We are delighted to welcome the 8th Cohort of Venture Scouts, an esteemed group of professionals who will be partnering with us to uncover and boost the growth of innovative startups.
Grishin Robotics Venture Scouts is an active and growing community of knowledgeable founders, angels, and operators who are eager to sharpen their skills, expand their interests, and network as investors with early-stage startups. After graduating seven cohorts of venture scouts, it is clear to us that there is a great need among angel investors and young professionals to learn more about venture capital, build their own portfolio of investments, and provide assistance to founders beyond just capital. We are here to help facilitate that learning and growth as much as possible. We offer a variety of resources, series of in-depth discussions, and mentorship as part of the program. Participants of the Venture Scout program participate in educational sessions led by our investment team and gain valuable insight into topics ranging from determining the valuation of an early-stage startup, to industry deep-dives, portfolio case studies, and more.
Our Venture Scouts introduce us to the up-and-coming founders in their own network. Many of our scouts have experience as founders and investors themselves; they bring valuable insight on the investment process as well as the entire startup journey.
The program is 100% free and remote. Due to high demand, limited bandwidth, and focus on the North American market, this program is currently only available to those located in the US. We are open to submissions for the 9th cohort which will take place in Spring 2023, and would love to hear from all US-based candidates. We believe this program will be a great opportunity for those who are interested to break into venture capital, build their own portfolio of investments, or help founders in their network.
If you are interested in the program, please apply for the 8th cohort here.
Here are the graduates of the 8th cohort and we are proud to call them our Venture Scouts. We are truly privileged to be working with them and have them as part of our growing community of investment professionals.
Clare Purvis Digital Health Product Leader, Google, Headspace. Clare is a psychologist and startup executive. She has spent her career building and scaling companies at the intersection of mental health and technology. Now she works as a consultant and fractional executive helping companies integrate behavioral science and human-centered design to create engaging and innovative digital health products. Clare's work is driven by her desire to help create a more sustainable and equitable culture of health in the US and globally. Superpowers: healthcare innovation across public and private sectors; human-centered design and 0-to-1 product development in terms of strategy and design (not coding).
Derek Tam Product Manager at Zoom. Derek previously studied Systems Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, helping to host large-scale entrepreneurship hackathons throughout the Midwest VC ecosystem, and is currently pursuing a masters in Computer Science from Georgia Tech. He’s interested in civic tech, podcasts, books, traveling, and picking up hobbies from squash to running to volleyball. Superpowers: Technical Knowledge. Effectively reading, annotating, and documenting notes from reading books (Derek has an extensive process and digital bookshelf he keeps in Notion where he's bookmarked all books he's read).
Griffin Kao Product Manager at Google, Ads Team. Previously Griffin was a PM on the Privacy team at Google. He helped found Tapra (tapra.io), Unicorner (unicorner.news), and Brown Angel Group (brownangelgroup.org). Griffin gets excited about early stage products with the potential for high impact for real world users. One of the most exciting product he has worked on is first ever consumer product in the ads space — My Ad Center — to give users more control over their ads and the data that gets used for ads. Check out some of his other work at https://griffink3.github.io/ Superpowers: Ads, privacy, and compliance (and how Google / big companies work).
Gillian O'Brien Founder in Residence at Pilot.com. Gillian is a founder & ex-Chief of Staff turned founder-in-residence at Pilot.com. Previously she was Chief of Staff at Dover, and Co-Founder & CEO at Cherry (YC'19). Superpowers: Communication, hiring & people management, GTM.
Vishal Srivastava SVP at Groundspeed. Vishal is a highly accomplished technology/product executive with over 15 years of experience in a variety of industries. He has a proven track record of delivering results in fast-paced, dynamic environments and is skilled at building, managing, and leading high-performing teams. Vishal has a strong technical background and is well-versed in a wide range of technologies, including cloud computing, data analytics, ML/AI and software engineering. Superpowers: Engineering and product execution.
Wade Avery MBA at UCLA, Product Growth at Adobe. Wade is currently an MBA student at the UCLA Anderson School of Management returning to a Product Growth role at Adobe in LA this August. He began angel investing through a small fund with former Stanford classmates where he has invested in five software companies in the past year, and looks forward to building on that foundation, specifically learning how to analyze company business models. He loves surfing, outdoors travel, sports, and wine tasting in his free time. Superpowers: Effective growth through partnerships; PLG growth; product marketing; mobile growth; GTM; AI-based creative/design tools; media industry; public speaking and presenting.
Ilan Penn Director, Mapping at Tier. Ilan was a member of the founding team at Fantasmo (acquired by TIER Mobility). He is an early-stage angel investor and advisor to TRL11. Superpowers: Networking, building community, giving back. Got expertise across multiple sectors ranging from B2B SaaS, mobility, augmented reality (AR), logistics, proptech, autonomous systems, space, and fintech and blockchain.
Aishwarya Ravindran Co-Founder, MyLÚA Health. Aish is a corporate professional and Cornell MBA grad with healthcare product, operations, and strategy expertise. She began her career in Healthcare Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan, and carries rich experience building and scaling early-stage digital companies, including owning disruptive products at Uber and Oscar Health. Aish is a first generation American and is passionate about building equitable and accessible healthcare solutions serving the needs of vulnerable populations. Superpowers: Early-stage product build; founder grit and resilience; how to build and lead effective teams.
Vinay Kanchanapally Sr. Product Manager at Intuit. At Intuit Vinay is focused on developing platform solutions for tax experts. Prior to that he has worked for Walmart eCommerce and has a work experience spanning across the IT, education, banking, clean-tech and retail industries. He has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and an MBA from Yale University. In his free time he enjoys reading and exploring natural sites along the Bay Area. Superpowers: Product Management; education Industry; networking; Ideation & Innovation.
Ashwin Reddy Investment Banking Analyst at Jefferies. Ashwin is an Investment Banking Analyst within the Jefferies Technology Coverage Group. Ashwin graduated from Indiana University in May of 2021 and started a consumer startup selling custom selfie ring lights on a DTC and B2B basis. In his free time Ashwin enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling, spending time outdoors running and snowboarding and trying new restaurants. Superpowers: Ashwin is a very analytical person that understands numbers very well. Additionally, he possesses good communication skills and the ability to help people feel at ease when talking to him.
Munir Nanjee Sr. Technical Product Manager at Amazon. Munir has graduated from Columbia Business School and is studying part-time at Penn Engineering. He has a diverse array of experiences including management consulting at Deloitte Consulting, late-stage startup at AppDynamics (exited to Cisco for $3.7B), and tech investment banking at Credit Suisse. He enjoys being outdoors and recently finished a backpacking trip to Peru. Superpowers: Valuation methodology and landscape development based on Munir's prior experience in consulting and investment banking.
Varsha Raghavan AI/ML, Founder at Stealth. Varsha is currently starting her own company in the creative media landscape. Prior to that she was a machine learning engineer at a drug-discovery startup Immunai. She considers herself a healthy skeptic when it comes to technology, and she derives much of her perception of AI and its ethical limits from doomsday sci-fi novels. On the side, Varsha is a semi-professional wildlife photographer, loves doing metalwork, and is always on the lookout for new heavy metal music. Superpowers: ML research and engineering, specifically with applications in immunotherapy/drug-discovery and open-source consumer product; hardware and robotics; applying research across domains.
Kirt Patel PM at Paro.ai, a fintech dual marketplace startup. Kirt spent the last 5 years helping improve customer experience product processes and GTM strategies for Fortune 500 clients across various industries. On his free time he has a passion learning about different startups and emerging technology with the plan to become an investor one day. Superpowers: Product Strategy and Management.
Kyndal Turner Sr. Investment Analyst at Progressive Capital Management. Kyndal has over 10 years of investment experience, working in Investment Banking, Investment Management and Global Strategy. At Progressive Capital Management she manages a portfolio of $3.0Bn in Corporate Fixed Income Assets across the Food & Beverage, Packaging, and Consumer Staples sectors. Kyndal is an alumna of Wellesley College and completed her M.B.A at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Superpowers: Understanding industry drivers and deep dive company analysis.
Dwayne Samuels Co-founder & CEO @ Samelogic. Dwayne is a 3x founder and the CEO of Samelogic, a SaaS company that helps product teams run Atomic Concept Tests. His areas of expertise are Product, User Research, Growth, Design, and he's obsessed with Settlers of Catan. Superpowers: Design, product management, product development.
Carson Taylor MBA Candidate @ Dartmouth Tuck. Carson is a product manager with experience in gaming and entertainment, currently completing his MBA at Dartmouth. He’s worked at Riot Games, Electronic Arts, Zynga, and Carry1st, a startup backed by a16z and Google building fintech and gaming solutions in Africa. Carson grew up in both rural Oklahoma and Vancouver, BC and studied film at UT Austin. He’s lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and now calls New Hampshire home. Carson enjoys snowboarding, geography, and cooking Tex-Mex dishes. Superpowers: Mobile app development and product management, gaming, project management.
Michael Wang Software Engineer at Nuro. Michael studied Computer Science at UC Berkeley, where he grew an interest in technology, entrepreneurship, and venture capital. In his free time he enjoys playing golf, watching sports, and eating good food. Superpowers: Solving algorithmic computer science problems.
Brandon Lindsay Strategy and Operations at Google. Brandon is a Strategy and Operations Lead for Google’s Consumer Devices and Services Partnership team, focusing on the Google Home Ecosystem. In this role, Brandon develops strategic perspectives to drive differentiated experiences and broader distribution of Google products. Previously, he spent 3 years at McKinsey & Company, driving strategy and operational projects in B2B software, Healthcare, Public Sector, and Energy. Prior, he spent 3 years in Corporate Strategy with ADP, and 3 years in Corporate Finance at GE’s Energy Equipment businesses. Brandon holds an MBA from The Wharton School, and a BA in Economics and Spanish from Vanderbilt University. Superpowers: Enterprise software space, Payroll/ HRIS, Operations.
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Kevin Chukuka Product Marketing Manager at Meta. Kevin is a global strategy and product leader, who has led product strategy, operations, and GTM initiatives at startups and global organizations in financial services, consumer retail, and tech. He excels at cross-functional innovation and execution in early and late-stage tech enabled businesses to accelerate growth. In his current role, at Meta he develops product strategy in partnership with product teams and lead GTM efforts for Stars on Facebook, Meta’s largest content monetization product. Superpowers: X-Ray vision; Kevin is good at analyzing and assessing data to brainstorm ideas that lead to improved efficiency and/or growth.
If you are interested in joining the program and becoming part of the next generation of entrepreneurs and angel investors, please apply here.
