Ben Rathi
Investor at WndrCo
San Francisco, California
Overview
Work Experience
Investor
2024 - Current
Investing in and building important technology companies. We have 3 practices: (1) Seed: $250-1M non-lead checks (2) Growth: $5-25M checks (3) Build: incubating companies from scratch and buying out existing companies and taking majority ownership Some of my work includes: – Figma Secondary (design SaaS) – Placer.ai Series C (location analytics) – Airfold Seed (AI data enrichment + ClickHouse managed service) – SPIRL Seed (workload identity management) Please feel free to reach out at ben [at] wndrco.com if you want to connect.
WndrCo is a holding company that invests in, acquires, develops, and operates consumer technology businesses for the long term.
Co-Founder and Partner
2022
Rendered.vc is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in gaming, 3D, and AI. Portfolio includes: + RapidCompact: SaaS platform to compress 3D files and assets + Modl.ai: Leverage AI for QA automation for gaming and beyond + Pragma: Backend game engine to build and scale games faster and more reliably Please reach out at ben@rendered.vc – thanks!
Growth
2022 - 2022
Growth (Product Marketing Manager) @ Modern Treasury
Modern Treasury offers a payment operations platform to simplify and modernize business payments.
Raised $183,000,000.00 from NewView Capital, SVB Capital, Artisanal Ventures, Four Cities Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Benchmark, TQ Ventures, Mischief, Altimeter Capital and Quiet Capital.
Partner
2021 - 2022
Predictive is an early stage venture capital firm that backs product leaders with data moats. We are most helpful in product roadmapping/strategy and recruiting top engineers/designers/PMs. Learn more here: http://predictivevc.com/ Feel free to reach out at ben@predictivevc.com Select investments include: + Esusu – helping residents build credit scores through rent + Pomelo – FinTech infrastructure for LATAM + Mighty Health – Health (fitness, diet, coaching, community) app for people aged 50+
Growth Equity Investor
2020 - 2021
Sorenson Capital is a multi-stage private equity firm, with over $1B AUM, focused on technology and healthcare investments. We invest in businesses anywhere from Seed/Series A to growth rounds to buyouts. I was an associate focusing on application software, cybersecurity, and Internet businesses. Transactions completed: + Harness, a CD/CI and DevOps tool, Series C: https://www.sorensoncapital.com/harness-snags-85m-series-c-on-1-7b-valuation-as-revenue-grows-3x/ + Uniphore, a call-center automation firm, Series D: https://www.sorensoncapital.com/uniphore-raises-140-million-in-series-d-funding-as-demand-skyrockets-for-enterprise-ai-and-automation-solutions/?page_num=1 + Socure, a fraud detection tool, Series D: https://www.sorensoncapital.com/socure-closes-100-million-raise-led-by-accel-to-eliminate-id-fraud-and-ensure-100-trust-on-the-internet/?page_num=1 + Sale of Kenna Security to Cisco: https://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=2160133 + BotKeeper, vertical SaaS in Financial Services, Series C: https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2021/11/05/botkeeper-raises-42m-in-series-c-funding/46296/ + Neo4j, analytical graph database, Series F: https://neo4j.com/press-releases/neo4j-announces-seriesf-funding/
Sorenson Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early and growth-stage B2B software companies.
Product Operations Manager
2019 - 2020
Nuro is a robotics startup valued at ~$9B (as of Nov 2021). I helped build and commercialize self-driving vehicles. I was among the first 10 business hires and wore multiple hats in this role. Highlights: + Software PM: Worked with operators, designers, and developers to write product requirement documents (PRDs) and launch and test multiple software features including smarter dropoff locations, contactless door opening, and new partner launch (API integration) + Hardware PM: Sole product manager on human-machine interface on vehicle (touchscreen, speakers, microphone, camera, RFID). Defined product requirements, ran user experiments, and worked with hardware engineers and supply chain to select components + Launch manager: Lead PM in charge of launching all 3 of Nuro’s COVID deployments; worked across functions (operations, safety, policy, strategy, etc.) to define scope of launch, negotiate partnerships, and manage deployments, resulting in ~1K deliveries. Lead PM in charge of launching Nuro’s partnership with CVS (first retail pharmacy partner) and alcohol delivery (first in AV industry) + Strategy: Defined strategy for multiple aspects of business, including First 100 ft., Last 100 ft., and quarterly delivery volume plan + Inventor: Filed 7 provisional patents in areas ranging from unattended delivery, contactless bot interactions, and UV light sanitization
Nuro develops and operates a fleet of electric and autonomous vehicles.
Raised $2,132,148,855.00 from Invest City Capital.
Business Analyst (Consultant)
2017 - 2019
Strategy and management consulting for clients ranging from startups to F10 companies. Focus in TMT/High-Tech, Private Equity, and Healthcare. Led Firm's work on blockchain/crypto. Select work includes: + Diligence: Supported commercial due diligence for buyside investors bidding for $50M+ growth equity round for cybersecurity software startup, sizing market scenarios and performing voice-of-customer analysis through expert calls + Diligence: Completed commercial due diligence for PE investors (club deal) in healthcare analytics space, looking to merge existing portfolio company with a ~$1B+ leading competitor, owning synergy analysis for revenues and back-office costs + Product management / operations: Served as a technical product manager for top 4 telecommunications client for digital transformation, coordinating teams across engineering, business, and design, launching 11 new features for website leading to ~$7M in annual cost savings from decrease service calls; redesigned and launched website and mobile application in 10 weeks + Strategy: Developed end-to-end business case for PE-portfolio client to launch a new venture in the healthcare blockchain space, including authoring whitepaper, market sizing healthcare and research industry segments, creating fundraising materials for $40M+ round for venture investors, and developing targeted go-to-market strategy based on user research + Rated very strong (top 15%); projects focused on private equity and technology clients, and strategy and diligence projects + Taught "McKinsey bootcamp" course to 400 Venture For America students; organized startup pitch competition
McKinsey Growth Tech serves leading growth stage tech players, venture capital, and growth private equity
Course Operations Manager
2015 - 2016
I deeply believe online education can have a tremendous positive impact in the world by empowering people at an unprecedented scale and magnitude. To take a small part in this revolution, I worked with esteemed business law professor, George Siedel, to launch and operate the courses below. • Assisted in launching Strategy, Law, and Ethics course (https://www.coursera.org/teach/strategy-law-ethics) • Oversee operations in Negotiation course (https://www.coursera.org/teach/negotiation-skills)
Coursera is an online education company that partners with universities and organizations to offer classes on their platform.
Raised $458,900,000.00 from Second Alpha Partners, The Garage Syndicate and Scale-Up.
Software Engineer
2015 - 2015
I was part of Johnson & Johnson's Health and Wellness Solutions group, a wellness software service with 10M+ users across the US. I worked on designing and developing a mobile application for C-suite executives, and preliminary machine learning analysis on patient behavior.
Johnson & Johnson is a healthcare provider, expertise in innovative medicine and MedTech for every patient & for everyone.