Pillar VC

Co-founder and CEO of PathAI, a Pillar VC portfolio company.

Brian Baynes is a serial technical founder (Midori Health, Kaleido Biosciences) who co-founded a program for frontier bio startups and brings expertise in synthetic biology, microbiome therapeutics and animal health.

Chris Voigt is a synthetic biologist and Professor in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT, as well as an Associate Member of the Broad Institute. He co-founded Asimov, which combines synthetic biology and computer science, and Pivot Bio, a synthetic biology company developing nitrogen-producing microbes.

Corey Thomas is the Chairman and CEO of Rapid7, a Boston-based cybersecurity data and analytics company. He previously worked as a VP at Parallels and as a Group Product Manager at Microsoft. He also serves on the Cyber Threat Alliance Board of Directors and the Massachusetts Cybersecurity Strategy Council.

Dave Husak founded several technology companies, including Synernetics (enterprise Ethernet switches, acquired by 3Com), C-Port (programmable network processor chips, acquired by Motorola/Freescale Semiconductor), Reva Systems (RF location infrastructure), and Plexxi (software-defined datacenter and cloud network infrastructure, acquired by HPE). He later served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at MIT, working on commercializing AI research through the MIT Pillar AI Collective fellowship program. As a Venture Partner at Pillar VC, he focuses on the firm's deep-tech projects and has been a backer since 2016.

Doug Williams has held senior leadership roles across the biotechnology industry, including Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Biogen, CEO of ZymoGenetics (which he led through its acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb), and Chief Scientific Officer and EVP of R&D at Seattle Genetics. He previously served as Senior Vice President and Washington Site Leader at Amgen and as EVP, Chief Technology Officer, and board member at Immunex. He holds a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, Roswell Park Division, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Indiana University School of Medicine.

Emily Leproust co-founded Twist and previously held roles at Agilent, most recently as Director of Applications and Chemistry R&D. She has published more than 30 peer-reviewed papers, many concerning applications of synthetic DNA, and is named on numerous patents.

Jake Becraft is the co-founder and CEO of Strand Therapeutics and sits on its Board of Directors. While at MIT's Synthetic Biology Center, he led the development of what is described as the first synthetic biology programming language for mRNA.

Jamie Goldstein co-founded a 1990s AI speech recognition startup acquired by Nuance, is Founder & Chairman of Petri, co-leads Encode: AI for Science, and publishes tactical VC advice.

Mike Massaro led Flywire's growth across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, aligning its international team with company strategy. His experience covers global payments, mobile software and hardware, and e-billing at high-growth technology companies such as Carrier IQ and edocs, Inc., and he started his career in the technical risk services practice at PWC, LLP. He received the 2019 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Financial Services.

Mike Salguero founded ButcherBox in 2015, a direct-to-consumer company that delivers grass-fed beef, free-range organic chicken, heritage-breed pork, and wild-caught seafood. He built the company around ethically sourced meat, support for family farms, animal welfare, and environmental responsibility.

Niraj Shah co-founded Wayfair with Steve Conine in 2002. Earlier, he was CEO and co-founder of Simplify Mobile, an enterprise software company sold in 2001. He previously served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Greylock Partners, as COO and board member of iXL, and as CEO and co-founder of Spinners, which was sold to iXL in 1998.

Reshma Shetty is a co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks, an organism design company that engineers organisms to specification for customers in markets such as nutrition, health, and consumer goods. Ginkgo Bioworks became a public company through a SPAC in 2021 and trades under the ticker $DNA. She has received recognition from Forbes (2008) and Fast Company (2011).

Rushika Fernandopulle is a practicing physician who co-founded and led Iora Health, a national primary care group, as CEO. After Iora Health was acquired by One Medical in 2021, he took on the role of Chief Innovation Officer there. He also serves on the staff at Massachusetts General Hospital and on the faculty of Harvard Medical School.

Sarah Hodges, an operator-turned-investor who trained 3,000+ startup leaders and scaled Pluralsight, offers founder-obsessed coaching emphasizing mental health, resilience, and hands-on frameworks for hiring, discovery, and inclusion from day one.

Shivdev Rao is a former practicing cardiologist who leads Abridge, a company founded in 2018 that transcribes and summarizes medical visits to help patients understand and manage their care. His work focuses on using AI-driven technology to close communication gaps between patients and clinicians.

Steve Kaufer is CEO and co-founder of Give Freely, a platform that directs retail commissions to charitable causes through a browser extension. He previously co-founded Tripadvisor and served as its CEO. Kaufer's work at Give Freely applies his experience scaling Tripadvisor to enable charitable giving through everyday online shopping activities.

Vivek Farias is the Patrick J. McGovern (1959) Professor at MIT, where his research covers reinforcement learning, inference, approximation algorithms, and dynamic optimization, with applications to commerce platforms and biology. He earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2007. He co-founded and served as CTO of Celect (acquired by Nike) and Cimulate (acquired by Salesforce), contributed technology at Seer, and is currently Head of Science for Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

Founder and CEO of storage software company Actifio and a serial entrepreneur who founded AppIQ and Serano Systems; formerly a partner at Greylock and VP/Chief Technologist at HP.

Axel Wünsch joined Redstone in 2015 after working at automotive and pharmaceutical companies and later at a large consulting firm, where he focused on project management in IT-strategy projects and compliance matters and served as Chief Knowledge Officer. At Redstone he is responsible for organizing resources, tools, and personnel, and manages the contractual aspects and structuring of the firm's sector funds.

Repeat B2B founder and CEO with over 25 years of experience. She was VP of Marketing at Netezza through its 2007 IPO, founded CloudSwitch (acquired by Verizon in 2011) and ClearSky Data (acquired by AWS in 2019), served as a GM at AWS, and most recently founded Causely, a causal AI platform for DevOps.

Serial founder-operator who founded Dyn in 2001 and bootstrapped it, an active angel in 50+ startups focused on deep tech and national security, engaging with Business Executives for National Security.

Parker McKee built and launched a mobile outsourcing platform in college and began his venture career as an intern at .406 Ventures in Boston. After two summers with Pillar, he joined the firm full-time in 2018, where he invests in next-generation networks, AI-powered apps, software infrastructure, crypto, and data systems. He holds an interdisciplinary degree from the University of Michigan, where he captained the varsity lacrosse team.

Thomas de Vlaam has built his career in biotech. Before Pillar VC, he was part of the founding team of Quotient Therapeutics at Flagship Pioneering, and earlier founded and led Amylon Therapeutics, an RNA therapeutics startup for rare neurodegenerative disease that he spun out of ProQR Therapeutics, where he headed CNS innovation. He holds a B.Sc. in International Medicine and Global Health and has contributed to multiple patents and publications.

Tony Kulesa, MIT Biological Engineering PhD and former founding director of MIT BioMakerspace, co-founded biotech incubator Petri then became an investor known for building biotech ecosystems and backing technical founders.

John Casey previously worked at Flagship Pioneering on a venture creation team, where he helped build the scientific strategy of Epiva (which merged with Evelo Biosciences) and was part of the founding teams of Inari Agriculture, leading its IP and contributing to R&D strategy, and Kintai Therapeutics. He holds a doctorate in biological engineering from MIT, where he developed thermostable de novo enzymes on viral capsid proteins, and earned a B.S. in biological engineering from Louisiana State University.

Russ Wilcox, a serial deep‑tech founder turned VC, led E Ink from MIT lab to a $500M exit, combining hands‑on materials, patents and factory scale‑up expertise with Boston unicorn network.

Alex Ting is a creative producer focused on events and spaces at Pillar VC. Before joining the firm, she led experiential marketing at Ginkgo Bioworks, where she produced the annual Ferment conference and directed creative work for the company's real estate portfolio. She holds an M.A. in Arts, Creativity, and Education from the University of Cambridge and a B.A. in art history from Williams College.

Kayan Patel joined Pillar VC after working in R&D at several deeptech startups, where his work spanned biofuels to cultivated meat. He co-founded Farrago, a community supporting London-based artists. He holds an MSc in Bio-Integrated Design (as the inaugural scholar) and a BSc in Biochemistry, both from University College London.

Leah Morris works at Pillar VC, having previously been a Senior Director at Radical Ventures, where she led responsible AI strategy and managed research partnerships. Her earlier experience includes economic AI research at the University of Toronto and global health and security work with the United Nations and nonprofits in Jamaica and South Africa. She holds an MBA and a Master of Global Affairs from the University of Toronto's Munk School, along with dual bachelor's degrees in International Development Studies and Environment, Sustainability, and Society from the University of King's College.

Leone Baron joined Pillar VC after serving as Head of Community and Talent at MCJ, where she built a vetted network of over 3,000 climate-focused founders and funders, supported 100 portfolio companies, and established the firm's talent system over three years. She previously founded a volunteer-led climate content platform, launched a 1:1 introduction tool during the pandemic, and was the first operations hire at a pre-seed environmental data startup. She holds a BASc in Arts and Sciences from University College London.

Liz Kettler previously worked at OpenView Venture Partners, where she built out the Finance function and served as CFO. Her experience covers fundraising, treasury management, reporting, and operations optimization, and she earlier worked in Deloitte's audit practice. She is a CPA and CFA charterholder and holds a BBA from Emory University's Goizueta Business School.

Nina Butler is originally from Martha's Vineyard and spent over a decade building early-stage B2C and B2B startups before joining Pillar VC. She held senior operations and marketing roles at Boston-based companies Paint Nite and Alyce, and served as Chief of Staff at Regie.ai, an AI-powered sales engagement platform. She holds a degree in Geosciences from Wellesley College.

Zach Martins works at Pillar VC. He previously served as a Finance Analyst at General Catalyst and an Assurance Associate at PwC. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst.