Laura Allen

Vc & Startup Advisor; Angel Investor; Multi-Strategy Trading

Self · San Francisco Bay Area

Present

Select Angel investments: Voxel Energy (voxelenergy.com), HLabs (hlaboratories.com), Float Health (float.health), TransAstra (transastracorp.com), FirstBase (firstbase.io), Orbital Operations (orbitalops.tech), Kodo (kodo.in), SmartCuts (trysmartcuts.com), Morada Uno (moradauno.com), The Third Place (thethirdplace.is), Dawaai (dawaai.pk), BuildBetter (buildbetter.app), Blee (blee.com), Birch Biosciences (birchbiosciences.com), Bluedot (thebluedot.co), TypeAI (type.ai), Safr Mgmt (safermgt.com) Advisory Focus Areas: GTM / business development, operational strategy, finance, AI innovation strategy & technical enablement, GTM strategy & sales productivity, technical & strategic partnerships, ecosystem development, founder enablement & operating cadences, PMF & customer acquisition, VC relations & fundraising strategy, Board materials & performance insights, cross-functional execution Select Clients & Boards: Beem, DayLyte Batteries, Kickwheel, AutonomIQ, Nebula Genomics, DeepXL

Limited Partner

Y Combinator

Present

Chief Operating Officer

Merlin Solar Technologies · San Francisco Bay Area

Merlin has developed unique frameless, flexible, highly rugged solar systems that can be applied to nearly any type of surface or use case, including transportation, mobile, and roofing applications where, due to practical constraints, conventional solar is not a viable or desirable option. As COO, I focused on strengthening Merlin’s operational foundation to support durable scale in a software-enabled, data-driven infrastructure environment. My work centered on improving organizational efficiency and working capital optimization across supply chain, procurement, and partner channels, while implementing new tooling, systems, and operating cadences, across and within teams, designed to future-proof the organization and support a scalable, partner-led GTM motion across both sell-to and sell-through models. This included driving pricing clarity and discipline, and improving interoperability and alignment across product and engineering teams to support more modular, platform-ready offering…

Venture Partner - Climate Tech Fund

Fifth Wall · San Francisco Bay Area

As a Venture Partner with Fifth Wall’s Climate Technology Fund (~$1.2B AUM), I focused on identifying and evaluating next-generation solar and energy infrastructure technologies across early-stage, growth, infrastructure, and SPV investments supporting decarbonization of the built environment. My work emphasized software-enabled, data-rich infrastructure platforms and the intersection of advanced materials, manufacturing, and intelligent systems. I built the next-gen solar investment thesis examining innovations in PV materials, deposition and manufacturing techniques, and emerging applications, including shingled architectures, building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), quantum dots, organics, perovskites, bifacial, and tandem/multi-junction systems. I evaluated these technologies through a systems-level lens, including scalability, unit economics, integration with digital controls, potential portfolio synergies, and long-term platform potential. In parallel, I sourced opportunities an…

Founding Fellow, On Deck Corporate Innovation

On Deck

Founding member of the On Deck Corporate Innovation program, a community for senior corporate innovation & strategy leaders.

Head of Twilio Venture Program, Twilio Launch; Director, Partnerships

Twilio Inc. · San Francisco Bay Area

As Head of the Twilio Venture Program and Twilio Launch, I built and scaled Twilio’s venture partner–led startup ecosystem team and approach from 0→1, creating a durable growth GTM motion for Twilio’s early- and growth-stage customer segment. I designed and operationalized a global venture partnership model with top-tier VCs to systematically source, onboard, and support high-potential Series A startups, aligning founder success with Twilio’s long-term platform adoption. I led a highly cross-functional team spanning Partnerships, Sales, Product, Marketing, and Ventures, with full P&L responsibility. The program scaled from inception to ~$50M in ARR in under three years, delivering >9x ROI while materially improving sales efficiency, close rates, and expansion within the growth segment. To support scale, I created first-of-kind incentive structures and operating models, coordinating with ~200 AEs, SEs, and frontline managers across regions to embed the venture ecosystem directly into Tw…

Head of Commercialization - Ai + Robotics (Product & Gtm Strategy, Finance)

Vicarious AI · San Francisco Bay Area

** Acquired by Alphabet, Inc. (Google Deepmind) Vicarious AI was an early frontier AI lab developing artificial general intelligence–inspired systems for robotics, integrating research from generative probabilistic modeling, systems neuroscience, and machine learning to build architectures capable of faster learning, broader generalization, and more flexible real-world adaptation than task-specific AI approaches. As Vicarious’ first business hire, I was responsible for directing the translation of frontier AGI research into real-world, deployable systems. I formed and led the Commercialization team, partnering closely with researchers, engineers, and external domain experts to identify application areas where generalizable intelligence—rather than narrow automation—could deliver step-change performance and economic value. My role spanned model-to-product alignment, customer and task discovery, strategic partnerships, and deployment strategy, ensuring that research assumptions were stre…

Vice President - Ventures

Auriga Global Investors, SV, S.A. · Greater New York City Area

Auriga Capital Management (ACM) is an arm of the Auriga family office asset management firm with €450 million in AUM and headquarters in Madrid, Barcelona, and New York. Helped launch new dedicated Sustainable Tech Venture Fund to make growth equity/venture capital investments in the tech, renewable energy, ag tech, and resource efficiency space. Functionally, I worked on fund formation on the Ventures team: developing deal pipeline, investment strategy and execution; performing market/comp research, due diligence, financial analysis/valuation, SQL and dashboard tooling, structuring, document review, and term negotiation, among other responsibilities.

Associate

Merit Capital Advisors, LLC

Merit Capital provides a variety of financial advisory services targeted to the power and utilities sector. Our team has transaction experience with both conventional and renewable power and has closed several first of a kind transactions. Our services include, but are not limited to: Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory: Sell side and buy side; Corporate and project/portfolio level; developing complex financial models and advisory collateral for operating projects (contracted and merchant) and development stage assets Project Finance Advisory: Acquisition finance for senior and structurally subordinated debt; Greenfield project development Strategic Advisory: Valuations and fairness opinions; Market entry for new investors to the sector, including foreign entities; Assistance with bidding into competitive power purchase agreement solicitations

Mba Summer Associate, Equity Research - Electric & Water Utilities; Metals & Mining

ItauBBA

Itaú BBA is the largest investment bank in Brazil. The Utilities equity research team has become a major resource for investors seeking opportunities in wind and would like to be able to deliver the same capabilities for PV. My internship focused on these renewable energy opportunities and financing options, both in Brazil and elsewhere in South America; particularly in helping to build a base of expertise in solar PV research and pro forma financial models, in light of recent government auctions for wind power.