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Sarah was previously the VP of marketing and investor relations at Arlon Group and has served in IR roles at StepStone Group and Citi Private Equity. She is a public company board member, co-founded the Sustainability Investment Leadership Council, and has served on numerous non-profit boards.

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As M13's community program coordinator, Samantha aligns with M13’s commitment to creating an inclusive community through authentic experience, dedication to innovation, and creativity. Samantha was previously the development associate for outreach and programming at Rockefeller University.

Samantha Hughes

Operator

As M13's community program coordinator, Samantha aligns with M13’s commitment to creating an inclusive community.

M13SharePeople-SEO image Samantha Hughes

Samantha Hughes | M13

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As M13's brand project specialist, Generra brings her experience in operational excellence and community building from her previous time at The Knowledge House, a tech non-profit. Prior to that, Generra led project management, from enrollment and ops to data management, for Newark Public Schools. 

Generra Rodriguez

As M13's brand project specialist, Generra brings her experience in operational excellence and community building from her previous time at The Knowledge House, a tech non-profit. 

M13SharePeople-SEO image Generra Rodriguez

Generra Rodriguez | M13

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As a partner and head of operations, Lizzie leads the Propulsion team that helps propel our founders’ businesses forward. She was previously the COO of sneaker marketplace GOAT Group, CMO of Gilt Groupe, and founding partner of Brilliant Ventures.

Lizzie Francis

Partner

As a partner and head of operations, Lizzie leads the Propulsion team that helps propel our founders’ businesses forward. She was previously the COO of sneaker marketplace GOAT...

M13SharePeople-LizzieFrancis

Lizzie Francis | M13

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Erik is M13's accountant and has a vast background working in tech companies and the applications used in accordance with GAAP for reporting. Erik was previously an accountant at Glamsquad and Stella Connect, which was acquired by NYSE listed Medallia in 2020, which gave Erik the opportunity to oversee the finance integrations of the two companies. 

Erik Grant

Erik is M13's accountant and has a vast background working in tech companies and the applications used in accordance with GAAP for reporting.

M13SharePeople-SEO image Erik Grant

Erik Grant | M13

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Feven was an investment analyst for KingsCrowd while simultaneously receiving a certificate from Cornell’s Women and Entrepreneurship program, where she focused on the start-up ecosystem for minority groups.

Feven Solomon

Investor

Feven was an investment analyst for KingsCrowd while simultaneously receiving a certificate from Cornell’s Women and Entrepreneurship program, where she focused on the start-up...

M13SharePeople-FevenSolomon

Feven Solomon | M13

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As a member of the investor relations team, Talitha has worked with the team to build the IR systems at M13 from the ground up. She was previously the quality control and administrative assistant for the accounting and assurance department of Lindsay & Brownell, LLP.

Talitha Wright

As a member of the investor relations team, Talitha has worked with the team to build the IR systems at M13 from the ground up. She was previously the quality control and...

M13SharePeople-TalithiaWright

Talitha Wright | M13

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A people operations analyst, Rita was previously the owner and operator of Street Beatz Dance Company. Prior to that, she held the roles of internal annuity specialist and registered client associate at Merrill Lynch.

Rita Serrano

A people operations analyst, Rita was previously the owner and operator of Street Beatz Dance Company. Prior to that, she held the roles of internal annuity specialist and...

M13SharePeople-RitaSerrano

Rita Serrano | M13

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Morgan spent five years in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. She worked on a presidential campaign, at Bloomberg Philanthropies and consulted for start-ups in the political media space.

Morgan Blumberg

Morgan spent five years in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. She worked on a presidential campaign, at Bloomberg Philanthropies and consulted for start-ups in the political...

M13SharePeople-MorganBlumberg

Morgan Blumberg | M13

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Latif manages the overall investing strategy for the firm and has led numerous deals across money and health verticals with a large focus on web3. He was previously the managing director at Virgin Group where he led investing in the Americas including investments in Ring (acq. by AMZN), Slack (NYSE: WORK), Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE), and Virgin Orbit (NASDAQ: VORB).

Latif Peracha

As M13’s general partner, Latif manages the investing strategy for the firm and has led numerous deals across money, health, and web3 verticals. He was previously a managing...

M13SharePeople-LatifPeracha

Latif Peracha | M13

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As a principal at M13, Karim leads investments across the firm’s future of money and work themes. Karim was a GTM leader at four fintech companies including Remitly (IPO’d in 2021), Carta, CommonBond and Yodlee (IPO’d in 2014). Prior to joining M13, Karim personally invested in Carta, Auth0, GitLab, Chipper Cash, and Doorvest.

Karim Bhalwani

As a principal at M13, Karim leads investments across the firm’s future of money and work themes. Karim was a GTM leader at four fintech companies including Remitly...

M13SharePeople-KarimBhalwani

Karim Bhalwani | M13

__A rising tide lifts all boats.__ I don’t know of a single job that isn’t informed and made better by the hard work and contributions of many other colleagues and partners. Building a durable investment firm requires the variety of voices and perspectives of a dedicated group of great employees, teams who create honest, authentic partnerships with their founding teams and other sponsors and the mutual trust and respect of like-minded investors who are aligned together over the long-term. Jim Collins’ Flywheel effect describes the accumulation of a series of actions, each building on each other to create something truly generative. That’s why we’re focused on the constellation of M13’s shareholders and stakeholders and why my focus is particularly on making sure our investors know how critical their financial and human capital is to making this firm a success. Investor Relations serves a lighthouse role in a firm. I want all of M13’s stakeholders, and our investors in particular, to see the virtuous circle of our partnership. 

 __Everyone is looking to mitigate the downside and create repeatable, sustainable successes.__ The best firms I know are those that are thoughtful about their purpose in the world, have a differentiated thesis that fulfills a real need and that think about risk and responsibility as well as returns. I was attracted to M13’s Propulsion Platform model of best-in-class, vertically-focused operators partnering with founding teams in part because I am very familiar with the model in later stage private equity. It’s an even more brilliant thing in the venture capital space to be able to help build better companies from the early stages and both accelerate growth by providing unparalleled expertise tailored to each business and mitigate risk to build enduring companies. 

 __You are going to make an impact on this world. Do good, and you’ll do well.__ My maternal grandparents had five children, 27 foster children and logged over 10,000 hours each at Greenwich Hospital but also gave their time to soup kitchens and daily wherever they knew someone needed help. They didn’t want recognition and didn’t expect others to give in the same way, but they did expect and hope that their children would adopt the same charitable mindset: guide and encourage compassion through daily actions by treating others profitably, by which they meant valuably. Six years ago, I co-founded an organization focused on bringing the best understanding and integration of environmental, social and governance practices to the investment industry not just because I am a dyed in the wool recycler and care about treating people fairly and leaving the world “a little better,” but also because innumerable research reports demonstrate that companies focused on good stewardship create outsized financial returns. We have the ability to create exponentially good effects for ourselves and others by practicing and doing the right things.

 __Be compassionate. Be curious. Be brave.__ I say that being brave is being afraid but doing something anyway (so long as what you’re doing isn’t illegal or hurting anyone else). But, evidently, fear and curiosity can’t inhabit the brain simultaneously. So, I’ve co-piloted small planes, including across the Berkshires during a bout of claustrophobia, climbed 100 ft. down into the belly of the underground Djoser pyramid burial chamber outside of Cairo and hiked an unrepaired part of the Great Wall on a rainy day alone with no one else around. Cultivating a rigorous spirit doesn’t require leaving where you are, but it does need a heavy dose of inquisitiveness about the rich world around us and the ability to stretch beyond our own comfort zones. 

 __Be a good citizen in this world.__ Thinking consciously about your actions and their impact on those around you and adjusting your thoughts and behaviors accordingly results in the funny side-effect of having profoundly good implications for your life. Every person is an investment in this world, and that means we all have a responsibility to check in and re-evaluate whether we’re contributing a positive or negative impact in the world. I’m thrilled that M13 has brought together such a fantastic group of people driven to make a positive and lasting impact on each other and everyone in the M13 constellation as we help build the next generation of great businesses.

 __Ten years ago, a colleague handed me a private equity manager’s letter that led with Robert Frost’s adage: “The best way out is always through.”__ It struck me then as a quiet, strong mantra that was probably the collective chorus of every struggling worker on Wall Street and, given the catholic recession, everyone beyond. It’s also the only direction through life.

Sarah Tomolonius

Sarah was previously the VP of marketing and investor relations at Arlon Group and has served in IR roles at StepStone Group and Citi Private Equity. She is a public company...

M13SharePeople-SarahTomolonius

Sarah Tomolonius | M13

Now in its second year, the [Future Perfect](https://m13.co/future-perfect/) series was inspired by M13’s mission to support our community with connection and conversations—not just capital—that explore progressive ideas that lead to real innovation. We value different perspectives and believe collaboration and diversity of thought can lead to the best innovations while mitigating risk.  
As wellness becomes an ever more important focal area to be integrated into all facets of our lives, we gathered entrepreneurs, industry experts, and investors for Future Perfect 2021 to help us understand what individual, mental, financial, organizational, and system wellness looks like today—and what’s on the horizon. 
At M13, we’ve been investing in health and wellness since 2015, and our portfolio includes innovative companies—such as ClassPass, Heal, Daily Harvest, Thrive Market, Cue, Tonal, Seed, Feelmore Labs, Capsule, Thrive Global, and Rae—that are helping all of us navigate our physical, mental, and social healthscapes. 
In the same way we consider consumer as a horizontal layer where we invest, we’re thinking about wellness today in all its incarnations of fitness, wholeness, and strength. Just as the pandemic has accelerated consumer behaviors five years into the future, it has floodlighted wellness. 
On Day One of Future Perfect: Wellness, we covered everything from emotional intelligence to financial wellness. Day Two was all about building healthy businesses and ecosystems.  
Here are a few highlights from the two-day virtual event: 
## Arianna Huffington: “We’re all facing this delusion that burnout is the price you must pay for success.” 
<YoutubeVideo video="https://youtu.be/H5ZfYuy06Fk"/> 
[Thrive Global](https://thriveglobal.com/) Founder and CEO Arianna Huffington described how sleep and rest are the bedrock of individual and corporate wellness. 
“What has been really important is to redefine the wellness category to be very data- and science-based and move it out of the category of being warm and fuzzy. At the heart of the \[Thrive\] platform is that when we're recharged, we’re much more productive.” 
‍ 
[Read more](https://m13.co/arianna-huffington-why-burnout-shouldnt-be-the-price-of-startup-success/) 
## Suze Orman: “You can only fix a financial problem when you really fix what's going on with you.” 
<YoutubeVideo video="https://youtu.be/3xtu5JDYxz0"/> 
America’s personal finance expert [Suze Orman](https://www.suzeorman.com/) connected with [Northstar](https://www.northstarmoney.com/) Co-founder and CEO Will Peng over a shared belief that employers should support their employees’ financial well-being:  
“If your money is a financial chaotic mess, that means you are a mess because your self worth equals your net worth. So you can't ever divide the two. You can't put your money over here and who you are over here. You are one. You have to have both of your feet in one boat going the same place. Your professional life, your personal life, your financial life—all of it has to be one.” 
[Read more](https://m13.co/suze-orman-how-startup-founders-can-cope-with-financial-stress/) 
## LL Cool J: “I’m not competing with anyone else.”  
<YoutubeVideo video="https://youtu.be/CwnXOSsEgA0"/> 
James Todd Smith shares startup tips and other lessons learned as an actor, musician, and entrepreneur.  
<DotBullet highlight="Envision success:" text=" “You’ve got to see good things happening in your life, and you’ve got to constantly work toward those good things.”" />
<DotBullet highlight="Constantly educate yourself:" text="“Humility is a superpower. It’s about being the best me that I can be at maximizing my potential.”" />
<DotBullet highlight="Take small steps:" text=" “For a lot of people, it's not that you can't grow, but you have to be ready for that next step.”" />
<DotBullet highlight="Be mindful about hiring and building your team:" text=" “When you're making your hiring decisions, when you're making those choices about who's going to do what, when you look for who's going to set that operational strategy or set that tone in the meeting—just think about everybody. Because sometimes we can exclude people. It's not done intentionally. We can unintentionally reinforce things that we don't want to reinforce just out of old habits.”" />
[Read more](https://m13.co/ll-cool-j-why-im-not-competing-with-anyone-else/) 
## Adam Grant: “Psychological safety is just the freedom to take a risk without having to fear that you're going to get punished.” 
<YoutubeVideo video="https://youtu.be/H864eyc42rs"/> 
The bestselling author of “[Think Again](https://www.adamgrant.net/book/think-again/)” explained how psychological safety at startups leads to innovative solutions and ideas. He also offered strategies for creating a safe space at work, including: 
**Create an environment where people feel free to flag problems, suggest bold or unusual moves, and ask for help.** “I think the mistake too many leaders and managers make is they say, “Don't bring me problems. Bring me solutions.” This is a dangerous philosophy because if people can only speak up when they have a solution, you will never hear about your biggest problems, which are too complex for any one person to solve.” 
**To curb burnout, consider these three categories of changes:** 
<DotBullet text="Reduce the demands of the job." />
<DotBullet text="Give people more control over whatever demands they do face." />
<DotBullet text="Provide them with more support. " />
[Read more](https://m13.co/adam-grant-why-startup-founders-should-normalize-asking-for-help/) 
Here at M13, we’re committed to our mission to identify, understand, and invest in the core technologies that will drive and change consumer behavior over the next decade. That includes tracking and investing in early-stage startups that focus on health and well-being.  
Our Future Perfect event also featured insights from founders and advisors in M13’s portfolio, with fireside chats and panel discussion on: 
## **Team Culture & Leader EQ**
_Moderator: M13 Partner and Head of Launchpad_ [_Anna Barber_](https://m13.co/team-members/anna-barber/) 
* Deborah Goldstein, Founder at [DRIVEN Professionals](https://drivenpros.com/)
* Darja Gutnick, Co-founder and CEO at [Bunch](https://bunch.ai/)
* Spencer Rascoff, Co-founder at [dot.LA](https://dot.la/) 
## **Feedback: More Than a Suggestion Box**
_Moderator: M13 Partner and Head of Talent_ [_Matt Hoffman_](https://m13.co/team-members/matt-hoffman/) 
* Tania Luna, Co-CEO at [LifeLabs Learning](http://lifelabslearning.com/) 
## **Emerging Tech Trends in Well-Being**
_Moderator: M13 General Partner_ [_Latif Peracha_](https://m13.co/team-members/latif-peracha/) 
* Brenda Freeman, Advisor at [Emerge](https://emerge.io/)
* Francois Kress, Co-founder and CEO at [Feelmore Labs](https://www.feelmorelabs.com/)
* Sly Lee, Co-founder and CEO at [Emerge](https://emerge.io/) 
## **Healthy Ecosystems: Bitcoin**
_Moderator: M13 General Partner_ [_Latif Peracha_](https://m13.co/team-members/latif-peracha/) 
* Elizabeth Stark, Co-founder and CEO at [Lightning Labs](https://lightning.engineering/) 
## **Opening Access to Health**
_Moderator: M13 Partner and Head of Launchpad_ [_Anna Barber_](https://m13.co/team-members/anna-barber/) 
* Catherine Balsam-Schwaber, CEO at [Kindra](https://ourkindra.com/)
* Eric Kinariwala, Founder and CEO at [Capsule](https://www.capsule.com/)
* Nathalie Walton, Co-founder and CEO at [Expectful](https://expectful.com/)   
## **Healthy Ecosystems: E-commerce**
_Moderator:_ [_Brent Murri_](https://m13.co/team-members/brent-murri/)_, principal at M13_ 
* Alex Yancher, Co-founder and CEO at [Passport](https://passportshipping.com/)  
We are living and breathing these topics every day alongside our founding teams, advisors, investors, and friends in our galaxy. Inspired by these insights, we look forward to continuing these conversations around wellness and well-being with you in the future. 
_Be the first to know about upcoming events, founder/talent opportunities, and other updates from M13 by signing up for_ [_our newsletter_](https://m13.co/newsletter)_._

Entrepreneurs, industry experts, and investors came together at M13’s Future Perfect virtual event.

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What Wellness Means Today—and in the Future

Future Perfect: What Wellness Means Today—and in the Future

At M13’s Future Perfect event, Arianna Huffington, Suze Orman, LL Cool J, Adam Grant, and other leaders discussed the business and principles of wellness.

Future Perfect: What Wellness Means Today—and in the Future | M13

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At M13, we take a holistic approach to investing. Our [Propulsion Platform](https://m13.co/m13s-propulsion-model-was-built-to-help-execute/) model is designed to shift the J curve to mitigate time and capital risk and to increase the magnitude and likelihood of success for early-stage consumer technology companies. In doing so, we expect to generate outsized risk-adjusted returns for our investors. As part of our focus on risk management and value creation, we’ve officially established M13’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) Policy. 
**We developed our ESG Policy in order to:**
<DotBullet highlight="" text="Explicitly align ESG factors with our strategic focus on execution" />
<DotBullet highlight="" text="Systematically evaluate and integrate ESG considerations at the firm and investing levels" />
<DotBullet highlight="" text="Emphasize our responsibility and accountability as investment managers" />
<DotBullet highlight="" text="Further generate operational excellence and drive outperformance; and" />
<DotBullet highlight="" text="Continue to build good, transparent relationships with our stakeholders" /> 
**We’re still early in our journey, but it’s the right time to implement our ESG approach into an actionable policy.** Since M13 was founded, we have been propelled by a commitment to be good stewards of capital and to deliver value to our stakeholders, including our limited partners and advisors, our employees, our founding teams, and other VC sponsors. Over the past few years since our founding, we have been very busy building out our team and institutionalizing and scaling our Propulsion Platform. We’re proud of the breadth, depth, and [seniority of our team](https://m13.co/people/) and of the culture and processes we’ve built. 
Now that our team and Propulsion Platform model have come together—and while we’re still early enough in our journey—we saw it was imperative to codify our core mission-driven culture and investment management philosophy in a comprehensive ESG Policy. 
As M13 continues to scale as a durable, long-term-oriented platform, our ESG Policy furthers our focus of working hand in hand to help founders anticipate and remove blind spots, see around corners, avoid making bad decisions, and help create unfair advantages that start the flywheel of successful growth. Understanding material ESG risks and opportunities will help as we provide critical operational support and partnership early on in the investment lifecycle to help founding teams make better decisions. 
**The scope of our ESG Policy is at the firm level.** Our commitment to understanding and integrating ESG starts with our firm. Our dogged focus on execution always comes down to our focus on people. The M13 team is guided by a belief in community, good citizenship, and engagement. We strongly support and integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our team is diverse across gender and ethnicity as well as our personal and career experiences. Studies bear out that diversity in businesses leads to greater profitability and a reduction in risk. We agree with these studies. We believe smart, thoughtful people bringing all of their experience to the table and sharing that collaboratively with their colleagues from both similar and diverse backgrounds makes our discussions better, enhances our creativity, tempers unnecessary risk, and drives our firm and our portfolio companies forward. 
**The scope of our ESG Policy is at the investment level.** M13 has always conducted deep due diligence on sectors, business models, and founders, among other factors, but we believe it’s not enough to look at a business model and financials in isolation. We view ESG as a set of criteria that we can use as a lens to help us more comprehensively identify investment risks and opportunities. Our policy reflects our awareness of, attention to, and curiosity about those dimensions and establishes a framework of ESG evaluation as we examine a company’s financial health, competitive advantages, company and founder reputation, and other important factors in a way that aligns directly with our investment criteria. 
Our stewardship is long-dated, and our ESG integration will continue to evolve with our firm.  
## What is sustainability? What is ESG?
The UN Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sustainability is the umbrella of factors affecting all company stakeholders, including employees, customers, investors, and others who have an interest in or are affected by the company’s activities. 
ESG factors are specific factors under the sustainability umbrella and may often be categorized as “non-financial” or harder to quantify information. At M13, ESG integration means incorporating ESG into decision-making to increase operational efficiency and to benefit strategic decision-making to help enhance long-term outperformance. 
At its most basic, sustainability is about understanding the _whole_ company, and an ESG program (i.e., a policy and procedures) is a tool that can help facilitate this evaluation. We determined an ESG Policy was decision-useful for M13 because we believe ESG assessments help promulgate our goals of making our firm, portfolio companies, and processes stronger. 
## What's the process of creating an ESG Policy?
While tremendous strides have been made in ESG understanding and integration over the past decade, there is not yet a universal template for an ESG Policy. Just like a firm’s investment decision-making process is unique to each firm’s mission and purpose, an ESG Policy needs to be tailored to the needs of a firm and its constituents. 
The M13 platform investment model was built by taking the best parts of other great private equity and venture capital models and more thoughtfully arranging the pieces together to create innovative solutions for the future. We used that same methodology in creating an ESG Policy. Frankly, the opportunity to be an early leader in the shaping and changing of ESG integration paradigms into traditional venture capital investment management is exciting to us.  
When we began this process, we wanted to get a good understanding of the current landscape of industry rules, regulations, and best practices. We spoke with a large number of our stakeholders during the initial research process—everyone from the M13 team to institutional investors, family offices, individual investors, peer firms, and our portfolio companies. We also researched and familiarized ourselves with the bodies, certifications, and councils that set ESG industry standards. We recognize the importance of the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (“PRI”) in shaping ESG practices and defining ESG principles for financial services participants. The PRI’s principles helped inform our approach to ESG integration. 
We’re thankful for the generosity of our colleagues in the investment industry who provided the incredibly valuable resources of their time and insight as well as ESG due diligence questionnaires, their own ESG policies, and reflections on their own considerations as they integrate and assess ESG as a fund manager or a limited partner. 
**In building the next-generation venture firm, an ESG mindset is in our DNA.** Prior to founding M13, our co-founders Carter and Courtney Reum had previously founded VeeV, a spirits company with a platform approach to better ingredients and better for the world. They established VeeV as a B Corp and an active member of 1% for the Planet, a coalition—including Patagonia, Honest Tea, Klean Kanteen, OXO, BNP Paribas Bank of the West, and others—that's committed to donating 1% of gross sales to environmental causes. And at M13, just a few examples of our commitment to ESG thought leadership are the [diversity, equity, and inclusion](https://m13.co/organizational-culture-diversity-equity-and-inclusivity) event we co-hosted with ThinkHuman in January 2020 and the [ESG webinar on the future of capital](https://m13.co/the-future-of-financial-services) we recently co-hosted with First Republic Bank. 
Indeed, when I first met with the M13 team in early 2020, I immediately had a wholly different conversation about risk and reward than I’d anticipated having with a venture capital group. I was delightfully surprised by our conversations about climate, building an inclusive and equitable culture, health and mental wellness and impact, in addition to talking about portfolio management and returns. Having co-founded a sustainability organization ([SILC](https://silcny.com/)) seven years ago that works with the investment community to spark innovation through aligning economic opportunities and ESG and other stewardship to companies’ shareholders and stakeholders, I was excited by what I recognized as M13’s inherent sustainability values in understanding the entire realm of effects a company has on its broad community. 
**Stay tuned: our ESG Policy will evolve.** Our initial goal was to create our ESG framework by defining what we’re currently doing at the firm, portfolio and sourcing and investing levels. We’ve put a stake in the ground for where we are today. Over the next year, we’ll continue to evaluate the evolution of this policy and expect to continue to enhance and formalize our approach. Ultimately, we expect to be able to benchmark ESG growth and progress and demonstrate our focus on process and execution throughout the investment lifecycle. 
**As Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”** In our fast-moving world, in which technology continues to catalyze change for the consumer and as innovative upstarts pierce the traditional architecture of all sectors, early-stage companies and venture capital firms alike need to be awake, nimble, and trusted. It’s both the culture and the smart processes and policies. 
In the brave new world we're marching into, we remain laser-focused on the important contributions and impact that M13 has on _all_ our stakeholders as we help propel our portfolio companies and our firm forward in a long-dated and valuable way.

Learn more about why having an ESG mindset is part of our founding story. 

The ocean's waves slide onto the sand as pictured from above.

Our Holistic Approach to Investing: Introducing M13’s ESG Policy

Here’s why sustainability and having an Environmental, Social, and Governance Policy matters to M13, a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm.

Our Holistic Approach to Investing: Introducing M13's ESG Policy | M13

OurHolisticApproachtoInvesting thumb-2

In today’s world, everything is connected. M13’s team is a constellation of founders, operators, strategic advisors, supply chain partners, leaders, mentors, and innovators in a network that spans every part of the business ecosystem. 
Our investment partners and our vertically integrated Propulsion partners our purpose built team of industry leading executives with extensive knowledge and execution experience work collaboratively with our portfolio companies to manage macro and micro risk, maximize opportunities, and drive successful outcomes. In early stage venture, M13 is unique for our bespoke operator insight and expertise across a range of key growth functions that we bring to our close relationships with our founding teams. 
We designed M13 to enable our founding teams to execute better and more efficiently via a wide network of resources, knowledge, and operational expertise. None of us could have foreseen COVID-19 as the event that would create a recessionary environment, and although we expect there will be further challenges to confront head on, M13’s platform investment approach is designed to create outsized returns in a downturn. 
Prior to starting M13, we reflected on our experiences as investors, founders, and operators of startup businesses. We assessed the landscape and saw a white space in the venture world: investors were providing financial capital but not the critical company tailored operational resources to help founders build durable, successful growth businesses. 
Our scalable model productizes knowledge, shortcuts the learning curve, and helps our portfolio companies grow, particularly in this macro environment. We roll up our sleeves and sit side by side with our founders to help them problem solve, rather than just share a Rolodex of contacts. We also leverage our constellation of world class talent including other partners, advisors, and investors, including the 50 plus successful entrepreneurs who invested in Fund II. 
By design, M13’s 10 partners have deep operating backgrounds. Five of our partners are vertically focused with tremendous experience across customer acquisition and data, product, distribution, operations, brand/communications, and talent key knowledge areas of expertise critical to our founders and to galvanizing strong outcomes. 
More importantly, our team has been there before, shepherding startups through prior crises to successful outcomes and exits. We help them adjust levers such as pricing, hiring, product line expansion, and burn in order to optimize for market conditions. The collective experience of M13’s partners and our focus on execution is invaluable to company leaders now more than ever. 
Examples of our partners’ experience navigating difficult crises include:
* **[Karl Alomar](https://www.linkedin.com/in/karl-alomar-0516a219/):** Prior to being COO of Digital Ocean, which he grew to over 500 employees and $200 million of revenue (from 10 employees and &lt;$10 million revenue) in five years, Karl successfully managed and exited two startups through two market crises, including founding and operating China Export Finance, a fintech trade finance company, and guiding it through the 2008 correction before selling the business in 2010.
* **[Christine Choi](https://www.linkedin.com/in/w-christine-choi-b453783/):** As Virgin Group’s SVP of Corporate Communications, she worked directly with Sir Richard Branson, founders, and CEOs to build Virgin Group’s North American portfolio of branded companies. Christine led Virgin’s U.S. brand campaigns, social impact initiatives, crisis, and reputation management and served as Head of Communications at Virgin Galactic.
* **[Courtney](https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneyreum/) and [Carter Reum](https://www.linkedin.com/in/carterreum/):** They co-founded a spirits company, VEEV, in 2007, and successfully navigated the company through the 2008 correction, ultimately selling the business in 2016.
* **[Gautam Gupta](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gautamgup/):** He co-founded and was the CEO of the direct to consumer food company Naturebox, which raised more than $70 million in venture funding. He successfully turned around the company in 2018, including lowering monthly burn from over $1 million to break even within a year. 
We’re intentional about making better investment decisions by building, prioritizing, and deploying knowledge across portfolio companies. Ultimately that knowledge sharing enables and improves deal flow and helps portfolio companies get up the J curve faster by anticipating challenges and opportunities, accelerating growth, achieving greater capital efficiency, and facilitating superior outcomes all to make the next star companies both in market peaks and troughs.

The collective experience of M13’s partners is invaluable to startup founders.

M13’s team poses outside the L.A. office happily cheering with their arms raised.

M13’s Propulsion Model was Built to Help Execute

M13’s Propulsion Model Was Built to Help Execute

The collective experience of M13’s partners and our focus on execution is invaluable to startup founders now more than ever. 

Sarah Tomolonius

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M13’s Propulsion Model Was Built to Help Execute

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