Team

Two-time technology entrepreneur with 10+ years as CEO.

Angel investor in 20+ companies with gross MOIC of >10x.

Founder & CEO, Zesty, YC-backed healthy corporate catering company. Raised $20M from Founders Fund and others. Served 7 million meals before being acquired by Square (NYSE:SQ) in 2018. Grew from $0 to $10M GMV in 13 months – faster than Uber.

Previously Co-founder & CEO, GroupSpaces, UK-based SaaS product for clubs. Hosted 5 million memberships in 100+ countries. Backed by Index Ventures and the only international company in Chris Sacca’s record-breaking Lowercase Capital I.

Strong proponent of founder mental health. Vipassana meditator, certified yoga teacher, student of indigenous lineages and Conscious Leadership advocate.

MA in Mathematics from the University of Oxford.

Repeat entrepreneur and angel investor, best known for founding Turo, the car-sharing marketplace that filed an S-1 in January 2022 for a multi-billion-dollar IPO.

After leaving Turo, trained as a yoga and meditation teacher and decided to dedicate his career and resources to the field of mental health going forward.

MBA from Harvard Business School; BS in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University.

Optimistic futurist focused on artificial intelligence.

Investing full-time since 2017. Has made dozens of angel investments (advising 10+ companies); ran a syndicate that deployed tens of millions USD; significant experience investing in cryptocurrencies and stock options. Gross MOIC of >10x.

Lead Software Architect at Blockfolio, acquired by FTX for $150M in 2020.

Previously Co-founder, FreshPay, one of the first VC-backed crypto startups. VP of Engineering at Miso Media, a music education technology company featured on Shark Tank. One of the first dozen employees at Box (NYSE: BOX).

Serving as Treasurer of the Foresight Institute.

Physician with over 20 years of global health and medical product development leadership in industry and government. Serving as Principal at BioPharm Consult (clinical and regulatory drug and device consulting).

Previously a medical executive for the US Dept. of Defense, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and a senior medical officer at the FDA working in medical devices & software – SaMD (e.g. CDRH) and a CDER Division responsible for reviewing psychedelics.

Former Peace Corps volunteer who is passionate about education and improving mental health.

She received her M.D. from the University of California, San Diego, did her internship at UCSF, and completed residency at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Applied AI entrepreneur focused on human flourishing and reducing existential risk.

Former Research Lead for Meta Reality Labs (London).

Co-founder & CTO, Scape, a computer vision company. Developed a Visual Positioning System able to determine a device’s location more accurately than GPS. Raised $8M from Entrepreneur First and others. Acquired by Meta in 2020.

Researched robotics at CSIRO.

MSc in Robotics (Systems and Control) from ETH Zürich.

Technologist and angel investor with a background in robotics and automation.

Associate Founder and CEO of Singularity University through 2019. Formerly a public director at Harman assisting with tech transformation, resulting in the ~$8B acquisition by Samsung in 2016. Previously co-founded Velocity11 in 1999, building robotics and automation for drug discovery and cancer research, which was acquired by Agilent Technologies in 2007.

Original member of 100Coaches, providing leadership coaching to some of the world’s leading executives and founders.

MSEng in Manufacturing Systems from Stanford; BS in Mechanical & Materials Sciences from UC Davis.

Tenured Chief of Staff functioning as right hand to CEOs and founders. Extensive operational experience across all company stages.

Early employee at Lord Jones, a luxury CBD health & wellness brand acquired by Cronos Group for $300M. Most recently was part of a team building the first blockchain for tracking, tokenizing, and monetizing positive impact.

Renée has a deep interest in Eastern philosophy and a decades-long meditation practice.

BA from the University of Southern California.

Versatile researcher, operator, and founder.

Previously co-founded Atman, a psychedelic retreat he led to cash flow positive with a NPS of +76. Acquired by Odyssey in 2024.

Former Head of Risk at Sendwave, a YC-backed fintech company that sold a business unit to WorldRemit in 2020 for $500M. Started his career as a Research Analyst at GiveWell, the leading charity evaluator.

MHS in Mental Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Experienced finance professional with extensive experience in venture capital.

Senior Director of Finance at Quiet Capital, where he led the finance team since the company’s inception. Previously worked as a Global Controller for Lombard Odier in New York, and as Manager of Fund Accounting at Custom House in their Singapore, Chicago, Luxembourg, and Malta offices.

Law degree and Masters in Financial Markets and Stock Brokerage from Madrid University.

Accomplished controller with a demonstrated background in alternative investments.

Previously worked as a Manager at IQ-EQ’s CFO/Consulting services, was an Accounting Manager at fund administrator Aduro Advisors, and Fund Controller at Standish Management.

BA from the University of Washington.

Experienced events and hospitality manager.

Previously spent four years working at the world-renowned Blue Spirit Retreat Center.

BA from Veritas University.

Clinical and research psychologist responsible for leading some of the largest observational research carried out with psychedelic medicine to date.

Influential academic papers have been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals. Previously co-investigator for phase II FDA trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD by MAPS.

PhD in Clinical Psychology from Fuller Theological Seminary. Student and initiate of the indigenous Bwiti tribe of Gabon.

Neuroscientist focused on the development of novel methods to study and promote human flourishing.

Research centered on the neural bases of emotion and attention regulation, the neuroscientific study of meditation, neural network based neural modulation and advancing neurophenomenological methods for studying states of consciousness.

Chief Science Officer at BrainMind.

PhD in Neuroscience at the CNRS in France; Post-doc in Integrative Neuroscience at UCSF; MSc in Neuropsychology at Donders Institute.

Executive and strategist with a specialization in the formation and financing of high-growth, high-impact companies.

Chief Business Officer for Reconnect Labs. Co-founder and formative advisor of Journey Colab, Alexander Shulgin Research Institute, and Reconnect Labs.

Executive MBA from the University of Denver; BA in Environmental Science from the University of Montana.

President and CEO of Foresight Institute, a San Francisco non-profit founded in 1986 to advance frontier technology for the benefit of life. Oversees the institute’s programs including the Foresight Fellowship, the AI Safety grant, and the Norm Hardy Prize for computer security.

Co-editor of Artificial Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy; co-author of Gaming the Future.

MS from the London School of Economics focused on AI safety.

Founder and editor of Psychedelic Alpha, an independent newsletter, community and consultancy firm that strives to empower a diverse constellation of individuals and organizations with the knowledge, network and nuance to make an impact within the field of psychedelic medicine and beyond.

BSc in Government with a focus on the history of social movements from the London School of Economics.

Executive Director of Palisade Research.

Consulted on the development of Anthropic’s information security program, and has supported dozens of tech companies and nonprofits in implementing secure infrastructure.

Previously advised the White House, Department of Defense, and other areas of government on risks from emerging technologies.

Clinical psychopharmacologist and entrepreneur specializing in the research and development of psychoactive medicines that promote mental health and human flourishing. Passionate about applying ancient wisdom to modern problems.

Founder and Principal Consultant at Pharmaka Clinical Consulting. Co-founder and past President of the Psychedelic Pharmacists Association. Previously a lead clinical scientist at Genentech/Roche.

PharmD from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; Post-doc in clinical trial design and execution from Rutgers University/Genentech; BS in Exercise Science from Florida State University.

Experienced startup executive and communications leader.

Managing Director at PSYCH. Previously Head of PR at iZettle (acquired by PayPal), Chief Communications Officer at Velory (raised $30M), and employee #5 at Zesty (acquired by Square in 2018).

Founded Bed of Nails, an acupressure mat company acquired in 2013.

Head of the Center for AI Risk Management & Alignment, seeking to manage the most extreme risks of increasingly general systems so everyone can have a brighter future.

Strategist at the Future of Life Institute, aiming to keep AI robust and beneficial to humankind. Advises many other AI safety & governance efforts.

Over twenty years experience in AI algorithms, product development, and strategy advisory.

BSc in Computer Science (Intelligent Systems) from Columbia.

Editor of Don’t Worry About the Vase, a leading independent newsletter covering the AI ecosystem.

Founder and CEO of Balsa Research, a policy think tank. Former CEO of MetaMed, a medical research analysis firm. Previously worked at Jane Street Capital, a proprietary trading firm.

Neuroscience and AI expert advising neurotech startups from a wide base of relevant knowledge.

Early employee and Lead Data Scientist, Databricks (last valued at $31B); subject-matter expertise in deep learning and distributed machine learning. Chief Scientific Officer of the Flow Research Collective.

MSc in Applied Neuroscience from King’s College London.

Founder of Calyx Law and registered patent attorney. Editor-at-large at Psychedelic Alpha covering psychedelics IP and patents.

JD from NYU School of Law; BS in Biochemistry and Cognitive Science from UCSD.

Co-founder & CEO of Convergence Analysis, an existential risk strategy research group.

Previously advised Founders Fund on their original investment into DeepMind and consulted with the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. Longtime member of the Effective Altruism community.

MSc in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota.

Built the initial antifraud infrastructure of Wave (YC W12), which sold half its business to WorldRemit in 2020 for $500M.

Previously conducted research at Microsoft, Berkeley’s Center for Human-Compatible AI, and the Centre for the Governance of AI at the University of Oxford.

PhD in Machine Learning from Cornell; BA in Computer Science from Harvard.

Co-founder of Polaris Insight Center, providing ketamine-assisted therapy to treat various mental health issues. Co-principal Investigator for San Francisco-based site for phase III FDA trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD by MAPS.

PhD in Psychology from UT Austin focusing on qualitative and quantitative research into cognitive science and human behavior.