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Leah Edwards

Investor

San Francisco, California

Overview 

Leah Edwards is an accomplished investor, educator, and coach, currently serving as a Board Member at Cumplo and NameCoach. With a background in angel investing and advisory roles for various startups, Leah has also held significant positions at institutions like Stanford Graduate School of Business and Autodesk, contributing to the entrepreneurial ecosystem through her leadership and strategic expertise. Leah's career highlights include serving as a Partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures and as the Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Stanford Graduate School of Business, showcasing her extensive experience in venture capital and higher education.

Work Experience 

  • Board Member

    2021 - Current

  • University Lecturer

    2017

    Leadership and Innovation Lecturer in UC Berkeley Engineering, University of North Carolina's Semester in Silicon Valley and Stanford Engineering.

  • Current Board Member and previous Advisor

    2014

Namecoach is a platform that provides mispronunciation, gender pronoun communication, and audio name pronunciation solutions.

Raised $11,000,000.00 from 640 Oxford, Harbor Street Ventures, Engage, Network.VC, Forefront Venture Partners, Transcend Network, Authentic Ventures, Bisk Ventures, GTMfund and Tech Square Ventures.

  • Executive Coach and Entrepreneur Coach

    2012

    Certified Coach assisting executives seeking career growth or success with innovation projects. Also Coach to startup founders at all stages, from launch to scaling.

  • Angel Investor and Advisor

    2012

    Investor, coach and advisor for startups

  • Investment Director

    2022 - 2024

    Lighter Capital is the pioneer in revenue-based funding.

Lighter Capital offers tech entrepreneurs with access to non-dilutive financing to help grow their companies without giving up equity.

Raised $246,022,000.00 from i80 | Group, Invest Victoria, ATLAS SP Partners, Apollo, iPartners, i80 | Group, National Australia Bank (NAB), Silicon Valley Bank, Voyager Capital and Credit Suisse.

  • Partner

    2020 - 2022

Pegasus Tech Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based global venture capital firm.

  • Advisory Board Member

    2019 - 2021

  • Director of Education Outreach

    2016 - 2016

    Interim program to better integrate Autodesk's Education group with Universities, Schools and other Education Partners to support experiential, collaborative learning about innovation. Led the Outreach group in this transition, including Marketing, Channel Training Partners, Nonprofit Partnerships, Digital Design Challenges, Events, PR, Social Media and Internal Communications.

HSMWorks technology with its industry leading software and cloud services for manufacturing.

  • Executive Director, Ctr for Entrepreneurial Studies

    2012 - 2016

    Led a team to design learning experiences around innovation. Advised faculty of 50+ entrepreneurship and investment electives and directed the Stanford Venture Studio, a startup collaboration space for 200 graduate students. Developed cross-campus partnerships and expanded relationships with investors and industry experts, in addition to increasing female student participation by over 400%. Experiential learning innovation included both creating startup experiences as well as expanding nnovation internships in existing companies.

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