Chris Sklarin

About Chris Sklarin

Leading Castor Ventures @ Alumni Ventures, funds for MIT alumni, community members and friends. Alumni Ventures: America\'s Largest Venture Firm for IndividualsTop 20 Venture Firm (CB Insights \'24)#1 Most Active US Venture Firm,#3 Globally (PitchBook \'22 & individual accredited investors already trust us with their venture investingFast Company\'s Most Innovative Personal Finance Company (\'22)$1.25B+ raised & 1,300+ portfolio companies since 2014I am Managing Partner for Castor Ventures, a fund enabling MIT alums, community members, and friends to invest in high-growth companies often connected to fellow alums. Our mission is to provide accredited investors with a smart, simple means to participate in a largely inaccessible but key asset class. We create venture portfolios of 20-30 companies diversified across sector, stage, and geography, co-investing alongside top-tier VC and PE firms. We raise new funds each year, supported by a community of alums who refer deals, socialize the funds, and foster our mission.Castor Ventures is a natural evolution of my extensive career as an investor in private companies and director of business development, evaluating, guiding, and backing a variety of innovative companies. As an MIT grad, I find it’s also an opportunity for me to reaffirm my commitment to one of the world’s foremost innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems, while collaborating with other alums with the same desire.

Experience

1. Managing Partner

   Castor Ventures An Alumni Ventures Fund

   Jan 2017 — Present · Boston, MA, US

   Castor Ventures is a community of MIT alums: investors, executives, entrepreneurs, and innovation enthusiasts. At our core, we are an MIT alumni venture capital firm. We raise capital from MIT alumni, community members, and friends, and then invest that capital in seed, growth, and later stage companies with an alumni connection. We build a 20-30 company portfolio for our investors that spans industry, stage and geography. The fund seeks to co-invest alongside venture capital and private equity lead investors. We are private, for profit, and not part of (but friendly with) MIT.We are bringing the school\'s entrepreneurial DNA to our global, engaged community of alumni. By joining thousands of other alums, you will receive monthly updates on our investments, information on events, and other content related to Castor Ventures. You can sign up at our website at

Education

• St. Paul's School

  HS, High School

• University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business

  MBA, Business Administration and Management, General

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Bachelor of Science - BS, EECS

Skills

• Portfolio Management
• Mergers
• Start-Ups
• Due Diligence
• Strategic Planning
• Channel Management
• Sales Engineering
• Analytics
• Business Strategy
• Corporate Development
• Mobile Devices
• Financial Modeling
• Project Management
• Product Development
• Channel Partners
• Software as a Service (Saas)
• Business Development
• Strategic Consulting
• Management
• Management Consulting
• Strategy
• Growth Capital
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Entrepreneurship
• Strategic Partnerships
• Product Management
• Financial Analysis
• Enterprise Software
• Sales Management
• Venture Capital
• Private Equity
• Salesforce.com
• Data Modeling
• Business Planning
• Entrepreneur
• Sales Operations
• Product Marketing
• New Business Development
• Saas
• Investments