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 and is a Board Member at Momentus, Heliogen, Covaxx, Tarana, and Carbon Capture. Prime Movers Lab I is on track to be one of the top performing funds of 2018.
Prior to founding Prime Movers Lab, Dakin served as founding CEO of Tachyus and OpenGov. He is also a philanthropist dedicated to ending world hunger, resolving the global mental health pandemic, and redesigning early childhood education to cultivate integrated beings across body, mind and spirit. 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 discussing the rise of SPACs. 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.
Suzanne is a General Partner of Prime Movers Lab. She has 20 years of experience working in the technology and investment space. Most recently, she spent five years at StartX, the Stanford University focused entrepreneur community, managing the Stanford-StartX Fund, and working directly with hundreds of entrepreneurs. Prior to that, she spent ten years doing secondary private equity investing. Suzanne started her career at Morgan Stanley in the Technology Financial Sponsors Group.
As Fund Manager at StartX, Suzanne oversaw $175M of direct investment in 300 start-ups across 500+ rounds, from seed through Series D, in industries ranging across Enterprise, Consumer, Hardware, and Medical. She earned an MBA from Stanford University and a BS in Finance and Information Systems from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania magna cum laude.
Brandon Simmons is a General Partner of Prime Movers Lab. Brandon has wide-ranging startup experience as an investor, operating executive, board member, and corporate lawyer.
Brandon began his career as a law clerk to Chief Judge J.L. Edmondson of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and then advised startups and investors as a corporate lawyer at Hogan Lovells. Brandon has been an investor and advisor for multiple startups, including Dakin's first company, OpenGov. At Dakin's second company, Tachyus, Brandon built the business from Series A through Series B as COO and interim CEO. Brandon invests in his community through his series Celebrating Black Founders and Investors, his family’s entrepreneurship initiative Oakland Idea Shop, and scholarships at UC Berkeley. Brandon earned degrees with honors from Stanford Law School and UC Berkeley and participates in Robbins Research International’s Senior Leader program.
Zia Huque is a General Partner of Prime Movers Lab where he focuses on growth stage investing. Zia brings a wealth of experience around 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.
Zia served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., the U.S. 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, is active in the community and in select public company boards.
David Siminoff is a General Partner at Prime Movers Lab where he focuses on growth stage investing. David has been an active investor in technology companies over four decades, having played a meaningful role in the advent of “The Dot-Com Era”. With early investments in both public and private rounds in Yahoo, AOL, Netflix, and many other companies, David brings to Prime Movers Growth a unique knowledge base and track record of recognizing patterns that define winners.
At Capital Research, he helped grow a portfolio which started in value at under a billion dollars to 40+ billion dollars. After retiring from public money management duties, he was a key driver in the turnaround of JDate/Spark Networks, bringing them to a public listing on the ASE. He has served on many boards, from the Athletic Board at Stanford University to running the Audit Committee before and after the IPO for Coupons.com/Quotient. He and his wife have been Limited Partners in many venture funds. His wife, Ellen, was in the founding management group at Yahoo and today serves on the boards of Discovery Education, Zynga, BigCommerce, and other private companies.
David graduated with Honors from Stanford University, where he was a member of the varsity swimming & diving team, earned an MFA from the USC Film School and an MBA from Stanford Business School. David lives in Wyoming with his wife, their two children, and a Libertarian dog, Bella.
Amy Kruse is a General Partner of Prime Movers Lab where she leads our life sciences investments. As a neuroscientist and biologist, she discovers emerging new companies and leads in-depth due diligence into potential investments across areas including neuroscience, human augmentation, synthetic biology, longevity/regeneration and agriculture. She also supports portfolio companies in evaluating and overcoming scientific and implementation challenges, with a specific emphasis on deploying complex technology into real-world environments. She serves on the boards of our portfolio companies, Paradromics, Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, and Attune Neurosciences.
Amy is formerly the Chief Scientific Officer at Optios, an applied neuroscience company. She built the company’s scientific vision and completed acquisitions that resulted in a robust intellectual property portfolio. Amy also served as the VP and CTO at Cubic Global Defense overseeing innovation and the R&D portfolio across the entire defense enterprise. Early in her career, she served as a government civilian program manager at DARPA where she created and oversaw the Agency’s first performance-oriented neuroscience programs, with a combined budget of over $300M. Amy is Founding Member of the Loomis Innovation Council and a Guest Lecturer for Singularity University. She earned a BS in Cell and Structural Biology and a PhD in Neuroscience from University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, where she was awarded an NSF Graduate Fellowship.
Jon Layman is a General Partner of Prime Movers Lab. He has more than 25 years of experience in technology and life sciences. Jon has wide-ranging experience advising fast growing startups on strategic, capital raising, operational, and legal matters.
Jon has counseled hundreds of entrepreneurs, startups, and investors in his career. He also has extensive experience with public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and complex cross border transactions. Jon also has invested in technology and life sciences companies for more than two decades.
Prior to joining Prime Movers Lab, Jon was a partner at Hogan Lovells US LLP and previously at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati LP, where he focused primarily on technology and life sciences. Jon earned degrees from New York University School of Law and The University of Michigan.
Tony Robbins is Business Strategist and Partner for Prime Movers Lab. Tony coaches the fund’s leadership and breakthrough Prime Movers using the tools that have made him the #1 personal and professional development leader of all time. Tony Robbins is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, philanthropist, and the world’s #1 life and business strategist.
For over 4 decades, more than 50 million people have enjoyed the warmth, humor, and transformational power of his business and personal development events. Mr. Robbins is the chairman of a holding company comprised of 40 privately held businesses with combined sales exceeding $5 billion a year. He has been honored by Accenture as one of the “Top 50 Business Intellectuals in the World”; by Harvard Business Press as one of the “Top 200 Business Gurus”; and by American Express as one of the “Top Six Business Leaders in the World” to coach their entrepreneurial clients. More than 4 million people have attended Tony’s live seminars, and more than 50 million people from 100 countries have experienced the absolute power of his teachings. Tony Robbins’ coaching methods have been proven at the highest levels of success in every game imaginable. Tony works alongside business magnates like Danny Meyer of Shake Shack, Jenny Fleiss of Rent the Runway, Joe Gebbia of Airbnb and Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff, coaching them to continually improve, innovate and grow. His work has touched the lives of top entertainers and athletes – from Aerosmith to Pitbull, from Serena Williams to the Golden State Warriors.
Alex is Head of Investor Relations and Partner at Prime Movers Lab, where she leads our capital raising process, builds relationships with our limited partners, and develops our community of investors. In addition, Alex advises our portfolio companies in fundraising and strategic business development.
Previously, Alex was a Partner in investor relations at Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P. Alex joined before Pershing Square launched to outside capital, and over 17 years helped build the business to over $10 billion under management, including capital from leading endowments, pensions, family offices, consultants, and high net worth individuals. Alex earned an MBA from Columbia Business school and a BA in the History of Art from Bryn Mawr College cum laude.
Mike is Chief Financial Officer and Partner of Prime Movers Lab. He manages the firm’s financial operations across accounting, reporting, and financial planning. He also advises portfolio companies in their financial strategy and operations. Mike brings over 10 years of experience in the venture capital space.
Before joining Prime Movers Lab, Mike served in controller and finance roles with 137 Ventures, Versant Ventures, and Farallon Capital. He helped build finance teams and systems to scale operations, while also establishing policies for regulatory compliance. He began his career as an auditor with Rothstein Kass (acquired by KPMG) where he focused on venture capital and other alternative investment vehicles. Mike earned a BSBA in Accounting from San Francisco State University.
Anton Brevde is a Partner of Prime Movers Lab. He supports the Prime Movers Lab team and portfolio across all facets of the business. He utilizes his seven years of startup experience to help the team evaluate the market for potential investments and to support portfolio companies.
Previously, Anton was co-founder and CEO of Asseta, a B2B marketplace for manufacturing equipment and spare parts. Asseta provides leading semiconductor manufacturers a safe and efficient platform to sell their excess assets. At Asseta, Anton raised money from premier investors such as Y Combinator, Gil Penchina, Jeff Epstein (ex-COO of Oracle), and Red Swan Ventures. Anton’s day-to-day focus was on business development. He led a global effort targeting Fortune 1000 companies across the US, Europe, China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, and Japan.
Gaetano is a Partner for Prime Movers Lab where he focuses most of his time on growth stage investing. His areas of interest include transportation, energy and infrastructure. Gaetano is a three-time entrepreneur and brings his experience building companies to evaluate opportunities and supports portfolio CEOs in scaling world-changing companies.
Obsessed with building teams and organizations, he co-founded and served as CEO of Cabin Technologies, the tech-enabled long-distance mobility company solving intercity travel, and was responsible for launching their never-before-seen, actively suspended cabins that makes highway travel smoother than trains. Previously, Gaetano was the COO of Betable, the world’s first fintech/game-engine platform powering real-currency play in apps across any platform or device. In 2006, Gaetano founded Machina, a production company focusing on web series, music videos, and commercials during the transition to digitally-consumed content. Gaetano was nominated for a Grammy in 2013 for his work with Foster the People and also produced Beyonce’s “Move Your Body” video for Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!”project. Before becoming a producer, Gaetano was a consumer and retail investment banker at Goldman Sachs in New York. Gaetano is an alumni of Wharton and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Having grown up in Brazil, Venezuela, Canada, and the United States, Gaetano speaks three languages fluently, and lives to explore.
Caleb is a Partner at Prime Movers Lab with a focus on life sciences, human augmentation, bio-industrials, and agriculture. He is a passionate entrepreneur, well-published scientist, and enthusiastic investor. He has started multiple businesses in diverse sectors including the entertainment, food and biotech industries. Prior to Prime Movers Lab, Caleb was a venture partner for Beyond Next Ventures, a Tokyo based fund investing in deep technology. In addition he serves on the board of a multiple entities, volunteers at various accelerators (Stanford’s StartX, UCSF’s Innovation Ventures, FAST and Ikigai Accelerator) and is involved with nonprofits and industry associations (BIO, the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine and the California Life Science Institute) all with the goal of growing the bioventure ecosystem in the US and Asia.
Caleb received a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Pennsylvania State University and a PhD in Biophysical Chemistry from Stanford University. He is the inventor on over 20 issued patents and author of more than 25 peer-reviewed publications. Caleb is eternally curious, and his present interests include supporting commercial and clinical realization of living medicines (cell, gene and microbiome therapies), bio-inspired innovations being brought to market in synergy with nature, and the intersection of computers and hardware with biology.
Christie Iacomini is VP of Engineering and Partner at Prime Movers Lab, where she leads a diverse, exceptional team of engineers and scientists and oversees our technical diligence process. Christie establishes and maintains the standards for our world-leading scientific evaluation of breakthroughs and guides the creation of our research briefings. Christie offers technical direction for our portfolio companies and prospective investments, and coaches them on establishing roles and processes to ensure scientifically robust breakthroughs are scaled and commercialized to serve billions.
Prior to joining Prime Movers Lab, Christie worked at Blue Origin where she served as the original Senior Director of Advanced Systems, growing that organization, and leading the development of the Blue Moon lunar lander from concept through preliminary design for NASA’s Artemis Program. Prior to that she grew Blue’s fluids organization and oversaw their engineering efforts to support development and flight of launch vehicles and crew capsules. Earlier in her career, she helped manage Paragon Space Development Corporation’s fast growth as the original Director of R&D and eventual Deputy to the Chief Operating Officer. Throughout her career, Christie has gained deep technology and systems development experience over a breadth of technology areas including early orbital GPS applications, large-scale parafoils, life support, thermal control, spacesuit systems, in situ resource utilization, and fuel cells. Her experiences include achieving successful full-scale testing and delivery of spaceflight hardware, from drop testing NASA’s X-38, to overseeing the development of the spacesuit that protected Alan Eustace on his world record space dive from the stratosphere, to delivering Boeing’s Starliner humidity control system. Christie earned aerospace engineering degrees at Purdue (BS), The University of Texas (MS), and The University of Arizona (PhD).
Ramez is a computer scientist, author, and clean energy expert. Ramez is the Chief Futurist of Prime Movers Lab, where he focuses on understanding and communicating future scenarios for technology and its impact on society, and helping to steer Prime Movers Lab’s investments towards global grand challenges.
Prior to joining Prime Movers Lab, Ramez served as the Co-Chair for Energy and Environment at Singularity University; authored 5 books about the future, including the award-winning Nexus science-fiction trilogy; drove investments in a number of clean energy companies including ESS Inc, EnergyX, and other deeptech energy and climate startups; and spent 13 years at Microsoft where he played leadership roles on products and services that have touched the lives of billions. Over the past decade, Ramez has given talks to corporate, financial, and policy leaders on 6 continents, and advised the top executives of numerous Fortune 100 energy and climate-related companies. He holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois.
Carly Anderson is Principal Chemical Engineer and Partner for Prime Movers Lab. As a chemical engineer, she performs in-depth due diligence into potential investments across areas including nuclear, solar, energy storage, water, agriculture, synthetic biology, and materials. She also supports portfolio companies in evaluating and overcoming key process design, scalability and implementation challenges. Carly has supported new technologies through fundamental research, prototyping, and techno-economic assessments for applications across the energy, materials, industrial chemicals, bioproducts, and water treatment spaces.
Carly brings 10+ years of experience in startups, technology development, and technical consulting to Prime Movers Lab. As Senior Engineer at Mosaic Materials, Carly designed gas separation processes for bioenergy, oil & gas, petrochemical and carbontech applications using a new class of porous materials. Carly has also led fundamental research on creating electrical plasma devices for biomedicine and wastewater remediation, and on new characterization techniques for thermoelectric and battery materials. She began her career with Dominion Engineering, Inc., where she developed and deployed water chemistry and corrosion mitigation technologies for commercial nuclear plants. Carly holds a PhD in chemical & biomolecular engineering from UC Berkeley and a BS in chemical engineering from Cornell University.
Alessandro Levi is Electrical Engineer and Partner at Prime Movers Lab, focusing on industries, such as robotics, transportation, IoT, telecommunications, semiconductor, and computing. Prior to joining the firm, he was the founder and CEO of Semplus Corp., a pressure sensor display company in Palo Alto, CA. Alessandro raised several million dollars from angels, institutional, and strategic investors such as Daimler Mercedes-Benz. He has extensive experience in business development, fundraising, partnerships, intellectual property, and operations.
Alessandro is passionate about mentorship and helping young entrepreneurs. He’s an active member of Silicon Valley’s tech community, donating his time and attention to Plug and Play Tech Center, an accelerator, and StartX, the founders’ community at Stanford University. Prior to Semplus, Alessandro was a researcher at Stanford University’s Department Materials Science and Engineering, where he developed smart organic electronic skins for robots.
He holds four patents in the fields of human-machine interfaces, manufacturing, and touch sensors and is a reviewer for several peer-review journals. Alessandro hails from Milan, Italy, and holds a PhD in Innovative Technologies of Information & Communication Engineering and Robotics from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and the Italian Institute of Technology. In his personal life, Alessandro enjoys skiing, soccer, and trading.
Jyothi Devakumar is Principal Biologist and Partner at Prime Movers Lab with a focus on investments in the longevity and regenerative medicine sectors. Her career has spanned a wide variety of roles in several countries, and she brings rich cross-cultural management experience, having held management and C-level positions in India, China, Singapore, Malaysia, and the U.S.
Prior to joining Prime Movers Lab, Jyothi provided scientific advice to longevity investors and served as founder and Chief Science Officer at two stem cell startups. Her most recent emphasis has been on the application of regenerative medicine to the health conditions of late life, and her work experience and expertise range from drug discovery to stem cell-based regenerative medicine and longevity. She has also worked recently as a Visiting Professor leading research in the field of regenerative medicine and as a consultant to companies in the stem cell sector in China. Jyothi was born and raised in south India, where she obtained her BS, MSc, and PhD degrees.
Liz Stein is Systems Engineer and Partner at Prime Movers Lab. While her background is in Aerospace Engineering, she’ll be providing in-depth technical diligence more broadly to the energy, transportation, infrastructure, and manufacturing investment verticals. She evaluates solutions from a systems perspective and considers how various elements integrate together to make a comprehensive product.
Liz’s 15 years of engineering experience runs the spectrum of extreme environments from near absolute zero cold to blazing hot (-400°F liquid hydrogen turbopumps to +3500°F hypersonic vehicles). Liz enjoys working on challenging problems in places that encourage innovative thinking. She spent the beginning of her career in a small R&D environment working on rocket propulsion technologies and clean energy combustors, taking designs from concept through demonstration testing. She has spent the last 6 years of her career on hypersonics capability development at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, focusing her final two years on strategic planning and management of the Flight Sciences team. One of her primary initiatives was engaging with external hypersonics R&D activities and starting collaborations with NASA, SNL, AFRL, industry, and university partners. Liz remains engaged professionally through AIAA, serving as the HyTASP technical committee Communications chair. Liz received her Masters and Bachelors both in Aerospace Engineering, from Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Florida, respectively.
Bryan is Head of Manufacturing and Partner at Prime Movers Lab. He provides manufacturing due diligence on potential investments, engages in a wide spectrum of advanced technology and manufacturing evaluation, and uses his experience with international methodologies and operations to support Prime Movers as they scale their manufacturing capability.
Bryan has long been passionate about leading advanced manufacturing teams and continuous improvement cultures to develop and deliver groundbreaking products and technologies. Prior to joining Prime Movers Lab, Bryan managed manufacturing operations and programs for Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies. His drive for excellence earned the teams' top Quality and Delivery awards and accreditations from his customers. Bryan earned his Masters degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Paul Iarrobino is VP of Government Relations and Partner at Prime Movers Lab, where he leverages his deep experience in government relations, advocacy, and communications in both the public and private sectors to help our portfolio companies thrive in complex regulatory and government contracting environments. He works with our portfolio companies to translate breakthrough science into stories that are compelling to influential audiences in Washington, DC and state capitals.
Prior to joining Prime Movers Lab, Paul served in senior roles at Raytheon, including Vice President of Communications for Global Business Development, and Director of Public Affairs, where he engaged with the network of influencers in Washington and globally to help the company achieve business success in challenging market environments. Earlier in his career, Paul had multiple Government Relations, Business Development, and Advocacy roles at Boeing. He also served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as a key advisor on policy and programmatic issues related to ballistic missile defense. As Legislative Assistant to US Senator Jon Kyl, Paul handled a broad portfolio that included defense, transportation, and telecommunications. Paul earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Michael J Savage is an Executive Coach with Prime Movers Lab. He meets with founders in our portfolio on a monthly basis and supports them as they evolve with their organizations. He brings two decades and over 100,000 hours of coaching experience across a wide range of businesses, from startups coming out of YCombinator 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 Trainer with Robbins Research — founded by Life and Business Strategist Tony Robbins. He was a Business Coach and Trainer during his time at Robbins Research, and traveled the globe supporting and Facilitating 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.
Ashley is Talent Partner with Prime Movers Lab where she leads talent initiatives for the firm, manages recruiter and expert relationships across different verticals of interest, and advises portfolio companies in hiring and team building.
Before Prime Movers Lab, Ashley collaborated with venture capital firms like First Round Capital and Quona Capital on their talent, people operations and community initiatives. She has scaled multiple high growth startups, building processes along the way, and recruited for companies looking to double or triple their revenue in a three-to-four year period. Ashley serves as a moderator for the “Women in Venture Capital” global community of 10,000+ women supporting each other in the investment space and has spoken internationally on people operations strategy for startups in Santiago, Los Angeles and more. Ashley received her B.S. from the University of Colorado in Journalism with a minor in Technology, Arts, and Media.
Kenny Lauer is Ecosystem & Experience Partner for Prime Movers Lab. Kenny brings his deep understanding of experience creation, next-gen technology, and behavior modeling to facilitate content exchange and breakthrough thinking. He focuses on creating physical and virtual solutions for systematic and organic connections within our ecosystem. His strategies for discovery and connection empower our team, our portfolio companies, and the deep tech ecosystem. Kenny also supports our portfolio companies in their marketing and engagement growth with a specific emphasis on strategy and the use of technology to drive behavior.
Kenny started his career with the coveted title of “Evangelist” at Apple and has spent decades focusing on human behavior, strategy and experience. His passion is to use technology and engagement strategies to collapse physical and social distances between people and improve their lives. Most recently Kenny was the Chief Experience Officer for an AI company that created AI Personas of real people. Earlier Kenny led Marketing and Digital for the Golden State Warriors during their championship years; ran a global Digital Experience group for the world’s largest privately-owned experience agency; and held senior management positions with KPMG and Peppers & Rogers Group. Kenny has been awarded the elite Certified Experience Economy Expert designation, was added to the BT-150 recognized as one of the top global executives leading innovative business transformation, and was added to the AX-50 list for leaders in ambient experiences. Kenny is proud to be an active member of The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (EMMYs) and an Advisory Board Member to the SXSW Conference. Kenny lives with his family in Oakland, California.
Gavin is Communications Partner at Prime Movers Lab and leads public relations for the firm as well as its portfolio companies, helping entrepreneurs tell their stories to key audiences, including media, consumers, investors, and policymakers.
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, D.C. 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 and Verisign. 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.
JJ Moi is Creative Director and Partner for Prime Movers Lab. As a designer, he evaluates the products of potential investments and engages deeply with portfolio companies to develop differentiated branding, marketing, and design strategies. JJ has designed logos, websites, web applications, ad campaigns, physical products, and buildings across startups, large institutions, governments, and design agencies.
Previously, JJ was the Creative Director at OpenGov, where he was the lead designer for the world's leading open government platform. Before OpenGov, he supported world-leading brands in their visual design and branding efforts through multiple top-tier design agencies. He continues to be a mentor at various places teaching aspiring designers about the tricks of the trade. He has also previously served as an innovation specialist at GSA/18F, an innovation laboratory within the U.S. federal government. JJ completed postgraduate studies in New Media from the Academy of Art University and earned a BFA in Industrial Design from Rangsit University.
Brad is Chief of Staff at Prime Movers Lab where he acts as a force multiplier across the early stage and growth funds. He supports Dakin in leading and managing fund operations, including assisting diligence and fundraising efforts, and leading special projects.
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.
Referred to as “the most famous astronaut since Neil Armstrong”, Colonel Chris Hadfield became a household name as the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station. Formerly NASA’s Director of Operations, Hadfield is a heavily decorated astronaut, engineer, and test pilot whose many awards include the Order of Canada and the Meritorious Service Cross.
Hadfield is also a three-time bestselling author, an acclaimed musician, an adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo, chair of the board of the Open Lunar Foundation, and host of two internationally acclaimed television series, In addition, Hadfield leads the space stream at Creative Destruction Lab, one of the world’s top tech incubators.
Gabrielle is a Venture Partner with Prime Movers Lab. She has 10+ years of experience working across the arenas of finance, startups, people operations and executive coaching. Most recently, she spent the past 3 years training executives and entrepreneurs in mental and physical fitness. Prior to that, she ran operations at Tachyus managing people, HR, legal, and finance.
Before Tachyus, Gabrielle spent a combined 6 years in Investment Banking and Research/Consulting covering oil and gas, technology, media, telecom, leveraged finance and M&A. She earned a BA from Colgate University, majoring in French and Philosophy. Prior to college, she was a national gymnast and undefeated cross-country runner.
Daniel is an executive assistant for Prime Movers Lab. He supports the team across scheduling, meeting preparation, research, and whatever else is required to ensure the success of our founders. Daniel is passionate about interacting with and serving people and creating magical moments for everyone that we have the honor to engage with.
Before Prime Movers Lab, Daniel held various marketing roles in the tech startup world of Atlanta. He also spent 2 years as the president of a community organization that organized music and art events around town. His experience in this arena allows Prime Movers Lab to lean on him for planning and executing events for founders and investors.
Nicolette is an Executive Assistant with Prime Movers Lab, supporting General Partners Zia Huque and David Siminoff who specialize in later-stage, growth investments. Nicolette assists the General Partners and broader team through scheduling, meeting and event coordination, research, and investor relations support.
Prior to joining Prime Movers Lab, Nicolette served as Operating Officer with BDO in the Cayman Islands where she managed the firm's operations and business development efforts. Before moving to the Cayman Islands, she spent two years as an Executive Assistant with the Boston Consulting Group in Denver, Colorado. Nicolette's passion for community engagement and public service has inspired her to work with diverse local and international nonprofit organizations. Nicolette holds a dual BA in International Studies and Spanish from the University of Denver.
Kayla is an Executive Assistant with Prime Movers Lab, supporting General Partners Suzanne Fletcher and Brandon Simmons. Kayla assists across calendar management, research, event coordination, project management, and meeting preparation. She is passionate about building relationships and creating positive experiences throughout all interactions.
Prior to joining Prime Movers Lab, Kayla served as an Executive Assistant at Vista Equity Partners, where she supported the Senior Advisor to the CEO in Austin, Texas. She has previously worked for the National Basketball Association and has an extensive background in account management, investor relations, and event coordination. Kayla attended the University of Texas at San Antonio and holds a BA in Communications Studies.
