Top 50 Travel Angel Investors in United States in November 2024

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.

Currently a Venture Partner at Technology Crossover Ventures, Erik has previously served as CEO of Expedia, Inc. and IAC/InterActiveCorp's travel division, IAC Travel (including online travel businesses Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Classic Custom Vacations and Interval International), CEO at Butterfield & Robinson and CEO atTerrapass, Inc.His prior positions at Expedia Inc. included SVP of Marketing & Planning and various roles in product management. Erik is an active private company investor, serving on boards including Glassdoor, Zillow, Siteminder, Liftopia and Terrapass, and participates in non-profit boards including EcoAmerica, The Cutting Ball Theatre and the US National Council of the World Wildlife Fund.Erik holds a bachelor's degree in English and certificate in theatre from Princeton University and a master's in business administration from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business.

Spencer Rascoff is the Co-Founder and the Chairman of Board at Pacaso.

Thomas D. Lehrman is the Board Director at Gerson Lehrman Group.He is a Co - Founder and former Co - Chief Executive Officer of Gerson Lehrman Group, Inc. Thomas Lehrman most recently served as Director of the Office of WMD Terrorism at the U.S. Department of State and previously as a member of the professional staff on the President's WMDCommission. Earlier in his career, he worked as a Financial Analyst at Tiger Management. He is also a Co - Founder & Board Member of the Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School and the Hillhouse Scholars Program. Thomas Lehrman is a Chartered Financial Analyst and graduated from Duke University and Yale Law School.

Hugh Crean is the current Chief Executive Officer of Operix. He previously worked at JPK Capital as an Operating Partner. Hugh Crean attended Boston College.

Eric Schmidt is the founding partner of the Schmidt Family Foundation. He previously worked at Alphabet Inc. as an Executive Chairman and Technical Advisor. Eric Schmidt attended Princeton University.

Jack Dorsey is the Co-Founder and CEO of Block, Inc. He previously worked at Elliott Investment Management as a CEO.

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.

Shervin Pishevar is the Co-Founder at Virgin Hyperloop.

Tom McInerney is a notable angel investor. He was a seed investor in Segment, Notion, GetAround, Tala, MemSQL, Mode Analytics, OpenTrons, Arcadia Power, and more.

Christopher Shonk is the Managing Director of ATX Venture Partners. Christopher Shonk holds 10 board and advisor roles including Investor & Advisor at RoverPass, Investor & Director at Slingshot Aerospace, and Advisor at SourceDay. He attended ACTON MBA and Campbell University.

Barney currently serves on the boards of directors of United Airlines and RealSelf. At United Airlines he serves on the Finance, Audit and Public Responsibility committees. Barney has an extensive track record operating and governing large and rapidly growing technology-enabled companies. He has particular experience in the fields of loyalty andsegmentation, experiment-driven optimization, lean process improvement, cybersecurity, and transportation safety.Barney served as Chief Operating Officer of Uber from January 2018 to July 2019. As COO he was responsible for the company’s global ridesharing business, leading operations, strategy, marketing, customer support, safety and insurance in over 60 countries, and for the company's food-delivery business Uber Eats. Barney launched consumer and driver loyalty programs, increased focus on high-value segments, extended the platform to embrace lower cost transport modes in emerging markets, and significantly reduced trip defect rates. He led a 15,000 person organization during a critical phase in the company’s history, and played a significant role in the company’s May 2019 IPO, which raised $8B.Prior to Uber, Barney served as CEO and a director of Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW) from January 2009 to November 2015, leading a turnaround that culminated in the company’s sale to Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) for $1.6B. While at Orbitz Worldwide he launched the groundbreaking Orbitz Rewards loyalty program and built the Orbitz Partner Network into a leading provider of private label travel solutions to airlines, hotels, travel agencies and banks.Prior to Orbitz Worldwide, Barney served in a variety of roles at Expedia from 1999 to 2006, including as President of Expedia Asia Pacific from 2004 to 2006, where he led Expedia’s market entry into China, Australia and Japan.Barney has previously served on the boards of directors of Crystal Orange Hotel Group (formerly Mandarin Hotel Holdings), eLong, GlobalEnglish, LiquidPlanner and Lola Travel.Barney is a Board Leadership Fellow of the National Association of Corporate Directors. Barney received an MBA from INSEAD and an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University (Clare College).

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

Gil Penchina is retired

David Bonderman is a founding partner of TPG. TPG generally makes significant investments in operating companies through acquisitions and restructurings across a broad range of industries throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. TPG and its affiliates have more than $45 billion of capital under management. Portfolio companies controlledby TPG have combined revenues of over $85 billion, operate in more than 130 countries and employ approximately 400,000 people. Among the portfolio companies of TPG are: Burger King; PETCO; Debenhams; Shenzhen Development Bank; Avaya; Harrah’s Entertainment, Energy Future Holdings (TXU); Neiman Marcus; and Univision.Prior to forming TPG in 1992, Mr. Bonderman was Chief Operating Officer of the Robert M. Bass Group, Inc. (now doing business as Keystone Group, L.P.) in Fort Worth, Texas. Prior to joining RMBG in 1983, Mr. Bonderman was a partner in the law firm of Arnold & Porter in Washington, DC, where he specialized in corporate, securities, bankruptcy, and antitrust litigation. From 1969 to 1970, Mr. Bonderman was a Fellow in Foreign and Comparative Law in conjunction with Harvard University, and from 1968 to 1969, he was Special Assistant to the US Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division. From 1967 to 1968, Mr. Bonderman was Assistant Professor at Tulane University Law School in New Orleans.Mr. Bonderman graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1966. He was a member of the Harvard Law Review and a Sheldon Fellow. He is a 1963 graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle. Mr. Bonderman serves on the Boards of the following public companies: Armstrong Worldwide Industries, Inc., CoStar Group, Inc., and Ryanair Holdings, plc, of which he is Chairman. He also serves on the Boards of The Wilderness Society, the Grand Canyon Trust, The University of Washington Foundation, and the American Himalayan Foundation.

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.

Aman Bhutani is the Chief Executive Officer at GoDaddy, Aman Bhutani attended Lancaster University.

Neil Giugno

Naval Ravikant is the CEO and a co-founder of AngelList. He previously co-founded Epinions (which went public as part of Shopping.com) and Vast.com. He is an active Angel investor, and have invested in dozens of companies, including Twitter, Uber, Yammer, Stack Overflow and Wanelo.

Luc Levesque is the VP of Growth at Shopify.

Rudy Gadre is Partner at Founder's Co-op. Rudy Gadre is an active angel Investor and is also an Advisor to startups. Rudy Gadre served as Vice President and General Counsel of Facebook, where Rudy Gadre was responsible for all legal matters since January 2006. In 1999, he joined Amazon and served as its Vice President and Associate GeneralCounsel for Business Development, intellectual property, and new technologies. He was the Principal Legal Negotiator for Amazon's most significant strategic alliances and joint ventures, where Rudy Gadre oversaw the development and licensing of patents and other intellectual property, and was responsible for all legal aspects of Amazon's new technology initiatives. From September 1994 to February 1999, Rudy Gadre worked at Perkins Coie LLP, as an Associate in the technology business group. At Perkins, he represented clients ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies in a diverse array of matters, including joint ventures, development, protection and licensing of intellectual property, and mergers and acquisitions. Rudy Gadre served as Vice President of Business Operations at Evri, Inc, from September 2008 to July 2010. He serves as a Member of Strategic Advisory Board at Syntonic Limited. He served as a Director of Jobaline.com Inc. He served as an Independent Director of The W Fund. He is a passionate supporter of the Seattle technology ecosystem. He was recognized by Washington Law and Politics magazine as a "Super Lawyer" in 2003 and 2004. Rudy Gadre holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Franklin and Marshall College and graduated from the University of Washington School of Law.

Rick Marini is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Catapult Capital.

Dave is the Co-Founder & Managing Director of Offline Ventures.He was Founder & Partner Emeritus of Slow Ventures. A leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm that champions long term thinking and innovation. Slow serves a community of over 200 of the most innovative entrepreneurs and companies in the world. Including Slack, Pinterest,Evernote, NextDoor, Postmates, Blue Bottle and more.He was the Co-Founder and CEO of Path which was acquired by Kakao in 2015. He co-founded Path with the mission of being a source of happiness, meaning, and connection through simplicity, quality, and privacy in technology and design. Path continues to serves tens of millions of people each month to this day.Dave has had a lifelong passion for technology, entrepreneurship, culture, design, photography, nature, skiing, and improving society. He served both Apple and Facebook for several years during periods of rapid innovation and growth. Today, he serves on the Board of Directors of Eventbrite, Dwell, and Hinge. And, on the Boards of three Non-Profit Organizations, the United States Ski and Snowboard Association, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and Montana ExplorationWorks. He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He grew up under the big sky of Montana where he was ranked as one of the top downhill ski racers in America. Today, he lives and works in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Brit, son Ansel, and dog Pixel.

Rogers is a well proven investor and entrepreneur with 7+ years experience in backing many ranges of startups in different markets, such as Flight Car, Silver Car, Blue Apron, Asana & many more. Rogers, once a Venture Partner, Fund Manager, and LP, now actively invests in certain projects as an angel and so much more.

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.

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.

Rick Marini is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Catapult Capital.

Keith Rabois is the Co-Founder of Datadoor.

Walter A. Winshall serves as a Principal in Collaborative Seed and Growth Partners, LLC, an investment firm specializing in the commercialization of early-stage technology. Previously, he was a co-founder and Chairman of SilverPlatter International, NV, a company providing information services for libraries, which was acquired by the Dutchpublishing company Wolters Kluwer in 2001. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of AgaMatrix, Inc., HealthCare IT, Inc., and MOCA Systems, Inc. He graduated from MIT in electrical engineering and from the Harvard Law School. At AgaMatrix, Walt provides guidance in corporate development strategy.

Kevin is the Co-Founder and GP of A* Capital & The Co-Founder & Chairman of Eventbrite (NYSE: EB)Prior A* Capital, Kevin was at Founders Fund. Previously Co-Founder and CEO of Eventbrite (NYSE: EB). Kevin was previously Co-Founder and CEO of Xoom Corporation, an international money transfer company servicing more than 30 countriesworldwide. Xoom went public in 2012 and was acquired by PayPal in 2015. Kevin has served as an early-stage investor and advisor to successful start-ups including Airbnb, Lookout, PayPal, Pinterest, Skybox Imaging, Trulia, Uber, and Yammer.

Chris Adamo is the Chief Business Officer of WhereBy.Us Chris has an MBA and BS from Binghamton University.

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

Charles Songhurst is a founding partner of Katana Capital, a long-short equity hedge fund. He also runs the Songhurst Group, which holds assets in a variety of private companies.Charles ran corporate strategy for Microsoft and focused on partnering and M&A. He was involved in the Yahoo acquisition and commercial deal, and the Skypeacquisition. Before running corporate strategy, Charles was focused on the emergence of Google and the growth of the search industry.Prior, Charles was an analyst at McKinsey & Company in London. Charles received a bachelor’s degree from Oxford University in politics, philosophy, and economics.

Josh Spear is a trend spotter, blogger and brand strategist. He is Founding Partner, Chairman at Undercurrent, a digital think tank based in New York City that provides planning, strategy and ideation services to global brands hoping to engage a new generation of human beings that were born digital.

Angel Investor located in Charlottesville, VA

Ben Boyer is a Managing Director of Tenaya Capital, and he has been a member of the Tenaya investment team since 2000.Previously, Ben was a member of Lehman Brothers' Technology Investment Banking group, where he was responsible for corporate finance and strategic advisory assignments.Ben holds an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate Schoolof Business and a B.S. in human and organizational development from Vanderbilt University.

Sam Altman is the CEO and co-founder of OpenAI. He is a Partner of Apollo Projects. Altman was the president of Y Combinator from 2016 through 2019. Sam Altman attended Stanford University.

Tarun Upaday is the Chief Executive Officer of Routespring.

As president of the Platforms & Services Division of Microsoft, Kevin Johnson leads an organization of over 14,000 employees responsible for product development, marketing and strategy for the Windows and Online Services businesses. With Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and seven other senior executives, Johnson also serves on the Senior LeadershipTeam that sets overall strategy and direction for Microsoft.Since assuming his role in September 2005, Johnson successfully launched Windows Vista to consumers and commercial customers, resulting in record-breaking Windows revenue of nearly US$15 billion in fiscal year 2007. In addition to leading the Windows business, Johnson is driving the company's evolution towards software + services and building on the company's position as a leader in the online advertising market.Under Johnson's leadership, Microsoft has completed over 30 acquisitions in support of its software + services strategy. In August 2007, Johnson closed the company's largest acquisition, of aQuantive, Inc., to form Microsoft Advertiser & Publisher Solutions, and complement Microsoft's development of an industry-leading online advertising platform. Microsoft Advertiser & Publisher Solutions provides an online advertising platform for an ecosystem of industry partners, including advertisers, publishers and digital marketing agencies. Today the platform has offerings across digital media types and devices, including the PC, Web, mobile phones, gaming consoles, IPTV and Video-on-demand.Johnson also leads development and marketing of Microsoft's consumer online services, including Live Search, MSN.com and Windows Live, which collectively drove nearly $2.5 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2007. These compelling experiences attract hundreds of millions of consumers per month, and provide online advertising opportunities to businesses worldwide.Previously, Johnson held a number of leadership positions in sales and marketing at Microsoft, where he worked globally with consumer, small/medium business and enterprise customers. Prior to his current role, Johnson served as group vice president of Microsoft's worldwide sales, marketing and services, leading an organization of 30,000 employees, including field sales and marketing professionals who delivered $40 billion in revenue during fiscal 2005. Johnson also oversaw corporate operations and IT functions that support the work of Microsoft employees around the world.In his tenure as head of sales, marketing and services, Johnson led a transformation in the field. He organized subsidiary leadership teams in more than 80 countries and regions and orchestrated their efforts to better align with product development and company priorities. His re-engineering of the field operating approach and the sales compensation system contributed to an $11 billion increase in sales from 2002-2005. Johnson also led a cross-company initiative focused on emerging markets, positioning the company as a trusted partner for future growth.Johnson joined Microsoft in 1992, serving in a variety of roles across sales, marketing and services during his career at the company. Before joining Microsoft, Johnson worked in IBM's systems integration and consulting business unit from 1986 to 1992. He started his career in 1981 as a software developer in the petroleum and financial services industries.Johnson grew up in New Mexico and holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from New Mexico State University. He is a founding member of the board of directors of NPower, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help other nonprofits use technology to expand the reach and impact of their work. He is also a member of the Western Region Board of Advisors of Catalyst, a non-profit organization dedicated to women's career advancement.

John is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Passport Capital, a San Francisco based hedge fund that has $4 billion under management in energy, healthcare, and technology. Mr. Burbank has over a decade of experience investing in global equity markets. Prior to founding the firm in 2000, he was a consultant to JMG Triton Offshore, Ltd.From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Burbank was the director of research at ValueVest Management. John holds a BA degree from Duke University and earned an MBA degree from the Stanford Business School.

Greg Greeley is the Chief Executive Officer of Thrasio and TCV as an Executive Advisor. He previously worked at Airbnb as a President of Homes. Greg Greeley attended the University of Southern California.

Vikas Taneja is an advisor to and investor in technology companies. He is a Partner & Managing Director with the Boston Consulting Group and a leader in BCG's Technology, Media, and Telecommunication practice. Vikas' investments with HT ventures include imedix, webchutney, Blip.tv, Quorus, Mashery, mobitrans, refinery29, 8tracks, andothers. Vikas received his MBA with Honors in Economics & Finance from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Computer Systems Engineering and Economic Development from Stanford University. Vikas is also on the Executive Committee of Pratham, an India-based organization that has helped over 2 million children achieve literacy and basic mathematics skills.

Semyon Dukach is the Founding Partner of One Way Ventures. He previously worked at SharpSpring as a Board Chairman. Semyon Dukach attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Raymond Tonsing is a San Francisco based venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He founded Caffeinated Capital, an early stage venture capital firm, and now serves as its managing director. Raymond holds a bachelor's degree in Arts from University of Colorado Boulder.

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.

Dave Baggett is a Co-Founder and serves as the Chief Executive Officer at Inky. As co-founder and COO of travel search provider ITA Software, he oversaw software development, operations, and customer relations, expanding the company to 500 employees. Google acquired ITA for $700M in April 2011. Dave has a B.S./B.A. in Computer Science andLinguistics from the University of Maryland, College Park and a S.M. in Computer Science from MIT. He is a Board Member of the Maryland Innovation Initiative, a Trustee of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation, and a Member of the UMCP Computer, Math & Natural Sciences Board of Visitors and Chair of its Entrepreneurship Task Force.

Tony DiBenedetto

Safa Rashtchy is the founding Managing Partner of Think + Ventures and a a Silicon Valley investor, advisor, and trendspotter. Safa and sits on the boards of several start-ups and global organizations. Safa has been an Investor/Advisor in AppliedBoard, Angellist, Bina Technologies (acq. by Roche) , Uber, OpenGov, Payjoy, Nimble VR (acq. byFacebook), Signifyd, CleverSense (acq. by Google) and many other investments. Overall, Safa has invested in 30 start-ups, with six exists all to public companies. Safa has pioneered the concept of "Consumer Value Proposition" and the Four-Stage Investment Research Model.From 1997 to 2007, Safa was a Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst focused on Internet media and marketing, and the Lead China analyst at Piper Jaffray and Company. He led the firm’s expansion efforts in the Internet industry and its expansion to China, as well as active involvements with leading Web 2.0 companies. Safa’s current investment portfolio consists of companies focused on Digital Health, consumer, media, and technology innovations, with deep attention to the the value proposition for the users.

Brady Brim-DeForest is the Chief Executive Officer of Theorem.

John Owen