Where does Ellen Chisa work?

Ellen Chisa is Partner at boldstart ventures and Board director at Toposbio and Board director at Generalist and Board director at OpenSauced.

What check size does Ellen Chisa write?

Ellen Chisa typically writes checks of $250K – $2M.

What boards does Ellen Chisa sit on?

Ellen Chisa holds tracked board seats at Generalist, OpenSauced, Toposbio.

What companies has Ellen Chisa invested in?

Investments tracked here include HumanFirst, Liveblocks, Stellate, Toposbio, Zuplo.

Where did Ellen Chisa go to school?

Ellen Chisa studied at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Electrical and Computer Engineering); Harvard Business School (MBA); University of Washington (Human Centered Design and Engineering).

Ellen Chisa

Investor

Partner at boldstart ventures · Board director at Toposbio · Board director at Generalist · Board director at OpenSauced

Somerville, Massachusetts

Writes $250K – $2M checks · typically $1M

Find your path to Ellen

63 people in our graph share verified history with Ellen — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Evan MorikawaunlockedEllen: together at Alight Learning (2008–2010)

×3Ellen: together at Dark

×2Ellen: together at Stellate

×2Ellen: together at Generalist

About

Ellen Chisa, Dark’s cofounder who built a backend language, editor and infrastructure, meets founders pre‑company and focuses on developer adoption via tight learning experiments to displace incumbents in 5–10 years.

Contact· published on Ellen's own website

ellen@boldstart.vc

Invests in

AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaS

Beyond investing

Founded: Chisa founded Darklang (Dark), a programming language company. Chisa dropped out during undergrad to launch her first startup with five friends.
Education: Studied at Harvard Business School (MBA) Studied at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (B.S, Electrical and Computer Engineering)
Hobbies: Her favorite arcade game is Tetris.
Family: Chisa lives in Somerville, MA with her husband and her cat, Gutenberg.
More: Chisa grew up in Rochester Hills, MI.

Mentioned above: the Harvard Business School mafia → · the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering mafia →

From Ellen's own website — common ground for a warm intro.

Board director at Toposbio

Intro paths

→

In turn, Ellen can intro founders to Toposbio's investors below.

Toposbio's investors · 2

boldstart venturesMiami · $1M – $3M checks · since 2025 Threshold VenturesPalo Alto · $500K – $20M checks · since 2024

Co-founders at Toposbio

Ryan ZarconeFounder

Amir KhosrowshahiFounder

Board director at Generalist

Intro paths

→

In turn, Ellen can intro founders to Generalist's investors below.

Generalist's investors · 18

8VCAustin · $100K – $50M checks · since 2026 Bezos Expeditionssince 2026 boldstart venturesMiami · $1M – $3M checks · since 2026 Hanabi CapitalPalo Alto · since 2026 Inspired CapitalNew York · $500K – $20M checks Interwoven Ventures LMNT VenturesMercer Island Naval RavikantPalo Alto · since 2026 NFDGWilmington · since 2026 Norwest Venture PartnersMenlo Park · $10M – $30M checks NVenturesSanta Clara NVIDIASanta Clara · since 2026 Radical VenturesToronto · $1M – $25M checks · since 2026 Scale Venture PartnersSan Francisco · $5M – $25M checks Spark CapitalSan Francisco · $500K – $25M checks · since 2026 The Westly GroupMenlo Park · $500K – $15M checks Transpose Platform ManagementSan Francisco Union Square Ventures (USV)New York · $1M – $8M checks · since 2026

Co-founders at Generalist

Andy ZengFounder

Pete FlorenceFounder

Andrew BarryExecutive Officer, Director

Board director at OpenSauced

Intro paths

→

In turn, Ellen can intro founders to OpenSauced's investors below.

OpenSauced's investors · 2

boldstart venturesMiami · $1M – $3M checks · since 2023 TechstarsBoulder · $220K checks · since 2023

Co-founders at OpenSauced

Brian DouglasExecutive Officer, Director

Experience

boldstart venturesPartnercurrent2022 — presentSomerville, Massachusetts, United States
boldstart venturesFounder-in-Residence2021 — 2022Somerville, Massachusetts, United States
GeneralistBoard Directorcurrent2024 — present
Topos BioBoard Directorcurrent2025 — present
LiveblocksBoard Directorcurrent2022 — present
Noded AIBoard Directorcurrent2025 — present
StellateBoard Director2021 — 2024
DarkCofounder/CEO2017 — 2020San Francisco Bay Area
LolaVP Product2015 — 2017Boston, MA
KickstarterProduct Manager2012 — 2014New York, New York
MicrosoftProgram Manager2010 — 2012Redmond, WA
Alight LearningCo-Founder2008 — 2010Boston, MA

Skills & more

Leadership13Strategy3User Interface Design54Project Management29Software Development22Product Management30User Experience Design7Agile Project Management6Agile Methodologies7User Experience8User Scenarios4Project Planning3

+12 more

TestingMobile ApplicationsMobile TechnologyWindows PhonePhilanthropyScrumSoftware DesignEducationPresentationsUser-centered DesignMicrosoft OfficeAwesomeness

From Ellen's professional profile.

Deals · 2

ToposbioBoard seat

via boldstart ventures · filed Jan 2025 · $10.5M raise

OpenSaucedBoard seat

via boldstart ventures · filed May 2023 · $3.5M raise

Attribution from SEC filings, press coverage, and firm rosters.

Other disclosed investments

Board seats

Generalist

Investor

HumanFirst Liveblocks Stellate Zuplo

Sources: SEC Form D filings · curated public sources.

Colleagues at boldstart ventures

Charlotte Chapanoff

Head of Marketing & Global Events at boldstart ventures

Ed Sim

Founder and General Partner at boldstart ventures

Eliot Durbin

General Partner at boldstart ventures

Ernest Addison

Senior Associate at boldstart ventures

Jennifer Moy

Chief Operating Officer at boldstart ventures

Natalie Ledbetter

Investor at boldstart ventures

Sparky

Investor at boldstart ventures

Todd Papaioannou

Senior Advisor at SAV (Scale Asia Ventures)

Network8

Alice ZhangScout

Angel

Ashley LarsonScout

Vice President at Revolution

Ed SimScout

Founder and General Partner at boldstart ventures

Eliot DurbinScout

General Partner at boldstart ventures

Guy PodjarnyScout

Angel

Shomik GhoshScout

Enterprise software enthusiast and taco bell aficionado

Ted LeonsisScout

Founder & Partner, Revolution Growth at Revolution

Ernest Addison

Senior Associate at boldstart ventures

Investors connected to Ellen in public investor directories — a warm-intro map.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Ellen Chisa?: Ellen Chisa, Dark’s cofounder who built a backend language, editor and infrastructure, meets founders pre‑company and focuses on developer adoption via tight learning experiments to displace incumbents in 5–10 years.
Where does Ellen Chisa work?: Ellen Chisa is Partner at boldstart ventures and Board director at Toposbio and Board director at Generalist and Board director at OpenSauced.
What does Ellen Chisa invest in?: Ellen Chisa invests in AI & Machine Learning, Cybersecurity, Developer Tools, Enterprise Software, SaaS.
What check size does Ellen Chisa write?: Ellen Chisa typically writes checks of $250K – $2M.
What boards does Ellen Chisa sit on?: Ellen Chisa holds tracked board seats at Generalist, OpenSauced, Toposbio.
What companies has Ellen Chisa invested in?: Investments tracked here include HumanFirst, Liveblocks, Stellate, Toposbio, Zuplo.
Where did Ellen Chisa go to school?: Ellen Chisa studied at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Electrical and Computer Engineering); Harvard Business School (MBA); University of Washington (Human Centered Design and Engineering).