In a recent onboarding session, one of our newest portfolio founders said: “companies often grow faster than founders do, and we’re excited because Operator Collective is this collection of operators we can leverage to advise through the pain points and bottlenecks.”
Couldn’t have said it any better.
In the world of startups, one truth remains constant: founding a company is incredibly challenging. As companies take off, they often naturally outpace their founders' experience, creating gaps that need to be filled efficiently and effectively. This is exactly where Operator Collective steps in.
Any one person only has their own experience to reference and fall back on. And certainly no single person has all the answers (or connections). That's why at its core, Operator Collective assembled a team of over 200 seasoned operators from tech's most admired companies who bring real-world experience to the table. The model is simple yet powerful: we surround startups with people who not only have "been there, done that" from day one through every stage of founding, growth, and scaling, but also the credibility and connections to show for it.
We're not just investors; we're a force multiplier. Our collective approach provides founders with access to a diverse range of perspectives, skills, and networks that can accelerate their success in ways a traditional VC firm simply isn’t set up to do.
The Collective Venture Model is dynamic and always in motion. We constantly look at new ways to grow and evolve to better support our founders, create valuable opportunities for our operators, and further our solid foundation. We’re excited to announce three key additions to our team that will position us for what's next:
Dana Marohn Spiliotis: Dana is an Operator LP who joined us earlier this year as an Operating Partner, and now has transitioned to a full-time Partner on the investments team. She brings a wealth of experience in identifying, analyzing, and optimizing businesses - she was the SVP of Strategic Finance and Corporate Development at ZoomInfo (NASDAQ: ZI), a company with $1 billion+ in revenue, where she famously did seven acquisitions in 18 months, ranging from acquihires to a half a billion dollar plus deal. Before that, she was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley where she led nearly $30 billion in IPO and M&A deals largely for vertical SaaS and B2B software companies, including DocuSign, Chegg, and Splunk. And in an even more previous life, she was an operator at a Series A venture backed start-up. Dana also was instrumental in the $5M SPV we put together for OpCo PortCo Midi Health, and our investments in Twelve Labs, Supio, and Clarity Pediatrics. She’ll focus primarily on vertical SaaS, AI-enabled applications, healthtech, and workforce, complementing Haley Daiber Brannan who will continue to focus on AI’s impact on the evolution of enterprise infrastructure and data stack, security, and internal operations.
Kieran Snyder: As the founder and longtime CEO of OpCo PortCo Textio, Kieran brings invaluable firsthand experience in building with AI from the ground up as our first Founder in Residence, working with our industry-leading platform and community team, Ops & Data Partner Anna Jacobson and Marketing Partner Caroline Caswell. In 2021, Kieran was recognized as GeekWire’s CEO of the Year for scaling Textio to 750+ customers, including a third of the Fortune 100. In 2023, she was named to the Forbes Future of Work 50 and invited to brief Congress on AI. Her work has appeared in Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, New York Times, Washington Post, and many more. Kieran holds a PhD from Penn in natural language processing and machine learning. She is also an experienced coach of founders and their teams. She has a particular expertise in data storytelling as a means of driving inbound marketing and in assessing AI tech companies. Kieran also runs the nerd processor newsletter, where she publishes new data stories about AI and startups weekly. Her insights into the challenges of building early stage companies will be invaluable in attracting and supporting visionary founders and creating programmatic opportunities for our incredible operator LPs to connect with our portfolio. More here from Kieran on her approach and what’s coming!
Kate Mitchell: We're honored to welcome Kate to our Investment Advisory Committee, who, alongside Dan Scheinman and Magdalena Yesil, will advise on various areas, including investment approaches, portfolio construction, and generational firm building. Kate is the Founder and Partner Emeritus of Scale, an early-stage firm focused on enterprise software, which recently raised a $900M Fund VIII. She has also served as a board member and Chair of the National Venture Capital Association. Kate co-founded and Chairs VentureForward, a non-profit affiliate of the NVCA that focuses on training the next generation of venture investors, including women, underrepresented minorities, and investors from outside traditional venture geographies. Kate now sits on various public, private, and nonprofit boards, plus two endowment investment committees.
These additions to our team help us double down across all key functions, allowing us to serve our founders, develop our community, and build a generational firm. By design, we're more than just a venture capital firm. We're a community of operators, founders, and investors working together to build something truly extraordinary. And, just like our portfolio companies, we’re building for the future by surrounding ourselves with the best people who have been there, done that and are eager to help the next generation.
