Neal Hansch

Investor

I want to invent something cool.

MerchantCircle, Quora, Marketfish, Uber, Box.net

Endless opportunities, means endless directions and decisions to be made, which only time will tell whether the right ones were made and/or taken.

Blindly following a "build it and they will come" mentality and surrounding yourself with people who are entirely like-minded.

Pick your co-founders carefully. Validate your market before you invest your blood, sweat and tears building a product and launching a company into it. Listen to customers, but not completely.

Neal joins MEST with over fifteen years experience in venture capital, technology operations and investment banking. Most recently, he was a General Partner with Rustic Canyon Partners (RCP), an early-stage focused investment fund with $500MM under management. Prior to RCP, Neal was a Corporate Development executive at Macromedia (acq. by Adobe), a venture capitalist with Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), and an investment banker at, Robertson Stephens & Co. Neal’s proven leadership and track record developing US based start-ups will play an important role in MEST’s future success, while deepening the program’s presence in Silicon Valley. Neal earned his BA from Duke University and his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Neal does his best to disconnect from his digital devices by heading to the nearest body of water to enjoy some surfing, scuba diving, sailing or fishing. He lives in the hills of San Francisco with his wife and daughter.