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Michael Carney
Fund – Investment Committee Member at University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California
Overview
Michael Carney is a Wealth Management / Family Office Advisor at Evoke Advisors in Los Angeles, California. With a background in Mergers & Acquisitions and extensive experience in advising entrepreneurs, he has held key roles at notable companies like Upfront Ventures and ZestFinance.
Carney's career highlights include serving as a General Partner at Upfront Ventures and being a Board Member at companies like ZestFinance and Cloudvirga™, showcasing his expertise in venture capital and strategic partnerships within the technology and entrepreneurship sectors.
Work Experience
SVP, Financial Advisor
2021 - Current
Evoke Advisors is an independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) and multi-family office, advising ultra-high net worth individuals, families, trusts, and non-profit institutions. Within Evoke, my team specializes in partnering with entrepreneurs and private business owners as they navigate the wealth-creation journey including pre-sale planning, investment management, multi-generational estate planning, tax strategy, and philanthropic and legacy planning.
Evoke Advisors is a insight & an institutional perspective to help them achieve attractive, stable investment returns.
USC Marshall Venture Fund – Investment Committee Member
2018
The USC Marshall Fund invests in early-stage ventures led by USC students, alumni, faculty, and staff.
Board Member
2018 - 2022
Zest.ai is changing the way finance works by changing the way credit decisions are made. The company uses machine learning and data science to help companies make more accurate credit decisions with the mission of making fair and transparent credit available to everyone.
Board Member
2017 - 2021
Acquired by Stewart Title in May 2021, Cloudvirga is a software platform built to revolutionize the mortgage industry by building intelligence into the origination process. Cloudvirga’s mortgage point-of-sale (POS) platforms go beyond just taking an application, automating tasks traditionally performed by operations staff to cut costs, improve the customer and loan officer experience, and deliver business insights across the origination process. Cloudvirga’s unique approach to the mortgage process allows lenders to realize the benefits of tomorrow’s digital mortgage today.
Cloudvirga offers a SaaS mortgage point-of-sale platform that simplifies origination, engages customers, and enables lenders.
Raised $77,500,000.00 from Riverwood Capital and Upfront Ventures.
General Partner
2014 - 2021
General Partner at Upfront Ventures, Southern California’s largest and longest-tenured venture capital firm. Leading early and growth stage investments in what we expect to be the defining technology businesses of the coming decades.
Upfront Ventures is the venture capital firm focusing on early-stage technology companies.
Board Member
2018 - 2020
NuORDER is a cloud & mobile B2B eCommerce solution empowering brands and retailers to streamline their business operations since 2011. The NuORDER platform provides brands and retailers a central hub to browse products and catalogs, access realtime inventory data and place orders from a computer or mobile app – 24/7/365.
NuORDER is a cloud and mobile B2B eCommerce platform empowering brands and retailers to streamline their business operations.
Raised $81,900,000.00 from Brighton Park Capital and Imaginary Ventures.
Board Member
2016 - 2020
Dailylook is a personal styling experience powered by real personal stylists leveraging our cutting edge data science to deliver the optimum merchandise at the right time to every customer. Founded in 2011, the company's mission is to inspire confidence through self expression while taking the hassle out of looking great.
DAILYLOOK is a premium styling experience that delivers a personalized box of style for women.
Raised $10,500,000.00 from Upfront Ventures and FOREVER 21.
West Coast Editor
2012 - 2014
Helped build a new media company with the goal of covering the intersection of technology, business, and policy. Focused on telling the stories of innovative companies around the world and the multi-dimensional entrepreneurs and investors who create them.
PandoDaily is a web publication offering technology news, analysis, and commentary, focusing mainly on Silicon Valley and startup companies.
Raised $4,200,000.00 from Base Ventures, Chattanooga Renaissance Fund, Zach Nelson, VTF Capital, Omidyar Network, Lamp Post Group, Pathfinder and Accel.
Managing Director
2008 - 2012
WorldVest is a boutique merchant bank investing in venture-stage businesses on a global basis. The firm focuses on the technology and natural resources sectors in North America, Asia, and Latin America.
Director of Business Development
2007 - 2008
Castle Arch, a real estate investment company specializing in the entitlement and development of raw land. At its peak, Castle Arch owned and operated approximately 5,000 acres across the US in various stages of development.
Education
B.S.
2001 - 2005
Latest Articles
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Enough Lip Service, the Mortgage Industry is Overdue for Real Change
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200 VCs share what they really think about blockchain
Talks about Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Venture Capital
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How Blockchains Work and Why the Internet will Never be the Same (Panel)
Talks about Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Decentralization