Pier 70 Ventures
Venture capitalSeattle · Seed–Series A · 17 people tracked
Find your way into Pier 70 Ventures
Sign up to see every warm intro you have to Pier 70 Ventures
- Paths you didn't know you had: your email and LinkedIn already hold routes to the Pier 70 Ventures team. We find them for you
- 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections: the friend-of-a-friend routes that take hours to manually find through your inbox or LinkedIn
- Answers now, not in days: momentum is everything in a raise. Skip asking around whether someone knows someone
Days of research, done the moment you sign in, with every route ranked by how warm it is.
Investment thesis
Pier 70 Ventures seeks out talented entrepreneurs beyond conventional channels and invests in impact-driven, disruptive innovation, particularly technologies with potential to transform healthcare. The firm partners with early-stage companies to build diverse teams, providing capital and counsel alongside access to an extensive global network of Fortune 200 leaders, universities, and government contacts. Its team combines industry leaders, entrepreneurs, private equity investors, and technologists who contribute operational and investment experience across deal sourcing, due diligence, and corporate and government contracting. Pier 70 emphasizes cultivating diverse C-suite and board talent to strengthen governance and deliver enhanced value for its corporate and institutional investors while generating strong returns.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 3, 2026.
Team · 17 people
from the firm's website & public directoriesBalk is a Co-Founder and Venture Partner at Pier 70 Ventures with a background in strategy, finance, and venture capital investing. He joined Boeing in 1997 and later led its Phantom Works venture capital fund-of-funds program, growing it into a $250M portfolio of 32 funds with a focus on areas such as energy, materials, and advanced computing. Since leaving Boeing he has worked in entrepreneurial programs in Central New York, including mentoring at Cornell University and serving as an Entrepreneur in Residence at High Tech Rochester. He holds an MBA from the University of Rochester Simon School and a BS from SUNY Buffalo.
Preetha Ram is Managing Partner at Pier 70 Ventures, where she manages portfolio investments, deal flow, and portfolio company development. She previously founded and led OpenStudy, a peer-to-peer online learning community that she scaled to over 60 million learners and exited, and has held academic leadership roles at Emory University, Alliant University, and Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from Yale, an MBA from Emory University, and studied at the Indian Institute of Technology.
Miller is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Pier 70 Ventures, where he handles investor development and relations and helps lead the firm's deal flow strategy. He previously served as VP Global R&D Strategy at The Boeing Company and President of Boeing Phantom Works Investments, and later was EVP for Corporate Affairs, General Counsel and Secretary at Integral Systems, Inc. Trained as a lawyer, he began his career advising early-stage technology companies on financing and business matters, and holds a BA from Seattle University and a JD from the University of Puget Sound School of Law.
Shaun Hawkins is a Managing Partner at Pier 70 Ventures, where he manages investments and builds the portfolio with a focus on healthtech. He has over 20 years of experience in healthcare and life sciences investing, and previously served as Vice President of New Ventures and Private Equity at Eli Lilly and Company, where he helped create a $450 million Capital Funds Portfolio. He is the founder of Prosyte Companies, which includes Auxigen Health and Auxigen Medical, and holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Former NASA astronaut and aerospace materials science research engineer who co-chaired a White House National Science and Technology Council committee on STEM education.
Dean at the University of Virginia, co-founder of ImmuneWorks, board member at Baxter International, and former Major in the USAF.
Chair of The Emory Institute for Drug Development and of Drug Innovation Ventures at Emory.
MD, MPH, MPA affiliated with MGH/HMS; MLK Scholar, former CDC Communications Fellow, and Gold Congressional Award winner.
Chairman of Triad Development, real estate developer, and angel investor.
Ph.D. and investor at LRG Ventures; Managing Director of IP and Research at Emory.
Technical Director in the Office of the CTO at Google Cloud, focused on enterprise digital transformation, advanced manufacturing, and ESG.
CPA serving as the firm's Chief Financial Officer.
Professor of Surgery, Medicine and Pediatrics at UCSF, FDA Science Board member, Rosenman Institute founding fellow, and Medical Director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program at UCSF.
Investor at LRG Ventures and Chief of Staff and Director of Financial Operations at Liotta Research Group.
Head of Sales & GTM for Google Cloud HCLS, focused on AI, digital health, cloud transformation, and strategic growth.
Digital health leader, clinician executive, founder, and board chair; director of digital health innovation.
What they invest in
from 3 of 4 portfolio companiesHealthtech ×2AI & Machine Learning ×1Digital Health ×1Enterprise Software ×1FemTech ×1Marketing Tech ×1Medical Devices ×1SaaS ×1
HQs:United States×2Canada×1
Investments · 4 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathBy year:2024 · 22023 · 13 dated
Pelvital is a medical device company that develops FDA-cleared in-home treatments for stress urinary incontinence and pelvic floor muscle weakness in women, using a proprietary mechanotherapy technology.
Digital HealthFemTechHealthtechMedical DevicesEagan, US
Dale Wahlstrom(Co-founder and founding CEO (retired from CEO role, serving as Executive Chair))Lydia Zeller(CEO)
Co-investorsBoomerang VenturesWisconsin Investment Partners
Flyte provides sales leaders with a unified platform for sales coaching, buyer sentiment analysis, competitive intelligence, and deal insights to monitor frontline team performance and achieve revenue goals.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareMarketing TechSaaSSales TechToronto, CA
Shilpa Sharma(Founder)inChhavi Singh(Founder)in
Co-investorsTechstarsBoomerang Ventures
Vital View Technologies has rebranded to PrīmSphera and directs visitors to its new website.
Ray Fraser(Founder)in
Co-investorsElevate Ventures
Other
Tracked investments with no reachable website or further public details — typically companies that wound down, renamed, or were absorbed.
Frequently asked questions
- What stage does Pier 70 Ventures invest at?
- Pier 70 Ventures invests at the Seed, Series A stages.
- What sectors does Pier 70 Ventures focus on?
- Pier 70 Ventures focuses on AI & Machine Learning, Biotech, Cloud Computing, Data & Infrastructure, Deep Tech, Digital Health, Healthtech, Impact & Social Good, SaaS.
- Where is Pier 70 Ventures located?
- Pier 70 Ventures is headquartered in Seattle, US.
Images
Similar investors
Everywhere Ventures is an early-stage venture firm that writes pre-seed checks and is backed by a community of founder and operator LPs.
MDI Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Indonesian telecommunications company Telkom Indonesia, investing in high-growth technology startups across Southeast Asia and globally, with a focus on creating synergies between portfolio companies and Telkom Group and Indonesian state-owned enterprises.
Bessemer Venture Partners is a global venture capital firm that partners with entrepreneurs across enterprise, consumer, and healthcare sectors from early stages through growth.
Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm that backs bold, early-stage, technology-driven companies across deep tech and other sectors, providing hands-on 'venture assistance' to help founders build category-defining businesses.
Norwest is a venture capital and growth equity investment firm that has backed over 700 companies across technology, consumer, and healthcare over its 65-year history.




















