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Sho Yamanaka

Sho is a principal at Salesforce Ventures focused on investments in AI/ML and SaaS startups in Japan and Korea. Throughout his career, Sho has led various VC and CVC businesses, including managing accelerator programs, leading the growth of U.S. startups in the Japanese market, and carrying out partnerships between startups and business divisions.

Before joining Salesforce Ventures, Sho was a head of strategic investment at Rakuten Capital, the CVC arm of Rakuten based in Tokyo. Prior to Rakuten, he was an associate at Morgan Stanley. He is a CPA (State of Washington) and holds a MA in Finance from London Business School and a MA in Sociology from Hitotsubashi University.

Pascha Hao

Pascha is an investor with Salesforce Ventures focused on vertical AI, cybersecurity and data infrastructure.

Prior to joining Salesforce Ventures, Pascha was an investor at Battery Ventures spending most of her time on infrastructure software. Before investing, she worked in investment banking at BMO Capital Markets covering Technology and Business Services. Pascha grew up in Long Beach, CA and attended UC Berkeley where she earned a B.A. in Economics and Applied Math.

Kevin Wu

Kevin Wu is an investor at Salesforce Ventures focusing on investments in vertical software, developer tools, and cybersecurity. He is passionate about partnering with both deep domain experts and technical founders from company inception to IPO.

Prior to joining SFVC, Kevin was an investor at Spectrum Equity evaluating growth equity investments in B2B software and data businesses. Kevin received a B.S. in Business Administration from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Matthew Speiser

As the Senior Marketing Manager at Salesforce Ventures, Matthew is responsible for growing the brand of Salesforce Ventures, its partners, and its portfolio companies. Before joining Salesforce Ventures, Matthew held senior level content roles at AngelList, Fundera (acq. by NerdWallet), and Google.

Matthew has collaborated with a wide variety of media publications and startups on content, including Business Insider, The Fiscal Times, NJ.com, Hustle Fund, OpenView Ventures, Mercury Bank, Pave, and CRV, among others. He has a degree in Journalism from the University of Delaware.

Meghan Fitzpatrick

Meghan is legal counsel for Salesforce Ventures, based in San Francisco. She assists the Ventures team with investments as well as ongoing portfolio management and exits. Previously, Meghan was an associate at Silicon Legal Strategy and Goodwin Procter. She counseled investors and a variety of public and private companies on venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance matters.

Meghan received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics and in Art History from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her J.D. from UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings).

Sam Ackah-Yensu

Sam is an investor for Salesforce Ventures based in London. He is responsible for sourcing and due diligence of investment opportunities across EMEA. Prior to Salesforce, he worked in the TMT team for Deutsche Bank in London, advising clients on M&A and financing.

He holds a Master in Energy Management from ESCP Business School and a Bachelor in International Business with Spanish from Warwick Business School.

Sam grew up in Ghana and France and has also lived in the USA, Spain, and the UK. He is a member of SEO London, a UK-based association, where he volunteers as a mentor to support young people from ethnic minority or low socioeconomic backgrounds for career success in elite industries.

Tassbieh Hassan

Tassbieh is a Senior Portfolio Development Analyst at Salesforce Ventures, where she collaborates with the firm’s portfolio companies to advance their impact. Before joining Salesforce Ventures, Tassbieh served as a senior solutions engineer in Salesforce’s New York City office, where she consulted with start-ups to Fortune 500s to devise and execute digital transformation initiatives and solutions for her clients.

Before Salesforce, she worked in a client-facing role at IBM Watson Health in Boston, establishing key client relationships and gaining experience in the intersection of healthcare and artificial intelligence. Tassbieh began her career as a product engineer at IBM, attaining several patents during her time there. Tassbieh holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

Lauryn Poyser

Lauryn Poyser is an Investor for the Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund, where she invests in ed-tech, sustainability tech, diversity and inclusion, social sector tech, and digital health.

Prior to joining Salesforce Ventures, Lauryn worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, advising clients across the renewables, power, and utility sectors. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Colgate University, earning a B.A. in International Public Policy Analysis, concentrated in Economics.

Alyssa Janakus

Alyssa supports the Salesforce Ventures Finance and Operations team and is responsible for financial reporting, business operations, and portfolio management. She works cross-functionally with internal business partners to ensure overall portfolio success.

Alyssa spent two years in investment banking at J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets in New York City where she advised financial institutions on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and other strategic initiatives. Alyssa earned a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Arizona.

Emily Zhao

Emily is a principal at Salesforce Ventures focused on AI/ML in addition to spending time across developer tooling, cybersecurity, vertical SaaS, and health tech. She joined Salesforce Ventures in the spring of 2022 and recently helped launch its $500M Generative AI fund and led several investments in the fund, including Hugging Face, RunwayML, Anthropic, Cohere, and others.

Before joining Salesforce Ventures, Emily was an investor at Avenir Growth Capital, a venture-growth fund based in New York, where she spent most of her time on vertical SaaS, health tech, and application software. Before Avenir, Emily was an associate in the Private Equity group at Blackstone and invested in corporate buyout transactions. She started her career at JPMorgan and holds a BA in Economics and Art History from Dartmouth.

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