Investment Team

Eliyahou (Eli) is an Analyst at Ridge. He is data-driven, obsessed with fintech and AI/ML, and eager to find early-stage B2B companies with radically disruptive technologies.

Earlier in his career, Eli was a Topological Data Scientist at S&P Global Market Intelligence and an Analyst at Maccabee Ventures. He also led business development and product strategy at TotemVC, selling an end-to-end fund solution across emerging fund managers and multi-billion dollar institutions.

Eli earned his MA in Mathematics from the Katz School of Science and Health and his BA in Mathematics and Computer Science from Yeshiva University.

David is a Partner at Ridge and serves on the Investment Committee, bringing over 16 years of experience in institutional capital management with specific competencies in private market investments, capital raising and customer engagement.

Previously, David was the Head of Private Markets at the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company (“TTSTC”), a sovereign endowment in Austin, Texas. At TTSTC, David led a team that oversaw all aspects of origination, due diligence, underwriting and legal negotiation for TTSTC’s portfolio of private equity, private debt, and real assets-focused primary and co-investments.

Earlier in his career, David held senior investment roles at organizations such as the New York Common Retirement Fund, and senior marketing and distribution roles at firms like, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Investec, and a specialist consumer private equity firm in the Bay Area. David started his career many moons ago as an accountant at PriceWaterHouseCoopers in New York City.

David holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Connecticut School of Business.

David enjoys tennis, working out and when he was younger (and cooler) was an avid brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner. He is a dual citizen of Austria and resides in Austin, Texas, with his wife, who is the founder of a business in the consumer sector. 

Zain is a Principal at Ridge, with his impact-driven and founder-first approach, he’s able to support early-stage enterprise founders with their path to finding product market fit.  He’s driven by vexing enterprise problems and the audacious and unyielding founders willing to solve them.

Prior to joining Ridge, Zain was a Senior Associate at Pelion Venture Partners, where he sourced and partnered with a wide array of enterprise startups. Before that, he worked at Cloudflare for several years within the Special Projects organization.

He holds a BS in Political Science from the University of Utah.

Akriti is a Partner at Ridge Ventures. Her background in computer science, product management, and building a B2B business from the ground up have expertly positioned Akriti to understand the complexities that founders face not only in developing software but in all aspects of the lifecycle of a startup.

Previously, Akriti was an investor at Octopus Ventures and was part of the Deep Tech pod focusing on everything from AI/ML automation to Quantum Computing.  She worked as Product Manager with Windows Security and in the User Experience team at Windows Edge. While completing her MBA at the London Business School, she worked with the Amazon Alexa team to help launch Alexa in new territories. Prior to this, she built a B2B business focused on accounting in the retail space in India.

She holds a BS in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from London Business School.

Akriti enjoys tennis, soccer, and pretty much any competitive sport.

Wendy is a Venture Partner at Ridge.  Wendy has a unique combination of founder and investor experience.  After serving as a Partner at global private equity firm Advent International, where she spearheaded early-stage software investments, Wendy co-founded mobile event app Gather Digital and oversaw its sales and marketing efforts.  The company thrived and was acquired in 2017 with Wendy leading both Sales and Business Development at the acquirer.

Wendy has a Bachelor’s from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Pat is a Co-Founder and Venture Partner at Ridge and currently serves as board director or observer at Espresa, nWay, Upwave and Yesware.

Prior to co-founding Ridge, Pat was CEO at IDG, Publisher and CEO of PCWorld and Founder and CEO of IDG’s Digital News Publishing subsidiary.

Pat holds a BA in Economics from Harvard University.

Gil joined Ridge as a Venture Partner in 2011, and as a Managing Director in 2017, after collaborating on investments with Alex Rosen since 1999.

Gil was previously Co-founder of Fastly (IPO), CEO of Wikia (now a top 50 website), and a member of the pre-IPO executive team at eBay. Prior to eBay, Gil worked at General Electric, Bain & Company, and started two small technology companies.

As a serial entrepreneur and prolific angel investor, Gil has been an early investor in “unicorn” startups including Cruise Automotive, Dollar Shave Club, LinkedIn, and PayPal. Gil’s angel investments span 100+ companies including Wealthfront, AltSchool, AngelList, eShares, Hooked, Switch.co, Indiegogo, Datanyze, and more.

He holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MBA from Kellogg School of Business.

Yousuf is a Partner at Ridge Ventures.  Having held many operational roles in his previous positions, he’s uniquely qualified to not only grow Ridge’s portfolio, but more importantly to support founders through the vantage point of deep start-up experience. He currently serves as board director for Ridge-backed Archera, Cerby, Chisel Labs, Lightyear, Rafay, and Rewind.

Prior to joining Ridge, Yousuf was the first CIO of Automation Anywhere, the CIO and Vice President of Customer Success at cloud-based AI platform Moveworks, as well as CIO of Pure Storage and Qualys. He has been an advisor to early-stage companies such as Zoom, Productiv and Material Security as well as an active member of the CIO community.

He holds a BSc in Business Management from King’s College London.

Brendan focuses on helping founders build large, generational, revenue-driven companies. He led Ridge’s investment in Loop Returns. He currently serves as board director or observer at Grabango, Loop Returns and Sama.

Prior to joining Ridge, Brendan worked with several early-stage venture funds including Wing and Hone Capital, as well as companies and accelerators including Passport, Shift, Batch, AngelPad, Techstars, and others.

Previously, Brendan was also a Director at Greylock, founding a program to build data and software systems to find and evaluate new investments. He was the second employee at AngelList, overseeing 8000 pitches and helping more than 300 startups raise funding.

His background also includes professional assignments with Practica Foundation as Ethiopian Country Director, which designs and distributes low cost water and energy products in African markets, as well as serving as Director of Engineers Without Borders Canada.

He holds a BASc in Materials Engineering from University of British Columbia, MPhil from University of Cambridge, and an MBA from University of Oxford.

Alexander Rosen is Managing Partner and co-founder of Ridge Ventures. He focuses on investing in companies developing software that radically changes end-user experiences. Alex currently serves as board director or observer at Bestomer (stealth), Eskalera (future workplace platform), Habu (privacy-safe data sharing), Kazoo (employee engagement platform), Minted (design-driven e-commerce), Ontic (protective intelligence platform), Retail Zipline (communication platform), SafeGraph (geolocation data), and UpLift (payment management for travel).  He also led Ridge Ventures’ investments in multiple companies including InCountry, Horizon3.ai, and MaintainX.

Alex is a recognized industry leader and serves as Chair of the Stanford GSB Venture Fund Group and on the GSB Trust Board.

Prior to co-founding Ridge, he was a Partner at Sprout Group, where he was head of the Internet and Software group.

His prior investments include Blue Box (acquired by IBM), Braze (IPO), Fastly (IPO), Flowdock (acquired by Rally), MyNewPlace (acquired by RealPage), mySimon (acquired by CNET), Krux (acquired by Salesforce.com), MindMeld (acquired by Cisco), SideStep (acquired by Kayak), Vidible (acquired by Verizon/Oath), and WatchGuard (acquired by Vector).  Alex started his venture capital career as an associate with General Atlantic Partners, served as an advisor to Vector Capital, and developed software for Telcordia and AT&T Bell Labs early in his professional life.

He holds BS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Economics from MIT and an MBA from Stanford University.

He lives in San Francisco with his wife and twin daughters.