Entrepreneurs are Core.
The why: our mission
Shinya Akamine founded Core Ventures Group to support world-class entrepreneurs in building valuable businesses in 2012 and shortly afterwards recruited Joanna Drake as a Co-Founding General Partner. They are an experienced operator team who work closely with a concentrated portfolio of founders from Core Ventures Group seed stage funds – CVG I vintage 2012 and CVG II vintage 2015. They draw from our entrepreneurial experiences and diverse human capital networks to help start-ups overcome early market challenges and build not just breakthrough products, but solid sustainable businesses.
Tragically we lost Shinya in 2019. He was irreplaceable as Founding Partner of Core Ventures Group and we put future CVG funds on hold, while Joanna continues to support CVG founders in their company building and board service. We are proud that so many of the CVG founders have become category leaders across a broad spectrum of industries – from mobile marketing to consumer lending to transactionless shopping.
We put our financial and human capital to work.
An engaged investment model
We invest in relatively few companies and work closely with the founders on strategy and operations. We are rigorous in creating actionable strategies and supporting continuous improvement. We remain calm at all times, because every start-up faces serious challenges and surprises.
Leadership and experience are at the core.
Founder focus
We invest in curious and ambitious founders of the highest character and integrity who are committed to assembling well-rounded business and technical teams. In our experience, these are core strengths upon which great companies are built. We primarily invest in seed stage companies with proven business models and advanced technologies.
We leverage our diverse and global partner network.
Who We Are
The Core Ventures Group partners are serial entrepreneurs who have founded and built world-class companies from the ground up. We source our investment opportunities and related talent searches from rich relationship networks that we have nurtured via direct involvement in over 50 Silicon Valley companies over 20 years each.
Joanna Drake
General PartnerJoanna entered the business world from Stanford University as a management consultant with Booz Allen’s Media and Technology practice. She became a serial start-up executive beginning in the late 1990s. She has launched many world’s “first” award winning media technology products: personalized video newscasts from ReacTV, advanced set top box media services via Moxi, and Viewer Created TV at Current TV. Her most recent executive role was running the Western operations for leading Japanese public mobile company DeNA as COO. Joanna is a board member of the most prominent female Executive group C200 and the preeminent angel investor group Broadway Angels.
Shinya Akamine
General Partner (In Memoriam)Shinya Akamine earned B.S., M.S. and Ph.D., degrees from Stanford in Electrical Engineering. He was recognized by Stanford for being one of its most prolific inventors. Shinya was part of the team that opened the first McKinsey & Company’s Silicon Valley office. After successfully mastering business spreadsheets as a management consultant, he went on to play executive leadership roles at four Silicon Valley venture-backed technology start-ups, including serving as GM at Cygnus Solutions (sold to Red Hat) and serving as Founder and CEO of Postini (sold to Google). Shinya speaks four languages: English, Japanese, Spanish and Founder.
Guy Barbaro
Finance AdvisorGuy Barbaro is a hands-on financial consultant specializing in helping early stage companies build their finance and accounting systems from the ground-up. He brings experience from in-house roles at several start-ups, including Current TV and Listen.com, and has also played key roles in S-1 filings for an IPO, and two acquisitions. Guy has seen many of his clients become acquisition targets or grow into larger successful operations. Post-graduation, Guy worked as an auditor for Deloitte + Touche, after which he spent a decade working in various management positions at a large consumer bank.
Ben Black
Fund AdvisorBenjamin Black is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Akkadian Ventures and a 16-year private equity veteran. Prior to Akkadian, Ben co-founded New Cycle Capital to bring socially responsible investing to sectors like clean energy and social finance. He started his private equity career on the investment teams at Maveron and Rosewood Capital where he focused on branded consumer products and services. Prior to his private equity career, Ben was a member of the founding team of Harris Interactive.
Alice Chan
Marketing AdvisorAlice is an entrepreneur at heart. She’s founded and run businesses and worked inside early and late-stage startups. She started her career in London in the early 90s, and arrived in Silicon Valley just in time for the dotcom boom. She has a passion for marketing and communications and starting fires. She’s held a number of acting VP of Marketing/CMO roles and is known for quickly figuring out what needs to be done to drive a business forward, and then making it happen.
Marie Drez
CFOMarie Drez brings over 20 years experience in finance and administration working with venture capital firms here in Silicon Valley. She recently ran the finance and administrative functions for Noventi Ventures and currently acts as the CFO for several firms in the Bay Area. She has a passion for working with emerging managers and their portfolio companies. Marie moved to the Bay Area during the dotcom boom and began her career in venture after spending over ten years in banking in Los Angeles. She received her B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Sharon Olexy
AdvisorSharon Olexy has raised over half a billion dollars for emerging Internet, Consumer, and Financial Services companies. She has served as the COO of LendUp, a FinTech company for the underbanked, creating over one billion in new credit opportunity for the 56% of Americans shut out of mainstream banking. As an executive sponsor of both the “Lean In” and “LGBTQ and Allies” Employee Resource Groups, Sharon was selected by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the 2017 Business of Pride OUTstanding Voices for her efforts to drive diversity at the C-Level. She is currently on the Board of Kueski whose mission is to extend safe, transparent lending products to the emerging middle class of Mexico and is also an advisor to Wonderschool, a marketplace platform that expands the preschool ecosystem for families and educators. Most recently Sharon was a guest lecturer at UCLA teaching entrepreneurial finance.