we are susa ventures.
a growing family of dreamers and builders.
OUR TEAM
CHAD BYERS
co-founder & general partner
CHAD BYERS
Chad Byers is Co-founder & General Partner at Susa Ventures, where he focuses on investments in healthcare, fintech and supply chain. Chad led Susa's investments in unicorns such as Robinhood, Andela, Newfront Insurance, Stord, and Mux. Raised in Silicon Valley, Chad was exposed to entrepreneurship and venture capital at an early age. He was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 for VC in 2015, Forbes Midas Seed List in 2022 and 2023, and Business Insider's Seed 100 list. Prior to Susa Ventures, Chad has worked at various startups in product and marketing. He attended University of Colorado and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Environmental Science.
LEO POLOVETS
co-founder & general partner
LEO POLOVETS
Leo Polovets is Co-founder and General Partner at Susa Ventures, and also started our deep tech fund, Humba Ventures. Leo focuses on enterprise software and technical products at Susa, and deep tech and critical national sectors like energy and defense at Humba. Leo led Susa's investments in Mashgin, People Data Labs, Scalyr, and Treasury Prime. Having been a software engineer for 10+ years, Leo approaches challenges with an engineering mindset and supports portfolio companies in vetting and hiring technical talent. Prior to Susa, Leo was the second engineering hire at Linkedin, where he worked on the first versions of products like LinkedIn Jobs and LinkedIn Groups. Leo then worked on payment fraud detection algorithms at Google, and was also an early engineer at Factual, where he built data processing software. Leo received a bachelor's degree in Engineering and Applied Science (Computer Science) from Caltech.
SETH BERMAN
co-founder & general partner
SETH BERMAN
Seth Berman is Co-founder and General Partner at Susa Ventures, where he focuses on investments in frontier tech, logistics, marketplaces & consumer. Seth led Susa's investments in Flexport, Periscope Data and Expanse. Prior to Susa, Seth was an active angel investor. He has invested in 100+ seed stage companies in total, and his portfolio includes Nest, Optimizely, Wish, Omio and Docker. He also served as the VP of Strategic Marketing for The Richemont Group, a publicly traded company (CFR:VX) which owns brands and e-commerce sites Cartier, Net-A-Porter.com, Mr. Porter, Montblanc, and Chloe. Seth graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor's degree in Business and Finance.
COURTNEY BUIE LIPKIN
partner
COURTNEY BUIE LIPKIN
Courtney joined Susa Ventures in November 2019. She is responsible for leading new investments, supporting the existing portfolio, and developing new initiatives to deepen our relationship with the broader startup community such as the Susa Venture Fellows Program. Courtney invests across all sectors and verticals, but is particularly interested in companies changing foundational industries like real estate, transportation and logistics, insurance, and finance. Prior to joining Susa, Courtney was at First Round Capital, where she sourced new investments and helped curate programs for emerging angel investors. Courtney studied International Relations as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania and in graduate school at Stanford University.
DERICK EN'WEZOH
partner
DERICK EN'WEZOH
Dr. Derick En’Wezoh joined Susa in June 2021 as an Investor. He is an entrepreneurial physician and seasoned operator specializing in the cutting edge of healthcare. He is responsible for driving new investments, supporting existing portfolio companies, deepening our expertise in healthcare, and cultivating relationships with the broader startup community. Derick invests across all sectors and verticals, but is particularly interested in healthcare and AI companies with virtuous data cycles. Prior to Susa, Derick led Growth at Viz.ai, built several departments, and was responsible for executing commercial and revenue strategies. He holds a bachelor's degree in Neuroscience from Washington State University, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and an M.B.A. and Certificate in Public Management and Social Innovation from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
HAMMAD ASLAM
partner
HAMMAD ASLAM
Hammad Aslam joined Susa Ventures in 2021. As a Partner, Hammad focuses on leading early growth investments in software and AI. Prior to Susa, Hammad was an investor at Vista Equity Partners, where he invested in and partnered with management teams of software companies at various stages to supercharge their operational and financial transformations. Prior to Vista, he was a tech investment banker at Morgan Stanley, specializing in capital raising and M&A advisory. Hammad graduated with honors from Princeton University with a concentration in Near Eastern Studies and Finance.
MELANIE LAWLESS
venture capital manager
MELANIE LAWLESS
Melanie Lawless joined Susa Ventures in 2020, focusing on identifying and evaluating high-potential investment opportunities and early-stage startups. She conducts in-depth due diligence, collaborates with the team to finalize investment decisions, and provides strategic support to portfolio companies post-investment to drive their growth. Additionally, she plans and executes exit strategies, such as IPOs or mergers and acquisitions, to achieve optimal investment returns.
Melanie possesses sharp market insights, strong financial analysis skills, and exceptional interpersonal and project management abilities. In 2023, she played a key role in helping Davis Commodities Ltd go public on the Nasdaq Capital Market and was invited to the IPO bell-ringing ceremony as a venture capitalist.
Before joining Susa Ventures, Melanie served as a Venture Capital Analyst at Morgan Stanley. She holds a Master of Science in Finance from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Finance from Yale University.
MISHA GORDON-ROWE
partner
MISHA GORDON-ROWE
Misha joined Susa Ventures in 2020. As a Partner, Misha is responsible for leading new seed stage investments. Misha invests across all sectors, with a particular focus on AI, enterprise software and vertical software across financial services, supply chain and manufacturing automation. Prior to Susa, Misha was an early employee at Funding Circle US (LSE: FCH). Misha has an MBA from Harvard Business School and studied Economics at Dartmouth College.
PRATYUSH BUDDIGA
partner
PRATYUSH BUDDIGA
Pratyush joined Susa Ventures in May 2021. As an investor, Pratyush leads seed and pre-seed investments across all sectors, but particularly focuses on AI-powered applications, vertical software, consumer, and frontier tech. Prior to joining Susa, Pratyush was Chief of Staff at Volley, leading business operations at the popular conversational AI gaming company. He approaches new topics with intellectual open-mindedness, while valuing the discipline and commitment that is required for exceptional results. This skillset led to him winning two national competitions before the age of sixteen, including the National Spelling Bee. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Duke University, followed by a standout six-year career as a professional poker player, where he ranked as high as #2 in the world for tournaments.
BENJAMIN WALLO
office & events manager
BENJAMIN WALLO
Benjamin joined Susa in January 2023, bringing a knack for fostering connections that empower founders, investors, and the broader Susa community. Benjamin was previously at PBI, a boutique Bay Area general contractor behind the headquarters of leading tech and venture firms like Dropbox, Asana, Stripe, SignalFire, and General Catalyst. Earlier in his career, he explored his passion for wine, earning CMS sommelier certification while working in the industry. A theatre enthusiast, Benjamin has directed or produced numerous plays including at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and is a regular at the SF Opera. He holds an M.A. (Hons) in Ancient History from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
SHANNON MOONEY
operations manager
SHANNON MOONEY
Shannon joined the Susa team as Operations Manager in August 2023. She oversees a variety of internal operational processes and works directly with our portfolio to find opportunities to support their growth. Prior to this role, she was on the program management team at Reforge, where she supported the delivery of live online courses taught by top tech experts. She began her VC journey at SignalFire on the Network team, designing programming to connect the portfolio and executive network at scale. Shannon has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from UCLA.
KENNY JOO
head of finance
KENNY JOO
Kenny joined Susa's operations team as Controller in June 2021. He will lead all aspects of fund administration and help us build the foundation for a world-class firm. He will also roll up his sleeves and support portfolio companies alongside the rest of the team. Prior to joining Susa, Kenny was at Y Combinator, where he was responsible for the fund’s accounting and investor reporting. Kenny holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from UC Berkeley and is a Certified Public Accountant.
FEATURED PORTFOLIO
Humba Ventures
ABOUT
Humba Ventures is a pre-seed and seed fund in the Susa Ventures family. While Susa Ventures is focused on leading early stage rounds in traditional sectors like enterprise SaaS, fintech, healthcare, and logistics, Humba Ventures is mainly focused on smaller, emerging sectors and technologies like robotics and manufacturing, climate and energy, and defense and security. In its early days, Humba occasionally invested as a supportive, non-lead investor in traditional sectors.
Humba typically writes $250k-$1m core checks with a high engagement model.
We bring over a decade of institutional VC experience developed through supporting companies like Robinhood, Flexport, and Mux at their earliest stages, and apply that experience to founders building companies at the frontiers of technology.
TEAM
Leo
- Numerous Top 100 finishes in national math, programming, and science competitions in high school and college.
- 10 years of software eng experience: 2nd engineering hire at LinkedIn, 3 years at Google working on payment fraud detection, 4 years at Factual working on data cleaning and deduping software.
- Co-founded Susa Ventures ($750m+ AUM, seed investor in companies like Robinhood, Flexport, Mux, Expanse, Mashgin, and Andela)
Anna-Sofia
- Author behind Foundations & Frontiers at Contrary Capital
- Previously at 8VC, Founders Fund and Bridgewater
- Executive Editor of the Stanford Daily
Pratyush
- Won US Spelling Bee.
- Professional poker player for 6 years, reaching #2 in the world for tournament play.
- Early employee at a crypto gaming company and Chief of Staff at Volley (YC-backed voice gaming startup)
Team’s previous fund and angel investments: CloudTrucks ($850m), Dusty Robotics (🤫), Hightouch ($615m), Mashgin ($1.5b), Placer ($1.5b), Scalyr (acquired), Veho ($1.5b), Vetcove (🤫).
PORTFOLIO
Most of the companies below are in stealth mode, unless their homepage links are included. Companies are listed in each theme that they fall into.
Automation, robotics, and manufacturing
🚁 Autonomous drone swarms for military applications.
🖨 3D printer that can produce production-grade carbon fiber parts quickly and affordably.
📦 Adaptable ASRS (automated storage and retrieval system) for warehouses. (Mytra)
🦱 Automated wig manufacturing.
🐟 Automation solutions for fish processing. (Shinkei)
🌦 Distributed network of balloon-based weather sensors. (Windborne)
👓 Fast, automated eye exam platform. (Eyebot)
🌲 Forest monitoring and inventory management using drones and robots. (Treeswift)
🍏 Hardware-based precision crop load management. (Orchard Robotics)
☕ Intelligent beverage dispenser for coffee shops and restaurants.
🔩 Marketplace for industrial components. (Volition)
🪚 Next gen sawmills. (The Lumber Manufactory)
🦾 Software infrastructure for robot arms. (Jacobi Robotics)
Bio and food
🐟 Automation solutions for fish processing. (Shinkei)
🖥️ Data warehouse for genomic data.
🍏 Hardware-based precision crop load management. (Orchard Robotics)
⚕️ Hardware device for continuous biomarker monitoring.
🧪 mRNA sequence optimization that enables more mRNA therapeutics.
👶 Oogenesis and in vitro maturation platform.
🫁 Organoids for drug testing and drug development. (Parallel Bio)
🦠 Platform for designing and testing oncolytic viral therapies.
🧬 Protein design using generative AI. (Diffuse Bio)
🧠 Restoration of neural circuits and reversal of neurodegeneration.
Climate and energy
🏭 Affordable, dispatchable baseload geothermal power.
🌦 Distributed network of balloon-based weather sensors. (Windborne)
🌲 Forest monitoring and inventory management using drones and robots. (Treeswift)
⚛️ Isotope enrichment for fission and fusion reactor fuels.
🏭 Nuclear microreactors for defense and space applications. (Antares)
📝 Site selection and permitting software for large cleantech projects. (Blumen Systems)
Defense (including govtech and cybersecurity) and Aerospace
🚁 Autonomous drone swarms for military applications.
📝 Compliance and collaboration software for government primes and subcontractors. (GovPort)
🛡 Cybersecurity risk assessment and insurance platform.
🛰 Modern ground station network for satellites. (Northwood Space)
🏭 Nuclear microreactors for defense and space applications. (Antares)
🌎 Search engine for geospatial data that targets defense & government use cases. (Danti)
🔒 Security middleware platform that gives users control and visibility over their security posture. (LimaCharlie)
🧑🤝🧑 Software platform that makes it easier for the US to share info with its allies in a faster, more secure way.
Other deep tech/American Dynamism areas
💱 Highly efficient decentralized exchange. (Ambient Finance)
🏫 K-12 math practice software. (Edia)
Supportive checks
(These were checks written very early on, between Humba’s creation and the establishment of its focus on deep tech and American Dynamism.)
🏢 Next gen property management platform.
📱 Super app for solopreneurs that helps with payments, scheduling, marketing, and more.
🧑💼️ System of record for account managers. (Callypso)
🥗 Telehealth dietician platform. (Nourish)
OUR THOUGHTS
By Chad Byers and Misha Gordon-Rowe at Susa VenturesCollege sports is an American institution. It’s also a huge business — across ticket sales, TV contracts and merch, NCAA athletic departments booked $25B+ in revenue last year. Yet […]
We’re excited to welcome Sheila Tran as Susa Ventures’ first Head of Marketing and Platform. With over 20 years of experience in marketing and communications, Sheila brings a wealth of expertise to our team, having navigated significant growth […]
By Courtney Buie Lipkin, Partner at Susa VenturesWhen we started the Susa Venture Fellows Program four years ago our goal was to open the door wider to a career in venture. Since the program launched, thirty three aspiring investors and […]