Lee Jacobs
Founder & General Partner
My personal mission is to help people become the best versions of themselves. Professionally, that has meant supporting entrepreneurs to build the businesses they are meant to create.
In 2013, I became an advisor to AngelList, and later joined the team. I specialize in providing support with fundraising, coaching, and connecting entrepreneurs to world class operators so they can build for the long term.
Cyan Banister
General Partner
I am addicted to early stage angel investing. I spend a lot of my time dreaming about what the future could look like and invest in people who do the same but are creating it.
Most recently I was at Founders Fund, a top tier fund in San Francisco. Most of my successful investments have a common theme around job creation and flexibility, but I’ve invested in everything from rocket ships to sandwich delivery.
Arielle Zuckerberg
General Partner
My background is in product management so I love to jam and brainstorm, but what underpins how I work with founders is authentic human connection, empathy, and trust. I believe that a big part of my role as a VC is to help remove barriers, open doors, and be a trusted partner throughout this incredible journey.
Before joining Long Journey, I was at Coatue, where I helped build the strategy for our first early stage fund and get it off the ground. I’m also the co-founder of Lej, a clothing brand, as well as a part-time DJ.
Mike Wang
Head of Platform
I’ve spent my career designing environments to help people realize their full potential. As the Head of Platform, I get to build ecosystems to help magically weird founders realize the futures they envision for the world. In my previous journeys: I built a new, global college from scratch (Minerva University), launched a new university focused on lifelong learning at ASU, and worked in investment banking at Barclays Capital.
In my magically weird future, I hope to build a theme park dedicated to fostering meaningful human connection and relationships.
Dani Tustin
Head of Operations
Creating order within chaos is one of my favorite pastimes. My childhood intrigue with jigsaw puzzles and inclination toward numbers led me to a long stint as a tax attorney focused on venture funds.
At Long Journey, I’m behind the scenes solving the day-to-day financial, legal, and operational puzzles. On the weekends, you can find me wine tasting in Healdsburg, skiing in Tahoe, or fly fishing in Colorado.
Kelsey Muller
Executive Assistant
I love helping and supporting those in my community and being an Executive Assistant helps me live that every day. At Long Journey, I’m the Executive Assistant to Lee Jacobs and Arielle Zuckerberg and I work to help them achieve their goals by providing top-tier administrative support. I also help ensure a smooth operation of the firm through driving efficiencies and organization in our deal flow process and planning purposeful events for our LPs and founders.
Prior to Long Journey, I was the Executive Assistant to the CEO of Crusoe Energy, one of Long Journey’s portfolio companies. When I’m not working, you can find me exploring my new home in Washington state, being a dog mom to my 2.5 year old pup, and reading.
Jonathan Bruck
Venture Partner
I believe in the future and in supporting founders to help bring that future forward. Human potential is magical, but it isn’t a straight line and at times we get turned around. These are the moments you can count on me to help you see through the fog to get back to the amazing futures that are waiting to happen.
At the heart of everything I do is helping entrepreneurs and teams discover the products worth building vs. just what they can build with the processes that help build maximum momentum at the earliest stages of the journey.
I’ve built Pocket (acquired by Mozilla), IndexTank (acquired by LinkedIn), Xoopit (acquired by Yahoo!).
Justin Mares
Venture Partner
I want to empower weird, interesting people to do their thing in the world. It’s what’s led me to do investing, launch Inflection Grants, fund two brothers to start their own things, start companies, etc. In my magically weird future, I want to build a health-oriented community for builders and doers.
I’m currently the CEO and co-founder of TrueMed, a payments tool (think PayPal for HSA/FSA) that allows health + wellness brands to accept HSA/FSA funds. Previous to Truemed, I founded Kettle & Fire and several other health and wellness brands.
Pascal Levy-Garboua
Venture Partner
I love exploring innovative ideas and connecting with those passionate about them. Investing, for me, is scheming for an idea's blossoming potential, juxtaposed against today's perceived reality.
Today, I am building Noosa Labs, a serial acquirer of small niche SaaS products. Prior to Long Journey and Noosa Labs, I was VP Business Development and Marketing at Checkr. I joined as the 8th employee and first executive and helped them grow to 12,000 customers, 500 employees and a multi billion dollar valuation.
As an investor, I was an early investor in Checkr, Notion, Wag, PayJoy, Spotter, and Womply.
Elaine Wherry
Advisor
Today, I’m building Dandelion Chocolate with my husband, producing a new generation of bean-to-bar chocolate out of our factory in San Francisco’s Mission District.
Previously, I co-founded Meebo, leading the Web, PM, Engineering teams serving as the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) before our Google acquisition in 2012. My work on team-building and leadership has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, CBS, and Business Insider.
Brian Balfour
Advisor
I'm currently the Founder/CEO at Reforge which since 2016 has been educating the next generation of professionals to learn from the top leaders of the fastest-growing companies. I believe startups are one of the best vehicles to maximize the growth of people.
I've dedicated my profession to the topic of growth. Prior to Reforge I was VP of Growth at Hubspot working on new product initiatives.
