Dakin Sloss is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. He is Founder and General Partner of Prime Movers Lab, the world’s leading partner of breakthrough scientific startups. He has led investments in transformative companies including Tarana, Halo, Carbon Capture, Focused Energy, Gilgamesh, Paradromics, Diamond Age, Space Perspective, Quantum Space, Zafrens, and Boom Supersonic.
Prior to founding Prime Movers Lab, Dakin served as founding CEO of Tachyus and OpenGov. He is also a philanthropist through the Satchitananda Foundation dedicated to delivering food, freedom and flourishing to our global human family. Dakin studied Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy at Stanford University. Dakin has been recognized as one of Yahoo Finance’s THE NEXT: 21 people who will have a significant impact on the worlds of finance, business, sports or politics in the year ahead and was featured on CNBC. In 2016, Dakin was recognized as the featured Forbes 30 Under 30 energy entrepreneur. In 2017, he was named as a San Francisco Business Times 40 Under 40 honoree.
Zia Huque is a General Partner of Prime Movers Lab where he focuses on growth-stage investing. Zia brings a wealth of experience in later-stage financing, having been in the business of risk investment and risk management across credit, rates, equities, and derivatives asset classes for the vast majority of his career. Zia also brings his operational expertise to Prime Movers Lab, having had vast executive, strategic and operational responsibilities across multiple businesses and regions of a top-five global investment bank managing tens of billions of dollars and thousands of employees. He serves on the boards of Tarana Wireless, Energy Vault (NRGV), Lyten, Boom Supersonic, E-Space, Mycoworks, CarbonCapture Inc, and Paradromics.
Zia served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc, the US Broker Dealer of Deutsche Bank, from early 2018 until his departure from Wall Street in 2019. At Deutsche Bank, Zia was also Head of Equities, Fixed Income & Currencies for the Americas from 2016 to 2018 and Global Co-Chief Operating Officer of Corporate Banking and Securities from 2012 until 2016. During Zia’s 30-year finance career on Wall Street, he held multiple executive positions in the United States, Europe and Asia while leading investment banking, sales and trading functions spanning many industries, products, and clients.
Zia received his BA in Economics and in Political Science from Williams College. He resides in Wyoming with his wife and two daughters and is active in the local community.
Taylor is the CFO and Partner of Prime Movers Lab. She helps manage the firm’s financial operations across accounting, reporting, and financial planning.
Before joining Prime Movers Lab, Taylor served in controller and accounting roles with P Soros Investments and Long Light Capital, LLC. She oversaw accounting functions for the family offices, while also handling HR functions for family office employees. She began her career as a tax accountant with RSM US where she focused on private equity companies and high net worth individuals. Taylor earned a master’s degree in Corporate Accounting and an undergraduate degree in Accounting with a minor in Judaic studies, both from The University of Miami. She is a licensed CPA in the state of New York and a Level III CFA Candidate.
Gavin is Chief of Staff and Platform Partner at Prime Movers Lab where he leads portfolio support, helping founders with public relations, government relations, and fundraising. He helps founders tell their stories to key audiences, including media, consumers, investors, and policymakers. He also serves on the boards of Spartan Radar, Dalan, and Wacomet, and he is a board observer for Pyka.
Prior to joining Prime Movers Lab, Gavin was a Vice President at Method Communications where he supported the firm’s startup clients on issues related to media relations, public affairs, and crisis communications. Gavin previously worked for Edelman’s Washington, DC technology practice, representing some of the world's largest technology brands, such as Samsung, Adobe, and the Business Software Alliance. He also worked as a lobbyist for companies like eBay, Verisign, and Pitney Bowes. Gavin started his career on Capitol Hill with the Senate Finance Committee’s press office for Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), advising the majority staff on media strategies to pass trade, healthcare, and tax legislation. He graduated with a master’s degree in political management from The George Washington University and earned bachelor’s degrees in communication (journalism) and political science from Washington State University.
Justin Briggs is a scientific entrepreneur and investor working at the nexus of biology, chemistry, and engineering. He is a Biologist & Operating Partner at Prime Movers Lab and supports portfolio company Zafrens full time. He also serves on the boards of Lygenesis, Iridia, and Morphoceuticals.
Over the last 15 years, Justin was an operator at nearly a dozen biotech, nanotech, robotics, and software companies with multiple exits and over $100 million in venture backing. Justin also supported venture creation at startup studios such as Deep Science Ventures and Accele Venture Partners. Justin developed novel therapeutics and regenerative medicines in disease areas including oncology, neurology, autoimmune, cardiometabolic, and infectious diseases across ten countries and four continents.
Prior to joining Prime Movers Lab, Justin developed next-generation biologic medicines, novel pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and other technologies at companies including Antiverse, Tetherex Pharmaceuticals, Accele BioPharma, Otologic Pharmaceutics, Pamlico BioPharma, Synereca, Jortan Pharma, Altheus Therapeutics, Crescendo Biosciences, and Southwest Nanotechnologies. Justin co-founded TomorrowScale Ventures and startups Chorus Labs, SnapLab Technologies, and Patch Botanics. Justin is knowledgeable across many discovery, development, commercialization, and scaling activities relevant to deep tech and life science companies, has a degree in biomedical sciences from the University of Oklahoma, an MBA with high honors from Oklahoma City University, and is a co-inventor on multiple issued patents.
Brad is an Operating Partner at Prime Movers Lab and supports portfolio company Dalan Animal Health. He also serves on the boards of Robust.AI and Inevitable.
Prior to joining Prime Movers Lab, Brad was the first employee at Asseta, a marketplace for semiconductor manufacturing equipment, where he led go-to-market efforts in Asseta’s largest business lines. He led efforts to secure and manage an international asset disposition deal with a Fortune 100 chipmaker. Brad was relentlessly focused on delivering customer value and launched two of Asseta’s most successful services. Earlier in his career, Brad worked in KPMG’s M&A diligence group, specializing in the energy, agriculture, healthcare, and transportation industries. Brad earned a BBA from Emory University and was recognized as a member of the 100 Senior Honorary for emerging alumni leaders.
Nick Fincher is an Operating Partner who leads investor relations at Focused Energy. In this role, he is responsible for building and fostering enduring relationships with investors. Nick previously served as a Principal at SVB Capital, where he was in charge of fundraising and investor relations for the company's flagship venture fund of funds platform. Nick also spent nine years at PIMCO, one of the world's largest investment managers, where he was a vice president of institutional business development and client service. In addition, he previously held investor relations positions at Eaton Vance and TS Capital LLC, where he worked with family offices and wealth managers.
Nick holds a bachelor's degree from Purdue University and received an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is a fitness enthusiast who has combined his love for competition with philanthropy by serving as a director of the D10, a community of civic-minded athletes that has raised over $15 million for pediatric cancer research. When he’s not raising assets or awareness, you can find him paddleboarding, playing pickleball and hiking with his wife in Austin, Texas.
Decker Cunov provides coaching, team-building, and mediation for several Prime Movers Lab portfolio companies. He's spent the past 25 years working with organizations to attain extraordinary levels of teamwork and performance. His 1:1 coaching focuses on executives effectively empowering themselves, their leadership teams and their organizations. Decker has mediated and coached for more than $1.6 billion in deals, most recently as a founding partner at Prime Movers Lab.
Over the years, Decker has supported many remarkably influential organizations. His clients included the Founders Fund team and many of the highest-performing startups in tech history. In addition to his business consulting, Decker has trained thousands of coaches and facilitators through Authentic World and The Integral Center, counseled homeless young adults by founding a one-of-a-kind residential program in San Francisco called Arkhouse, and facilitated leadership development and mediation for the US Army.
Michael J Savage is an Operating Partner and Executive Coach with Prime Movers Lab. He meets with founders in our portfolio on a regular basis and supports them as they evolve with their organizations. He coaches individuals to achieve more and helps organizations come together to celebrate milestones like initial sales. He brings two decades and over 100,000 hours of coaching experience across a wide range of businesses, from startups coming out of Y Combinator or 500 Startups, to C-Level executive coaching inside some of the most recognizable companies today. For over 15 years, Michael traveled the world supporting individuals and teams as a Business Coach and Trainer with Robbins Research—founded by Life and Business Strategist Tony Robbins where he facilitated Business Results Workshops on a broad range of topics, as well as Tony’s Life & Wealth Mastery Events. He is an ICF and BCC certified Executive Coach.
Outside of coaching, Michael has successfully built businesses in financial services as well as retail. He has supported founders and startups, coaching individuals and teams, as well as training and certifying coaches working in startup ecosystems like Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Project in Las Vegas. As a business coach and advisor Michael holds board seats in a number of small and medium-sized organizations and holds a seat on the Board of the Hero Initiative, a not-for-profit charity supporting the creative minds behind the world’s greatest comic book and pop culture icons. He resides in central Florida with his partner and daughter.
JJ Moi is the Design Partner for Prime Movers Lab. He supports the diligence process focusing on the design and experience of potential investments as well as engages deeply with founders in early and growth stage startups to build the best design teams and lovable products.
JJ has designed brands, digital and physical products, and buildings across various startups, large institutions, governments, and design agencies. Prior to joining Prime Movers Lab, JJ led creative and design direction at Raytheon Technologies and was the founding designer at Spring Science, Tachyus, and OpenGov, where he created seamless user experiences for the world's leading products and platforms as well as served as an innovation specialist at GSA/18F, a digital services agency within the US federal government. Before that, he collaborated with world-leading companies in their design and branding efforts through multiple top-tier design agencies. JJ completed postgraduate studies Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley, Interaction Design and New Media from the Academy of Art, and earned a BFA in Industrial Design from Rangsit University. He continues to be an adjunct lecturer at Pratt Institute teaching aspiring designers and serves as a faculty advisor at University of Washington, Oregon State University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Brandeis University.
Ryan is an Executive Assistant who supports Prime Movers Lab across a wide variety of functions such as coordinating daily logistics, events, fundraising, scheduling, investor relations, as well as founder relations.
Ryan has a diverse background in the hospitality industry and as an executive assistant. He studied legal studies in business, taxation, accounting and administration at Hofstra University. After completing his studies, Ryan joined The Ritz Carlton Destination Club in Aspen as a personal concierge. He then worked for several ultra-high-net-worth individuals in New York, Miami, and London.
Brantley is Operations Manager and supports partners across a wide variety of functions such as operational and administrative processes, HR assistance, and event coordination.
Prior to working with Prime Movers Lab, Brantley worked as Personal and Executive Assistant to professional athlete Travis Rice and was Coordinating Producer for the snowboarding competition Natural Selection Tour. She has over a decade of office management experience in Jackson, Wyoming, the place she called home for 17 years. Brantley currently resides in her hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia near her siblings and parents. Brantley is passionate about working with others and brings her skills of organization, enthusiasm, and problem-solving to every team she is a part of. She is an avid outdoorswoman, animal therapy advocate, bicycle enthusiast, and yoga instructor. Brantley graduated from James Madison University with a B.A. in Sociology.
