Brian Ascher

Summary

I am a venture capitalist investing in early-stage tech start-ups in the areas of Intelligent Enterprise, AI, SaaS, and FinTech. I love the constant learning and future looking nature of my job, but most of all I value the relationships I forge with passionate and talented entrepreneurs. As a lead investor getting involved at the early stages (often pre-launch, and usually pre or early revenue) I make a commitment to serve my entrepreneurs and help solve problems through the ups and downs that are inherent to any challenging endeavor. I believe we are at an inflection point for software as the most innovative companies begin to combine data science and domain expertise to leverage data to answer the most important questions in a given industry or business function as part of their solution. This is the next wave of SaaS and these intelligent applications will create massive business value. I am excited to find entrepreneurs who share this vision and to help them achieve their goals. Prior to becoming a VC I was a Senior Product Manager at Intuit, responsible for Quicken. This experience ingrained in me a passion for product and deep respect for user experience and knowing your customer. While this is important at any stage, it is critical when helping build very early stage companies. SmartBiz Loans (formerly known as Better Finance) was an EIR project I incubated at Venrock in the financial services sector. Working with the founders from idea creation through launch, team building, growth, expansion, multiple rounds of financing and two major pivots is an example of what I love to do. When I am not working you might find me in the pool, on a bike, or looking for a perfect point break to surf. Functional Expertise: Venture Capital; Start Ups; Investing; Product Management; Marketing; M&A. Industry Expertise: SaaS, AI/ML, Big Data, Internet, FinTech, B2B, Consumer