Adam Marchick
Partner at Akkadian Ventures
Adam Marchick
Partner at Akkadian Ventures
United States
Overview
Work Experience
Partner
2024 - Current
Creative Venture Capital investing, delivering venture returns for investors.
Lecturer
2021 - 2024
Teaching @ Emory: Building a Billion-Dollar Business For any student aspiring to build, join, or invest in a landmark company, learn from CEOs currently tackling the issues faced at each phase. Featuring Leaders from Flock Safety, BetterCloud, Greenlight, SecureWorks, ISG Partners, Biolyte, OVME, Warby Parker and Palantir.
Director of Investments
2019 - 2024
Investing the endowment to help grow our $11B+ fund, benefiting higher education and healthcare • Lead EIM’s $2.5 billion investment in Venture Capital • Investing $200 million per year in funds and private companies • Crafting framework and strategies that lead to increases in portfolio IRR (both absolute and relative) while integrating with the overall endowment goals • Managing active co-invest program with attractive MOICs and realized returns • Optimizing the portfolio through manager access, selection, and preferred allocations • Sourcing, evaluating, and assisting in managing Growth Equity, Private Equity and Public investments • Leveraging unique insights, access, and understanding of investments through my prior experiences as a Founder, Operator, CEO, and Venture Capitalist
Executive In Residence
2019 - 2019
Contributed to investment group with over $600 million under management with focus on consumer and digital media ecosystems • Assisted in managing investments in Headspace, Cameo, Barstool Sports, The Action Network, The Athletic, Scopely, Otter Media, and Stadium Goods
Senior Advisor
2019 - 2019
Result of acquisition of Alpine.AI by Headspace. Advising on all things growth and conversational interfaces.
CEO and Co-Founder, Alpine.AI
2016 - 2019
Created the top Voice Assistant Analytics solution • Acquired and served more than 3,500 developers adopting the product • Created and sold platform with deep NLU and machine-learning capacities to large enterprises • Catalyzed and executed acquisition of the company by Headspace Alpine.AI is led by the team that built VoiceLabs.co. Through building the #1 Voice Analytics product and working over 3,700 Digital Assistant apps (on Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Microsoft Cortana), we uncovered the opportunity to create Alpine.AI. In partnership with leading brands, we created the first KPI for Voice applications, the first actionable visualization for voice conversations, and a complete Analytics service that helped developers improve application and quality, and retention. We also authored the 2017 Voice Report, which has been read over 100,000 times and cited in over 100 news publications.
Board Member and Co-founder
2016 - 2018
CEO and Co-founder
2012 - 2016
Built company from concept to thriving enterprise • Exceeded top-line and bottom-line plan in 12/13 revenue producing quarters • Served The New York Times, The Weather Channel, Yelp, Yahoo, and various other market leaders as customers of the corporation • Secured funding led by Sequoia Capital: $57M in funding ($45M equity/ $12M debt) Kahuna is trusted by Yelp, Yahoo, The Hearst Corporation, Overstock.com, The Weather Channel, and hundreds of other leading brands. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Kahuna was founded in 2012 and is funded by Sequoia Capital. Kahuna is a marketing automation company for The Mobile Era, dedicated to fostering user delight and driving engagement and revenue through mobile. Kahuna helps companies understand and intelligently communicate with customers wherever they are: email, mobile web, apps, and social networks. We believe there is magic in delivering the right message to the right customer at just the right time.
Independent Investor (15+ investments) - from day of incorporation to Mezz round
2016 - 2016
Highlighting one of my 15 current personal investments. The portfolio is maturing with some recent exits: - The Action Network -> Better Collective - Playspace -> Google - Jiobit -> Life360 - Blissfully -> Vendr Other mature investments: Intellimize, Invisible Technologies, Padsplit, Wunderkind.
Software Group, Boston and West Coast Founding Team
2009 - 2012
Executed deep quantitative and qualitative analysis of prospective investments at a wide range of company stages – from seed to buy-out • Active in the investment and scaling of companies including Archer (M&A EMC), Rent the Runway (IPO), and Rapid 7 (IPO) Part of the core team who built the West Coast office for Bain Capital Ventures. Invested in Enterprise Software companies, and was involved in the investment and scaling of Archer (acquired by EMC), Rapid7 and Rent The Runway. Based in Boston for two years, and helped open the West Coast office for two years before leaving to start Kahuna.
CEO, Co-founder and Board Member
2006 - 2012
Started and ran Glow for the first two years, then transitioned to hyper-active Board Member. In a decade (2006-2015), GLOW was able to serve over 300,000 students with financial education and aid. I am tremendously proud of all the hard work 100's of people put into GLOW and am grateful for the 1,000's of people who contributed to GLOW's success. GLOW was acquired by BUILD (www.build.org) to continue the mission of financial literacy and advocacy for the future of America. The Glow Foundation combined financial planning with monetary grants to ensure that deserving students attend college. Students are enrolled in financial education classes, helping students plan for college attendance. Based upon academic achievement, extra-curricular activities, performance in the financial education classes and financial need, students are awarded scholarships ranging from $500 to $5,000.
Product / Growth / Monetization
2008 - 2008
Worked on all things revenue and growth related at Facebook during my business school internship.
Investor
2004 - 2007
Investments sourced while at Menlo Ventures: Carbonite (IPO), AeroScout (ACQ), Ingrian Networks (ACQ), PlayPhone (ACQ), Mobius Microsystems (ACQ), and OnRequest Images. Overall MoM Return 3.5X+. Evaluating new IT businesses and helping start-ups become successful. Over three years at Menlo, I sourced investments in 6 companies, focused on Enterprise Applications, data security, direct to consumer distribution, RFID and technology-enabled services. I focused on creating partnerships with companies that evolve large markets, then being helpful post-investment.