Ryan is a pre-seed and seed stage technology investor & founder of Pathbreaker Ventures, one of the first deep tech funds in Silicon Valley. He focuses on solving complex global problems through full stack, hardware/software systems. In 2023, Ryan was named one of the Top 100 Seed Investors by Business Insider.Prior to starting Pathbreaker, Ryan was a deal lead on the corporate development team at Meta (Facebook) where he worked with product and engineering leadership to develop M&A strategy and execute acquisitions. His focus @ Meta was emerging technologies: AI/ML, Computer Vision, VR/AR, and novel hardware. Acquisitions he worked on include Oculus, PrivateCore, LiveRail, Teehan Lax, and NimbleVR.Prior to Facebook, Ryan worked in both investing and operating roles at Azure Capital, an early stage venture capital firm with $750 million under management. In addition to series A & B investing, he worked within portfolio companies @ Telly (video discovery) and @ Convercent (enterprise compliance SAAS, acquired by OneTrust) as VP of Partnerships & Business Development.Ryan started his career as a social entrepreneur, co-founding H.E.R.O. for Children, the first non-profit to focus on quality of life care for children affected by HIV/AIDS. Ryan built HERO to $1 million in revenue and 2,000 volunteers. Ryan earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he focused on finance, entrepreneurship, and early stage technology investing. While in business school, he and his team won the International Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) out of 56 MBA programs.Ryan was born in the manufacturing town of Michigan City, Indiana, and he grew up in Atlanta, Georgia.