETF businesses for the company. He started his career at SEI Investments, a publicly traded Asset Management firm, where he held a variety of equity research, product management, and strategy roles. John has been a Board Member of the New York Pops, which is the largest independent pops orchestra in the United States, for the past 6 years. He is also a Board Member of the David Lynch Foundation, an organization that promotes and teaches Transcendental Meditation.

Theresia Gouw

Theresia Gouw

Founding Partner

Theresia Gouw
\ tuH-Ree-zuH \ n.
Theresia Gouw

A former figure skater who once perfected the double flip jump, Theresia’s passion for sports has evolved to cheering on her favorite teams alongside her children & watching their events. Coming into venture when she had very few female peers, she has dedicated her 20-year career to changing the ratio.

Prior to co-founding Acrew Capital, Theresia was a co-founder at Aspect Ventures and a Managing General Partner at Accel. Theresia has been fortunate to work with many successful companies through IPOs or acquisitions including: Forescout (FSCT), Imperva (IMPV), Trulia (TRLA), Hotel Tonight (ABNB), Astro (Slack; WORK), LearnVest (Northwestern Mutual), Jasper Design (CDNS) and Kosmix (WMT). Theresia was named to Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women list, has been recognized 9 times on the Forbes Midas List, was named one of the 40 Most Influential Minds in Tech by Time Magazine, named to the Carnegie Corporation’s annual Distinguished Immigrants List, as well as being listed in 2022 Forbes 50 over 50.


Asad Khaliq

Asad Khaliq

Founding Partner

Asad Khaliq
\ uh-s-uh-d \ n.
Asad Khaliq

An immigrant to the US drawn by the transformative power of technology, Asad grew up between 6 countries, makes a mean biryani, and is always game to talk international relations. He sidelines as a pilot on weekends.

A co-founder of Acrew, Asad is excited about defragmenting data silos, applied machine learning, and enabling security & privacy. Asad leads and works closely with investments including System, Edge Impulse, Vanta, Aira, Bazaar, Grain, Arthur AI, Observable, and Ketch. He previously joined Aspect in its first fund and co-led or worked with investments including Ciphertrace, Coinbase, Skale, Silverfort, Gusto, and Writer. Asad is on the board of NextGen Partners, a mentorship organization supporting thousands of venture investors. He studied Management Science & Engineering at Stanford University where he also worked on turning academic research into real-world healthcare products.

Lauren Kolodny

Lauren Kolodny

Founding Partner

Lauren Kolodny
\ LOR-ən \ n.
Lauren Kolodny

A lover of lawn games and spending time by the ocean, Lauren makes a mean pesto and is notorious for her board game skills. An explorer at heart, she's lived in 5 countries and, these days spends free time seeing a new world through her daughters.

Lauren leads the fintech thesis area at Acrew. She has made investments in companies including Chime, Pie, Divvy, La Haus & Papaya at the early stage and Plaid, Gusto & Marqeta at the later stage. Prior to co-founding Acrew, Lauren was a partner at Aspect Ventures. Previously, Lauren worked in product marketing at Google, where she led a number of launches for Workspace, including Google Drive. Lauren started her career building tech partnerships for the Clinton Foundation in India. She is a Trustee Emerita at Brown University where she served as the university’s youngest board member. She is included on the Forbes Midas List 2023 and Forbes Midas Brink List (2021).

Mark Kraynak

Mark Kraynak

Founding Partner

Mark Kraynak
\ mɑɹk \ n.
Mark Kraynak

A trained poet and former teacher who ages his own bourbon in his basement, Mark can recite all 1100 words of ‘The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’ while whopping you in pool, darts, shufflepuck or really any game you’d find at a bar.

Mark Kraynak is a technology executive, company builder and erstwhile poet/engineer. Before co-founding Acrew, Mark joined Aspect Ventures as Entrepreneur in Residence and converted to a full-time investor by the end of 2017. Prior, Mark spent nearly 13 years at Imperva, where he held several marketing, product, corporate development and strategy roles.

Mark has led or co-led investments in At-Bay, Aqua Security, CipherTrace, Coin Metrics, Edge Impulse, Silverfort and System in the early stage and Aqua Security, Cato Networks, Exabeam and Vanta in the later stage. He has also been an advisor to Exabeam, Indegy, Kloudless, Trustar and Aqua Security.


Charlie Liao

Charlie Liao

Investor

Charlie Liao
\ chaar-lee \ n.
Charlie Liao

A lifelong gamer, Charlie is always searching for the next big tactical FPS or coming up with off-meta strategies in competitive games. When he's unplugged, he snowboards and produces electronic music.

Charlie is an investor at Acrew focused on sourcing, diligence and support for the firm’s investments. Before Acrew, he worked on special projects and initiatives at Two Sigma, a quantitative hedge fund. While in this role, he supported the firm’s strategic investment activity and also covered projects ranging from private markets strategy to competitive intelligence. Prior to this, he spent time at McKinsey focused on growth strategy and M&A across real estate, asset management, pharma and payments. In 2014, he co-founded an F&B experience startup and joined Northeastern University’s venture accelerator. He was inspired by his cohort’s intensity towards changing the world for the better. He then ran a student-staffed consulting group that served local and campus startups.



Vishal Lugani

Vishal Lugani

Founding Partner

Vishal Lugani
\ v-ih-sh-ah-l \ n.
Vishal Lugani

Often found reading a spy thriller or on his Peloton, sometimes simultaneously, Vishal is a Bay Area transplant hailing from Georgia. He prides himself on his diverse restaurant recommendations and energetic musings about international relations.

A co-founder of Acrew, Vishal is emphatically excited about consumer empowerment and dismantling wayward regulatory capture. He leads investments in HMBradley, Petabyte, Finix, SteadyMD, Embed, Discord, BlockFi, Sorare, and ShopShops. At Aspect, which Vishal had joined in its first fund, he led investments in Eden Health, Coinbase, Amino, and Co-Star and was also involved in or co-led the firm's investments in PredictHQ, Pie Insurance, BaubleBar, The RealReal, and Stem.is. Prior to Aspect, Vishal spent several years with Greycroft Partners, where he sourced and was a board observer at Acorns. Currently, Vishal is an advisor to Concrete Rose Capital, a seed fund backing underrepresented founders. Earlier in his career, Vishal was a consultant at Bain & Company, helped run the Kairos Society, and worked for a consumer fintech start-up.



Maitree Mervana Parekh

Maitree Mervana Parekh

Principal

Maitree Mervana Parekh
\ M-AYTRih \ n.
Maitree Mervana Parekh

An avid DIY-er with a black belt in tae kwon do, Maitree is a global citizen who lived in three countries before the age of 6 (India, Kenya and the US.) You can follow her DIYs and get the recipe for her viral one pot pasta by following her on TikTok: @maitree.m

Maitree is an investor at Acrew focused on sourcing new investment opportunities, conducting diligence, and supporting portfolio companies. She works closely with the firm’s investments in Superpeer, ShopShops, Lolli, and Paceline, among other unannounced companies. Prior to Acrew, Maitree was an investor at Touchdown Ventures, where she helped launch and manage venture capital programs on behalf of large corporations, including T-Mobile. She is an active member of All Raise and is a Co-Chair of the All Raise Cohort Program fostering community and mentorship for women early in their venture capital careers. Maitree studied at the University of California, Los Angeles.

 Kwabena Nimo

Kwabena Nimo

Investor

Kwabena Nimo
KWAA-Beh-Naa
 Kwabena Nimo

A native Floridian with deep appreciation for California weather, KB is an avid film buff, a stickler for print books, and has a love-hate relationship to caffeine.

KB is an investor at Acrew focused on sourcing, diligencing and supporting the firm’s investments. Before Acrew, KB was an operator at several startups; most recently, he led business operations at longevity biotech Loyal, where he managed company priorities across finance, legal, logistics, and partnerships. Prior to Loyal, KB was an analytics lead for Rocketrip (acquired by Mondee, Inc.), where he built out company health metrics and product data visualizations for the executive team and client-facing departments. KB has a B.S. from Cornell University in environmental engineering and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Tramy Nguyen

Tramy Nguyen

Chief of Staff to Lauren Kolodny

Tramy Nguyen
TRA-me
Tramy Nguyen

A strict adherent of the NASPA Official Tournament Rules for Scrabble, Tramy was the only US-born member of her family until her daughter was born. A lover of modern design in all its facets, she can be found ordering off-menu with her dog when she is not exploring art galleries of the cities she visits.

Tramy has a 15+ year career in financial services, from public markets to private (including nearly five years at Bain Capital Ventures supporting a Managing Partner), and developed her operating skillset at Oura, most recently as the Operations Manager for Software Engineering and Product, before returning to venture capital as Lauren Kolodny's Chief of Staff.

As Lauren Kolodny's Chief of Staff, Tramy contributes to strategic projects for Acrew, runs operations for the fintech teamlet, and helps support the fintech portfolio.

She holds an advisory board seat at Base, a software platform developed for executive assistants.

Kendra Ragatz

Kendra Ragatz

Partner

Kendra Ragatz
\ ken-druh \ n.
Kendra Ragatz

A former Div I college tennis player, Kendra’s first job was clearing insects from the drip irrigation lines on her family’s avocado farm. As a working mom, she’s now content using her free time to spend with her family.

Kendra rejoined the Acrew founding team in early 2021 where she leads LP and Investor Relations and leads the Acrew Crew of Leaders. Prior to Acrew, Kendra was a GP & COO at Aspect Ventures where she was responsible for fundraising and LP relationships, co-managed associate hiring and training, and worked closely with other partners on follow-on investment processes and portfolio management. Previously, Kendra spent over 12 years as a growth investor at both DAG Ventures and Alta Communications. She has previously served on the boards of the Stanford GSB Trust and One Medical Group (“ONEM”), as well as a board observer for over 10 growth stage companies.

David Wang

David Wang

Investor

David Wang
/ˈdeɪvɪd/ n.
David Wang

An electronic musician and distance runner with a love for the mountains, David is an optimist who enjoys chromesthesia, prefers food quantity over quality, and follows sports but mostly for the lore.

David is a Crypto Researcher at Acrew, servicing the investment team on all areas Web3. Previously, he was an independent DeFi consultant and trader, working with protocols, OTC desks, and family offices on yield farming playbooks, tokenomics designs, and research strategies. Prior to this, David spent time as a music producer in LA and product manager at Handy in NY - helping ship marketplace features for customers and service professionals. He studied statistics and finance at New York University, where he also served as President of Tech@NYU.


Richard Wolpert

Richard Wolpert

Venture Advisor

Richard Wolpert
\ r-IH-ch-er-d \ n.
Richard Wolpert

A daily practitioner of meditation, Richard is a seeker of new experiences who once took a waverunner solo from Florida to The Bahamas and back.

Richard has been a pioneer in the fields of software development, technology, consumer digital media and entertainment for more than 30 years. He has extensive experience as a founder, executive, entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. He has founded 4 companies with three exits to Adobe, Wherehouse Music and RealNetworks. Richard started his career at Apple on the Macintosh Software team and served as President Disney Online 1996-98. Richard has personally invested in more than 100 companies, a large percentage of which have had successful exits or continue on as successful companies, including: AdECN (acquired by Microsoft), AudioMill (acquired by Real Networks), Bridg (acquired by Cardlytics) Jukin Media (acquired by Trusted Brands Media), Scopely, GameSpy (acquired by Fox).

Operations team

Mark Braisted

Mark Braisted

Fund Accountant

Mark Braisted
Mark Braisted

Justin Lee

Justin Lee

Portfolio Manager

Justin Lee
Justin Lee

Maureen Heatley

Maureen Heatley

Controller

Maureen Heatley
Maureen Heatley

Jennifer Snodgrass

Jennifer Snodgrass

Community Relations Coordinator

Jennifer Snodgrass
Jennifer Snodgrass

Oliver Wong

Oliver Wong

VP Finance

Oliver Wong
Oliver Wong

Admin team

Nicole Gonzales

Nicole Gonzales

Executive Assistant

Nicole Gonzales
Nicole Gonzales

Elisa Mac

Elisa Mac

Executive Assistant

Elisa Mac
Elisa Mac

Ariel McCann

Ariel McCann

Administrative Operations Assistant & Office Manager

Ariel McCann
Ariel McCann

Ashley Morello

Ashley Morello

Administrative Assistant

Ashley Morello
Ashley Morello

Raylin Rondez

Raylin Rondez

Executive Assistant

Raylin Rondez
Raylin Rondez