AboutDeena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital, where she invests in transformative technologies improving lives and livelihoods. Her investments span stages and sectors, and include women's and family health (e.g. Maven Clinic, Alife, Summer Health), digital health (SteadyMD, Everly Health, Galileo), software for life sciences (Trial Library, H1, Bluenote), health equity (Waymark, Trial Library), fintech (Ramp) and more. Above all, she seeks out extraordinary, mission-driven founders.
Prior to Lux, Deena was a Partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), led product partnerships at Google for health, search, and AI/ML, and directed social impact investments at Google.org. Deena also served as a Presidential Management Fellow at The U.S. Department of State under Secretary Clinton, where she helped launch President Obama’s first Global Entrepreneurship Summit.
Deena self-funded her undergraduate degree at Harvard (Social Studies and Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations) and MA at Georgetown through a variety of merit scholarships and side hustles, including co-founding her first company while in college. She is currently a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a Board Director for the National Venture Capital Association, and a member of Kauffman Fellows, Aspen Finance Fellows, and The Council on Foreign Relations.
Deena is a frequent speaker and commentator and has been featured in print and television on Bloomberg, CNBC and CBS, in print in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Techcrunch, Marie Claire, STAT, and more, and has delivered keynote addresses at major industry conferences. She was named a "Top 30 Under 40 in Healthcare" by Business Insider and "Top Senior Woman to Watch in Venture Capital" by the Wall Street Journal, "Top 50 in Digital Health" by Rock Health and "40 Under 40" by Fortune Magazine in 2022.
She is also the bestselling author of critically acclaimed children's picture book published by Simon & Schuster, Leena Mo, CEO (released September 2024).
Wes Barton
Investing in AgroTech • FinTech (& Financial...
New York , Nashville ..., U.S.A.
Previous Investments
• Spur:
(early stage)
• Debtsy:
(early stage)
• NewtonX:
(early stage)
• Petal:
(early stage)
• LoanStreet Inc.:
(mid stage)
• Third Prime:
(early stage)
• The New Primal:
(mid stage)
• Jingle Punks:
(early stage)
• Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates:
Healthy Food and Beverage companies, working with health influencers, with an eye for long-term behavior change, rather than the most recent fad.
Not Interested In
I co-invest with top tier leads in a bunch of categories that I know very little about - so I just listen to other signals. Most of these areas I am not interested in directly - such as pharma, medical devices, social media apps and marketplaces. I'm not interested in ideas - we all have lots of those - but rather entrepreneurs building defensible companies.
Entreprenuer, boater, and philanthropist. Studied @yale. Incubation projects in Haiti, USA.
Jason Calacanis
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
Chairman, Finger Group and Upper90 Capital Management
Jason Finger serves as Chief Executive Officer & Chairman of the Board at LiveAuctioneers. He serves as Chairman at Upper90. He served as Managing Member at Oxygen Capital Partners. Jason Finger serves as Board Member at LiveAuctioneers and StartUpHealthHoldings. Finger also serves as the Chief Executive Officer at Citysearch. He oversees the CityGrid advertising network and its owned and operated websites, including Citysearch, Urbanspoon, Insider Pages, and Buzz Labs. He co-founded SeamlessWeb in 1999, and was responsible for growing the company's presence to 22 cities throughout the U.S. and London. He is also an Angel Investor.
Founder @idealab. Created more than 100 companies leading to 45 IPO's & acquisitions, including 7 more than $1 Billion exits, including Goto, @citysearch ...
Arvind Ayyala
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
San Francisco Bay Area, U.S.A.
Previous Investments
• Carta:
(late stage)
• Memphis Meats:
(mid stage)
• Inari:
• Pico:
• Livongo:
(mid stage)
• Pindrop:
(late stage)
• WalkMe™:
(late stage)
• Druva:
(late stage)
• Hedvig Inc.:
(mid stage)
• Taulia Inc.:
(late stage)
• Sprinklr:
(late stage)
• WeddyPlace - Your online wedding planner:
(early stage)
• Penseo GmbH:
(early stage)
• FinCompare - Smarter SME Financing:
(early stage)
We invest in purpose-driven entrepreneurs building high-performance companies, across hardware, software in transportation, manufacturing, supply chain and sustainability.
Exotic Orange & Angels Partners: Turning Financial Simplicity Into Investment Success
