An Introduction to Spike Ventures

Todd has more than 20 years of experience as a venture capital investor, entrepreneur, and senior technology operating executive, as well as deep knowledge of intellectual property and IP licensing. He has worked with capital structures ranging from seed stage investments to public offerings and has experience in many sectors, including consumer media and web, optoelectronics, telecoms, cleantech, and healthcare. Most recently, he was founding Managing Partner of Grey Sky Venture Partners, a life sciences and digital health fund that pioneered a venture finance model combining early-stage capital with fund-owned intellectual property. He also served as a senior business leader in a technology incubator fund, where he led efforts to build, fund, and spin out several new deep tech businesses. Todd received his BA from Hendrix College and holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Alim is a Partner at Spike Ventures, AV’s fund for Stanford alums. Before joining AV, he worked at American Express Ventures and GE Ventures, focusing on enterprise, B2B, fintech and AI/ML investments. Prior to investing, Alim worked in tech at Google, where he generated revenue for advertisers and managed a $100M book of business. He also spent time at PayPal in product marketing and Instart Logic, a startup backed by a16z and KPCB, where he focused on business development and partnerships. He holds a BS in Business and Accounting from the University of Southern California where he graduated magna cum laude, an MS in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from The Wharton School.

Naren combines a technical engineering background with experience at startups and VC firms. Before joining AV, he worked with the investing team at venture firm Data Collective (DCVC) looking at frontier tech deals. Before that, he was a Program Manager at Apple and Tesla and has worked for multiple consumer startups. Naren received a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In his free time, he enjoys teaching golf to beginners and composing music.