Alumni Ventures' Seed Fund Perspectives on Investing Trends

Andrea’s focus is on Pre-seed and Seed stage investments. While she looks at all categories at the early stage, she is particularly interested in fintech and b2b SaaS companies. Prior to joining Basecamp Fund as a Managing Partner, Andrea worked with early and growth-stage companies as an investor and as an operator. Previously, she was an investor at Fika Ventures and Expa, the venture studio started by the founder of Uber. Prior to venture, Andrea was an early employee of Proptech company VTS before founding Loop, a two-sided marketplace for tenants to leverage collective buying power for home services. She started her career in commercial real estate at CBRE Group, the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm. Andrea holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Before joining the Basecamp Fund, Catherine was a successful entrepreneur, product manager, and software engineer. She was Director of Product at NEA-backed DataVisor, an enterprise company offering an unsupervised machine learning fraud solution. Prior to that, she co-founded the retail analytics company Fancy That (acquired by Palantir in 2015). While at Stanford, she built an online platform used by thousands of students and instructors to streamline grading. Catherine graduated from Stanford with a BS and MS in Computer Science, focusing on AI.

Wayne has held positions in both successful startups and thriving tech firms and brings a wealth of operational experience building teams, executing deals, and developing clients. He is committed to the growth of the venture and tech community in Chicago, serves as an advisor to a number of startups, and is a founding board member of Great Lakes Academy Charter School. Previously, he led analysis, negotiation, and deal execution for the global content acquisition team at Netflix. Before that, he was VP of Business Development at Silver Chalice Ventures, a digital media startup owned by the Chicago White Sox. Wayne began his career in the US Navy, serving as a Surface Warfare Officer. He holds a BS in industrial engineering from Stanford and an MBA from Kellogg.

Prior to joining Basecamp, Matt was an experienced founder and operator of multiple venture-backed businesses: Integral Ad Science (acq. by Vista Equity Partners), enterprise SaaS platform Suzy (backed by The Foundry Group, Tribeca Venture Partners), and a direct-to-consumer brand (backed by Lerer Hippeau). Earlier, he was a member of the corporate venture practice at Nike and an investor at Coriolis Ventures. He began his career as an innovation strategy consultant for Procter & Gamble. Matt holds an MBA from NYU Stern and BA from Tulane University.

Deborah has over 25 years of experience working with social impact entrepreneurs and mission-driven leaders. Prior to joining AVG, Deb was an independent consultant for business development and growth strategies, guiding founders through the early startup and launch phases of new social ventures and nonprofit organizations. Her clients included an MIT professor and former dean launching a venture to transform the higher education landscape, social ventures focused on national security and foreign policy, and a national organization building a global joint initiative for world leaders. She has worked in higher education advancement, nonprofit management, and as a Capitol Hill lobbyist, beginning her career as committee staff in the US Senate. Deborah holds a BS in political science from Birmingham-Southern College and a MA in Communication from American University.