LiveOak Ventures

Krishna Srinivasan co-founded LiveOak Ventures and has invested in early-stage Texas-based companies since 2000. Before LiveOak, he was a Partner at Austin Ventures and earlier worked at Motorola on supply chain optimization software and strategic issues. He holds an MBA from Wharton (Palmer Scholar), an MS in Operations Research from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Tim Heyl is a residential real estate entrepreneur who built and sold several real estate businesses, including Mint Title and a lead conversion call center called Phone Animal. He led his brokerage, The Heyl Group, to be a four-time Inc 5000 company, and founded Homeward, for which he was recognized by Inman News as Innovator of the Year in 2019 and Person of the Year in 2021.

Venu Shamapant co-founded LiveOak Ventures and has invested in early-stage Texas-based companies since 1999. He was previously a General Partner at Austin Ventures and worked at McKinsey & Co. serving enterprise systems and software clients, and began his career as a software developer and engineering lead at Mentor Graphics. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS in Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BS in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Osmania University.

Creighton Hicks is a Partner at LiveOak Venture Partners, where he focuses on early-stage enterprise technology investments. He has more than twenty years of experience in enterprise software and technology, spanning server infrastructure, software development, investing, product, and go-to-market strategy.

Mike Marcantonio is a Partner at LiveOak Ventures who has worked in investing for over a decade. He previously was a Principal at Blue Heron Capital investing in tech-enabled business services and healthcare companies, and earlier held roles at American Capital, Harris Williams, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He holds an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and a BS in Finance and Accounting from James Madison University.

David Stewart is a Venture Partner at LiveOak Ventures, where he helps source and evaluate deals and advises portfolio companies. He has invested in and advised more than 30 software companies, most recently working with Trinity Ventures, and previously served as Chief Business Officer at Turo after it acquired SocialStudio, the company he founded. His earlier product roles include VP of Product at Yammer, Senior Director of Growth at Playdom, and product roles at YouTube and Google; he started at the Boston Consulting Group and holds an MBA and BA from Yale University.

Julianna Giraldo leads marketing strategy at LiveOak Ventures and provides marketing support to the firm's portfolio companies. She began her career at Dell Technologies through the Marketing Development Program, rotating through Communications and Latin American Channel Marketing before taking on roles in go-to-market strategy and crisis communications. She holds a bachelor's degree in International Economics from Texas Tech University.

Kathryn Moore joined LiveOak Ventures after completing an MBA at the Texas McCombs School of Business, where she was a Venture Fellow and worked with firms including Mainsail Partners and Wex Venture Capital. Prior to business school, she built and scaled sales teams at AI cybersecurity company Darktrace from Series C through post-IPO and was an early employee at Toptal focused on growth and go-to-market strategy. She holds a BA in Philosophy and Linguistics from Princeton University.

Paola Retes is an investor at LiveOak Ventures who joined after earning an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. She was previously an early employee and lead associate at Ironspring Ventures, and earlier held operating and investing roles at Holt Ventures, Becton Dickinson, Deloitte, and Matterhorn Capital Management. Her investment experience spans multiple stages and industries with a focus on enterprise software, and she holds a CFA charter.

Wafae Owen is Co-Founder of Lwartiz Enterprises and a payroll and finance professional with more than 20 years of experience across payroll operations, accounting, and organizational leadership in corporate, nonprofit, and international settings. Her background includes multi-cycle payroll processing, payroll implementations, and PEO environments, as well as finance leadership roles such as Finance Manager for a university in Malawi, where she supported budgeting, financial systems, and financial controls. She is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence, with a focus on applications in data validation, reporting, process improvement, and audit readiness for payroll and finance operations.