Justin guided the fund's investment process in SpaceX, the first private company to develop a liquid fueled rocket to achieve Earth orbit; Social Gaming Network (SGN), a company dedicated to building social games across mobile and web platforms; and Inigral, a start-up focused on education and course management software. He also serves on the board of Clickable, Adorn, and Navia. Prior to Founders Fund, Justin was CEO of Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE), a conglomerate of businesses at Stanford University. He led SSE to the largest expansion of revenue and profitability in the organization's history. He was also Director of Sales at Cellfire, a mobile promotional marketing service, and worked as an engineer at Raytheon/Texas Instruments. Justin previously served under Alan Larson, the Undersecretary for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs at the State Department. Justin holds an MS in Computer Science and a BS with Honors in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

Manu Kumar – Founder, K9 Ventures 

Manu is the founder and Chief Firestarter at K9 Ventures.

Manu previously founded, grew and sold two successful ventures. He was the Founder, President and CEO of SneakerLabs, Inc. – a company which developed software and services for web-based customer interaction. After the successful acquisition of SneakerLabs (March 2000), Manu served as the Vice-President of Interactive Technologies for E.piphany. He then served as the Chairman and CEO of iMeet, Inc. – a provider of web-conferencing services. After the merger of iMeet with Boston based Netspoke (August 2002), Manu served on the Board of Directors of Netspoke until its acquisition by Premiere Global Services (August 2005). Prior to starting his entrepreneurial ventures, Manu was a lecturer in the distance education program at the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.

Manu completed his Bachelors in Electrical and Computer Engineering with University Honors from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was inducted in to the Electrical Engineering Honor Society – Eta Kappa Nu, the National Engineering Honor Society – Tau Beta Pi and the honor society of Phi Kappa Phi. He holds a Masters degree in Software Engineering with a concentration in Business from Carnegie Mellon, and is also a graduate of the Entrepreneurial Management Program at CMU’s Graduate School of Industrial Administration (GSIA), now the Tepper School of Business. He was awarded the Enterprise Award with Distinction in 1997 and is the recipient of Carnegie Mellon University’s Recent Alumni Award for 2004 in recognition of exceptional achievement during the first 10 years of graduating from the university. Manu holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science (Human Computer Interaction) with a Distinction in Teaching from Stanford University. In addition to the Ph.D., Manu has a Master’s in Computer Science from Stanford University.

He has worked on research, development and commercialization of interactive technologies ranging from chat, web conferencing, application sharing, distance learning, audio conferencing, and CRM applications. He holds one patent in this space with additional patents pending. His academic research has been in the area of automobile interfaces and the use of eye tracking for human computer interaction. His dissertation research explored how gaze information can effectively be used as an augmented input in addition to traditional devices.

Manu has served on the Advisory Board for the Information Technology Network for the Pittsburgh Technology Council, the Dean’s Leadership Council and the Silicon Valley Advisory Committee for the Carnegie Institute of Technology and is a former member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the Carnegie Mellon Alumni Association. Manu was the founder of the Pittsburgh Java Users Group (PittJUG) and the Pittsburgh Chapter of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) and is a charter member of TiE-Silicon Valley.

Manu serves as an investor and/or advisor for several technology startups including Refocus Imaging, Triggit, and Guru.com. His interests include discovery, creation and commercialization of new and innovative technologies.

Hodong (Ho) Nam – General Partner, Altos Ventures

Ho Nam is a General Partner of Altos Ventures, focusing on investments in the areas of software, digital media, and infrastructure technologies. He currently serves as a director of Accolo, Billeo, Immunet, JS-Kit, SayNow, Telekenex, Trilibis Mobile, and WhiteHat Security. Ho led the firm's prior investments in Axis Systems, Evolve Software, Listen.com, Nishan Systems, Pixo, Provato and Soundpipe. All were deals in which Altos was the lead investor in the first institutional round of funding and achieved exits via IPO or trade sale to public companies. 

Before joining Altos Ventures in 1996, Ho worked at Silicon Graphics and Octel Communications. Ho began his VC career at Trinity Ventures in 1990 and began his professional career at Bain & Company where he advised clients in the Semiconductor industry on product and corporate strategy. 

Ho received an MBA from Stanford University and a BS in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College.

Jonathan Teo – Principal, Benchmark Capital 

Jonathan Teo has spent his career helping companies build distributed engineering organizations that enable technical teams and infrastructure to expand and scale globally.

Most recently he served as Engineering PM in the Search Properties and Enterprise Products groups at Google, and he was an early member of its Strategy and Business Operations team. In both roles he created highly leveraged research and product organizations in countries around the world that enabled the company to adjust to changing strategic and operational needs and foster greater innovation and efficiencies.

Prior to joining Google, he worked at Bain & Company, helping a Fortune 100 client optimize and grow its technical support organization. He also served as a consultant to Intuit, Electronic Arts and other technology companies, spent two years in the Republic of Singapore Air Force and was a founding member of a software development group focused on developing security protocols and analyzers. He currently holds patented work in the area of link layer security.

Education: M.S. from Stanford University. B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Sydney University.

Jonathan Teo - Benchmark Capital

Richard Yen – Director, Saban Ventures 

Richard is a Director at Saban Ventures. Richard’s current investment interests include consumer analytics, mobile applications, and digital media infrastructure.

Prior to joining Saban Ventures, Richard was a Principal at Blueprint Ventures in San Francisco where he established the firm's digital media and Internet investing practice. He led early-stage investments and was an active Board member at several leading digital media start-ups. Prior to that, Richard was at Rustic Canyon Partners, an early-stage technology venture capital firm in Southern California where he focused on software infrastructure and wireless investments.

In his prior operating roles, Richard played a lead role as the fourth employee at ShockMarket, a Silicon Valley-based consumer Internet start-up that raised $6 million in venture funding and grew to 25 employees. As Director of Technology, he oversaw software development, negotiated and closed sales of first-generation products, and assisted with venture fundraising.

Richard began his career as an early member of D. E. Shaw & Co.'s Internet incubator in Boston. He developed the technology behind the company's pioneering web brokerage and was the lead technical liaison to Fortune 100 business partners. Richard was promoted from Senior Software Engineer to Vice President in a four-year span, during which the business unit grew from 10 to 80 employees and was acquired by Merrill Lynch, where he served as VP of Intelligent Technologies.

Richard earned a BS in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science from UC Berkeley and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, both with high honors. Richard is a graduate of the Kauffman Fellows Program. He enjoys traveling, tennis, golf, and poker.