Aileen Lee | |
---|---|
Born | 1970 (age 53–54) [1] New York City, U.S. |
Nationality | United States |
Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Harvard Business School |
Known for | Co-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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
Lee grew up in New Jersey and is the daughter of Chinese immigrants. [13] Aileen Lee is married. [37]
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"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.