Sarah Smith Fund is a differentiated pre-seed/seed fund built on a thesis that early feedback for founder CEOs gives them a significant advantage to go the distance and create top performing companies. I write $150 - $500K+ collaborative checks into marketplaces, fintech, future of work, dev tools, and more. In return for my allocation, founders get access to a comprehensive CEO 360 review process and people operations office hours.Current investments include: Pika, Casca, Bandana, TakeoffAI, Costa Security, Soulside, Flitch, Scope Zero, Pinnacle, Momentum, Grupago, SellOut, Streamlane, Animation, Boltwise, Howie AI, Rowspace, Custom Capacity, and more.

ENGR 245: Lean Launchpad

Personal investments include Airtable, Sorare, Pocus, OnDeck, Winnie, Biobot, Truehold, Arc, HeyJane, and more.

Active board member and serving portfolio founders.

-Led investments out of BCV's $1B fund into future of work, fintech, marketplaces, dev tools, and more primarily at pre-seed and seed.-Investments include Lime, Archive, Truehold, Arc, Disclo, Expedock, Rightfoot, Mathison (acq: Changeforce), Specto (acq: Sentry), Typedream (acq: Beehiiv), Perksy, and more.-Board Member of Lime; Board Observer of Archive. Previously Board Member of AllyO (acq: HireVue) and Mathison (acq: Changeforce).-Led Seed Fund Manager program, backing 50+ emerging managers and micro-VCs focused on collaborative pre-seed and seed investments.

Seed stage investment firm at http://www.graphventures.com/Our partnership backs a variety of companies at Seed and Series A stage across diverse industries. Sourced and led 20+ seed investments including: BetterUp, LunchClub, Winnie, Knoetic (fka Twine), Strive (acquired), Heartbeat, Stel, Kurbo (acquired), Sapling (acquired), Simpl, ELSA, OhmniLabs and more.

- Member of executive team responsible for HR, recruiting, and operations scaling company from 40 to 160+ employees in 3.5 years- Managed and grew recruiting team to ~5 members, streamlining candidate evaluation process, implementing Lever ATS, determining prioritization of roles, overseeing deployment of time and budget to achieve annual hiring targets- Directly recruited and closed all levels of positions from entry level to executives in all functions (engineering, data, design, product management, sales, operations, G&A) totaling ~65 hires in four years including Parlio team acquisition- Oversaw headcount and compensation planning including development and roll-out of equity refresher program resulting in one of the most competitive, pro-employee programs in market- Hired HR team and developed processes and programs including onboarding, employee engagement survey, performance review process, benefits and broker selection, employee handbook, HRIS, retention tracking, coaching, and training for managers- Organized diversity and inclusion initiatives including unconscious bias trainings with Paradigm consulting, Grace Hopper conference, Women Who Code, hosting women's events- Grew operations team to ~7 members, assisting ops leaders in building user support queues and quality workflows including moderation at scale- Pushed longer-term strategy to contract with various vendor partners resulting in efficient global coverage maintaining critical product standards

- Directly managed SMB Growth North America team including 20+ team members across Menlo Park and Austin offices; represented global SMB teams (EMEA, APAC, Latam) at HQ- Led strategic shift from reactive support channel to proactive data-driven sales team designing test and control service treatments to drive sustainable revenue growth and customer satisfaction- Surpassed all quarterly targets building team revenue to over $1bn ARR, 33% greater customer satisfaction, 9% churn reduction- Proposed and led first Global SMB Growth Summit to bring together 80+ global team members and XFN partners- Spearheaded transfer of Ad Review workflow into Risk Operations resulting in greater efficiency and capacity

- Coordinated office opening, recruiting, and training to scale site to 185+ employees in less than two years with solid and dotted line management of all teams- Oversaw daily operations and culture of Austin office including User Operations, Risk & Payments, Mid-Market Sales, SMB Growth, Ad Operations, Finance, Recruiting, IT, Training, and Hardware Engineering teams- Represented office and company with external print/broadcast press and speaking events at national conferences- Helped build a culture and management team resulting in site scoring above company average in employee engagement survey on 78% of questions; scored significantly above on 50% of questions

- Launched North America AM team and support strategy for mid-market advertisers acquired by Inside Sales - Grew team to 10 reps managing ~35% of company revenue including clients Zynga, Groupon, Playfish- Developed specs for early infrastructure projects including CRM, online invoicing, and reporting working with XFN teams of engineering, product, legal, finance, marketing, and biz ops through implementation- Promoted Facebook Marketplace Ads adoption as external speaker at conferences and gathered market feedback to influence ad product development

- Coordinated opening of Dublin office including landing team launch, tax implications, and communications- Built operational and risk models for future credits business accurately predicting 3 year headcount needs

Sylvan provides high-quality supplemental education to kids in grades K-12 in reading, math, writing, study skills, and SAT Prep. As Center Director, I was responsible for the management, operations, sales, and marketing of a center in the Bay Area. I loved my job and it was a fantastic experience.

Taught K-5 general music education at Emerson Elementary School before permanently relocating to California.