Women in VC Panel---Allies Welcome!

Meredith Finn

Partner

March Capital Partners

Meredith brings investing, finance and operating experience across enterprise and consumer technology companies to March Capital Partners. She was most recently a Vice President at Salesforce where she helped lead over 45 investments on behalf of Salesforce Ventures in companies such as Twilio, Stripe, Pendo, Cogito, Pymetrics, Ellevest, Fluxx, and Guild Education.

Prior to her time at Salesforce, Meredith worked in finance and operating roles at Google and Twitter. She began her career in investment banking helping to advise technology, telecom and media companies at both Citi and Evercore Partners.

Meredith graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Economics and received an MBA from Columbia Business School with Dean’s Honors.

Meredith currently serves on the Operating Board of Pursuit, a non-profit organization dedicated to retraining adults with the most need and potential to get their first jobs in technology. She is a passionate and active supporter of the female entrepreneur and investor communities. She has served as a Co-Chair for the Rise of the Female Entrepreneur at The Montgomery Summit, launched Navigate – the first-ever women in enterprise technology summit in NY, and is an active Pod Leader for Parity Partners.

Originally from New York, Meredith enjoys spending her free time hiking with her dog Brady and skiing wherever there is fresh powder.

Elaine Russell

Partner

PLG Ventures

Elaine is a Partner with PLG Ventures focused on early stage tech investing in Southern CA. She started her career in investment banking at JPMorgan in NYC and worked in M&A within the CPG industry before receiving her MBA at Kellogg. Elaine then spent the past 10 years working within the startup industry in San Francisco and Chicago. First, she was an early employee at Tiny Prints up until they were acquired by Shutterfly in 2011 for $333m. After, she moved to Chicago to be VP of Product for Storeplacer, a company with a SaaS social commerce product and then co-founded two B2C companies. The last company she founded was called Little Key, an on-demand marketplace for parents to find and book kids’ classes and activities, acquired in 2016 by Dabble. She was the CMO of Dabble after the acquisition before moving to Los Angeles with her husband and 2 kids at the end of 2016.

Erin Shipley

Founder and Managing Partner

The Helm

Erin Shipley is Founder and Managing Partner of The Helm, a venture fund and investment community that rethinks how people invest in female-led innovation. With offices in New York and Los Angeles, The Helm invests in early stage, high-growth technology companies with a female CEO. More information can be found at thehelm.co. 

Prior to launching The Helm, Erin was part of the investment team at Karlin Ventures, a Los Angeles-based Seed & Series A fund investing primarily in enterprise software, marketplaces, and commerce technologies. Before joining Karlin, Erin worked at The Weinstein Company, where she structured financial products for the studio and worked on developing strategic initiatives across film, television, music and digital groups. At the start of her career, Erin worked for Deutsche Bank in its Middle East headquarters in Dubai. She received her BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Caroline Jacobs

Associate

BAM Ventures

Caroline is an associate at BAM Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Los Angeles. BAM invests in exciting consumer companies like Outdoor Voices, Away Luggage, and ClassPass. At BAM, Caroline sources deals, diligences potential investments, and supports portfolio companies on their growth. During her MBA at USC, Caroline helped Lionsgate launch two new JVs - a local language production company and an OTT platform with Kevin Hart. Prior to business school, Caroline worked in management consulting at Accenture and ran a nonprofit film festival. She loves hiking and eating snacks.