The State48 Ventures team is made up of two investors from established funds with over 40 years of investing history and over $1.5 billion of capital deployed. One of our partners is an established technology executive who held senior technical roles at Google and Uber and hired and managed over 1,000 engineers during his tenure.
A team of
builders
The State48 Ventures team is made up of two investors from established funds with over 40 years of investing history and over $1.5 billion of capital deployed. Our third partner is an established technology executive who held senior technical roles at Google and Uber and hired and managed over 1,000 engineers during his tenure.
Warren has over 20 years of experience advising and leading investments in early-stage startups, with a focus on enterprise software/security, digital media, and Internet-enabled services. Notable investments include Tremor Media (NASDAQ: Magnite), Kustomer, Snyk, and OneFineStay.
Stats
Hometown:
Burlington, VT
Education:
BAS in Computer Science and Economics at Stanford University; MBA in Finance at The Wharton School of Business
What was your first job?:
I spent a summer as a busboy at Chinese restaurant in Houston. Pay was lousy, but the food was terrific and unlimited. I grew 3 inches that summer and added 12 pounds.
Favorite food:
Pasta of any kind. If it’s a noodle, I’ll eat it.
Favorite place besides Phoenix:
Kalymnos, Greece
Bio
What can people find you doing on the weekends?
Either on a mountain bike or rock climbing somewhere.
What do you look for in founders?
Passion with a certain level of self-awareness.
What important lesson have you learned as an investor?
Investing in a startup is like a mini-marriage, so make sure there is a good fit and open dialogue.
Never leave home without:
Underwear
Favorite kind of music:
Latin music
Favorite tech gadget:
Nanit baby monitor
Most recently, Kristell served as Managing Director of InvestU, an angel investing network affiliated with Arizona State University and Thunderbird that invested $6M+ in seed capital into Arizona tech startups during her time there. She previously worked at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in New York City, providing wealth management services to a book of private equity professionals with $18.8B AUM. Kristell’s experience working with founders started as a consultant for a microfinance organization serving female entrepreneurs in Mexico City and later worked at a social entrepreneurship think tank in Singapore.
Stats
Hometown:
I was born in Mexico but Scottsdale, Arizona is home.
Education:
B.S. Finance/B.A. Global Politics from W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University; MPP from Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
What was your first job?
A brief stint in my high school’s cafeteria before realizing I could leverage my food handler’s certification to serve at Denny’s. As a high schooler working the highly-coveted weekend breakfast shift, I felt pretty accomplished.
Favorite food:
Definitely seafood of all kinds but especially ceviche. My favorite is Mexican style ceviche from Sinaloa.
Favorite place besides Phoenix:
A remote island in the Maldives.
Bio
What can people find you doing on the weekends?
Traveling. Likely a short escape to the beach or exploring a new Arizona town up north to go hiking.
What do you look for in founders?
A passion for what they’re doing and the ability to put together great teams.
What important lesson have you learned as an investor?
Founder projections are hardly ever close to accurate, but they still tell you a lot about a founder.
Never leave home without:
A mask. Does anyone leave home without one nowadays?
Best piece of advice:
The best way to predict your future is to create it.
Favorite kind of music:
Oldies, from the 50’s to the 60’s. They always put me in a great mood.
Favorite tech gadget:
My cellphone. It’s so many tech gadgets in one that no other can compare.
Ken has been an investor in venture-backed companies for over 20 years, through Saints Capital, Crossover Ventures, and his family office. He has invested over $1 billion across over 200 companies. He has been selected in the past as a member of the Forbes Midas List which recognizes the best 100 venture capital investors in the world. He has been a board member or observer on over two dozen companies and has had over 50 IPOs and over 100 M&A exits.
Stats
Hometown:
Peoria, Illinois
Education:
BS in Engineering from Stanford; MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business; also attended Copenhagen Business School
What was your first job?
Civil engineer at Whitney and Associates in Peoria Illinois (excluding brief efforts as a lifeguard).
Favorite food:
Truffles
Favorite place besides Phoenix:
Aspen
Bio
What can people find you doing on the weekends?
Bike riding, golfing, playing with the kids, reading
What do you look for in founders?
Passion and integrity
What important lesson have you learned as an investor?
You don’t know what you don’t know.
Never leave home without:
My cell phone
Best piece of advice:
Never eat anything bigger than your head.
Favorite kind of music:
EDM and Classical
Favorite tech gadget:
Sonos
Kevin has a 25-year track record as a tech executive, cofounding one VC-backed startup and holding VP/Engineering roles leading teams of over 400 individuals. His most recent roles included running YouTube Ads from early stage to a multi-billion dollar business, and at Uber leading the pricing and matching teams to multi-billion dollar improvements in system efficiency. He has also served on two boards, one private and one public.
Stats
Hometown:
Manhattan Beach, CA is my birthplace, but most of my growing up was in Alexandria, VA.
Education:
Bachelors from University of Virginia; MSCS and most of a PhD from University of California Irvine.
What was your first job?
Research scientist at NASA Ames, which was for a time one of the best places in the world to study Machine Learning. I left Machine Learning behind as my specialty because (really) at the time there was limited commercial usage, and not enough data.
Favorite food:
Swordfish or halibut, but mainly whatever fish is fresh and local.
Favorite place besides Phoenix:
Tuscany.
Bio
What can people find you doing on the weekends?
Hiking in the hills with my Dutch Shepherd.
What do you look for in founders?
Practicality combined with vision and integrity.
What important lesson have you learned as an investor?
Having a great vision and an idea are critical, but won’t get you far if you can’t build a great team.
Never leave home without:
A bottle of Pinot Noir
Best piece of advice:
Always try to hire people who are better than you at each of their individual roles.
Favorite kind of music:
Still a sucker for my first love—classic rock ‘n roll, circa ’65-’75.
Favorite tech gadget:
What’s the size limit on a tech gadget? I love my Tesla because I believe in electric vehicles, because it’s beautifully engineered, and the lack of lag when you push the accelerator pedal is a one-way door in driving experience. Or if that’s too large to be a gadget, my Sonos Soundbar has beautiful sound for both music and binge-watching.