Welcoming the Newest Members of Initialized Capital
Venture Capital done right is a team sport, and this is exactly how we do it
At Initialized Capital, we have a philosophy about how we approach investing and supporting our portfolio companies— we do it as a team. Every one of our founders gets access to each partner and team member at Initialized. We know our collective knowledge and decision making makes for much more than just the sum of our parts. Like the Avengers, each of our team members brings their own unique skills, perspectives and personalities to the table.
We’re pleased to have brought on a great set of smart, talented, high integrity people to the team this year.
First off, we’ve expanded our investing team with Andrew Lee joining as our newest partner. I’ve known Andrew for a decade and look forward to the leadership and founder experience he brings to Initialized and our greater ecosystem. As a two-time founder, Andrew has been through the highs and lows that our founders face, including searching for product-market fit through finding the first 100 customers, raising funding, getting acquired, pivoting, generating $1 million in revenue day, and experiencing an IPO.
He’ll be a force multiplier for our new investments, existing portfolio, and the many allies in our ecosystem. With his boundless energy and “Get Shit Done” attitude, he’s been on the ground with our portfolio companies even before he formally joined. As he jumps into new investments, Andrew is excited about investing in 1) enterprise and SaaS companies, 2) gaming and consumer-facing startups, especially after his time working on Zynga’s most lucrative product FarmVille in its heyday, and 3) govtech after working for the White House and the U.S. Small Business Administration. Andrew graduated with a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Claremont McKenna College and was a Truman Scholar and a Rhodes Scholar Finalist. Originally from Colorado, Andrew spends his free time adventuring; he recently hiked into Machu Picchu and traveled around India. He also enjoys being an esoteric netizen (BTS, GoT, WCT, he knows a lot of acronyms).
Robert Lindsey, CPA joins us as fund controller for the finance team. He’ll be working closely with the chief financial officer Marinda Luk to oversee fund operations and financial reporting in order to ensure accurate and timely delivery. He previously was a fund controller at Standish Management where he led the quarterly close and reporting process and was a primary point of contact between multiple clients and Standish Management. He brings to us experiences in diverse professional backgrounds, including higher education and the music industry. He graduated with a BS in Mathematics from the University of San Francisco.
Victoria Whitely joins us as head of EA. Previously she worked at 137 Ventures, a growth-stage venture firm that provides customized liquidity solutions to founders, investors, and early employees of private technology companies. At 137, she owned events and served as executive assistant to the cofounders. She now oversees the administrative support team at Initialized, manages the lives of Alda Dennis and Eric Woersching, and continues to manage our major events, including our yearly annual meeting and team off-sites. Her super powers are her decisiveness, organization, and ability to filter through BS. When she isn’t at the office, you will find her drinking piña coladas on a beach while watching GoT or cruising through Disneyland.
Phillip Aubrey joins us as an analyst, bringing a quantitative lens to venture investing. He previously worked at Landmark Partners in their Quantitative Research Group where he was responsible for making sense of large amounts of financial data. In his spare time he enjoys traveling, skydiving and cooking.
Dani Metz Shuval joins us as executive assistant to Garry Tan. She’s spent the last 10 years in public relations, most recently at a direct-to-consumer startup as employee number four. Previously, she was one of the first employees at The Hatch Agency where she helped strategize dozens of startup launches. During her time there, she also worked with clients including Benchmark Capital, Beats by Dre, littleBits, and Xapo. She started her career working with a mix of consumer, hardware, and legacy brands at The Outcast Agency. She’s a proud University of Oregon graduate through the School of Journalism and Communication, a knowledgeable sports fan (Go Warriors!) and a staunch traveler and planner.
Jessica Aguilar joins Initialized as the firm’s office manager and handles all things that are office-related. She also supports Andrew Lee, a partner at Initialized. She was previously the office manager and executive assistant to the CEO at TravelBank, a travel start-up. With over four years of experience working as an office manager and executive assistant in several different industries including insurance, tax, cosmetics and healthcare, she is ready to take on venture capital.
We’ve been very lucky at Initialized to welcome some very talented people to the team. We know over the years of working with founders that the best startups are created by the best teams. Venture capital itself is no different— we’ve invested deeply in our team and will continue to do so, all in the support of the founders we’ve backed.
