Jeff Herbst is Co-Founding Managing Partner of GFT Ventures. He brings three decades of venture capital, operational, business development and M&A experience. Prior to launching GFT, he spent 20 years as NVIDIA's Vice President of Business Development where he built an ecosystem of accelerated computing applications spanning the domains of AI, Data Science, Autonomous Machines, and Graphics and Visualization. During his tenure at Nvidia, Jeff created the Nvidia GPU Ventures program, overseeing more than 40 global investments and 20 acquisitions valued over $8B. He also led the Nvidia Inception global startup accelerator comprised of more than 8,000 AI, Data Science and High Performance computing companies.​Prior to joining Nvidia, Jeff ran the Business Development function at the Altavista search engine, and was a Partner at the Wilson Sonsini law firm in Palo Alto. He holds a JD from Stanford University and a BS with Honors in Computer Science and Economics from Brown University.

Served as senior executive, and member of the executive staff, in charge of strategic business development function (i.e M&A, partnerships, strategic business relationships) and venture investments for Nvidia (the world leader in AI and visual computing with revenues now in excess of $60B/year). Responsibilities included overall ecosystem development spanning the domains of AI, Data Science, Autonomous Machines, Graphics and Visualization. During 20-year tenure at the company, created the Nvidia ventures and acquisitions programs, overseeing more than 40 global investments and 20 acquisitions valued over $8B USD. Also led the Nvidia Inception global startup accelerator, now comprised of more than 10,000 AI, Data Science and High Performance Computing companies.

Acquired by ARM

Acquired by Nvidia

Senior executive for wireless software infrastructure company. Responsible for strategic business development, overall P/L management and operations, HR, legal, finance, IT and network operations, international expansion and operations.

Head of 30 person business development organization responsible for the entire Altavista network, including search. Responsible for all mergers and acquisitions, international joint ventures/franchises, content and distribution relationships, strategic partnerships and investments, and related integration activities

Partner at the world's leading technology law firm with broad practice combining general corporate and securities law (eg. venture finance, IPOs) and IP/technology licensing. Clients ranged from venture capital start-ups to fortune 500 companies, as well as major venture capital and investment banking firms. Elected partner in 1997.

Law clerk to the Honorable Glenn L. Archer, Jr. Specialized in handling appeals of patent and other intellectual property-related cases.