About
An entrepreneur at heart, TX has been involved with startups since his college days where he started then successfully sold an online college textbook marketplace. After a stint at McKinsey where he was a core member of their financial services and consumer goods practices, he came back to his roots and served as the CFO for an electric vehicle startup, Lit Motors. Thereafter, he worked for Innovation Endeavors, a seed stage venture fund backed by Eric Schmidt. In 2012, he co-founded Karlin Ventures, based in Los Angeles, where he served as the managing partner for 4 years before co-founding Fika Ventures. He is a strong proponent of transparency and efficiency and is constantly on the lookout for new platforms that seek to disrupt old, antiquated industries.
Experience
General Partner
Fika Ventures · Greater Los Angeles Area
Present
Fika Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on B2B software startups, with an emphasis on pre-Series A companies. Our expertise spans vertical SaaS, fintech, commerce enablement, healthcare, and marketplaces, particularly those harnessing AI to drive innovation. We pride ourselves on a hands-on, collaborative approach, viewing ourselves as true partners in building your business—not the other way around.
Managing Partner
Karlin Ventures · Greater Los Angeles Area
Early-stage venture capital fund based in Los Angeles focused on investments in education technology, digital media, healthcare, financial services and consumer goods. Karlin Ventures is an affiliate of Karlin Asset Management, a private investment firm managing over $1.4 billion of unleveraged equity capital.
Associate
Innovation Endeavors · Palo Alto, CA
Managed deal screening and due diligence for North American investment opportunities. Led outreach initiatives relating to Bay Area start up communities.
Consultant
Supported the acquisition of an Asian insurer by a leading UK life insurance player by writing the equity story for the investor relations work stream. Conducted a store operations diagnostic for a leading European retailer; running a retail store for 2 months to implement operational changes and designing a labor scheduling tool that has been rolled out across 200 stores, leading to a 3% cost saving. Refreshed the Retail Banking strategy for a leading UK bank, including detailing the required financials in a credit-constrained environment and defining a new strategy and target operating model for the affluent business division.
Founder
EMT Alliance
Founded then successfully exited an ecommerce company selling college textbooks on EBay, half.com and Amazon; sold more than 1,000 books a day at its peak with >$6M in annualized sales. Established a cost efficient distribution center in India and managed a 4 person 24/7 customer service team remotely.
Education
Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Wesleyan University
Bachelor's degree, Mathematics and Economics
Raffles Institution
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