Venture Capital Roundtable: The Power of Seed Investing

Overview:

Ron brings a dynamic blend of operational leadership, global business acumen, and values-driven investing to early-stage venture capital. As Managing Partner and Head of the AV Seed Fund at Alumni Ventures, he leads investments in bold, frontier technologies that span sectors and geographies. Ron’s experience ranges from founding and scaling unicorn-status startups to guiding impact-focused portfolios that generate both financial and societal returns.

Before joining Alumni Ventures in 2019, Ron served on the Investment Committee at Yard Ventures, AV’s fund for the Harvard community. His own entrepreneurial journey includes co-founding and leading TravelPerk, an enterprise travel management platform that reached multibillion-dollar valuation and global scale. Prior to that, he launched the B2B division of Booking.com and held strategic roles at McKinsey & Co., US Airways, the Maersk Group, and Lycos.

Ron studied entrepreneurship at Babson College and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. A frequent speaker at global investor conferences and guest on top VC podcasts, he is also a passionate world traveler—having visited over 140 countries and all 50 U.S. states. He resides near Boston with his wife and three young children, and shares personal reflections and industry insights at ronlevin.substack.com.

Funds Actively Worked On:

• Seed Fund
• Yard Ventures

Investment Areas of Focus:

Ron’s investment strategy is grounded in the belief that moonshot ideas—when coupled with great execution—can generate asymmetric outcomes. He gravitates toward founders solving global-scale problems through advanced technology, with a particular interest in sectors such as:

• Enterprise software
• Fintech and edtech
• Life sciences and healthtech
• Clean energy and sustainability
• Space and advanced computing

He is especially drawn to companies that combine technical rigor with mission-driven ambition—ventures that challenge the status quo and improve lives across the economic spectrum.

His impact-focused philosophy is captured in his book, Higher Purpose Venture Capital, which highlights startups tackling root causes and symptoms of social and wealth inequality. Ron’s notable investments aligned with this “double bottom line” thesis include:

• Aprende Institute, empowering upskilling in underserved communities (edtech)
• Fido, extending digital identity and financial access in emerging markets (fintech)
• HopSkipDrive, transforming student and senior transportation (mobility) Provenance, enabling traceability and transparency in supply chains (cleantech)
• Surge Therapeutics, developing innovative cancer immunotherapies (biotech)

These companies reflect Ron’s broader vision: to support transformational technologies that deliver extraordinary outcomes—for both investors and the world.

Meera’s background includes strategic, financial, and operational experience from her time at Yale University, where she managed a $1B budget (of a $4B organization), led M&A transactions, and secured business development relationships with corporate partners. Most recently, she worked with early-stage venture funds and incubators like Create Venture Studio and Polymath Capital Partners and was responsible for launching business ventures and sourcing investments in enterprise SaaS, infrastructure, and ecommerce. Meera has a BA in Economics from Swarthmore College and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Brittney brings to her role product and operational experience from her time with enterprise and startup companies. Most recently, she worked with Trove, a Series D startup, where she led product development for the launch of Canada Goose’s first circular economy program. Brittney is a graduate of Columbia University and holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Leslie Goldman Tepper, a former corporate lawyer with over 25 years of legal experience, is a seasoned investor, a sought-after advisor to entrepreneurs and angel investors, and an expert in board governance. Her success with her personal investment portfolio of 70+ companies and 12 VC funds led her to establish The Artemis Fund, a highly successful venture capital fund investing in female-founded companies.

Matt has been an investor in early-stage technology companies since 1998, first with Norwest Venture Partners, then Ascent Venture Partners (where he is still an active GP), and now with Innospark Ventures (focused on AI-driven businesses), as well as on his own as an angel investor. He loves seeing new technology and software address meaningful problems, but his main passion is working closely with entrepreneurs to help them build their businesses.