# Top 50 Clean Energy Angel Investors in United States in June 2026 ## Nat Friedman - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B - Focus: Artificial Intelligence, Software, Information Technology Nat Friedman is an entrepreneur and developer. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Nat Friedman has two degrees from MIT and has been writing software for 27 years. Nat Friedman is passionate about building products that delight customers with love and attention to detail.In 1999, he co-founded Ximian with Miguel de Icaza. Natwas a co-founder and chairman of the GNOME Foundation. At Novell, Nat ran engineering for a $110M product and served as CTO of the Linux business. ## Mark Cuban - Type: Angel - Location: Dallas, Texas, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain Mark Cuban is the founder of Fireside, Chairman and Founding Partner of AXS TV, and the Owner of Dallas Mavericks. He previously worked at Broadcast.com as a Co-Founder. Mark Cuban attended the Indiana University Bloomington. ## Paul Bohm - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed - Focus: SaaS, FinTech, Software Paul Bohm - Advisory Board Member @ Medal ## Alex Kahn - Type: Angel - Location: Palo Alto, California, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Series A, Seed, Angel - Focus: Internet, Health Care, B2B Trusted advisor to successful tech entrepreneurs and family offices. ## Luke Kupersmith - Type: Angel - Location: Los Angeles, California, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Angel - Focus: CleanTech, Clean Energy, Renewable Energy Luke Kupersmith - President & CEO @ Lojistic ## Josh Manchester - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Angel - Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning Josh loves studying companies or trends which have touch points with governance or with large industries or parts of society that are off the Silicon Valley radar. He previously founded Champion Hill Labs, which performed consulting services for venture firms and hedge funds, and through which he invested in SpaceX, Flexport, and RigettiComputing. Before that he cut his teeth in the venture industry during six years on the team at TrueBridge Capital Partners, committing about $1 billion to venture capital firms globally as an LP, and leading the team’s investments in several mid-stage companies. He began his career in finance at USAA Real Estate Company. Before becoming an investor, Josh spent about six years as an officer in the US Marine Corps, in infantry and combat engineering roles, and has led three different platoons ranging from 10-60 Marines. In his last role he led a reinforced rifle platoon and was responsible for the security and civil development of a city of 10,000 people along the Euphrates River. He graduated from Duke University. When not chasing his young kids he enjoys Alan Furst novels and any time spent in the great outdoors. ## Jon Oringer - Type: Angel - Location: New York, New York, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A - Focus: Software, Information Technology, Health Care Jon Oringer is the founder and chairman of Shutterstock. ## Jeff Bezos - Type: Angel - Location: Seattle, Washington, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Grant, Series B, Seed - Focus: Software, Non Profit, Association Jeffrey Preston Bezos is the Founder of Blue Origin. He previously worked at Cashican People LLC as an Investor. Jeff Bezos attended Princeton University. ## Eugene Goldberg - Type: Angel - Location: New York, New York, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Angel - Focus: CleanTech, Clean Energy, Renewable Energy Eugene Goldberg ## Ronald Conway - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Series A, Seed, Angel - Focus: Software, Social Media, Internet Ronald Conway has been an active angel investor for over 15 years. He was the Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds (1998-2005) whose investments included: Google, Ask Jeeves, Paypal, Good Technology, Opsware, and Brightmail.Ronald was previously with National Semiconductor Corporation in marketing positions from1973-1979, and Altos Computer Systems as a co-founder, President and CEO from 1979-1990. He eventually took Altos public in 1982 and served as CEO of Personal Training Systems (PTS) from 1991-1995. PTS went on to be acquired by SmartForce/SkillSoft.Ronald has served/serves on Boards/Advisory Boards including: Twitter, Digg, Brightmail, Ask Jeeves, Rupture (acquired by EA), Associated Content (acquired by Yahoo!), Facebook, RockYou, ScanScout, Zappos, Trulia, StumbleUpon, Plaxo (acquired by Comcast), Photobucket (acquired by Fox), and Anchor Intelligence (co-founder).Ronald was recently named #6 in Forbes Magazine Midas list of top deal-makers in 2008 and is actively involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors. Ronald is Vice Chairman of the UCSF Medical Foundation in SF, Board Member of The Tiger Woods Foundation, and SF Homeless Connect, and on the Benefit Committee of Ronald McDonald House, College Track, and the Blacked Eyed Peas-PeaPod Academy Foundation.Ronald is also featured in Gary Rivlin's book _The Godfather of Silicon Valley: Ronald Conway and the Fall of the Dot-coms, described as 'the man who has placed more bets on Internet start-ups than anyone else in Silicon Valley. ## Kevin Weatherman - Type: Angel - Location: New York, New York, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed - Focus: SaaS, Software, Enterprise Software Kevin Weatherman - VP Partnerships & Cloud Enterprise BD @ Moloco ## Warren Buffett - Type: Angel - Location: Omaha, Nebraska, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A - Focus: Health Care, Software, Health Diagnostics Warren Edward Buffett is based out of Omaha, Nebraska, and is the Co-Founder of Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. Warren previously worked at Berkshire Hathaway as a President and Chief Executive Officer. Warren Edward Buffett attended the Columbia University. ## Tony Florence - Type: Angel - Location: New York, New York, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Series B, Series A - Focus: E-Commerce, Software, Retail Tony is a General Partner and co-leads NEA's Venture Growth Equity and Consumer Internet investment practices. Tony focuses on investments in the software and Internet sectors with emphasis on SaaS and marketplace ecommerce companies. In addition, he is actively involved in NEA’s investing activities in China. Tony has led investments inCare.com (NYSE: CRCM), Cvent (NYSE: CVT), Moda Operandi, Edmodo, EverFi, Casper, Raise.com, Jet.com, Goop.com and Wallapop. He led the firm's investment in Quidsi (Diapers.com), which was acquired by Amazon in 2011. Prior to joining NEA, he was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and was Head of Technology Banking in New York, and was a member of the North American Management Committee for investment banking. Tony spent over a decade at Morgan Stanley focused on the software and Internet sectors, and also worked with a number of NEA's companies in both IPOs and M&A transactions. Tony received an MBA and an A.B. in Economics from Dartmouth College. ## Elon Musk - Type: Angel - Location: Los Angeles, California, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Series A, Series B, Pre-Seed - Focus: FinTech, Apps, Software Elon Musk is based out of Hawthorne, California, and is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Technology Officer of SpaceX. Elon previously worked at OpenAI as a Co-Founder. Elon Musk attended the University of Pennsylvania. ## Edward Kim - Type: Angel - Location: Seattle, Washington, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Angel - Focus: CleanTech, Clean Energy, Renewable Energy Edward Kim ## Jeremy Yap - Type: Angel - Location: Singapore, Central Region, Singapore - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Angel - Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning Jeremy is a full time angel from Singapore who invests across North America and Europe. ## Murat Abdrakhmanov - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Angel - Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, SaaS Murat Abdrakhmanov is a co-investor at 2C2P. Attended Fuqua Executive school of bussines. ## Tom Chi - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B - Focus: Biotechnology, Solar, Analytics Tom Chi is based out of San Francisco, California and is the Board of Director of Provectus Algae. Tom also serve as Founding Partner of At One Ventures. Tom Chi attended Cornell University. ## Jordan Levy - Type: Angel - Location: New York, New York, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B - Focus: Mobile, Software, Content Jordan Levy is a General Partner at SoftBank Capital NY and also Managing Partner of Seed Capital Partners, an early stage venture capital fund that he co-founded in 1999.Prior to co-founding Seed Capital Partners, he was co-founder of ClientLogic and was President, co-CEO and co-Chair of its predecessor companies SOFTBANK Services Group andUCA (now SITEL Worldwide). Previously, Jordan was SVP of Software Etc,now GameStop (NYSE:GME) and prior to that he was also co-founder of Software Distribution Services, now known as Ingram Micro (NYSE:IM).Jordan currently serves on the boards of several technology companies including SocialFlow, Spanfeller Media, Synaptic Digital, COKeM Int. and is Chairman of Synacor (NASDAQ: SYNC). He is a Board Observer of Betaworks and Boxee. Previously, Jordan served on the boards of ZipList (sold to Condé Nast in 2012), OMGPOP (sold to Zynga in 2012), Hyperpublic (sold to Groupon in 2012), and KickApps (sold to KIT digital in 2011). He also is the first non-Native American on the Board of Seneca Holdings Corporation.Jordan is Chair of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation, the State Agency responsible for the redevelopment of Buffalo’s vast historic waterfront. He is also on the Advisory Board for NYC Seed and a trustee of the University of Buffalo Foundation. He served for nine years as a trustee of the Albright Knox Art Gallery and is a past President of the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo. ## John Carleton - Type: Angel - Location: Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed - Focus: Sports, Software, Health Care JC has invested in startups for over two decades. JC helps several startups he has not invested in in the areas of capital raising, pitching, and business plan development. JC is a graduate of the University of Richmond with a degree in Leadership and Economics. While overseas he obtained an MBA with a concentration in Global Management andAccounting in 2007. JC holds a CPA license in Virginia as well as a CGFM and CGMA certificate. He lives in Liverpool, United Kingdom. ## Brett Jackson - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A - Focus: Finance, Apps, SaaS Brett Jackson is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at V1.VC. ## Rayyan Islam - Type: Angel - Location: Los Angeles, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Renewable Energy, Energy, Biotechnology Rayyan Islam is the Co-Founder and General Partner at 8090 Industries. As serial entrepreneur, investor and advisor focused on industrial technology and the low-carbon economy, the companies Rayyan's invested in, sourced and advised have grown to over $8B in market value and have gone to raise further financing from the likes of SequoiaCapital, Union Square Ventures, Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Venrock, Khosla Ventures and Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Rayyan previously spent time helping source technology investments for multiple family offices globally, particularly focused towards industrialists based in the Texas and American midwest region and began his VC career at leading East Coast seed stage venture firm, Romulus Capital, where he sourced the firm’s most valued investment, EquipmentShare.A product manager by trade, he worked stints at Spotify, was on the founding team of a subscription airline and began his career supporting M&A transactions for industrial clients at Deloitte as well as economic developments efforts for Deloitte Consulting’s Emerging Markets Practice. Rayyan is a Forbes 30U30 Fellow, served as a United Nations Youth Delegate and is a recipient of the Outstanding Youth Delegate Award.Influenced by his family upbringing in Bangladesh, he personally witnessed energy security issues and the ramifications of climate change at a young age and its impact on communities around the world. Determined to make a serious dent on the issue, Rayyan supports a cadre of climate solutions, drafted policy recommendations to President Joe Biden’s climate transition team and is the editor of Decarbon Weekly, a decarbonization focused newsletter which counts leading climate scientists, members of state and local governments, climate tech founders and ESG focused investors and foundations amongst its subscription base. Rayyan co-founded the industrial decarbonization fund at 8090 Partners, in partnership with prominent industrial and energy families from around the world to invest, support and accelerate breakthrough technology companies decarbonizing every industrial sector driven by radical economic advantages.Rayyan and his work has been featured on Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, Huffington Post and Forbes. ## Parker Weil - Type: Angel - Location: New York, New York, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A - Focus: Solar, Energy, Clean Energy Parker Weil is the Vice Chairman at Cowen Inc. Parker Weil attended Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management. ## Mitch Kapor - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Angel - Focus: Software, Mobile, Education Mitchell Kapor is the Partner of Kapor Capital. He previously worked at Generation Investment Management as an Advisory Board Member. Mitchell Kapor attended MIT Sloan School of Management. ## Rob May - Type: Angel - Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A - Focus: Artificial Intelligence, Software, Machine Learning Rob May is the Founder and CEO of BrandGuard. He previously worked at PJC as a Venture Partner. Rob May attended the University of Kentucky. ## Steve Blank - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Artificial Intelligence, Software, Enterprise Software Steve Blank is the Founding Faculty - Gordian Knot Center For National Security Innovation of Stanford University. He previously worked at California League of Conservation Voters as a Board Member. ## Sam Huleatt - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: SaaS, Software, GreenTech Sam is a graduate of Bates College and Johns Hopkins University. Additionally, he is the author of the blog, Leveraging Ideas and has been quoted in publications, including: the Financial Times and the New York Times. ## Roman Rusev - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: SaaS, Software, GreenTech Roman Rusev has been in the real estate industry since junior high. Starting at the age of 17, Roman scaled a flooring company with 25+ technicians and grown it into a large outfit Property Service company. During last year of college, he has built over 100 homes across several markets. With extensive experience in real estate, investment, andbusiness development Roman co-founded Field Complete, the new and upcoming platform for property service providers who can't use current solutions on the market. ## Jay Adelson - Type: Angel - Location: Mill Valley, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Consumer Electronics, News, Music Jay Adelson is the Chairman & Co-Founder at Scorbit. ## Mike Hennessey - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed - Focus: Software, Information Technology, Mobile Mike Hennessey ## Benjamin Ling - Type: Angel - Location: Menlo Park, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B - Focus: Software, E-Commerce, SaaS Ben Ling is an Investment Partner at Khosla Ventures, where he is focused on mobile and Internet, marketplace, consumer health and data businesses. He is an accomplished executive and angel investor, with senior operating roles at Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Badoo. His personal investments include Square, Palantir, Quora, and PracticeFusion,Fab, DogVacay, and he holds advisory roles at Pinterest and Pulse.Ben currently serves on the board of Wattpad, Tapingo, Academia.edu, TheHunt, Quantopian, and Pymetrics.At Google, he was Google’s Senior Director of Search Products and Local Business Products, including overseeing Images, Videos, Books, News and Finance. At YouTube, he was Senior Director of Partnerships and Platform, responsible for Music, Movies, Sports, News, as well as Mobile, TV, and API partnerships. In his first role at Google, Ben was the founder and GM of Google’s Commerce group, including Google Wallet and Shopping.At Facebook, Ben was Director of Facebook Platform overseeing the Facebook developer ecosystem, and led product, marketing, developer operations, partner solutions, and helped build Facebook Connect, which has helped Facebook grow across the web.Ben holds a Ph.D. and Master’s in Computer Science from Stanford University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering / Computer Science with a minor in Business Administration from UC Berkeley.Ben is a Department of Defense Fellow and recipient of UC Berkeley’s Bechtel Achievement Award (Top graduating senior in College of Engineering). ## Dmitry Shurygin - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Convertible Note, Angel, Seed - Focus: E-Commerce, Analytics, Food Delivery Dmitry Shurygin is the VP Operations of NFWare. He attended Bauman Moscow State Technical University. ## Jimmy Hsu - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Angel, Pre-Seed - Focus: Mobile, Software, Aerospace Jimmy Hsu is a senior software engineer at WeWork. Prior to joining WeWork, Jimmy co-founded and served as the CEO of Conduit AI. ## Bart Lorang - Type: Angel - Location: Golden, Colorado, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: Internet, Analytics, Apps Bart Lorang is based out of Boulder, Colorado and is the Founder and CEO of Forseti. Bart previously worked at Career Break as a Travel.Bart Lorang attended the University of Denver - Daniels College of Business. ## Erhan Bilici - Type: Angel - Location: New York, New York, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Equity Crowdfunding, Pre-Seed - Focus: Financial Services, FinTech, E-Commerce Risk Management professional, experienced in Stress Testing and Capital Planning. Economist, Investment Analyst, Financial Consultant. Interested in FinTech. ## Ozzy Akay - Type: Angel - Location: Arlington, Virginia, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Equity Crowdfunding, Seed - Focus: Manufacturing, Virtual Reality, Fashion Ozzy Akay ## Cem Sertoglu - Type: Angel - Location: New York, New York, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Series D - Focus: E-Commerce, Marketplace, CRM Cem Sertoglu is an internet and technology venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He is currently a Managing Partner at Bek Ventures, a European venture investment firm focusing on technology and health technology companies.He is also a managing partner at Young Turk Ventures, an internet-focused investment firm. From 2008 to 2009, Sertoglu was apartner at iLab Ventures, the venture capital arm of AccessTurkey Capital Group that is focused on early-stage through late-stage growth equity investments, primarily in on-line consumer services companies and technology-driven business services companies in Turkey.Prior to these, Sertoglu founded SelectMinds, a provider of cloud-based, social talent sourcing apps that allow companies to use social networks such as Facebook to recruit employees. He served as its CEO from 1999 to 2005. The company was bought by Oracle in 2012.Sertoglu's investment highlights include: GittiGidiyor, the first major Turkish internet exit to eBay in 2011; YemekSepeti, the leading online meal delivery marketplace in Turkey; Grupanya, Turkey’s leading daily deal business; and Wikimart.ru, a leading Russian e-commerce platform. Other investments include: HipWay, CivicSolar, Lofty, Lime&Tonic, Gezlong and Vivense Home & Living.Sertoglu attended the University of Texas at Austin and received his bachelor's degree in Economics in 1993. He also attended Robert College from 1982 to 1989. He publishes a blog on Venture Capital and technology, titled SortiPreneur. ## Curtis Jackson - Type: Angel - Location: New York, New York, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Pre-Seed, Series C - Focus: Mobile, Retail, Farming Curtis Jackson is professionally known as "50 cent" is the Founder and CEO of SMS Audio. He began as music chart dominance for the rap music phenomenon, has quickly transformed into success in corporate America. 50 Cent is a multi-tiered business mogul to be reckoned with. Recognized as one of the most talented and prolific music artistsof his time, 50 Cent has managed to leverage his star power into record-breaking brand extensions encompassing a broad spectrum of businesses including music ownership, artist management, film production, footwear and apparel, fragrance, video games, publishing, headphones and health drinks, and supplements. With annual sales quickly approaching $300 million from a variety of business interests along with numerous business endeavors on the horizon, 50 Cent has cemented his position in the industry as both a business and entertainment powerhouse. ## David Marquardt - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Series B, Series C - Focus: Renewable Energy, Energy, DevOps A co-founder of August Capital in 1995, Dave's commitment to entrepreneurs and their market vision is reflected by his long-standing board relationships, he has served on more than 25 boards of directors during his 20 year venture capital career including Microsoft, Sun, Seagate, Adaptec, and Grand Junction Networks (acquired by Cisco).Priorto August Capital, Dave was a co-founder of Technology Venture Investors (TVI) in 1980 where he was involved in four highly successful funds that invested in more than 100 start-up and emerging growth companies. Among these early investments was Microsoft, where TVI was the sole investor and where Dave has been on the board of directors since 1981.Dave began his venture career at Institutional Venture Associates, where he spent a year after graduating from business school. Previously, Dave was a design engineer and development manager at Diablo Systems (acquired by Xerox) where he collaborated on and/or led various disk drive and printer programs.Dave received a BSME from Columbia University and an MBA from Stanford University. He also completed coursework for an MSEE at Stanford University. He has served as president of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists and is a past director of the National Venture Capital Association. ## Godai Furusawa - Type: Angel - Location: Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: Finance, Lending, Hospitality Godai Furusawa - Chairman of the Board @ Climate Transition Swiss AG ## Louis Beryl - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Software, FinTech, Financial Services 3X Founder of Earnest, SolidEnergy, and now working on the next one. Formerly a16z and YC. Active angel investor and board member. ## Lakshmi Narayanan - Type: Angel - Location: New Delhi, Delhi, India - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Angel - Focus: Artificial Intelligence, Manufacturing, Machine Learning Lakshmi Narayanan is the Chief Executive Officer at Cognizant Technology Solutions. ## Ivanka Trump - Type: Angel - Location: New York, New York, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A - Focus: Education, Farming, CleanTech Ivanka Trump ## Bootstrapped Debt Financing - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed - Focus: Software, Information Technology, E-Commerce Bootstrapped Debt Financing ## Eminem (Marshall Mathers) - Type: Angel - Location: Detroit, Michigan, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Pre-Seed, Series A - Focus: Digital Media, Art, E-Commerce Eminem was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III in St. Joseph, Missouri, to Deborah R. (Nelson) and Marshall Bruce Mathers, Jr., who were in a band together, Daddy Warbucks. He is of English, as well as some German, Scottish, and Swiss-German, ancestry. Marshall spent his early childhood being shoved back and forth from Kansas City and Detroit. Hesettled on the Eastside of Detroit when he was 12. Switching schools every two to three months made it difficult to make friends, graduate and to stay out of trouble. Marshall attended Lincoln High School in Warren, Michigan, 1986-1989.Being a rap fan for most of his life, Marshall began rapping at the early age of 4. Rhyming words together, battling schoolmates in the lunchroom brought joy to what was otherwise a painful existence. At the age of 14, he began to get very serious about his rapping but it wasn't until he was 17 that he actually made a name for himself, becoming M&M, which he would later respell as "Eminem". Being rejected by most fellow rappers because of his race, Marshall grew an anger that flows through his music to this day. After failing the 9th grade for three times in a row, he quit school, but has remarked that he does not consider himself stupid and does not advise that people should follow his example. He says that it just wasn't for him. Forcing himself on radio shows, freestyle battles, Marshall threw himself head first into the rap game, where he was swallowed up most of the time. His very first album was titled "Infinite" and, while the album sold less than a thousand copies, it was the gearing up stages for the rapper who became a millionaire. It was then that his daughter, Hailie Jade Scott, was born on December 25th of 1995 with long time girlfriend Kim Scott.Having nothing to lose at all, flat broke and not knowing where he would be living the next week, Marshall set out to rant about life in general, the set quickly caught the ear of hip-hop's difficult-to-please underground. What came out of this was the Slim Shady EP, the early work for the later Dr. Dre revised Slim Shady LP. Down to nearly his last dime, he went into the 1997 Rap Olympics in Los Angeles, basically hoping to win the $1,500 cash prize which he badly needed. After battling for an hour and throwing back every race diss thrown at him, Marshall made it to second place losing in a slip up. Furious that he had lost, Marshall didn't even notice that he had been spotted. In the crowd were a few producers from Interscope, and they were handed a copy of the "Infinite" tape by way of a demo.Dr. Dre got to hear it and eventually tracked him down. The two instantly hit it off, recording four songs in their first six hours of working - three which made it to his first LP. After the album was finished, Dr. Dre asked Marshall to come work with him on his new album. He helped produce several tracks and was on the best songs of the album. Now officially making it, Marshall and Dre set to make his second LP. The album became the Marshall Mathers LP and won 3 Grammies and was the first rap album ever to be nominated "Album of the Year", selling more than 8 million records in the United States alone. He also stunned critics when he shot down all homophobic remarks by performing "Stan" with Elton John. Eminem made a movie, 8 Mile (2002). Though 2001 was a rough year for the rapper, being charged with weapon offenses, divorcing his wife, and almost going to prison, Marshall has explained his life in one word: "Claimer". ## Will Smith - Type: Angel - Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Seed, Series C - Focus: Financial Services, FinTech, Software Will Smith is an actor, producer and musician, two-time Academy Award® nominee four-time Grammy nominee and winner Will Smith has enjoyed a diverse career encompassing films, television and multiplatinum records.Smith’s vast filmography includes transformative portrayals of true-life icons in “Ali,” “The Pursuit of Happyness” and “Concussion.” Hehas headlined an extraordinary list of films, including “Hitch,” “I am Legend,” “I, Robot,” “Independence Day,” “Men in Black I, II, and III” and “Suicide Squad".Currently, Smith can be seen in Walt Disney Pictures “Aladdin” in the iconic role of the Genie. The movie was directed by Guy Ritchie and has made over $1 billion worldwide since its release on May 24, 2019. Smith will next be seen staring in Ang Lee’s action/thriller, “Gemini Man” out this fall. Next year, he’ll grace the screen once again in the beloved franchise, Sony’s “Bad Boys for Life,” premiering around the world in January 2020, in which he will once again reprise his iconic role as Detective Mike Lowrey opposite Martin Lawrence. Smith will next go into production on Warner Brother’s “King Richard” where he will star in the titular role of Richard Williams, the father of renounced tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams.Recently, Smith created the daring Facebook Watch series, “Will Smith’s Bucket List” where he challenges himself to a different item from his bucket list each week, including performing standup comedy with Dave Chappelle, skydiving in Dubai, swimming with sharks, and racing a Formula 1 car in Abu Dhabi. The show was a massive success for the platform. He began his career as a musician selling millions of records worldwide before crossing over into television with the beloved “Fresh Prince of Bel Air.” In 1998 he and partner James Lassiter founded production and management company Overbrook Entertainment, which has produced numerous top film and television projects.In addition to his artistic achievements, Smith is a successful business owner. Along with his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, he launched a new media venture, Westbrook Inc. This is a cross-platform holding company formed to execute the Smith Family’s global content and commerce business strategy. Westbrook Inc. will encompass subsidiary companies including the existing Overbrook Entertainment, Red Table Talk Enterprises and the recently formed Westbrook Studios, Westbrook Media, and Good Goods, the latter an elevated merchandise business. Additionally he and Jada founded the Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation. WJSFF is a nonprofit, philanthropic organization committed to improving lives and investing in organizations and initiatives that empower traditionally overlooked communities. ## John Collison - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Series C - Focus: Software, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence John Collison is a President and Co-founder at Stripe. He attended Harvard University.John and his brother Patrick Collison started Stripe in 2010 while John was studying physics at Harvard. Their goal was to make accepting payments online simpler and more inclusive, after learning firsthand how difficult it was. Today, the 100+ person (andgrowing) Stripe team powers online businesses around the world.Before Stripe, John co-founded Auctomatic, which was acquired by Live Current Media in March 2008. Originally from Limerick, Ireland, John lives in San Francisco, California, where Stripe is based. ## Jeff Immelt - Type: Angel - Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B - Focus: Software, Manufacturing, Information Technology Immelt has held several global leadership positions since coming to GE in 1982, including roles in GE's Plastics, Appliances, and Healthcare businesses. In 1989 he became an officer of GE and joined the GE Capital Board in 1997.Immelt has been named one of the World's Best CEOs three times by Barron's, and since he began servingas chief executive officer, GE has been named America's Most Admired Company in a poll conducted by Fortunemagazine and one of The World's Most Respected Companies in polls by Barron's and the Financial Times.Immelt was the chair of President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. He is a member of The American Academy of Arts & Sciences.Immelt earned a B.A. degree in applied mathematics from Dartmouth College in 1978 and an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1982. He and his wife have one daughter. ## Jason Franklin - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B - Focus: Artificial Intelligence, Health Care, Machine Learning Dr. Franklin is the CEO and Managing Director of WVV Capital. He holds a Ph.D. from the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University and degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Business from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the recipient of the 2012 Allen Newell Award for Research Excellence, 2009 SOSP Best PaperAward, 2005 USENIX Security Best Paper Award, Department of Homeland Security Fellowship, and NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. ## Craig Winkler - Type: Angel - Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Seed - Focus: SaaS, Software, Apps Craig Winkler Co-founded Australian small business accounting software provider MYOB in 1991. Craig built MYOB to be a popular business tool and brand which, in 2004, merged with Solution 6 to become Australia’s largest IT company. Craig joined Xero's board and became a substantial shareholder in 2009. He now spends the bulk of his timeworking in the philanthropic sector.