We work closely with our anchor investor Bow Capital, Vivek Ranadive’s later stage fund. Soma invests seed, and Bow invests Series A to growth stage
Meet the Team
- Managing Partner at Soma Capital. Early investor in Rappi, Cruise, Lendup, Embarktrucks, Astranis, Atrium, Razorpay, etc.
- Board member of Sacramento Kings NBA team
- Founder of Tag, location sharing app backed by Facebook Cofounder Eduardo Saverin and Tim Draper. Acquired by Mark Cuban in 2015
- Head of Product at Nielsen Media Sync in San Francisco
- Co-founder of GlanceGuide, video analytics company sold to Nielsen
- Founder of BoredAt, anonymous social network backed by Redpoint Ventures
- Investment Banking Analyst at Bank of America
- B.S. in Mathematics at Columbia University
- Board member of Sacramento Kings NBA team
- Founder of Tag, location sharing app backed by Facebook Cofounder Eduardo Saverin and Tim Draper. Acquired by Mark Cuban in 2015
- Head of Product at Nielsen Media Sync in San Francisco
- Co-founder of GlanceGuide, video analytics company sold to Nielsen
- Founder of BoredAt, anonymous social network backed by Redpoint Ventures
- Investment Banking Analyst at Bank of America
- B.S. in Mathematics at Columbia University
Prior to Soma Capital, Bob was on the investment team at Causeway Media Partners, a growth equity firm operated by the owners of the San Francisco 49ers and Boston Celtics, and focused on making growth and venture investments in early-stage companies at the intersection of sports, media, and technology.
Bob has an entrepreneurial background and was the head of strategy for Verizon’s go90 mobile television app from initial product idea creation to product launch. He joined go90 by way of Verizon’s acquisition of Intel Media, a startup backed by Intel to develop and launch OnCue, a next-generation television service, where he worked on product strategy, go-to-market planning, operations, and M&A.
Prior to that, Bob was on eBay’s global corporate strategy team, where he worked with eBay’s president on strategic projects such as multi-year company strategic and operational planning, new market entry strategy, and competitive strategy. He has also been a technical product manager at Amazon.com, where he led engineering and design teams to develop a new UX and UI for Amazon’s books and Kindle eBooks businesses.
Bob earned an MBA from Stanford University and an MPA from Harvard University. He graduated with honors from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a BSc in Economics.
Jessica Li graduated with high honors from Harvard University where she studied computer science and economics. She completed her senior thesis with Nobel Laureate Oliver Hart on foreign direct investment bargaining in China. Previously, she was at Morgan Stanley's technology investment banking group, in public markets investing at Northwestern Mutual, and has worked in startups and venture through General Catalyst's Rough Draft Ventures and Luxe (acquired by Volvo). She loves working hands on with founders creating the most impactful solutions to the most pressing challenges. In her free time, she enjoys running outdoors, boxing, cycling, and yoga.
- Technical diligence at Soma Capital
- Senior Founding Engineering Lead at Renew.com building software to assist seniors in their transition to Retirement
- Engineering Consultant for Starbucks rebuilding their E-commerce store in late 2016
- Early iOS Developer at Shimmur a social influencers engagement platform
- Cofounder of Tag, location sharing app backed by Facebook Cofounder Eduardo Saverin and Tim Draper. Acquired by Mark Cuban in 2015
- B.S. in Computer Science from Rutgers New Brunswick
- Senior Founding Engineering Lead at Renew.com building software to assist seniors in their transition to Retirement
- Engineering Consultant for Starbucks rebuilding their E-commerce store in late 2016
- Early iOS Developer at Shimmur a social influencers engagement platform
- Cofounder of Tag, location sharing app backed by Facebook Cofounder Eduardo Saverin and Tim Draper. Acquired by Mark Cuban in 2015
- B.S. in Computer Science from Rutgers New Brunswick
Soma Advisors
- Head of Efficient Capacity Fund, private venture arm of Marc Benioff ($500m under management)
- 25 years of operational experience in fintech, SaaS, e-commerce, retail and online gaming
- 25 years of operational experience in fintech, SaaS, e-commerce, retail and online gaming
- Former COO of Hortonworks
- Former COO of Tibco
- Helped scale Tibco to over $1bn in annual revenue
- Former COO of Tibco
- Helped scale Tibco to over $1bn in annual revenue
- Founder and CEO of Scribd (Netflix for books)
- 100m monthly users, $100m in revenue, expected to IPO in 1-2 yrs
- Part of first ever Y Combinator class, one of the most successful YC companies
- 100m monthly users, $100m in revenue, expected to IPO in 1-2 yrs
- Part of first ever Y Combinator class, one of the most successful YC companies
- Mentor at Techstars
- Founder of Constellation, a smart, on-demand growth service for modern businesses. at the intersection of growth, people and processes
- Early investor in Hawthorne, Maude
- Founder of Vive, a subscription-based beauty services booking platform backed by YCombinator, Maveron, and others
- Fixed Income Research Analyst (VP) at Barclays Capital
- BSE in Operations Research at Princeton University
- Founder of Constellation, a smart, on-demand growth service for modern businesses. at the intersection of growth, people and processes
- Early investor in Hawthorne, Maude
- Founder of Vive, a subscription-based beauty services booking platform backed by YCombinator, Maveron, and others
- Fixed Income Research Analyst (VP) at Barclays Capital
- BSE in Operations Research at Princeton University
Our Partnership with Bow Capital
- Founding partner at Bow Capital, anchored by the YC endowment . in partnership w/ Soma Capital
- Owner of the Sacramento Kings NBA Basketball team
- Developing $2bn in projects in downtown Sacramento including a new arena that has won various awards as the most high tech arena in the world
- Founder of Tibco software. Grew to over $1bn in revenue powering 80% of Fortune 500 co's and sold to Vista for $4.3bn
- Tibco provides big data, analytics and event processing and originally digitized Wallstreet
- Published multiple NYC best selling books
- Early stage investor and advisor to Google, Ebay, Salesforce and Yahoo
- Master in Electrical Engineering at MIT and Harvard business school
- Owner of the Sacramento Kings NBA Basketball team
- Developing $2bn in projects in downtown Sacramento including a new arena that has won various awards as the most high tech arena in the world
- Founder of Tibco software. Grew to over $1bn in revenue powering 80% of Fortune 500 co's and sold to Vista for $4.3bn
- Tibco provides big data, analytics and event processing and originally digitized Wallstreet
- Published multiple NYC best selling books
- Early stage investor and advisor to Google, Ebay, Salesforce and Yahoo
- Master in Electrical Engineering at MIT and Harvard business school
- Partner at Bow Capital
- Pivotal in scaling two of the most important technology companies over the last two decades
- COO of Flurry where he led the company to a successful acquisition for over $200m to Yahoo
- VP of Sales and operations at Facebook. Helped scale sales and operations teams and grew revenue from $250m to over $10bn
- Director of Online Sales and Operations at Google. Ran Googles' NA AdWords sales and operations (responsible for over 50% of North America revenue)
- VP Sales at DoubleClick, helped with sale to Google
- University of Michigan and Harvard Business School
- Pivotal in scaling two of the most important technology companies over the last two decades
- COO of Flurry where he led the company to a successful acquisition for over $200m to Yahoo
- VP of Sales and operations at Facebook. Helped scale sales and operations teams and grew revenue from $250m to over $10bn
- Director of Online Sales and Operations at Google. Ran Googles' NA AdWords sales and operations (responsible for over 50% of North America revenue)
- VP Sales at DoubleClick, helped with sale to Google
- University of Michigan and Harvard Business School
- General Partner at Bow Capital
- 5+ years of investing experience at Khosla Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners
- Board observer at Mindbody, Pinterest, Raise, among others
- Studied consumer businesses and marketplaces in detail, investing in sectors ranging from real estate and financial services to food and SMB SaaS
- Rafi brings a deep understanding of customer acquisition and growth to his investing activities from his time as a product-oriented operator, and focuses on helping his portfolio companies develop profitable, scalable, differentiated growth plans
- BS in Economics and Computer Science from UC Berkeley
- 5+ years of investing experience at Khosla Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners
- Board observer at Mindbody, Pinterest, Raise, among others
- Studied consumer businesses and marketplaces in detail, investing in sectors ranging from real estate and financial services to food and SMB SaaS
- Rafi brings a deep understanding of customer acquisition and growth to his investing activities from his time as a product-oriented operator, and focuses on helping his portfolio companies develop profitable, scalable, differentiated growth plans
- BS in Economics and Computer Science from UC Berkeley
Joined Bow Capital in 2016 as part of the founding team to help form the firm’s investment process and operations.
Prior to Bow Capital, Suraj was an early employee at Looker (analytics platform) where he ran West Coast Sales Engineering. Suraj also worked at TIBCO Software in a variety of roles, including the creation of TIBCO Engage, a marketing automation product focused on real-time, analytics-driven, customer engagement management. He started his career at Wells Fargo.
Suraj lives in San Francisco and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.
Christina joined Bow Capital in 2018 as a member of the investing team. Prior to joining Bow, Christina was with the Boston Consulting Group where she worked on a variety of growth and investment strategy projects across the Industrial Goods and Tech, Media and Telecom sectors. She was closely involved with the IPO of a major online retailer. Prior to BCG, Christina worked at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Christina graduated with Honors from the University of Chicago with a BA in Sociology. At UChicago, she co-founded and ran her own nonprofit organization, BridgeMe Youth, dedicated to helping alleviate rates of sudden infant death syndrome on the South Side of Chicago.
Jamie Rodota joined Bow Capital in 2018 as Platform Associate to help build out the firm’s “Venture Bus”, leveraging the firm’s deep corporate network and relationship with the University of California to deliver value to portfolio companies. Prior to joining Bow, Jamie was on the Community team at WeWork and the Innovation and Technology team at the Sacramento Kings. With the Kings, he helped plan and execute Capitalize, the NBA’s first crowdsourced startup pitch competition. He also helped in the development and deployment of innovative technologies to make Golden 1 Center the world’s smartest arena.
Jamie lives in Oakland and graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Michelle joined Bow Capital in 2018 from fitness world, where she spent the last 3 years as General Manager of two of the top Orangetheory studios in the country. She thrives on finding connections with people, building on those to establish natural community and culture. As Operations Lead, Michelle now applies this passion to Bow, where she supports the team and oversees daily operations of the firm so everyone can do their best work.
Before all this, Michelle studied kinesiology at USC and biomedical imaging at UCSF, and brings a love of biotech, life sciences, and disruptive health care.
Bow Capital Advisors
Founder and former CEO of Sandisk
CEO - Micron Technologies
CEO - Micron Technologies
Chairman - Wilson Sonsini
Executive Chairman - Qualcomm
CEO - Taskrabbit
Former CEO & Chairman - Citigroup
Former NBA Athlete
Multiple Time NBA Champion
Multiple Time NBA Champion