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Michael Carney
Fund – Investment Committee Member at University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California
Overview
Michael Carney is a Wealth Management / Family Office Advisor at Evoke Advisors in Los Angeles, California. With a background in Mergers & Acquisitions and extensive experience in advising entrepreneurs, he has held key roles at notable companies like Upfront Ventures and ZestFinance.
Carney's career highlights include serving as a General Partner at Upfront Ventures and being a Board Member at companies like ZestFinance and Cloudvirga™, showcasing his expertise in venture capital and strategic partnerships within the technology and entrepreneurship sectors.
Work Experience
Managing Director | Private Family Office
2025 - Current
Michael is the head of the Starshot Ventures private family office. In this role, he oversees investments, business operations, and family philanthropy.
Independent Consultant
2025 - 2025
Advising venture investors, startup founders, and family offices around strategy, operations, & fundraising.
Investment Committee Member – USC Marshall Venture Fund
2018 - 2025
Michael is a member of a volunteer board advising USC Marshall students, faculty, and administrators on the deployment of an endowed venture capital fund.
Senior Vice President | Institutional Multi-Family Office
2021 - 2025
Evoke Advisors is an independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) and multi-family office. In his role as SVP Michael advised ultra-high net worth families, trusts, and non-profit institutions with respect to investment management, estate & tax strategy, and philanthropic and legacy planning.
Evoke Advisors is a insight & an institutional perspective to help them achieve attractive, stable investment returns.
Board Member | Venture Investor
2018 - 2022
Zest.ai is changing the way finance works by changing the way credit decisions are made. The company uses machine learning and data science to help companies make more accurate credit decisions with the mission of making fair and transparent credit available to everyone.
Board Member | Venture Investor
2017 - 2021
Acquired by Stewart Title in May 2021, Cloudvirga is a software platform built to revolutionize the mortgage industry by building intelligence into the origination process. Cloudvirga’s mortgage point-of-sale (POS) platforms go beyond just taking an application, automating tasks traditionally performed by operations staff to cut costs, improve the customer and loan officer experience, and deliver business insights across the origination process. Cloudvirga’s unique approach to the mortgage process allows lenders to realize the benefits of tomorrow’s digital mortgage today.
Cloudvirga offers a SaaS mortgage point-of-sale platform that simplifies origination, engages customers, and enables lenders.
Raised $77,500,000.00 from Riverwood Capital and Upfront Ventures.
General Partner | Multi-Stage Venture Capital
2014 - 2021
Michael was a General Partner at Upfront Ventures, Southern California’s largest and longest-tenured venture capital firm. In this role, he lead early and growth stage investments in defining technology businesses across fintech, SaaS, and consumer.
Upfront Ventures is the venture capital firm focusing on early-stage technology companies.
Board Member | Venture Investor
2018 - 2020
NuORDER is a cloud & mobile B2B eCommerce solution empowering brands and retailers to streamline their business operations since 2011. The NuORDER platform provides brands and retailers a central hub to browse products and catalogs, access realtime inventory data and place orders from a computer or mobile app – 24/7/365.
NuORDER is a cloud and mobile B2B eCommerce platform empowering brands and retailers to streamline their business operations.
Raised $81,900,000.00 from Brighton Park Capital and Imaginary Ventures.
Board Member | Venture Investor
2016 - 2020
Dailylook is a personal styling experience powered by real personal stylists leveraging our cutting edge data science to deliver the optimum merchandise at the right time to every customer. Founded in 2011, the company's mission is to inspire confidence through self expression while taking the hassle out of looking great.
DAILYLOOK is a premium styling experience that delivers a personalized box of style for women.
Raised $10,500,000.00 from Upfront Ventures and FOREVER 21.
West Coast Editor
2012 - 2014
Michael was a member of the founding team of Pando Media where he helped build an organization dedicated to covering the intersection of technology, business, and policy.
PandoDaily is a web publication offering technology news, analysis, and commentary, focusing mainly on Silicon Valley and startup companies.
Raised $4,200,000.00 from Base Ventures, Chattanooga Renaissance Fund, Zach Nelson, VTF Capital, Omidyar Network, Lamp Post Group, Pathfinder and Accel.
Education
B.S.
2001 - 2005
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