We may operate in a highly technical field, but we’re driven by a simple truth: everything comes down to people.

Engineering is the foundation of the most meaningful companies and the key to solving the most interesting problems.


Our idea of impact is helping others make theirs. We want to construct outcomes that couldn’t otherwise emerge.

We know nothing of consequence is built overnight. We value continuous optimization over quick returns and measure impact in lifetimes, not years or decades.

Our approach

Much of who I am comes from my grandfather.

Years ago, he and his brother started a small biscuit company in Bangladesh, then turned it into 

one of the largest confectionery businesses

I grew up being around and looking up to him from a young age—his vision, passion, grit, hard work and dedication. He taught me the importance of thinking, acting and optimizing for long time horizons. Great things take time. Optimize for what you want your legacy to be.

At Stanford, I found myself surrounded by people who shared this same belief—and who had ambition pulsing through their veins in a way I’d never seen before. (Baris was one of these people, by the way.) The combination of drive, purpose and long-term thinking created an energy I loved.

That's the kind of energy Baris and I wanted to surround ourselves with when we started Human Capital. We love thinking about all the ways we can help engineers and founders—finding them the jobs they crave, investing in them as they get their companies off the ground, and developing new services that help them in new ways. We love bringing the right people and resources together.

Armaan Ali

Most people meet their first recruiter when they’re looking for their first internship. I grew up with a recruiter: my mom. She ran an executive search firm in Turkey and we hosted candidates over for dinner frequently. Before I’d graduated from high school, I was more indoctrinated than your average teenager to the concept of career development and personal growth goals. The thing is, I also enjoyed those conversations more than your average teenager. I loved being around ambitious, driven people, then watching my mom match their underlying motivations with high-impact opportunities.

It became clear to me that when you find people with potential to do great things, and you help them do those things at scale, you make an entire 

 better. Find the people with that fire in their belly, that inextinguishable flame, the ones you fundamentally believe will make net positive change. Remove the barriers getting in their way. Amplify their strengths. Get out of the way when you need to. Make 

These are the people we’ve built Human Capital around. These engineer founders are our center of gravity. People like Valentin Perez, founder of Monthly, who wants to create a universe of learners. Or Henrique Dubugras, founder of Brex, who wants to build financial infrastructure so more businesses can exist, because businesses produce a tremendous source of social good.

I fundamentally believe that the future belongs to those who can build it, and I love that I get to spend my days with engineers and founders are actually building it.

Baris Akis

I do what it takes to make Human Capital tick. My role includes fundraising, investor communications, strategy, financial forecasts, and budgeting—among a handful of other things.

My past has prepared me to take on each of these challenges: forming solid business foundations at McKinsey, getting exposure to global investments at Mubadala, scaling a start-up at Hello, and most recently as part of the investment team at Softbank.

I grew up and was educated in India, where I received an Engineering Degree followed by a Master’s. My education led me to the US, where I went to business school at Wharton.

I love people and relationships. That includes long-term partnerships that I’ve cherished for years, and new connections that I make everyday. I’m an extrovert in the truest sense.

I am so fortunate to have a loving wife, two beautiful children, and the world’s best puppy, Dumpling.


Ashwin Hira

As VP of Legal and Fund Ops, I touch almost every aspect of Human Capital. My professional background is in the fund and asset management space, so I primarily help with the legal and operational aspects of our investment funds. Prior to Human Capital, I practiced law at a boutique law firm in San Francisco that focuses on the investment management industry.

I was born and raised in a suburb of LA, so I’m a big LA sports fan (Go Dodgers!). I came up to the Bay Area for college at UC Berkeley (Go Bears!) and law school at UC Hastings. I’ve mostly remained in San Francisco, aside from a year in London, where I finished law school with a dual JD and LLM (Masters of Laws). Outside of work, I love travel, snowboarding, golf, and going to live sports events (especially baseball) and concerts.


Laura Wong

I’ve been obsessed with storytelling and craft since I was a kid. (As the daughter of an English teacher and an architect, I think it’s in my blood.)

Some of my most memorable projects from my Quaker school in Philadelphia included a satirical short essay that applied the principles of Machiavelli’s “The Prince” to gender stereotypes and a set of hand-cut cardboard gladiator dolls to complement a paper on Ancient Rome. Neither teacher asked for what I handed in (both were five paragraph essay assignments). But that’s what I loved: breaking the rules a little bit to turn conventional into something more interesting and more human.

And it’s what ultimately led me to marketing in tech: I love bringing the human side of tech to life, bridging the gap between the arts and the sciences.

That realization took me to Microsoft, Google, Stripe, and now to Human Capital—where I get to meet and learn from fascinating, curious, people who love to question status quo, and tell stories about the ideas, products and businesses they build.

Erzsi Sousa

My father's legacy is a core contributor to my life's foundation. A country boy from Northern Ethiopia, his goal of seeking knowledge took him to the best university in the country, and later to grad school, receiving scholarships along the way. His strong sense of determination, optimism, courage, and love for adventure continue to guide what I do in life.

At Human Capital, I have the privilege of managing the university program. I lead a team of principals who partner closely with ambitious college engineers to help them find life changing career opportunities.

Outside of work, I’m mastering the art of parenthood, and I love discovering new cultures and languages through travel and cinema.

Gelila Asnake

Throughout my career I’ve focused on building strong teams and helping people around me reach their goals. As a principal at Human Capital, I partner with founders to build their engineering organizations, and with engineers to elevate their careers. I invest my heart in what I do, care deeply about people I work with, and invest for the long term.

I grew up in a big Vietnamese family that immigrated to the United States together and settled down in Los Angeles in a tight radius (10 cousins lived on my block!).
I love that Silicon Valley is a small community where everyone knows everyone.


Amy Herbertson

Growing up as an only child in the Midwest, I always gravitated towards community. Whether in athletics, business, or in service to our fellow man, I aimed to be a part of something larger than myself. This manifested into my professional career by recognizing how world class organizations are built and then using that knowledge to inform my journey of scaling businesses.

Before Human Capital, I spent time building product and engineering teams at Google, Addepar, and Redpoint Ventures. After my first stint in venture, I started a company that was eventually acquired by Human Capital. It was an obvious next step once I learned about the mission, the caliber of talent at HC, and the deep ambition to succeed.

My mom likes to say I’m a professional emailer and friend maker and it’s probably the most accurate description of what I do at HC. But I also partner with our founders to develop organizational strategy. When I’m not writing Shakespearean prose to world class engineers, you can find me playing hockey, golfing, hiking with my wife and dog (Frankie), or grilling hot dogs.


Andrew Rising

I’m passionate about exploring the intersection of law and finance. From studying Law with Business Finance for my Bachelor of Laws in the UK, to working in external asset management at a top investment firm in the Bahamas (where I’m from), to continuing my education with a Master of Laws degree from University of California at Berkeley, it’s a space I love more each day.

I continue to build on this passion at Human Capital, where I assist in all things legal and fund operations.

In my off-time, I enjoy yoga (I’m a certified teacher!) and spending time with my family in the great outdoors.


Tonya Osborne

My mission at Human Capital is to connect great engineers with great startups by discovering common interests around certain sets of problems. It’s incredibly rewarding to see the resulting solutions, products, and services that simple connection can bring to the world at large. It’s most rewarding when the connections I make turn into lifelong friendships and mentorships.


Before joining Human Capital, I spent over 20 years in recruiting at places like Wildlife Studios, Uber and GE Software. Over the last 6 years, my focus has been primarily on engineering leadership and Staff+ level engineering roles.


I’m a big fan of just about anything that involves being in the mountains or boats. I’m at my best when my daughter is smiling or laughing–even if she’s laughing at me.


Tim Lanehart

When I was 9 years old, my aunt asked me, “What do you want to be when you grow-up?” Without hesitation, I said, “A businessman in computer technology”, and I never changed my mind. That year I got my first computer, an IBM 386DX, which sparked my fascination with technology.

Uncasing the clunky desktop introduced me to a world of silicon that led me to Carnegie Mellon, where I earned a BS in Computer Engineering, followed by a career across Texas Instruments, Google, and Box (pre-IPO). Working for Box, a hyper-growth startup, exposed me to venture capital, and that’s when it hit me: VC is what I meant to tell my aunt!

Now with a target, I went on to earn my MBA at UCLA, where I completed three VC internships, including one at Fifth Wall. After graduating, I worked for one of my professors, a former GP at Formation|8, on his new fund, BuildersVC. Along the way, I developed interests in enterprise SaaS, industrial tech, and real estate tech.

As a Principal at Human Capital, I draw from those experiences to help engineers transition from academia to entrepreneurship or industry. I love asking engineers what they think they are better at compared to anyone else they know. Usually their answers are specific, intriguing, and motivating, especially when I realize I can help them become what they aspire to be.


Shawn Ranjbaran

When I was a little kiddo, my parents thought I would be a lawyer. I’m the oldest of 3 brothers and my dad is the most competitive person I’ve ever met, so my home had a lot of debating and pushback. Your perspective had to be dialed in. Disagreement was encouraged and winning was celebrated.

I joined the debate team in high school, where precision of language was incredibly important. After college, I worked at Deloitte for 5 years (instead of going to law school, as my parents had predicted). But I wrote a lot of memos–which are, in essence, arguments made as clearly and concisely as possible. I’d argue that accounting is closer to law than it is to math, since both are governed by regulatory compliance..Technical accountants interpret the guidance and Excel does the math.

At Human Capital, I’m the go-to person for everything related to finance. With over a decade in the industry, I feel incredibly well-suited for this space. My time at Deloitte was filled with VC clients, First Republic taught me to apply systems in the most strict regulatory environment in existence (banking), and at Earnest I learned how to take a small scrappy startup and transform it into the loan origination arm of Navient, the largest student loan servicer in the world.


Shane Demello

I handle executive operations for the leadership team, which means I have the pleasure of collaborating on projects across all business units. I focus on upleveling our organizational and operational rigor while bringing a human touch to everything we do.

A rare Bay Area native, I briefly traded microclimates and moved to LA to study psycholinguistics at UCLA. Post-graduation I enrolled in a doctorate of audiology program at WashU School of Medicine in St. Louis, but ultimately decided my heart wasn’t in it.

In my spare time I enjoy reading, doing yoga and trying my hand at the NYT crossword puzzles (usually the Monday puzzles).


Ryan Pineda

As a Principal on the university team, I help student engineers think about joining, building and running startups. As a former founder myself—I started a SaaS company that helped nonprofits increase donations, engagement and outreach—I hope to help them learn from my time as a founder.

Peter Cetale

Growing up in a South Asian household, there was a clear singular optimization: better grades meant happier parents. I’m certain the incentive behind this was for me to learn skills to become a contributing member of society, but the delineation between my learnings and grades only became more apparent over time. Technology went from a hobby to the main focus, driving me to spend my undergraduate years studying electrical and computer engineering @ UIUC.

I started with building hacks, then building products, and eventually building companies. Startups founded in undergrad can teach you a lot, but perhaps the biggest learning for me was realizing the ‘x’ factor in achieving scale was talent–truly great engineers and entrepreneurs are rare.

This lesson ultimately led me to join Human Capital, first as a part of the community and eventually as a Principal at the company. I have the unique privilege of meeting some of the most talented entrepreneurial minds in the world, bringing them together, supporting them through thick and thin, and investing in relationships that are timeless.


Neelan Veloo

Before joining, I managed recruiting initiatives at HouseCanary, a proptech startup. With over eight years of experience in the talent and recruiting space, I spent my early career at Riviera Partners helping emerging, high growth startups find technical executives. I had the pleasure of joining several venture-backed startups to help scale their teams, and spent nearly two years at Facebook building out their cybersecurity teams.

I grew up in Connecticut and found my way to the Bay Area to attend UC Berkeley, where I was a member of the varsity rugby team, which won two national championships. Outside of the office, I enjoy snowboarding and backpacking, and I’m also a big sports fan–especially boxing and hockey.


Kyle Caravelli

The picturesque, green hills of the Napa Valley—dotted with vineyards and clumps of live oaks—served as early inspiration for me, a little girl with a big imagination who loved to draw and write stories about nature (horses, mostly).

Years later, this creativity and love of language led me to a degree in English. I soon learned it was working with students—not teaching them—that excited me. After starting at a private art college, I ultimately landed at Stanford University. I spent over a decade there, helping throngs of students navigate the ins and outs of two very different (though complementary) fields: Neuroscience and Public Policy. I love that I now get insight into yet another discipline and help engineers realize their full potential.

These days I call the Oakland Hills home (slightly less green and far more houses than the hills of my youth, but beautiful in their own way). I love learning about nutrition and experimenting in the kitchen. Getting new kitchen gadgets excites me to no end (an egg cooker and a nutri bullet are among two very worthy recent additions) and whipping up healthy renditions of typically not-so-healthy dishes is one of my favorite hobbies.


Katie DuPlessis

I’m a product of public schools all the way, and that experience has guided most of my decisions. After growing up in north Orange County (I can’t surf, sorry to disappoint), I traded my Rainbows in for Birkenstocks and went to Berkeley, where I studied Political Science and Education.

Seeing the wide range in how prepared my classmates were for Cal woke me up to educational inequity, so I decided to do something about it by becoming a teacher. I joined Teach For America and signed up for the highest-need region at the time, rural Arkansas, to teach 9th grade English. Each day of my four years there, I was humbled by my kids. I coached a rap club (long but fun story), helped lead community organizing efforts to build a new $30M school, and ate some exceptionally great barbeque.

After Arkansas, I spent a couple years recruiting Cal Bears to the classroom, and tried my hand at a few public policy fellowships before joining Human Capital.

I firmly believe that, if given the tools and opportunity, people will rise to the occasion. Here, that means working on all things people-related—building and supporting a team to operate at its best.


Jess Rossoni

Entrepreneurship appealed to me from a very young age. I was always ready to do something tangible after quickly getting bored with theory. This interest solidified after a 4 week summer program at MIT in 10th grade, where we took entrepreneurship classes during the day and worked on our “startups” at night. It was one of the most fun experiences of my entire life, and that’s mostly due to the amazing people that I met.

I spent most of my high school and college career teaching other people about entrepreneurship and creating communities of friends who had similar interests. From starting an incubator in high school to leading several entrepreneurship organizations at Michigan, I enjoy creating avenues for others to discover entrepreneurship, hoping that it would have the same impact on their lives as it had on mine.

My role at Human Capital serves as the perfect continuation of that goal. I work with students to help them navigate their entrepreneurial journeys and figure out the tools they need to build something of their own.


Emma Kirst

I have the distinct honor of wearing multiple marketing hats at Human Capital–primarily helping with strategy, operations, and messaging. This is my first experience in the venture world, and I’m pulling from my experiences in employer branding, recruitment marketing, and talent acquisition at Cruise and Salesforce.

I was born and raised in Illinois, traveled to the Rockies to study Sociology and Spanish at Colorado College (where I also played football), and eventually made my way to San Francisco. Outside of work, I surf, hike, golf, and visit dog parks with my senior bloodhound/lab-mix Griswold.


Drew Gallaugher

As part of the university team, I coordinate efforts to connect with talented engineering students across the globe. From email outreach to events, you likely already know where to find me. (Hint: your inbox.)

I’m originally a Pennsylvania native, which means I’m also a jaded Philly sports fan. I completed my B.S. in Psychology and Human Development, Child Life at the University of Utah before pursuing my Masters in Bioethics at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Before joining Human Capital, I helped the Hopkins Hopsital curate support groups for Transgender Adolescents.

Supportive relationships are at the core of everything I do.

In my free time I enjoy searching for the best hoagie in SF, competitive game nights, and over-using exclamation points!


Cami Docchio

I started my career as a data analyst. After a few years, I felt the urge to pursue a more engaging and fast-paced role where I could have a significant impact. I pivoted into computer programming and haven’t looked back.

At Human Capital, I'm part of our core engineering team. I keep our systems running smoothly, partner with the team to enhance workflows and services, and identify opportunities to leverage technology to add value to our investments. It’s particularly great knowing that the engineering I do on the day-to-day empowers the careers of the incredible engineers in our community.


Anirudh Nimmagadda

In my school days, I loved playing sports, being creative, and studying math (until integration and derivatives).

I was so obsessed with outdoor sports that I would play them indoors. My younger brother and I played cricket indoors, which often led to replacing smashed bulbs and tube lights. It was the sort of engineering project no engineering college could have prepared me for.

Creativity helps me bridge the gap between programming and designing. On weekends, you might find me designing a poster or logo for a startup.

At Human Capital, I create and maintain systems that enable smooth internal operations, and I’m stoked to be part of an organization whose goal is to have a positive impact on the careers of so many engineers.

Amit Badala

I've always been fascinated by the unique leverage that engineering provides the entrepreneur.

At a young age, I honed my skills as a hacker-entrepreneur over a string of businesses, each more technically ambitious than the last. Between high school and college, one of those businesses was accelerated by 

, transplanting me to the Bay Area from my home state of Texas.

Since then, I've gravitated to small technology startups where I could grow as a product engineer. 

I worked with Human Capital to find my first job out of college

, which enabled me to experience the trajectory of a high-growth startup firsthand. The experience reinforced how fostering an inspiring engineering culture can position a company for long-term success.

I joined Human Capital to support engineers in thinking long-term about their careers and to enable the construction of the best engineering teams. At Human Capital, I manage all systems that connect our members and teams as well as the supporting infrastructure for our investment business.

Adi Viswanathan

I joined Human Capital to help scale out our recruiting function for experienced engineers. I have over 9 years of recruiting experience, 7 of which have been focused solely on hiring for venture-backed startups in Silicon Valley.

Upon graduating from Penn State, I started my early career as an assistant teacher and coach for a small rural high school in New Jersey. When I was ready for a new challenge, I pivoted into recruiting for a boutique firm in Philadelphia, and eventually decided to move out to San Francisco to join RockIT Recruiting as an early team member.

I’d eventually grow into a partner role and head of RockIT’s contingency recruiting organization before moving on to a series of high-growth roles at Snap, Inc (design and camera platform senior recruiter), Reliable Robotics (head of recruiting), and Incredible Health (lead technical recruiter).

Outside of work, I enjoy watching and playing sports (especially golf), checking out live music, experiencing the great outdoors (especially anywhere near the water), and meeting motivated people in the tech world.

Enabling future leaders and fueling mission-driven startups are what I’m most passionate about.

The human side of capital

We’re a team that shares a core belief: the future belongs to those who can build it. That’s why we do what we do—bridge the gap between engineering and entrepreneurship.

Our approach

Team

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