Webinar
The Engineer's Edge: Why Investors Are Betting on MIT Founders
Alumni Ventures’ Chris Sklarin and Evy Chen provided an exclusive look inside one of the world’s most powerful innovation ecosystems — MIT.
See video policy below.
In this session, Chris and Evy discussed what makes the MIT community a consistent source of transformative startups — from its world-class research and engineering excellence to its unmatched alumni network spanning deep tech, robotics, AI, and beyond. The conversation explored why the MIT venture ecosystem has produced generations of groundbreaking companies and continues to be a proven system for generating category-defining startups in hardware, software, and frontier technologies.
Chris and Evy walked through Castor Ventures’ approach to sourcing and evaluating opportunities within this network, highlighted portfolio companies across various sectors, and explained why access to the MIT ecosystem represents a compelling advantage for venture investors.
Whether attendees were alums, investors, or simply venture-curious, this webinar provided a front-row seat to one of the world’s most elite venture networks and offered insight into how to get involved.
Want to access our Castor Syndicate startup deals to see, evaluate, and optionally invest? No cost, no commitment.
Key Takeaway
- HomeLearn how MIT's ecosystem produces and supports some of the most innovative and successful startups in the world
- HomeHear how Castor Ventures leverages the MIT network to source and invest in top opportunities
- HomeDiscover how you can invest alongside leading VCs in breakthrough companies backed by the MIT community
Alumni Ventures is America’s largest venture capital firm for individual investors.
About your presenters
Overview
Chris Sklarin is Managing Partner of the Castor Fund at Alumni Ventures, where for over eight years he has led investments in transformative technology companies redefining how we compute, communicate, and cure. He has deployed more than $120 million across all stages—from seed to growth—building Castor Ventures and expanding the portfolio to over 150 companies. The Castor portfolio features industry leaders such as Algorand, Boldin, Capital RX, Enable, Groq, Ocient, Qedma, RapidSOS, Synchron, and Unlearn AI, each tackling high-impact problems with ambitious solutions.
With over 20 years in venture capital and more than a decade in product development and sales engineering, Chris has also held venture roles focused on enterprise and mobile investments, served as Director of Business Development at a biomedical venture accelerator and an early-stage firm, and sourced seed-stage deals at JumpStart, a nationally recognized venture development organization in Cleveland. Chris holds an SB in Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
Funds actively worked on
- Castor Ventures
- Syndications
Investment Areas of Focus:
Chris targets companies at the forefront of software, AI, data infrastructure, and connectivity, backing teams that are not just innovating but reengineering the physical and digital infrastructure powering the modern world. He believes the next generation of breakthrough companies will emerge from foundational shifts in technology and is committed to supporting the leaders driving that transformation.
A core component of Chris’s strategy is leveraging the powerful innovation engine of the MIT ecosystem. As an MIT alumnus, he taps this network to source compelling investment opportunities and connect with top-tier investors. Chris’s investment approach is informed by his early career as a software and sales engineer, with technical expertise in databases, telecom systems, and software architecture. This hands-on background sharpens his diligence and ability to assess technical complexity and market viability.
Evy Chen Senior Principal, Castor Ventures, Neurotech Syndicate & AV Women’s Fund
Evy Chen is an investor and operator whose thesis is simple: behavior is the real moat. She invests in technology that shifts human behavior at scale — across consumer, AI, deep tech, and neurotech — from Seed through Series B.
As Senior Principal at Alumni Ventures, she leads investment strategy and deal execution across Castor Ventures (AV’s MIT fund), the AV Women’s Fund, and the AV Neurotech Syndicate, which she co-founded.
Her portfolio reflects that conviction. She backs founders missioned to better human lives — Synchron, the brain-computer interface enabling people to control digital devices through thought alone, restoring not just function but agency; and Psyonic, the world’s first touch-sensing bionic hand, giving amputees the ability to feel again. These are companies that don’t optimize existing behavior — they unlock behavior that didn’t exist before.
That perspective is earned. Evy bootstrapped Evy Tea from a farmers market into a nationally distributed brand, and founded Nudge Venture, an applied behavioral economics research studio. She holds an MS in Management of Technology as a Sloan Fellow and Dean’s Fellow at MIT Sloan, and a BS in Marketing Communications from Emerson College.