Ed Roman

Managing Partner

2017 - Current

Hack VC is a venture capital firm focused on web3 investing. We have over $425m in AUM and over a dozen employees around the world, with our HQ in NYC. See https://hack.vc

Founder

2014

I founded hack.summit() which broke the record for the largest programmer conference in history, and also broke the record for the largest virtual conference in history. The events unite some of the best programmers in the world, and raise substantial money for over a dozen non-profits in the programming space. The events have had universal acclaim. Check it out at http://hacksummit.org. I also founded hack.pledge() which is a movement for developers to mentor each other for 1 hour to help improve the quality of software development worldwide.

Startup Investor and Syndicate Lead

2010

Before becoming a VC, I did quite a bit of angel investing and was one of the most active syndicate leads on AngelList (200+ investments with a couple of thousand LPs). We were consistently ranked as one of the top performing syndicates on the platform and muscled our way into several unicorns. These days I'm no longer leading syndicates due to time constraints, but I'm grateful for those days since I learned that I love investing and advising startups.. it's a way for me to make a larger impact among many entrepreneurs. If you're curious you can check it out at https://angel.co/hack-vc/syndicate

Board Observer

2015 - 2019

Board Observer

2015 - 2018

In July 2015, Pluralsight acquired HackHands. We felt lucky to work with such an inspirational company of culture and values. Post-acquisition, for years I advised the CEO, as well as incubated new initiatives within Pluralsight. This includes building a 150k+ developer community for written blog content, an eBooks line-of-business initiative, and growing hack.summit(), the world's largest programming event, to 80k+ attendees. I also served as a board observer for Pluralsight. Ultimately Pluralsight had a successful IPO in the ~$2B range in May 2018 and continues to thrive.

CEO

2014 - 2015

HackHands was a marketplace of 4000+ developers who mentor you in realtime via screenshare and video chat. Our mission: to double the speed of software development worldwide by rapidly helping developers who struggle with their programming. HackHands was quickly acquired by Pluralsight in June 2015 in a successful outcome for investors and employees. We felt our mission would be accelerated by powering the future of mentoring for Pluralsight and tapping into their massive userbase.

CEO

2008 - 2013

Ghostfire Games is an IP holding company for video games that make exercise fun. We created 2 games, both of which are available for download on the Wii electronically using the Wii's downloadable game service called "WiiWare" (very similar to the iPhone AppStore). Our second game, "Rage of the Gladiator", is in the top 10%-15% of all Wii games on the marketplace based on Metacritic average review. In 2012-2013 I struck a partnership with Gamelion, and we released Rage of the Gladiator on Android, iOS, Nintendo 3DS, Amazon Kindle, and Barnes and Noble Nook. I oversaw the design and development on the free-to-play mobile ports. The iOS game won a game-of-the-year award on iOS from TouchArcade (the #1 review site for iOS games) The Nintendo 3DS version has an 88/100 Metacritic Average (see http://www.metacritic.com/game/3ds/rage-of-the-gladiator) making it in the top 4% of all 3DS titles. Currently I am open to business inquiries from partners who wish to take the "Rage of the Gladiator" intellectual property to other platforms.

Mentor

2010 - 2010

At CapitalFactory I helped mentor 5 startup companies to the point where they are ready to present to investors to attempt to secure venture capital funds. I provided introductions, business plan guidance, and investor pitch support/advice. After the Capital Factory summer ended, I continued to advise startups around Austin independently.

Austin Studio Director

2007 - 2008

Producer and Game Developer

2006 - 2007