JK

James Kaplan

Investor at New Enterprise Associates

San Francisco Bay Area

Overview

Work Experience

  • Venture Investor

    2023 - Current

    For over 40 years, NEA has partnered with generational software companies like Databricks, Plaid, Tableau, MongoDB, and Cloudflare and consumer companies like Robinhood, Duolingo, Jet.com, Scopely, Glu Mobile, GoodLeap, and Houzz. The firm has backed over 1,000 companies and had 250+ IPOs

  • Venture Partner

    2023 - 2023

    Multi-stage venture fund started by the founding engineer at Cruise

  • Finance & Monetization Consultant

    2023 - 2023

    The future of RTS

  • Strategic Finance - GTM

    2023 - 2023

    The all-in-one platform for beauty professionals Along with traditional FP&A functions, worked with GTM (marketing and partnerships) and CX teams to set processes for understanding headcount planning and unit economics

  • Investment Banking Analyst – Technology

    2022 - 2023

    Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) Group

  • Managing Partner & Founder

    2020 - 2022

    Founded a ~$1M AUM venture fund writing $25k pre-seed/seed checks into Southern California student and recent alum startups. Investments include: -OneText (onetext.com) Seed: e-commerce text-to-buy -Style (usestyle.ai) Seed: generative AI marketing suite for SMBs -222 (222.place) Pre-Seed: social platform recreating serendipity -FlexWash (flexwashtech.com) Pre-Seed: vertical SaaS for car washes -Middlemen (middlemen.io) Pre-Seed: infrastructure allowing all resellers to have StockX-like verification -Kona (heykona.com) Seed: AI copilot for remote managers -Stealth consumer Pre-Seed -Stealth marketplace Pre-Seed Founders reach out to ops@crescentfund.vc

  • Managing Partner

    2020 - 2022

    Wrote $100k-$150k pre-seed/seed checks into student startups. Investments include: -Relentlo (relentlo.com) Seed -Playbook (playbookxr.com) Pre-Seed -Fanfix (acq. by SuperOrdinary) Pre-Seed -SoundMind (soundmind.app) Pre-Seed -101 (101.xyz) Pre-Seed

  • College Internships

    2018 - 2022

    Credit Suisse (Summer Analyst): Technology investment banking Troy Capital Partners (Venture Investor): LA-based multi-stage venture fund founded by Josh Berman, co-founder of Myspace Harbor Ridge Capital (Summer Analyst): B2B software focused investment bank Kestrel Investment Management Corp (Equity Investment Research): Value-driven small-cap public equity investment management firm

  • Founding Team – Head of Growth & BD

    2018 - 2021

    Built and grew a mental health peer support community for Gen Z Acquired by Blue Fever in 2021

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