Patricia Wexler
Founder & General Partner
Patty’s deep Silicon Valley expertise and networks plus her engineering/industrial experience combine with her pragmatic worldview to provide a unique investing angle. A long-term, common-sense, thesis-driven approach led to an early pivot away from over-hyped SaaS towards the opportunity created by the confluence of seismic technology shifts, sustainable growth demands, and a new world order.
She leaned early into the sectors overlooked by venture: foundational (“boring”) industries, “hardtech”, and humanity’s biggest opportunities. As a result, she became an early member of the burgeoning ecosystem around these foundational companies and has developed a reputation and track record to unearth and support breakout companies and deliver top-tier returns.
Born and raised in Venezuela, she graduated #1 in her class with a B.S. in Manufacturing Engineering from Universidad Simon Bolivar. She began her career at CEMEX, then management consulting at BCG and investment banking at DLJ, She obtained her MBA with High Distinction (Baker Scholar, top 5% of class) from Harvard Business School in 2002.
After several years in Strategic Planning at The Walt Disney Company, she began investing in 2005, first at $1.9B private equity fund Elevation Partners (Facebook, Yelp, etc.), where she rose from associate to partner. Afterwards she managed Tembo Capital (McNamee family office), where she invested in multiple early and growth-stage consumer companies. In 2017 she co-founded Starlight Ventures, where she led multiple successful investments and raised a $50M fund.
She currently serves on Activate’s Leadership Advisory Council and mentors at Unreasonable Group, GreentownLabs, Third Derivative, Endeavor, among others.
