Top 50 Organic Food Angel Investors in United States in December 2024

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.

Kyle Vogt is the CEO of The Bot Company.

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.

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.

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

David Becker is a CEO & Founder at First Internet Bank.

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.

Patrick Schwarzenegger

Madeline Darcy is the Founder and Managing Partner at Kaya Ventures. Madeline Darcy attended Harvard Business School.

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.

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.

Bill Gates is the Co-chair of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He attended Harvard University.

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

Bill Gates is the Co-chair of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He attended Harvard University.

Christopher Emmanuel Paul is an American professional basketball player for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association.

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

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.

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

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.

Laurie Benenson founded Movieline Magazine, serving as its editor-in-chief for six years. She went on to write for the New York Times Arts and Leisure Section for five years as a West Coast correspondent on film and television.

Investor

Solo GP and Angel Investor, mainly consumer. Currently focusing on the future of finance and future of food.Previously at Qualcomm Ventures Europe with investments in Arteris (acquired by Qualcomm), Videoplaza (acquired by Ooyala), We7 (acquired by Tesco) and YPlan (acquired by TimeOut).Prior to joining Qualcomm, Jason at London Seed Capital, aseed and early stage venture capital fund, where he focused on material science and software companies, notably leading the firm’s investment in Brandwatch.

Kenneth Hertz, is a Senior Partner in the Beverly Hills law firm of Hertz Lichtenstein & Young LLP. Ken and his partners specialize in representing talent and new media companies in the sports and entertainment industries. The firm's clients include Will, Jada, Willow and Jaden Smith, No Doubt, Gwen Stefani, The Black Eyed Peas, will.i.am,Keith Richards, Herbie Hancock, Jason Mraz, Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, David Blaine, Shaun White, Wayne Gretzky, Jamie Oliver, James Patterson, Lionel Richie and Enrique Iglesias.

Natalie Massenet is co-founder and partner of Imaginary Ventures, a venture fund investing in early-stage opportunities at the intersection of retail and technology, as well as the non-executive co-chairwoman of Farfetch, a global e-commerce platform for luxury fashion. Massenet is best known for founding the luxury fashion online retailerNet-A-Porter, in 2000. In the year before she stepped down from her role following its merger with YOOX, the Net-A-Porter-Group recorded net revenues of almost $1 billion. Massenet began her career as a journalist and fashion editor, working at WWD and Tatler before setting up Net-A-Porter. In 2009, she was awarded an MBE, and in 2016 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, both in recognition of her contributions to the U.K. fashion and retail industry. Massenet was chairman of the British Fashion Council between 2013 and 2017.

Peggy McCarthy

Sage Kotsenburg is an American snowboarder. He won the first-ever Olympic gold medal in men's snowboard slopestyle

Dr. Peter Hsieh is a General Partner of Acorn Pacific Ventures, based in Silicon Valley.He did Venture Capital from 1997-2004 in Silicon Valley, then 2004-2013 in Beijing.Dr. Hsieh received his master's and Ph.D. degrees in engineering from Stanford University and his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from NationalTaiwan University.

Seth Rodsky is the founder and managing partner at Strand Equity. He is also the founder of Hello Sunshine Official, Draper James, and Spotlight Brands. Seth is a former chairman at Strategic Group.

Steve Sacks is Chairman at Sonnant. He attended Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Carolyn McCarthy - Founder @ Wild Food News

Alan is a successful serial entrepreneur with multiple exits over a 15 year period to companies including Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT) and Internet Security Systems (now NYSE: IBM). He is a 2014 Finalist for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award for Central Texas and has been a Founder, Executive,Angel Investor and Fund Manager throughout his career in the private sector after serving in the United States Army as an Airborne, Air Assault and Ranger qualified Captain in the Corps of Engineers. He has also created and managed companies that have won both regional and national awards for growth, including the # 36 ranking on the 2014 Forbes list of America’s Most Promising Companies, the # 1 ranking on the ABJ Fast50 list of the 50 Fastest Growing Companies in Central Texas, the # 40 ranking on the 2013 Inc. list of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in the United States, the # 4 ranking on the 2013 Inc. list of the 500 Fastest Growing Software Companies in the United States, the # 2 ranking on the 2008 Deloitte list of the Technology Fast 50 in Orange County and the # 21 ranking on the 2008 Deloitte list of the Technology Fast 500 in North America. As a mobile and multiscreen industry expert, Alan is frequently quoted in trade publications, serves as a panelist at industry events and writes for the Wall Street Journal’s Accelerators Blog.Previously, Alan was President of Alternative Investments for Curo Capital LLC and Managing Director for Trymetris Capital Management LLC. In the past, he was a Co-Founder and Director of Telverse Communications, a next-generation advanced services ASP focused on wholesale communications services for carriers and service providers, which was acquired in July 2003 by Level 3 Communications. Before this time, Alan was Director of Marketing for the Voice Technology Group at Cisco Systems and was responsible for business, market and community development, including business planning and strategy for Cisco’s global packet communications initiatives. In November 2000, Alan joined Cisco as part of the Vovida Networks acquisition, where he served as Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer and led the company from idea conception through its eventual acquisition by Cisco. Alan holds an MSIE degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an MBA degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a BSIE degree from The U. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife Kelly and their four children and serves on the President’s Council at the University of Miami (FL).

Eric Marcoullier is the Co-founder, Head of Strategy, and Director of Enaia. He was the Director at Compliable before that. He attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Florida, and Tulane University.

Blake Mycoskie is the Founder and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS, and the person behind the idea of One for One®, a business model that helps a person in need with every product purchased.A simple idea has grown into a global movement: TOMS Shoes has provided over 35 million pairs of shoes to children since 2006, TOMS Eyewear has restored sight toover 275,000 since 2011 and TOMS Roasting Company has helped provide over 67,000 weeks of safe water since launching in 2014. In 2015, TOMS Bag Collection was founded with the mission to help provide training for skilled birth attendants and distribute birth kits containing items that help a woman safely deliver her baby.TOMS humble beginnings happened unintentionally. While traveling in Argentina in 2006, Blake witnessed the hardships faced by children growing up without shoes. His solution to the problem was simple, yet revolutionary: to create a for-profit business that was sustainable and not reliant on donations. Blake's vision soon turned into the simple business idea that provided the powerful foundation for TOMS.Over the course of its first five years, TOMS was successful enough in providing shoes for children in need. But Blake, having recognized other vital needs during his travels around the world, realized that One for One® could be applied to more than shoes. He developed the idea for TOMS Eyewear in which for every pair of eyewear purchased, TOMS would help give sight to a person in need. One for One®. In the fall of 2011, Blake released his first book, Start Something That Matters, offering his own amazing story of inspiration, and the power of incorporating giving in business. He references other companies and individuals who have been motivated and inspired to integrate philanthropy into their profession as well as their personal lives. The book became a New York Times best-seller. More importantly, it is Blake's hope that Start Something That Matters inspires others to turn their passion and dreams into a reality.From shoes to eyewear and now a book, Blake's unique approach to business has awarded him with numerous accolades. In 2009, Blake and TOMS received the Secretary of State's 2009 Award of Corporate Excellence (ACE). At the Clinton Global Initiative University plenary session, former President Clinton introduced Blake to the audience as "one of the most interesting entrepreneurs (I've) ever met." People Magazine featured Blake in its "Heroes Among Us" section, and TOMS Shoes was featured in the Bill Gates Time Magazine article "How to Fix Capitalism." In 2011, Blake was named on Fortune Magazine's "40 Under 40" list, recognizing him as one of the top young businessmen in the world.Before TOMS, Blake, a native of Texas who always had an entrepreneurial spirit, started five businesses. His first was a successful campus laundry service, which he later sold. Between business ventures, Blake competed in the CBS primetime series, The Amazing Race. With his sister, Paige, Blake traveled the world and came within minutes of winning the $1 million dollar grand prize. Blake is an avid reader and traveler. He is passionate about inspiring young people to help make tomorrow better, encouraging them to include giving in everything they do. His hope is to see a future full of social-minded businesses and consumers.

Vincent Youci Tan

Ted Robb - Co-Founder @ New Barn

Jinisha Sharma

Early Stage Tech Investor; LP; Mortgage Backed Securities Trader, Columbia MBA, Portuguese, Spanish and English.

Sir Richard Branson is the current Founder of the Virgin Group and Owner and Founder of Virgin Limited Edition. He previously worked at OneWeb as a Board Member. Sir Richard Branson attended Bishopsgate School.

Youcef Oudjidane is the Co-Founder of Elevate. He previously worked at Class 5 Global as a Managing Partner. Youcef Oudjidane attended the University of Nottingham.

David Hoffmann

Meera Vasudevan

Vera Baker is an Angel Investor for Atomico, and an Investment Advisor to The Jua Fund, an early-stage, Pan-African, Venture Capital Fund that invests the first check into exceptional founders at the pre-seed and seed stage. Additionally, she works directly with budding startups as a Director at the Founders Institute Paris Chapter and a mentor tounderrepresented founders at the Colors Accelerator in Paris and the Unconventional Accelerator in the Nordics.

Manish Chandra is the founder and CEO of Poshmark, the largest social marketplace for fashion where millions of people come to buy, sell and share their personal style. Manish has always been passionate about building communities and founded the first social shopping company, Kaboodle, which was acquired by Hearst Corporation in 2007. WithPoshmark, Manish has applied his understanding of technology to change the way women think about shopping, building a passionate community based around people's love for fashion and each other. Manish received a BTech from IIT Kanpur, MS from UT Austin, and an MBA from Haas School of Business.

Mark Cuban is the founder of Fireside, Chairman and Founding partner of AXS TV, and the Owner of Dallas Mavericks. Prior to that, he was the Co-Founder of Broadcast.com. Mrk attended the Indiana University Bloomington.

Howard Tullman has over 45 years of start-up, management, IPO and turn-around experience and an extensive operations background in web development, online services, large-scale information assembly and delivery systems, database design and implementation and the development, creation and production of all types and formats of multimedia, computergames and audio/video digital content. He has designed and developed GUI and natural user interfaces, interactive and immersive games and instruction systems and other electronic entertainments, training products and services, as well as other information-based products and services in a variety of fields including automotive, insurance, CRM, employment, real estate, consumer goods and social media.

James Freeman - Founder & CEO @ Blue Bottle Coffee

Smita Conjeevaram

Ty Bennett

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).

Shannan North is a President and Chief Brand Officer at Boardriders.