Aileen Lee

Last updated
Aileen Lee
Aileen Lee 2014.jpg
Lee backstage at Tech Crunch 2013
Born1970 (age 53–54) [1]
New York City, U.S.
NationalityFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Harvard Business School
Known forCo-founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures

Aileen Lee (born 1970) is a U.S. venture capital angel investor and co-founder [2] of Cowboy Ventures. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Contents

Lee coined the often-used Silicon Valley term unicorn in a TechCrunch article "Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning from Billion-Dollar Startups" as profiled in The New York Times . A unicorn is generally defined as a privately held startup that has a $1 billion valuation or more – something rare (like a unicorn). [11]

Education

Raised in Millburn, New Jersey, Lee graduated in 1988 from Millburn High School, where she was senior class president. [12]

Lee earned her bachelor's degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1992. After MIT, she worked as a financial analyst for two years at Morgan Stanley. [13] She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School in 1997. [1]

Career

Lee joined Kleiner Perkins (KPCB) in 1999 and was the founding CEO of RMG Networks, a company backed by KPCB. Lee worked at Kleiner Perkins for 13 years and left in 2012. [14]

In 2012, she left KPCB to start seed-stage venture firm Cowboy Ventures. [15] In 2017, Lee added Ted Wang to the firm as a general partner. [16]

Cowboy Ventures is one of the first female-led venture capital firms. [17] In its first six years, Cowboy Ventures has received three large funds, the latest reaching $95 million. [18] [19]

Through Cowboy Ventures, Lee has made investments in many early-stage companies, including August, [20] Dollar Shave Club, [20] Textio, [21] Accompany [15] and Tally Technologies. [22] [23] [24] She is a public advocate of increasing the number of female founders and investors in the Silicon Valley. [25]

Philanthropy

In 2018, Lee co-founded All Raise, a nonprofit organization which seeks to increase the amount of funding that female investors receive. [19] The organization was founded as a collective by more than 30 venture capitalists who advocate for increasing the presence of women in venture capital. [2] Lee described the organization's importance in saying “We believe that by improving the success of women in the venture-backed tech ecosystem, we can build a more accessible community that reflects the diversity of the world around us.” [26]

Awards and recognition

Lee was invited to speak at the 2018 Code Conference put on by Recode and additionally at the 2018 GeekWire Summit. [27] [28] She also spoke at the 2019 Silicon Slopes Tech Summit. [29] and is recognized as a speaker for the organization Lesbians Who Tech and the Female Founders Conference. [30] [31]

Lee has appeared on Forbes' list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women (position #97 as of 2020) [32] and the Midas List in 2020 (position #80), [33] 2019 (position #82), [34] and 2018 (position #97). [35] She also appeared on Time's list of 100 Most Influential People in 2019. [36]

Personal life

Lee grew up in New Jersey and is the daughter of Chinese immigrants. [13] Aileen Lee is married. [37]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vinod Khosla</span> Indian-American businessman (born 1955)

Vinod Khosla is an Indian-American billionaire businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla made his wealth from early venture capital investments in areas such as networking, software, and alternative energy technologies. He is considered one of the most successful and influential venture capitalists.

Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneurs in over 900 ventures, including America Online, Amazon.com, Tandem Computers, Compaq, Electronic Arts, JD.com, Square, Genentech, Google, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, Nest, Palo Alto Networks, Synack, Snap, AppDynamics, and Twitter. By 2019 it had raised around $9 billion in 19 venture capital funds and four growth funds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Draper Fisher Jurvetson</span> American venture capital firm

Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is an American venture capital firm. In January 2019, DFJ Venture, the early-stage team, spun out and formed Threshold Ventures. DFJ Growth continues to be managed by co-founder John Fisher and co-founders Mark Bailey, Randy Glein, and Barry Schuler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Doerr</span> American businessman (born 1951)

L. John Doerr is an American investor and venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins in Menlo Park, California. In February 2009, Doerr was appointed a member of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide the President and his administration with advice and counsel in trying to fix America's economic downturn. Forbes ranked Doerr as the 40th richest person in tech in 2017 and, as of 1 August, 2023, as the 146th richest person in the world, with a net worth of US$11.9 billion. Doerr is the author of Measure What Matters, a book about goal-setting, and Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now.

Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California which specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. As of 2022, the firm had approximately US$85 billion in assets under management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Jurvetson</span> American entrepreneur and venture capitalist

Stephen T. Jurvetson is an American billionaire businessman and venture capitalist. Formerly a partner of the firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), he was an early investor in Hotmail, Memphis Meats, Mythic and Nervana Systems. He is currently a board member of SpaceX and served on Tesla's board from 2006–2020, among others. He later co-founded the firm Future Ventures with Maryanna Saenko, who worked with him at DFJ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Meeker</span> American venture capitalist and Wall Street securities analyst

Mary Meeker is an American venture capitalist and former Wall Street securities analyst. Her primary work is on Internet and new technologies. She is the founder and general partner at BOND, a San Francisco–based venture capital firm. She previously served as partner at Kleiner Perkins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index Ventures</span> European worldwide venture capital firm

Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/AI, and security. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has invested in a number of companies and raised approximately $5.6 billion. Index Venture partners appear frequently on Forbes’ Midas List of the top tech investors in Europe and Israel.

The iFund is a US$200 million capital fund. Developers may enter into equity deals for the creation of applications, services, and components for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad platform. It is being offered and managed by venture capital company Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Gurley</span> American businessman

John William Gurley is an American businessman. He is a general partner at Benchmark, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm in San Francisco, California. He is listed consistently on the Forbes Midas List and is considered one of the top dealmakers in the American technology industry.

Uncork Capital is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California, founded by Jeff Clavier. Considered one of the most active established seed funds in Silicon Valley, it has invested in companies such as Postmates, Eventbrite, Fitbit, and SendGrid.

Shasta Ventures is an early-stage venture capital investment firm located in Silicon Valley that invests in enterprise and technology consumer startups. It is located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park.

Ellen Pao v. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers LLC and DOES 1-20 is a lawsuit filed in 2012 in San Francisco County Superior Court under the law of California by executive Ellen Pao for gender discrimination against her employer, the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. Overlapping with a number of studies condemning the representation of women in venture capital, the case was followed closely by reporters, advocacy groups and Silicon Valley executives. Given the tendency for similar cases to reach settlements out of court, coverage of Pao v. Kleiner Perkins described it as a landmark trial once it began in February 2015. On March 27, 2015 the jury found in favor of Kleiner Perkins on all counts.

Women in venture capital or VC are investors who provide venture capital funding to startups. Women make up a small fraction of the venture capital private equity workforce. A widely used source for tracking the number of women in venture capital is the Midas List which has been published by Forbes since 2001. Research from Women in VC, a global community of women venture investors, shows that the percentage of female VC partners is just shy of 5 percent.

Initialized Capital is a venture capital fund founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Francisco. It was founded by Alexis Ohanian, Harjeet Taggar, and Garry Tan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tally Technologies</span>

Tally Technologies, Inc. is a San Francisco, California-based American financial services company founded by Jason Brown and Jasper Platz in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theresia Gouw</span>

Theresia Gouw is an entrepreneur and venture capital investor in the technology sector. She worked at Bain & Company, Release Software and Accel Partners before co-founding Aspect Ventures, a female-led venture capital firm, in 2014. Gouw was named one of the 40 most influential minds in tech by Time Magazine. and has been recognized seven times on the Forbes Midas List as one of the "world's smartest tech investors". According to Forbes, Gouw is the richest female venture capitalist, with a net worth of approximately $500 million, primarily due to her involvement with Accel (company)'s early investment in Facebook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Fonstad</span> American venture capital investor

Jennifer Fonstad is an American venture capital investor and entrepreneur. She is the managing partner and a co-founder of the Owl Capital Group, a venture firm based in Silicon Valley. Fonstad was Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) for 17 years. She is also co-founder of angel investing network Broadway Angels. Fonstad has been recognized as a top 100 tech investor on Forbes’ Midas List twice and was named 2016 Venture Capitalist of the Year by Deloitte. She is also a Founding Member of All Raise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mamoon Hamid</span> Pakistani-American venture capitalist (born 1978)

Mamoon Hamid is a Pakistani-American venture capitalist currently serving as a Managing Member and General Partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pear VC</span> Seed-stage venture firm

Pear VC is a seed-stage venture firm based in Menlo Park, California. It was founded by Pejman Nozad and Mar Hershenson in 2013. Pear VC works with early-stage companies. The company was originally based in Palo Alto, California before relocating to Menlo Park.

References

  1. 1 2 "Executive profile". Boardroom Insiders. 2015-07-22. Archived from the original on 2016-09-23. Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  2. 1 2 "Fast Company: This is how we get more women in venture capital". 20 September 2018.
  3. ↑ Lee, Aileen (2 November 2013). "Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning From Billion-Dollar Startups". TechCrunch. AOL.
  4. ↑ Schubarth, Cromwell (13 January 2014). "VC Aileen Lee on rarity of $1B tech 'unicorns,' diversity". Silicon Valley Business Journal.
  5. ↑ Tsotsis, Alexia (10 April 2012). "Brit Morin Engages $1.25M From Marissa Mayer, Aileen Lee, Founders Fund And More To Launch Her First App, Weduary". TechCrunch. AOL.
  6. ↑ Kolodny, Lora (17 December 2013). "VC in 2014: Kleiner Perkins' Aileen Lee on How Venture Needs to Deliver Better Returns". WSJ.
  7. ↑ Perez, Sarah (30 July 2012). "Aileen Lee Almost Done Raising $40 Million For New Seed Called "Cowboy Ventures"". TechCrunch. AOL.
  8. ↑ Taylor, Colleen (6 April 2012). "VC Giants, Thinking Smaller: Why Kleiner Perkins' Aileen Lee Is Getting Into Seed Funding". TechCrunch. AOL.
  9. ↑ Ryan Lawler (September 26, 2014). "Aileen Lee's Cowboy Ventures Is Raising A $55 Million Second Fund". TechCrunch . Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  10. ↑ Jonathan Krim (March 1, 2015). "Working Their Way Around Male VC Dominance". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved March 27, 2015. "Can we give this to VC firms for free?" quipped Aileen Lee, a prominent venture capitalist who two years ago left her full time work at Kleiner Perkins to co-found her own VC firm, Cowboy Ventures.
  11. ↑ Manjoo, Farhad (5 July 2015). "Unicorn: A Fitting Label for Its Time and Place". The New York Times.
  12. ↑ "College corner", The Item of Millburn and Short Hills, April 6, 1989. Accessed December 22, 2023, via Newspapers.com. "Aileen Lee, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Alan Lee of 91 Old Hollow Road, recently was elected president of the incoming sophomore class at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Aileen, who was the president of the 1988 Millburn High School senior class, is the current freshman class president at M.I.T."
  13. 1 2 Bryant, Adam (2015-12-03). "Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures: Aim to See Beneath the Surface". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  14. ↑ "Recode: Women in tech are held to tougher standards than men — and that has to change, investor Aileen Lee says". 3 October 2016.
  15. 1 2 Loizos, Connie. "VC Aileen Lee just offered some very specific advice to female founders looking for funding". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-11-16.
  16. ↑ "Pando: Aileen Lee on hiring Ted Wang and making VC more "human"". 24 January 2017. Archived from the original on 28 October 2019. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  17. ↑ "Fast Company: Tech's Actual Gender Numbers Are Vague And Grim. A Small Tweak Could Change That". 10 March 2015.
  18. ↑ "TechCrunch: Cowboy Ventures just rounded up $95 million for its third fund". 7 August 2018.
  19. 1 2 "Pitchbook: Q&A: Aileen Lee on Cowboy Ventures' latest fund, getting women on her cap table and what keeps her motivated".
  20. 1 2 "VC Corner: Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures". www.startupgrind.com. Retrieved 2016-06-01.
  21. ↑ "Textio Announces $8M Series A Round".
  22. ↑ Kolodny, Lora (19 May 2016). "Tally raises $15 million for app to make credit cards less expensive, easier to manage". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-06-01.
  23. ↑ "San Francisco-based credit card management app Tally raises $15 million - Silicon Valley Business Journal". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved 2016-06-01.
  24. ↑ "Aileen Lee". angel.co.
  25. ↑ Loizos, Connie. "VC Aileen Lee just offered some very specific advice to female founders looking for funding". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  26. ↑ "TechCrunch: All Raise wants to increase the amount of venture funding female founders receive". 3 April 2018.
  27. ↑ "TechCrunch: Cowboy Ventures' Aileen Lee says enough with favoring the 'good guys'". 31 May 2018.
  28. ↑ "GeekWire: Silicon Valley VC Aileen Lee offers advice to Seattle: Make technology more equitable". 3 October 2018.
  29. ↑ "Nasdaq: Silicon Slopes: Aileen Lee, Cowboy Ventures Founding Partner" . Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  30. ↑ "Lesbians Who Tech Speakers".
  31. ↑ "Female Founders Conference Speakers".
  32. ↑ "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women". Forbes . Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  33. ↑ "The Midas List 2021". www.forbes.com. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  34. ↑ Chaykowski, Kathleen. "Meet The Top Women Investors Of The Midas List In 2019". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  35. ↑ "Forbes: Meet The Top Women Investors On Midas In 2018". Forbes .
  36. ↑ "100 most influential people 2019".
  37. ↑ "Aileen Lee". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-03-24.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.