Who we are
We are a team of experienced operators and dreamers who are passionate about working with founders at the earliest stage. Collectively, we have invested in over 200 early stage startups. We are proud to have an NPS score of 100 from our founders.
Alex Iskold Is a Founder and a Partner at 2048 Ventures. Alex is a 5x founder, a software engineer, and an investor in over 150 startups. He writes one of the top startup blogs called Startup Hacks. Alex is a life-long learner and interested in Complexity Science and Systems Thinking.
Prior to founding 2048 ventures, Alex spent 5 years at Techstars as the Managing Director of its NYC program. Alex was also the founder and CEO of Info Lab (acquired by IBM), founder and CEO of GetGlue (backed by USV, RRE, Time Warner), and a Chief Architect of distributed computing startup DataSynapse (acquired by TIBCO).
Alex currently serves as a Coach and a VC in Residence at the Harvard Business School. Alex previously taught an award-winning undergraduate computer science class at NYU. He holds a B.S. in Math with Honors from Lehigh University and M.S. in Computer Science from NYU.
You can see Alex's connections on Linkedin, and follow him on Twitter @alexiskold.
Read what founders say about working with Alex.
Zann Ali is a Partner at 2048 Ventures. Prior to 2048 Ventures, Zann was at Putnam Investments, where he worked with the Chief Investment and Operating Officers on investments and special projects. Before Putnam, Zann spent four years at Fidelity Investments, first with the company’s internal strategy team and then with Fidelity Health, an insure-tech startup that he helped launch.
Zann holds a B.S. in Statistics & Finance with Honors from Babson College and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. At MIT, Zann was a pre-seed investor with Dorm Room Fund, where he was fortunate to support and invest in 20+ student-founded startups. He also served on the teaching team for MIT’s Entrepreneurial Finance & Venture Capital course.
You can see Zann's connections on LinkedIn, and follow him on Twitter @thisiszann.
Julie Wolf is a Partner at 2048 Ventures. Prior to 2048 Ventures, Julie was at SOSV's IndieBio New York office, where she was the Chief Science Officer. Before IndieBio, Julie spent five years at the American Society for Microbiology, working with scientists to curate and communicate their discoveries. She was co-founder of Brooklyn Bio, a biotech startup creating improved microbial strains.
Julie holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology from the University of Minnesota and did her postdoctoral fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is a huge proponent of bio literacy and has taught principles of molecular biology and synthetic biology to many audiences, including at the community biolab Genspace.
You can see Julie's connections on LinkedIn, and follow her on Twitter @juliemariewolf.
Daniella Cohen is a Senior Associate at 2048 Ventures. Prior to 2048 Ventures, she was a managing partner at Rough Draft Ventures where she invested in student founders across the country.
She was a summer associate at Techstars NYC and joined the portfolio company, The Clear Cut (DTC diamond startup) as their Head of Content while the company grew over 100% year-over-year. She also took time off from college to work on social and emotional learning projects at Facebook as the youngest person at the company.
Daniella holds a B.A. in Neuroscience from Princeton University where she led Princeton Women in Entrepreneurship and continues to serve on the board for the Princeton Prize in Race Relations.
You can see Daniella's connections on LinkedIn, and follow her on Twitter @daniellarcohen.
Zach is an Associate at 2048 Ventures. Prior to 2048 Ventures, Zach was an Associate Director at the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) at the University of Toronto. During his time at CDL, Zach worked with early-stage founders and led strategic program design across the AI, Quantum, Blockchain, and Commerce streams.
Zach holds an Honors BA in International Relations from Western University and a Masters of Global Affairs from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Zach is also the Director of the Global Ideas Institute at the Munk School, a program that helps high school students develop and pitch innovative solutions to complex global problems.
You can see Zach's connections on LinkedIn, and follow him on Twitter @zacjohnston54.
Sandra is an Associate at 2048 Ventures. Prior to 2048 Ventures, Sandra served as the Director of Mentor Relations at Nucleate's New York chapter. In this role, Sandra coordinated the pairings between network advisors and the first two cohorts of the Activator program in NY, and played an active role in sourcing and evaluating early-stage technologies from academic institutions. She also worked as a Business Development Intern at New York University, where she contributed to accelerate the path to market of NYU’s life sciences technologies.
Sandra has almost a decade of experience in translational research in immunology and molecular biology. She holds a B.S. in Biotechnology from the University of Salamanca, a M.S. in Immunology from the Complutense University of Madrid, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biosciences from the Autonomous University of Madrid. After completing her Ph.D., she joined the Schneider Lab at NYU as a postdoctoral scientist, where she pioneered research on translational reprogramming of T cells, and helped launch an mRNA binding protein therapeutics company.
You can see Sandra's connections on LinkedIn, and follow her on Twitter @sperezbaos.
Colby Mascaro is an Operations Manager at 2048 Ventures. She was first introduced to the world of venture in 2020 and has loved being a part of so many startup journeys. Prior to 2048 Ventures, Colby has served in various operations and administrative roles throughout her career.
Colby is originally from New Hampshire, but currently resides in Virginia. She's also a military spouse and proud mom to three handsome little boys.
Colby holds a B.S. in Psychology from Rollins College in Florida.
You can see her connections on LinkedIn.