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American investor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aileen Lee (born 1970) is a U.S. venture capital angel investor and co-founder[2] of Cowboy Ventures.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
Aileen Lee | |
|---|---|
Lee backstage at Tech Crunch 2013 | |
| Born | 1970 (age 53–54)[1] New York City, U.S. |
| Nationality |  United States |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Harvard Business School |
| Known for | Co-founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures |
Lee coined the often-used Silicon Valley term unicorn in a TechCrunch article "Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning from Billion-Dollar Startups" as profiled in The New York Times. A unicorn is generally defined as a privately held startup that has a $1 billion valuation or more – something rare (like a unicorn).[11]
Raised in Millburn, New Jersey, Lee graduated in 1988 from Millburn High School, where she was senior class president.[12]
Lee earned her bachelor's degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1992. After MIT, she worked as a financial analyst for two years at Morgan Stanley.[13] She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School in 1997.[1]
Lee joined Kleiner Perkins (KPCB) in 1999 and was the founding CEO of RMG Networks, a company backed by KPCB. Lee worked at Kleiner Perkins for 13 years and left in 2012.[14]
In 2012, she left KPCB to start seed-stage venture firm Cowboy Ventures.[15] In 2017, Lee added Ted Wang to the firm as a general partner.[16]
Cowboy Ventures is one of the first female-led venture capital firms.[17] In its first six years, Cowboy Ventures has received three large funds, the latest reaching $95 million.[18][19]
Through Cowboy Ventures, Lee has made investments in many early-stage companies, including August,[20] Dollar Shave Club,[20] Textio,[21] Accompany[15] and Tally Technologies.[22][23][24] She is a public advocate of increasing the number of female founders and investors in the Silicon Valley.[25]
In 2018, Lee co-founded All Raise, a nonprofit organization which seeks to increase the amount of funding that female investors receive.[19] The organization was founded as a collective by more than 30 venture capitalists who advocate for increasing the presence of women in venture capital.[2] Lee described the organization's importance in saying “We believe that by improving the success of women in the venture-backed tech ecosystem, we can build a more accessible community that reflects the diversity of the world around us.”[26]
Lee was invited to speak at the 2018 Code Conference put on by Recode and additionally at the 2018 GeekWire Summit.[27][28] She also spoke at the 2019 Silicon Slopes Tech Summit.[29] and is recognized as a speaker for the organization Lesbians Who Tech and the Female Founders Conference.[30][31]
Lee has appeared on Forbes' list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women (position #97 as of 2020)[32] and the Midas List in 2020 (position #80),[33] 2019 (position #82),[34] and 2018 (position #97).[35] She also appeared on Time's list of 100 Most Influential People in 2019.[36]
Lee grew up in New Jersey and is the daughter of Chinese immigrants.[13] Aileen Lee is married.[37]
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