Jeff Ma

by spidercapital | Jul 30, 2024

Jeff Ma

Venture Advisor

As a member of the infamous MIT Blackjack Team, Jeff Ma created an ingenious method for counting cards—using talent, creativity, math, and teamwork to win millions in Las Vegas. Ma was the inspiration for the best-selling book Bringing Down the House and the hit movie, 21. He is also an accomplished entrepreneur having started four different companies including GolfSpan (sold to Demand Media), CircleLending (sold to Virgin), Citizen Sports (sold to Yahoo) and tenXer (sold to Twitter).

Beyond his work as an entrepreneur, Ma has been at the forefront of the “Moneyball” movement working with professional sports teams like the San Francisco 49ers and the Portland Trail Blazers and media powerhouses like ESPN and Major League Baseball Advanced Media, helping them to make better decisions using data and analytics. His business bestselling book, “The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big in Business” draws on his unique experiences at the table and in the sports world to create a truly accessible book about analytics.

Ma has also held two executive roles, serving as VP of Data Science and Analytics at Twitter and as Microsoft’s Vice President of Startups. Currently, Ma is the Chief Digital Officer of Troon where he leads an ambitious effort to revolutionize golf with technology and data.

Jeff Ma

Venture Advisor

Alan Priest

Venture Advisor

Alan has spent his career as a finance and operations leader at high-growth enterprise SaaS startups. Along with other CFO and finance leadership roles, he was VP of Finance and CFO at Anaplan, responsible for all finance and legal functions as the Company grew from 40 employees to over 250 employees, helping lead their Series C and D rounds. He was also VP of Finance at LiveOps, leading all reporting, auditing, valuations, investor relations, M&A due diligence and forecasting during the Company’s rapid growth from $30M to over $100M in revenue.

Alan received his BEE from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

John Gengarella

Venture Advisor

John is currently the CEO of Contract Wrangler, a SaaS solution to accurately extract and transform contract prose to actionable data. Prior to Contract Wrangler, John was CEO at Owsy (Cloud Agency Management System purpose-built for specialty insurance distribution.) and at Netpulse (Provider of branded mobile apps for health clubs). Prior to Netpulse, John was Vice President at C3 Energy and also as CEO at Voxify which was acquired by 247 Customer, Inc. in 2011. Prior to Voxify, John was Vice President at Oracle. John also serves as a mentor at StartX.

John received his BS in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Ofir Bar Levav

Venture Advisor

Ofir is currently Chief Business Officer at Indoor Robotics and Insoundz. Prior to Indoor Robotics, Ofir was General Manager and VP Ventures of Open Innovation at Johnson Controls (“JC”) where he led select JC investments and startup partnership. Prior to JC, Ofir was CFO at Tyco Israel and was at P&G for 10 years with various roles including Co-Founder & CFO at Duracell Powermat JV and CFO of P&G Israel. Ofir started his career at Deloitte in Israel.

Ofir received his BA in Accounting & Philosophy, as well as MA in Philosophy from Tel Aviv University.

Judy Loehr

Operating Partner

Judy is Chief Product Officer at PartnerTap, the leading ecosystem sales platform for enterprises. A SaaS industry veteran, Judy has 23 years’ experience investing in and building enterprise SaaS companies from the ground up. She was employee 51 at Salesforce where she spent 4 years as the original PM for the Service Cloud, then moved to marketing post IPO where she drove the development, launch, and early partnerships for the AppExchange.

Post Salesforce, Judy has been an early-stage CMO, a venture capitalist, and an adviser for B2B SaaS companies. Judy is known for her strategic product and go-to-market advise, as well as her clear and direct communication style.

In her spare time, Judy mentors cloud executives, actively supports female founders, and is the Executive Producer for Makeshift Society – the first-ever tv comedy series about a female founder in Silicon Valley. Judy received her BA in Economics from Occidental College.

Relentless Hustle - examples in action

Investing in and building some of the world’s most transformative software companies is our life’s work. This isn’t a 9/5 job. We are on call 24/7 for you. We love to see you win and through your products, transform and elevate entire industries. We know you walk through or over walls. We expect nothing less of ourselves as your partner.

Uber Connector - examples in action

Nine months before a portfolio CEO was starting to plan their Series A raise (we like to get a head start on relationship building), we mapped the top GPs at leading venture funds whom we have close relationships with, provided select intros to start a casual discussion. These discussions resulted in multiple terms sheets (several preemptive) when the Company started to contemplate raising their A round. We repeat this playbook multiple times each year.

Another portfolio CEO had received multiple term sheets, but was looking to also bring in a strategic investor with relevant domain expertise. We provided an introduction to a highly relevant strategic investor, who in turn participated in the round.

Yuri Sagalov

Venture Advisor

Yuri served as a visiting/part-time partner at Y Combinator. In addition, Yuri is an active angel investor with portfolios including Flexport, Boom Supersonic, Mattermost, and others.

Prior to Y Combinator, Yuri was Co-Founder and CEO of AeroFS, an enterprise collaboration platform which got acquired by RedBooth in 2017.

Yuri graduated from the University of Toronto's elite Engineering Science program, majoring in Computer Engineering. Yuri was studying towards a Masters of Applied Science focusing on Distributed Systems at the UofT before taking a leave of absence to start AeroFS.

Charles Carmel

Venture Advisor

Charles is a seasoned technology investor, executive, and advisor with over 20 years of experience spanning private equity, venture capital, corporate development, and investment banking. He is a recognized strategy and deal leader with a successful track record of over $25 billion in investments and acquisitions across the technology industry. Charles is currently an active investor, board member, and advisor to several emerging growth companies and investment firms.

Previously, Charles was a Partner and Managing Director at Warburg Pincus where he led the firm’s multi-stage investing efforts in growth companies across the Enterprise and Communications technology sectors. His areas of focus included software, infrastructure, and services at the intersection of cloud computing, mobility, and data.

Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, Charles was the Vice President and Head of Corporate Development at Cisco where he managed a global team responsible for driving Cisco's worldwide acquisition and venture capital strategy. During his 10 years at Cisco, Charles led more than 30 acquisitions totaling over $20 billion including some of Cisco’s largest and most successful transactions. He was also responsible for Cisco’s $2 billion global venture capital portfolio that spanned across segments and stages creating significant strategic and financial returns.

Charles holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor’s degree with honors from Tufts University

Jeff Ma

Jeff Ma

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First Partner to Exceptional Enterprise Founders Building Generational Companies

Jeff Ma

Alan Priest

John Gengarella

Ofir Bar Levav

Judy Loehr

Relentless Hustle - examples in action

Uber Connector - examples in action

Yuri Sagalov

Charles Carmel