PAX Venture Partners

The backbone of Pax Momentum is our diverse network of Venture Partners. Far from just writing checks, these individuals are hands-on in the company selection process in each cohort and provide invaluable mentorship to our founders. Our investors come from a wide range of backgrounds and business experience, but all share one common passion: working with early stage startups.

Kim Nguyen, PhD
Co-invests With Forgepoint and Blu Ventures

Notable Achievements: B.A., Harvard Economics. Ph.D. UC Berkeley Economics. Lead Investor for Huntress Labs. 5 successful exits. Led the growth of a Federal IT Services contractor from $8M to nearly $200M in annual revenues. Invests from Washington DC.

Paul Silber
Co-invests With Blu Ventures and Baltimore Angels

Notable Achievements: Ph.D, Toxicology, 5 patents. Founded In Vitro Technologies and later went on to lead its successful sale in 2006. Board Director and investor in various organizations including Oculis Labs, Pathsensors, Encore Path, and more.

Rob Hellewell
Vice President, Prism Analytics

Notable Achievements: MS in Business Analytics from NYU; JD from BYU. VP of Lighthouse. Formerly VP of Electronic Discovery at Applied Discovery and VP of Data Analytics at Conduent. Election Monitor for the OSCE. Invests from Washington DC.

PK Malhotra
Blu Ventures and Tipping Point

Notable Achievements: M.B.A. from Georgetown University. Former COO of Optum Government, a $100B health services business and COO/CFO of QSSI, a $100M+ enterprise specializing in customer software development.

Mary Schroeder
MCS Ventures

Notable Achievements: BA from Notre Dame. Lead over $1b investments into distressed and high growth companies across Asia. Co-founded Happy Cow and led its growth throughout Greater China. She is currently running her own VC firm: MCS Ventures.

Bob Struble
Former CEO at Directed

Notable Achievements: B.S. in chemical engineering from MIT; M.B.A from Harvard Business School. Founded iBiquity. Ex-McKinsey, President of Westinghouse Communications, and Co-Chair of the Consumer Technology Association.

Steve Matthews
Crowdstrike

Notable Achievements: Executive Sales Leader at CrowdStrike. Global VP of Sales, Alliances and Business Development at Symantec. Experienced executive leader in cybersecurity and managed services industries. Invests from Los Angeles, CA.

Darren Lee
Executive VP & GM at Proofpoint

Notable Achievements: Served as Founder and CEO of NextPage, leading provider of Information Governance solutions. Founded multiple startup companies and has vast experience in defining markets and driving revenue. Invests from Draper, Utah.

David Krauskopf
Blu Ventures

Notable Achievements: MBA from Northwestern University. Owner of Hamanasi Adventure Resort. GM of Apple Russia. Founded printing and press room solutions company that grew to $200M+ in combined revenue. Invests from Washington DC.

Zachary Dutton
FSD Pharma and River Valley Investors

Notable Achievements: B.A. in Economics from Queen’s University, MBA from Babson College. Founder, President, and CEO of Prismic Pharmaceuticals which he sold in 2019. Founded and exited two other healthcare companies. Invests from Worcester, Massachusetts.

Jeffrey R. Holmstead
Partner at Bracewell

Notable Achievements: Yale Law School JD. Former assistant administrator of the United States EPA for Air and Radiation. One of the nation’s leading climate change lawyers. Headed the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, longer than anyone in EPA history. Invests from Washington DC.

Mike Kostoff
Blu Ventures

Notable Achievements: B.S. from the US Military Academy, MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. Founder and partner at WISE Gateway LLC and The Kostoff Group. Board observer for ID.me, Vagabond Vending, and Group Sense. Invests from Oakton, Virginia.

Eric Adler
Blu Ventures

Notable Achievements: Managing partner of Adler Associates LP. Spent 19 years as the co-founder and managing director of SEED Foundation, which he built to 350 employees and $40 million in revenues. Invests from Washington DC.

Eric Martinis
Blue Tech Inc.

Notable Achievements: VP of Blue Tech Inc. Former Executive VP at Presidio. Over 20 years of experience in National Business Development and Revenue Growth for medium to large scale organizations within the IT industry. Invests from San Diego, CA.

Lisa Holmstead
Museum Professional

Notable Achievements: MA in Art History from American University and MA in Museum studies from Johns Hopkins University. Investor and consultant for non-profits such as the ID Ministry. Invests from Washington DC.

Scott Sorensen
Marsco

Notable Achievements: MBA from Harvard Business School. Managing Director of Marsco. Former CEO of Sorenson Communications and former CEO of Ivanti. Experienced senior executive and board member. Invests from Salt Lake City, UT.

Pradeep Kaul
Blu Ventures

Notable Achievements: Executive MBA from MIT. CEO & President of Hughes Systique Corporation (HSC). Helped Hughes Network Systems (HNS) grow to a $1.5B company prior to acquisition by News Corp. Led creation of OnStar. Invests from Washington DC.

Tom Brandt
Blu Ventures and Audacious Capital

Notable Achievements: MBA from Wharton School of Business. Board Member for state of Maryland retirement plans, Osiris Therapeutics, TeleCommunication Systems), and Optelecom Inc. Was CFO for 2 IPOs. Invests from Maryland.

Pradeep Wahi
Blu Ventures

Notable Achievements: MBA from the Wharton School of Business. Chairman and CEO of ARA Inc. and Chairman, PowerMax Global LLC. 35+ years in Technology Development and Management of Technology companies. Invests from Washington DC.

Bikram Bakshi
Blu Ventures, India Angels Network

Notable Achievements: MBA from the Wharton School of Business and member of the Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship Board. As the CEO of QSSI, he led a $100M+ sale to UnitedHealth Group. Spearheaded the turnaround of healthcare.gov. Invests from Washington DC.

Matt Hanson
Co-invests With Blu Ventures, Lightspeed, Edison, Tdf, Bmw Iventure

Notable Achievements: Lead Investor for Startup Successes: Urgent.ly. Board Observer at AdLumin and 3CLogic. Cofounder of Segovia. Cofounder of Pax Momentum. Invests from Washington DC.

Keith White
CEO at Fibrix Filtration

Notable Achievements: BS and MA in Accounting and Finance from Brigham Young University. Director of Sales for INTERSOLV. VP of Global Field Operations for GXS. VP, Global Sales Operations at Opentext. CEO of Fibrix. Invests from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Darren White
Fibrix

Notable Achievements: BS in Accounting from Brigham Young University and MBA from Wake Forest. Director of Financial Planning & Analysis for Huber Engineered Woods and SIA. SVP Business Development for Fibrix. Invests from Charlotte, North Carolina

M.J Affleck
Advisory Analyst - Corient Capital Partners

Notable Achievement: BS in accounting from Brigham Young University. Founder of MJ Anderson Capital Partners, Executive Officer for Scott Marsh Financial, Analyst for Corient Capital Partners. Invests from Los Angeles, California.

Keith Bozeman
Blu Ventures

Notable Achievements: BS in Public Relations and Advertising from Ball State University. President of TEKsystems, Principle with Blu Venture Investors. Over 22 years of experience in the technical staffing industry. Invests from Washington DC.

Andrew Hanson
Owner, Sherry Meyerhoff Hanson & Crance LLP

Notable Achievements: BA from Brigham Young University, JD from Duke University. Associate with Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker LLP, Partner for 25 years with Sherry Meyerhoff Hanson & Crance LLP. Invests from Laguna Beach, California

Pax Angels are Seasoned and Successful Investors Who've Previously Backed Big Winners

ID.me

ID.me is a digital identity network that empowers relying parties to grant access or benefits based on verified identity and attributes. ID.me was the first e-commerce platform devoted exclusively to the military and has pivoted to digital identity management, starting with the military but expanding to other affinity groups including students, first responders and seniors. The company is poised to be a major identity management service for a growing number of commercial businesses and federal government agencies. ID.me recently raised a Series C round in March 2021, securing $100 million in funding at a $1.5 billion valuation.

Urgently

Urgent.ly’s Roadside as a Service™, the only global digital roadside assistance platform, continues to reimagine the roadside assistance industry to the benefit of global brands, roadside assistance professionals, and consumers. The Urgent.ly solution delivers the quickest, safest and most innovative roadside assistance service, products and technology by combining location-based services, real-time data, AI and machine-to-machine communication.

Huntress Labs

Huntress Labs provides IT outsourcers with a managed breach detection and response service for a fraction of the cost of competitors. The Huntress agent inventories each application scheduled to automatically start at boot or user login, sending the metadata on these applications to the Huntress Analysis Engine for inspection. The software deploys in seconds to workstations and fully integrates with the IT outsourcers’ ticketing system and workflows. Huntress Labs recently raised a $40 million Series B investment round led by JMI Equity.

Adlumin

Adlumin is a cloud-native SIEM, providing real-time insight into regulation and compliance violations and deficiencies. The Adlumin SIEM secures the financial and customer data using a combination of proprietary technologies and background automation. The product deploys in 20 minutes and contributes to compliance in seconds, improving overall network health and use of cyber resources as they work to protect sensitive data.