Manish Patel
Venture Investor at Nava & Teaching Faculty at Stanford
San Francisco, California
Overview
Work Experience
Founder
2021 - Current
Nava is a modern early stage investment firm.
Teaching Faculty & Strategic Advisor
2015
I hold a teaching appointment in the School of Engineering at Stanford University. Along with David Kelley – Founder of the d.school and IDEO - I co-teach the foundational undergraduate design thinking course, ME115A: Introduction to Human Values in Design. I have guest lectured in other d.school courses including Design Institute 390: Advanced Design Studio and Public Policy 242: Design Thinking for Public Policy Innovators. In addition to teaching, I previously served as a Strategic Advisor to the Stanford d.school where I worked directly with senior faculty and administration to guide new program initiatives.
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Fellow
2018
As a Fellow at the University of Toronto's Creative Destruction Lab, I advise and mentor startups that are focused on developing products and services which leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.
Distinguished Fellow
2020 - 2022
IDEO is a global design and innovation company that is committed to creating positive impact through design. Within IDEO, the CoLab group works with individuals and organizations across industries at the intersection of emerging technologies and societal trends. As a Distinguished Fellow, I advise the team on a variety of topics centered around the future of company formation and capital. Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley and globally has been re-imagined, re-invented, and re-designed many times over in the last three decades but the relationship of how capital influences entrepreneurship has not. Through our collaboration we are exploring this unique dynamic to understand today's entrepreneurial ecosystem and its future.
General Partner
2010 - 2021
HCP was founded in 1988. As an early stage investor, I focused on investing in companies that observe patterns + problems in our everyday lives and use technology to improve those everyday experiences. I was actively involved with a number of companies at HCP during my time there as a General Partner. I helped open HCP’s San Francisco and Palo Alto offices and build the firm's presence in Silicon Valley. While local geography shapes companies, great companies are built everywhere.
Highland Capital Partners is a venture capital firm that offers seed, early and growth-stage funding solutions.
Mentor: Google for Startups Accelerator for Black Founders + Women Founders
2020 - 2020
Mentor to both of the inaugural Google startup accelerator programs for (1) Black Founders and (2) Women Founders. Each accelerator is a three-month program for Seed to Series A technology startups based in the US.
Google is a multinational corporation that specializes in Internet-related services and organizes the world’s information.
Raised $26,100,000.00 from Angel Investors LP, Kleiner Perkins, Signatures Capital, Sequoia Capital, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Shaquille O'Neal, Henry Kissinger, Google and Tiger Woods.
Advisory Board Member
2015 - 2017
Established in 1990, VLAB is non-profit organization dedicated to connecting Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs, industry experts, investors, and technologists to enable them to effectively grow high-tech ventures amidst dynamic market risks and challenges.
Product Management
2004 - 2010
I was lucky enough to collaborate with amazingly talented folks to create a few of the core products at Google. I had the opportunity to work across a broad range of products from building key components of AdWords and AdSense to initiating new programs focused on Google’s entry into television. I also led Google's advanced imagery and 3D mapping initiatives. Early on, I helped solve problems related to the search experience. And of course, I worked on a several projects that were brilliant failures. In addition to creating products, I worked extensively with the original senior management team including Google’s first CEO, Larry Page, to formulate, monitor, and execute our overall corporate strategy and goals (aka OKRs) as we scaled to tens of thousands of employees. As the company grew, I collaborated on a number of global initiatives and led teams across multiple geographies.
Google is a multinational corporation that specializes in Internet-related services and organizes the world’s information.
Raised $26,100,000.00 from Angel Investors LP, Kleiner Perkins, Signatures Capital, Sequoia Capital, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Shaquille O'Neal, Henry Kissinger, Google and Tiger Woods.