Team
We are investors, serial entrepreneurs and domain experts who understand what it takes to execute at scale.
Our core team

David Langer
Founder & Managing Partner
Two-time technology entrepreneur with 10+ years as CEO.
Angel investor in 20+ companies with gross MOIC of >10x.
Founder & CEO, Zesty, YC-backed healthy corporate catering company. Raised $20M from Founders Fund and others. Served 7 million meals before being acquired by Square (NYSE:SQ) in 2018. Grew from $0 to $10M GMV in 13 months – faster than Uber.
Previously Co-founder & CEO, GroupSpaces, UK-based SaaS product for clubs. Hosted 5 million memberships in 100+ countries. Backed by Index Ventures and the only international company in Chris Sacca’s record-breaking Lowercase Capital I.
Strong proponent of founder mental health. Vipassana meditator, certified yoga teacher, student of indigenous lineages and Conscious Leadership advocate.
MA in Mathematics from the University of Oxford.

David Langer
Founder & Managing Partner

Shelby Clark
Partner
Repeat entrepreneur and angel investor, best known for founding Turo, the car-sharing marketplace that filed an S-1 in January 2022 for a multi-billion-dollar IPO.
After leaving Turo, trained as a yoga and meditation teacher and decided to dedicate his career and resources to the field of mental health going forward.
MBA from Harvard Business School; BS in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University.

Shelby Clark
Partner

Brandon Goldman
Partner
Optimistic futurist focused on AI safety.
Investing full-time since 2017. Has made dozens of angel investments (advising 10+ companies); ran a syndicate that deployed tens of millions USD; significant experience investing in cryptocurrencies and stock options. Gross MOIC of >10x.
Lead Software Architect at Blockfolio, acquired by FTX for $150M in 2020.
Previously Co-founder, FreshPay, one of the first VC-backed crypto startups. VP of Engineering at Miso Media, a music education technology company featured on Shark Tank. One of the first dozen employees at Box (NYSE: BOX).
Serving as Treasurer of the Foresight Institute.

Brandon Goldman
Partner

Renée Alexiev
Chief of Staff
Tenured Chief of Staff with deep experience supporting founders and executives.
Early employee at Lord Jones, a luxury CBD health & wellness brand acquired by Cronos Group for $300M. Most recently was part of a team building the first blockchain for tracking, tokenizing, and monetizing positive impact. Previously worked in business management and law.
Renée has a deep interest in Eastern philosophy and a decades-long meditation practice.
BA from the University of Southern California.

Renée Alexiev
Chief of Staff

Huub Heijnen
Venture Partner
Applied AI entrepreneur focused on human flourishing and reducing existential risk.
Former Research Lead for Meta Reality Labs (London).
Co-founder & CTO, Scape, a computer vision company. Developed a Visual Positioning System able to determine a device’s location more accurately than GPS. Raised $8M from Entrepreneur First and others. Acquired by Meta in 2020.
Researched robotics at CSIRO.
MSc in Robotics (Systems and Control) from ETH Zürich.

Huub Heijnen
Venture Partner

Milan Griffes
Principal
Co-founder of Atman, a psychedelic retreat he led to cash flow positive with a NPS of +76. Previously Head of Risk at Sendwave (YC W12), which sold half its business to WorldRemit in 2020 for $500M.
Started his career as a Research Analyst at GiveWell, the leading charity evaluator.
MHS from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Milan Griffes
Principal

Carlos López Enríquez
VP of Finance
Experienced finance professional with extensive experience in venture capital.
Senior Director of Finance at Quiet Capital, where he led the finance team since the company’s inception. Previously worked as a Global Controller for Lombard Odier in New York, and as Manager of Fund Accounting at Custom House in their Singapore, Chicago, Luxembourg, and Malta offices.
Law degree and Masters in Financial Markets and Stock Brokerage from Madrid University.

Carlos López Enríquez
VP of Finance

Tuan Nguyen
Controller
Accomplished controller with a demonstrated background in alternative investments.
Previously worked as a Manager at IQ-EQ’s CFO/Consulting services, was an Accounting Manager at fund administrator Aduro Advisors, and Fund Controller at Standish Management.
BA from the University of Washington.

Tuan Nguyen
Controller

Helena Herrera
Events Manager
Experienced events and hospitality manager.
Previously spent four years working at the world-renowned Blue Spirit Retreat Center.
BA from Veritas University.

Helena Herrera
Events Manager

Annie Caton-Wong
Executive Assistant
Seasoned business partner and force multiplier with deep experience in hyper-growth, technology-driven startup environments.
Early employee at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, the world’s premier integrative health and education platform. Most recently supported founders and C-Suite at Branch Metrics, a SaaS tech startup, and Willow Innovations, a consumer medtech company.
Licensed Acupuncturist, Certified Breathwork Facilitator, and Certified Health Coach.
MSc from the Pacific College of Health & Science; BA from Harvard University.

Annie Caton-Wong
Executive Assistant
Advisors

Dr. Joseph Barsuglia
Psychedelics Advisor
Clinical and research psychologist responsible for leading some of the largest observational research carried out with psychedelic medicine to date.
Influential academic papers have been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals. Previously co-investigator for phase II FDA trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD by MAPS.
PhD in Clinical Psychology from Fuller Theological Seminary. Joseph is a student and initiate of the indigenous Bwiti tribe of Gabon.

Dr. Joseph Barsuglia
Psychedelics Advisor
Clinical psychologist leading some of the most extensive observational research on psychedelic medicine.

Dr. Tracy Brandmeyer
Scientific Advisor
Neuroscientist focused on the development of novel methods to study and promote human flourishing.
Research centered on the neural bases of emotion and attention regulation, the neuroscientific study of meditation, neural network based neural modulation and advancing neurophenomenological methods for studying states of consciousness.
Chief Science Officer at BrainMind.
PhD in Neuroscience at the CNRS in France; Post-doc in Integrative Neuroscience at UCSF; MSc in Neuropsychology at Donders Institute.

Dr. Tracy Brandmeyer
Scientific Advisor
Neuroscientist focused on the development of novel methods to study and promote human flourishing.

Daniel Claussen
Psychedelics Advisor
Executive and strategist with a specialization in the formation and financing of high-growth, high-impact companies.
Co-founder and formative advisor of Journey Colab, Alexander Shulgin Research Institute, and Reconnect Labs. Chief Business Officer for Reconnect Labs.
BA in Environmental Science from the University of Montana; Executive MBA from the University of Denver.

Daniel Claussen
Psychedelics Advisor
Chief Business Officer of Reconnect Labs. Strategist specializing in high-impact company formation and finance, actively involved in psychedelic startup ventures.

Josh Hardman
Psychedelics Advisor
Founder and editor of Psychedelic Alpha, an independent newsletter, community and consultancy firm that strives to empower a diverse constellation of individuals and organizations with the knowledge, network and nuance to make an impact within the field of psychedelic medicine and beyond.
BSc in Government with a focus on the history of social movements from the London School of Economics.

Josh Hardman
Psychedelics Advisor
Founder and Editor of Psychedelic Alpha, covering the intersection of psychedelics and business.

Christina Lundberg
Special Projects Advisor
Experienced startup executive and communications leader.
Managing Director at PSYCH. Previously Head of PR at iZettle (acquired by PayPal), Chief Communications Officer at Velory (raised $30M), and employee #5 at Zesty (acquired by Square in 2018).
Founded Bed of Nails, an acupressure mat company acquired in 2013.

Christina Lundberg
Special Projects Advisor
Experienced startup executive and communications leader.

Richard Mallah
AI Safety Advisor
Head of the Center for AI Risk Management & Alignment, seeking to manage the most extreme risks of increasingly general systems so everyone can have a brighter future.
Strategist at the Future of Life Institute, aiming to keep AI robust and beneficial to humankind. Advises many other AI safety & governance efforts.
Over twenty years experience in AI algorithms, product development, and strategy advisory.
BSc in Computer Science (Intelligent Systems) from Columbia.

Richard Mallah
AI Safety Advisor
Head of the Center for AI Risk Management & Alignment. Strategist at the Future of Life Institute.

Conor Murphy
AI & Neurotech Advisor
Neuroscience and AI expert advising neurotech startups from a wide base of relevant knowledge.
Early employee and Lead Data Scientist, Databricks (last valued at $31B); subject-matter expertise in deep learning and distributed machine learning. Chief Scientific Officer of the Flow Research Collective.
MSc in Applied Neuroscience from King’s College London.

Conor Murphy
AI & Neurotech Advisor
Chief Scientific Officer of the Flow Research Collective. Expert in deep learning and distributed machine learning.

Graham Pechenik
IP Advisor
Founder of Calyx Law and registered patent attorney. Editor-at-large at Psychedelic Alpha covering psychedelics IP and patents.
JD from NYU School of Law; BS in Biochemistry and Cognitive Science from UCSD.

Graham Pechenik
IP Advisor
Registered patent attorney and the founder of Calyx Law, specializing in cannabis and psychedelics.

Justin Shovelain
AI Safety Advisor
Co-founder & CEO of Convergence Analysis, an existential risk strategy research group.
Previously advised Founders Fund on their original investment into DeepMind and consulted with the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. Longtime member of the Effective Altruism community.
MSc in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota.

Justin Shovelain
AI Safety Advisor
Co-founder & CEO of Convergence Analysis, an existential risk strategy research group.

Aaron Tucker
AI Safety Advisor
Built the initial antifraud infrastructure of Wave (YC W12), which sold half its business to WorldRemit in 2020 for $500M.
Previously conducted research at Microsoft, Berkeley’s Center for Human-Compatible AI, and the Centre for the Governance of AI at the University of Oxford.
PhD(c) in Computer Science at Cornell; BA in Computer Science from Harvard.

Aaron Tucker
AI Safety Advisor
Previous researcher at Berkeley's Center for Human-Compatible AI and Oxford's Centre for the Governance of AI.

Dr. Gregory Wells
Clinical Advisor
Co-founder of Polaris Insight Center, providing ketamine-assisted therapy to treat various mental health issues. Co-principal Investigator for San Francisco-based site for phase III FDA trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD by MAPS.
PhD in Psychology from UT Austin focusing on qualitative and quantitative research into cognitive science and human behavior.

Dr. Gregory Wells
Clinical Advisor
Co-founder of Polaris Insight Center, offering ketamine therapy for mental health.
Compassion
We consider situations from all perspectives, bringing wisdom and compassion to them.
First-principles thinking
We think from first principles and aren’t afraid to pursue the original ideas that result.
Longtermism
We work towards the long-term preservation of consciousness and human well-being.
Determination
We fearlessly and persistently pursue our mission.
Discernment
We carefully discern which problems are worthy of attention, and work diligently to develop high conviction in our views.
Integrity
We embody unwavering ethics, transparency, and accountability in all we do, building trust through our actions.
