Top 50 Food and Beverage Angel Investors in United States in December 2024

Joanne Wilson has had many careers. She started out in retail, eventually moving to the wholesale arena. She then transitioned to the media side of the technology world, before once again reinventing herself as an investor. She is currently an active angel investor with a portfolio of over 90 companies such as Food52, Sweeten, Vengo, Nestio, Phinand Phebes, Makers Row, Clutter, and Union Station. She has been involved in numerous real estate transactions from beginning to end and continues to make investments in that world. She is also an investor in a few restaurants in the New York area. In addition to these endeavors, Joanne has been involved in various education projects and served as chairperson at Hot Bread Kitchen, non-profit committed to increasing access to the culinary industry for woman and minority entrepreneurs. She also sits on the board of The Highline. Joanne has maintained her very popular blog, www.gothamgal.com for over 11 years and has recently take her talents to the airwaves on her podcast, ""Positively Gotham Gal"". She loves to bake, cook, throw a good party, travel, read, collect art, do the crossword and stay on top of what's happening around the globe and in NYC.Her most successful venture is being married to her best friend, Fred and raising their three kids- Jessica, Emily and Josh

Edward Lando is the founder of Pareto Holdings. He previously worked at Horizons School of Technology as a co-founder. Edward Lando attended the Wharton School.

Jason Calacanis is the Founder and CEO of Inside.com and Launch. He previously worked at Weblogs as a Co-Founder and CEO. Jason Calacanis attended Fordham University.

Bryan Rosenblatt (born July 4, 1989 in New York, New York, United States) is an American Venture Capitalist and entrepreneur. He is a Partner at Craft Ventures, a venture firm with over $2 billion AUM started by David Sacks. He is also a founder of Riverside Ventures, which he started in 2017, and a former executive at Reddit and Twitter. Hepreviously worked at Reddit as the Head of Sales. Bryan Rosenblatt attended the University of Connecticut School of Business and Charles University.

Jonathan is the Founder of Torch Capital. A long time entrepreneur and investor, he has spent his career at the intersection of the media, technology and entertainment industries. He is the Co-Founder of digital media company InsideHook and has spent a decade as an active early stage investor and advisor to a number of New York and LA's topstart-ups.

Scott Belsky joined Adobe as Chief Product Officer, Executive Vice President - Creative Cloud in 2017.Scott Belsky is an entrepreneur, author, and investor. Scott co-founded Behance in 2006, and served as CEO until Adobe acquired Behance in 2012. Millions of people use Behance to display their portfolios, as well as track and find top talent acrossthe creative industries. After Behance's acquisition, Scott served as Adobe's Vice President of Products, rebooting Adobe's mobile product strategy and leading Behance until 2016 when he became a full-time venture capitalist as a General Partner at Benchmark. Scott returned to his love for the creative world, and building products and teams full-time, as Chief Product Officer and EVP of Creative Cloud, at Adobe in late 2017. He continues to work with Benchmark as a Venture Partner, as well as several other early stage venture firms. Scott also manages a portfolio of over 150 private companies from his early investments and product advisory roles in companies including Pinterest, Uber, Carta, Flexport, Airtable, sweetgreen, and many others in the early stages.Scott is also the author of the bestselling books Making Ideas Happen and The Messy Middle (Portfolio Imprint, Penguin Books, April, 2010 and Oct 2018, respectively).Scott is also the founder of the 99U conference for leaders in the design world, and is an advocate for technology and community initiatives that empower creative people and help businesses leverage the creative potential of their people. In 2010, Scott was also included in Fast Company's list of "100 Most Creative People in Business."Prior to founding Behance, Scott helped grow the Pine Street Leadership Development Initiative at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Scott was especially focused on organizational improvement and strengthening relationships with clients. Scott serves on the Advisory Board of Cornell University's Entrepreneurship Program and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. He attended Cornell University as an undergraduate and received his MBA from Harvard Business School. Scott and his family live in New York City and San Francisco.

Nick Green is the Co-Founder and CEO of Thrive Market, a membership-based market that makes high-quality, healthy, and sustainable products available for every budget, lifestyle, and geography. For $60/year, members unlock wholesale prices on top natural and organic products, and Thrive Market matches every paid membership with a free one fora family or individual in need. A serial social impact entrepreneur, Nick began in the education space with his first business, Ivy Insiders, a college test prep and mentorship program that made tutoring more affordable and helped over 20,000 students get into better colleges. Outside of work, Nick loves traveling, investing, reading biographies, and spending time with his wife and 2-year old daughter. He originally hails from Minneapolis, MN and earned his B.A. in Economics from Harvard.

Kyle Vogt is the CEO of The Bot Company.

Wei Guo, the founding partner of UpHonest Capital, is an active angel investor in Silicon Valley, focusing on early-stage cross-sector investments. He founded Wei Fund in 2015 and UpHonest Capital Fund I in 2016, invested in well-known companies such as Hims&Hers(NYSE: HIMS), Vicarious Surgical(NYSE: RBOT), Knightscope (NASDAQ: KSCP), Checkr,Lime, Boom, Rescale, Dialpad and more. Since 2015, he has invested in over 400 Silicon Valley startups, over 76 companies with valuations greater than 100 million USD, and 23 portfolio companies that have successfully exited.

Justin Waldron is Co-Founder & President of Playco, and previously Co-Founder / EVP of Product of Zynga, the world's largest mobile game company. Zynga IPO'd in 2011 with a $10 billion valuation and over $1b in annual revenue. Justin is an angel investor in Lambda School, Substack, and 60+ other companies. He mentors youngentrepreneurs at The Thiel Foundation's Thiel Fellowship program.

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.

Matt Mullenweg is the CEO at Automattic Inc. Matt Mullenweg attended the University of Houston.

Max is the Co-Founder of Instacart. He started the company with two co-founders in 2012. Previously, he's worked for several startups including Schematic, an award-winning interactive agency which was acquired by WPP. Max is originally from Los Angeles where he graduated from the University of Southern California, studying entrepreneurship andcinematic arts.

Kimbal Musk is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman at Big Green.

Kevin Love is an American basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association.

Walter Robb is the co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods Market.

Jason Finger is the Co-Founder and Director of Salvo Health. He previously worked at LiveAuctioneers as an Executive Chairman. Jason Finger attended New York University School of Law.

Gary Vaynerchuk is the Chairman of VaynerX. He previously worked at Resy as a Co-Founder. Gary Vaynerchuk attended Mount Ida College.

Daniel Curran is the Founder and CEO at CustEx.com.

Güimar is a tech entrepreneur and angel investor as well as Venture Partner at FJ Labs.

Kevin Moore has 10 years experience as an angel/opportunity investor and operator. Prior to that, he has over 15 years of progressive technology i-banking, corp dev, and CFO experience at startups and $Bn corporates.

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.

Alexis Ohanian is the President and Founder of 776 Foundation. He previously worked at reddit as an Executive Chair and Board Member. Alexis Ohanian attended the University of Virginia.

Jon Oringer is the founder and chairman of Shutterstock.

Wayne Chang is the Founder and CEO of Patented.ai. He previously worked at Crashlytics as a Co-Founder and Chairman. Wayne Chang attended the University of Massachusetts.

Alex Pattis is a General Partner at Riverside Ventures. He attended The University of Arizona.

Timothy Ferriss is a start-up angel investor Twitter, Posterous, RescueTime and others, blogger and entrepreneur. Tim's best-known written work is The 4-Hour Workweek, which had been sold into 35 languages and reached #1 on The New York Times, BusinessWeek and The Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. On May 3, 2009, it celebrated its 2ndstraight year on The New York Times business bestseller list since its publication on April 27, 2007. Tim is a Guest Lecturer in High-Tech Entrepreneurship and Electrical Engineering at Princeton University since 2003. Other education-related interests includes social media-based fundraising experiments, such as LitLiberation, which outraised television host Stephen Colbert 3-to-1 with no fixed costs. Most recently, Tim used Twitter as a distributed tool for gathering data on post-campaign donations (see Tweet to Beat). Tim is on the advisory board of DonorsChoose.org, Evernote, StumbleUpon, Trippy, about.me, TaskRabbit and Uber. Tim has been invited to speak at some of the world’s most innovative organizations, including Google, MIT, Harvard Business School, Nike, PayPal, Facebook, The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Microsoft, Ask.com, Nielsen, Princeton University, the Wharton School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Tim has also been invited to speak and keynote at world-renowned technology summits including EG, FOO Camp, E-Tech, Supernova, LeWeb, and the Web 2.0 Exposition, where he shared the stage with figures like Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board of Google, and Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon. Tim received his B.A. degree from Princeton University in 2000, where he studied in the Neuroscience and East Asian Studies departments.

Scott is an American entrepreneur and angel investor. He is best known as a co-founder of IronPort and an early advisor and board member at PayPal.Scott Banister started his career as a pioneer in the email business. He was Founder and VP of Technology at ListBot, the largest ASP for business email list hosting. ListBot was acquired byMicrosoft. After ListBot, Scott spent his time working with other start-ups as a board member and investor. These start-ups include eVoice, creator of the first email-enabled home voicemail service, which was acquired by AOL in 2001. He served as VP of Ideas at idealab!, where he contributed numerous innovations, including the unique bid-for-placement search engine model that powers Overture. In December 2000, with Scott Weiss, Banister co-founded IronPort, an email appliance provider that was acquired in 2007 by Cisco for US$830 million.Scott Banister is co-founder and Chairman of Other private equity investments include Zappos.com, LiveOps, Facebook, Hi5.com, Tagged.com, iLike, and Causes.com.Banister attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, from which he dropped out in 1996 to move to Silicon Valley. He currently lives in Half Moon Bay, California with his wife Cyan.

Peter Rahal has 2 current jobs as Managing Director at Litani Ventures and Co-Founder at RXBAR. Peter Rahal attended the American University of Beirut.

Donald C. Moore III is the Partner at DOM Food Group.

Jen Rubio is the Co-Founder and CEO at Away.

Shamin Walsh has over 13+ years as an active angel investor who gained experience in the consumer space through her early investments in companies such as Sweetgreen, Flexport, and Sir Kensington’s.Prior to joining BAM Ventures as a managing director, she was a consumer-focused partner at an early-stage generalist firm with tangible assets in3PL/fulfillment, cold storage/co-packing, and manufacturing, giving her a holistic perspective through which to evaluate emerging consumer businesses. She managed the investment portfolio and served on several boards, such as Alchemy 43. She also leveraged her experience as a transactional attorney to assist in contract negotiations, fund formation, and fund construction.

Paul Buchheit co-founded social network aggregator FriendFeed, along with three other former Google employees. He is also an investor in FriendFeed and participated in a $5 million Series A round in February 2008.He was the 23rd employee at Google, where he created Gmail and implemented many of its innovative features. He developed the originalprototype of Google AdSense, and was responsible for Google's famous "Don't be evil" motto in a meeting.

Flip Gianos is the General Partner, Emeritus at InterWest Partners. He attended Harvard Business School and Stanford University.

Ryan Tedder is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer.

Shervin Pishevar is the Co-Founder at Virgin Hyperloop.

Jason brings to early-stage investing a combination of experience as a startup founder, VC-backed operator, growth-stage institutional investor, and angel investor. In early 2013, Jason joined Uber in San Francisco where he launched and managed three of Uber's first 100 market launches. Prior to Uber, Jason spent two years at Insight VenturePartners as an investment analyst focused on growth-stage internet and software. Jason began his career in startups as a college Senior, co-founding Splash.FM, a social music discovery platform. Jason graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Economics and received the Frederick H. Gloeckner award in Entrepreneurship from The Wharton School. Jason was awarded Forbes 30 under 30 for Venture Capital in 2018.

Risk Management professional, experienced in Stress Testing and Capital Planning. Economist, Investment Analyst, Financial Consultant. Interested in FinTech.

Dave McClure is the founder of Practical Venture Capital and has been an investor and entrepreneur in Silicon Valley for over twenty-five years. Previously he was the founding partner of 500 Startups, a global VC firm and startup accelerator with over $500M in assets under management. Dave has invested in hundreds of companies around the world,including more than 15 unicorns and 5 IPOs. He was named by Forbes as one of the top VCs in the world in 2016 and 2017 (Forbes Midas List). Before 500 Startups, Dave worked at Founders Fund and PayPal, and he graduated from the Johns Hopkins University in 1988 with a BS in engineering and applied mathematics.

David Grutman

Gary R. Hirshberg, Ph.D., Co-Founded Spiffly, Inc. in 2014. Gary Hirshberg serves as a Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. He serves as an Advisor at Renewable2 Management Company and Renewal2 Investment Fund. Gary Hirshberg co-founded Stonyfield Farm, Inc. (Stonyfield Farm Yogurt) in September 1983 and served as its Chief Executive Officer,since September 1983 until January 2012, President, since 1989. He oversaw Stonyfield's phenomenal growth, from its infancy as a seven-cow organic farming school to its $330 million in annual sales. In 2001, Stonyfield Farm entered into a partnership with Groupe Danone and in 2005, he was named Managing Director of Stonyfield Europe. He served as Director of the Rural Education Center at Stonyfield. Gary Hirshberg was a Managing Director at Stonyfield Europe. Previously, he served as an Executive Director at The New Alchemy Institute. He has extensive experience as an environmental activist, including terms as the Founding President of the Cape and Island Self Reliance Corporation and as the Founding President of the Cape Cod Environmental Alliance. Prior positions include serving as a Water-Pumping Windmill Specialist and an Environmental Education Director at the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Gary Hirshberg served as an Advisor at Renewal Partners LLC, Solera Capital, the Heinz Center Leadership Summit and the Corporate Ecoforum. Gary Hirshberg is Co-Founder and Chairman of O'Naturals. He served as the Chairman of Stonyfield Farm, Inc. He served as the Chairman of The Social Venture Network. Gary Hirshberg serves on several corporate and non-profit Boards including Applegate Farms, the Dannon Company, Honest Tea, Peak Organic Brewing Company, The Full Yield, Climate Counts, Stonyfield Europe, Ltd, Glenisk, Ltd, Solera Capital and Sambazon. He serves as Member of Advisory Board at Spiffly, Inc. He has been a Director at Blue Apron, Inc. and since February 27, 2017 Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. since October 2016. Gary Hirshberg serves as Director of Sweetgreen, Inc., Danone Communities and Quantum Designs, LLC. He serves as a Director of Ramp Sports LLC and The Full Yield, Inc. He served as a Director of Stonyfield Farm, Inc. Gary Hirshberg served as a Director of Monogram Energy, Inc. since June 1995. He served as a Trustee of Leadership New Hampshire, Inc. He serves as a Member of the Advisory Board of Simon Equity, LLC. He serves as Member of Social Advisory Board at Commons Capital Management LLC. Gary Hirshberg served as a Director of the New Hampshire Audobon Society and the Association for the Preservation of Cape Cod. Gary Hirshberg is the Author of the book Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World. He is a frequent speaker on topics including sustainability, climate change, the profitability of green and socially responsible business, organic agriculture and sustainable economic development. Gary Hirshberg has won numerous awards for corporate and environmental leadership, including Global Green USA's "1999 Green Cross Millennium Award for Corporate Environmental Leadership." He was named "Business Leader of the Year" by Business NH Magazine and "New Hampshire's 1998 Small Business Person of the Year" by the U.S. Small Business Administration. More recently, 2009 was a year of big wins as Gary Hirshberg was named one of "America's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs" by Business Week magazine, Stonyfield was chosen "Business of the Year - Manufacturing" by Business NH magazine and Stonyfield won an EPA Clean Air Excellence award. He also is featured in 2009's most successful documentary, "Food, Inc." Gary Hirshberg served on the Advisory Panel for Newsweek magazine's Global Environmental Leadership Conference. He has received eight honorary doctorates and was named a Gordon Grand Fellow at Yale University. Gary Hirshberg holds an honorary Doctor of Science from New Hampshire College, an Honorary Doctor of Law from Notre Dame College in Manchester, New Hampshire and a B.A. from Hampshire College.

Clark Landry is the Managing Partner of Clover Leaf Ventures.Most recently, Clark was co-founder and COO at CESPPA, a cybersecurity company. Formerly, Clark was co-founder and COO at Maple Media (raised $30 million from private equity investors), co-founder and executive chairman at SHIFT (acquired by Brand Networks), co-founder and CEO at TopLevel Domain Holdings (now Minds + Machines - publicly-traded on the London Stock Exchange's AIM), co-founder and CMO at TagWorld (acquired by Viacom). Clark was a founding investor of Gradient X, a mobile DSP (acquired by SingTel), Traffic Marketplace, an advertising network (acquired by Vivendi), Adconion Media Group, a provider of digital media advertising solutions (acquired by Amobee), Conversion Logic, an advertising attribution company, and CREXi, a commercial real estate marketplace.Clark holds a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Yale University.

Fabrice Grinda is among the world’s leading Internet entrepreneurs and investors.He has over $300 million in exits and 150 angel investments. Fabrice has served as CEO for three multinational companies and has an impressive track record as an early investor in Alibaba, Lending Club, Delivery Hero and Brightroll.Fabrice is currentlyinvesting in startups and building companies through FJ Labs, which he cofounded with business partner Jose Marin. Fabrice is also co-founder and executive chairman of Beepi, a next generation used car marketplace. Beepi recently raised $60 million in series B funding.Prior to FJ Labs and Beepi, Fabrice was co-founder and co-CEO of OLX, one of the largest websites in the world with over 200 million unique visitors per month. The company operates in 40 countries and has over 1,200 employees. OLX is the largest classifieds site in India, Brazil, Pakistan, Poland, Ukraine, Portugal and many other emerging markets.Before OLX, Fabrice was co-founder and CEO of Zingy, one of the largest wireless media companies in the Americas. Fabrice successfully grew the business to $200 million in sales in four years.Fabrice started his entrepreneurial journey in 1998, at 23, when he co-founded and was CEO of Aucland. Soon after, Aucland grew into one of the largest auction sites in Europe. Before his entrepreneurial endeavors, Fabrice worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company.Fabrice holds a BA in Economics from Princeton University. He graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1996, and was awarded the Halbert White prize, given to the most distinguished economics student, as well as The Wolfe Balleisen memorial prize, awarded for best thesis.In his free time, Fabrice likes to travel the world, kitesurf, play tennis, and blog about his personal and professional life at www.fabricegrinda.com.

Justin Mateen is the Cofounder and former CMO of Tinder, the world's largest dating platform. In 2021, and 2022 Business Insider ranked Mateen as the best early stage investor in the US, placing him at the number 1 spot on the top 100 list of US Seed Investors both years. In 2020, Forbes included Mateen on their list of the decade's top10 tech entrepreneurs. Fast Company has listed him as one of the most creative people in business.Founded in 2012, Tinder is the highest grossing app on Apple's app store since 2017 and was valued at over $40 Billion dollars in 2021.

Sean Rad is the Founder of Tinder, the world's largest dating platform. Founded in 2012, Tinder is the highest grossing app on Apple's app store since 2017 and was valued at over $40 Billion dollars in 2021. Rad served as Tinder's CEO and Chairman at various times from the company's inception until 2017. Rad also foundedCardify in 2012, Adly in 2009, and Orgoo in 2004.In 2020, Forbes included Rad on their list of the decade's top 10 tech entrepreneurs. In May 2016, he was awarded an honoree diploma from the University of Southern California while delivering their undergraduate commencement.

Nadav Ben-Chanoch - Partner @ Pareto Holdings

Rohan Oza is the co-founder and managing partner of CAVU Venture Partners.

Nas, byname of Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, also called Nasty Nas, (born September 14, 1973, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.), American rapper and songwriter who became a dominant voice in 1990s East Coast hip-hop. Nas built a reputation as an expressive chronicler of inner-city street life.Nasir Jones, the son of a jazz musician, grew up in public housingin Queens, New York. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade and searched for a creative outlet, finally settling on hip-hop. His breakthrough came in 1992, when his song “Half Time” (credited to Nasty Nas) appeared on the sound track to the film Zebrahead. Columbia Records soon signed him to a contract. His debut recording as Nas, Illmatic (1994), drew widespread acclaim for its poetic narration of hard-edged inner-city life.The more pop-oriented approach of It Was Written (1996) helped that album reach an even wider audience than its predecessor but ignited a recurring tension in Nas’s career between the appetite of the pop audience and the demands of hip-hop purists. He maintained his commercial appeal with I Am... (1999), although by that time he had also become embroiled in a public feud with fellow rapper Jay-Z over which of the two was the preeminent voice in East Coast hip-hop. The schism inspired Stillmatic (2001), which many fans considered a return to form. The two rappers publicly settled their differences in 2005, and shortly thereafter Nas signed with Def Jam, of which Jay-Z was president at the time.Nas’s penchant for provocation marked Hip Hop Is Dead (2006) and an untitled follow-up (2008), while Life Is Good (2012) struck an introspective tone. He also notably collaborated with reggae musician Damian Marley (the youngest son of Bob Marley) on the album Distant Relatives (2010).Nas also made occasional film appearances, notably in Belly (1998), a crime drama in which he starred opposite rapper DMX, and Black Nativity (2013), an adaptation of Langston Hughes’s gospel play.

Rohan Oza is the Chief Marketing Officer across The Coca-Cola Company's still coke brands. He is also the founder of Idea Merchants Capital, a platform for investing and building iconic brands.Born and raised in Zambia and of Indian heritage, Oza attended the Harrow School in the United Kingdom and graduated from Nottingham University. Hethen received his MBA from the University of Michigan in the United States.Rohan began his career as a manufacturing manager at Mars M&M where he was recruited at the age of 20 as the youngest manager to run Snickers, the second largest product line in Europe.His first big career move was to The Coca-Cola Company where he ended up leading the Sprite brand to the number one brand for youth and African-American consumers. Rohan went on to manage the then declining POWERADE brand to three straight years of brand growth with the creation of break through designs, partnerships and advertising campaigns. In 2002, he was featured on the cover of Brandweek as one of their “top ten marketers” in the country and was featured on CNN as one of Coke’s fastest rising stars.Rohan left Coke to become a partner in a fledgling beverage company called glaceau where he built the power house brands vitaminwater and smartwater through innovative marketing programs and creative partnerships with celebrities like 50 Cent, Jennifer Aniston, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, Venus Williams and Alicia Keys. Rohan’s career came full circle when the Coca-Cola Company purchased glacéau for $4.1 billion and Rohan was appointed as the Chief Marketing Officer across all of Coke still brands.Rohan subsequently went on to form Idea Merchants Capital. His latest ventures include popchips, the fastest growing snack in the country, and vitacoco the most exciting brand in beverages today. Following the model that he pioneered with 50cent and vitaminwater, Rohan has been instrumental in several celebrity investment deals for both popchips (Ashton Kutcher, Kim Kardashian and Heidi Klum) and vitacoco (Madonna and Rhianna)

Lori Greiner - Owner @ For Your Ease Only