Joanne Chen is a General Partner at Foundation Capital, where she invests in AI-first B2B applications and data platforms — the building blocks of the automated enterprise.
Background / Profile
- Role: General Partner at foundation-capital (Palo Alto / San Francisco-based VC). She joined the firm in 2014 and was promoted to GP in January 2021, becoming Foundation’s second female general partner and the first since founder Kathryn Gould.
- Investment focus: The impact of AI on the enterprise — AI-first B2B applications and data platforms. She leads Foundation’s Enterprise practice alongside partners including Ashu Garg, Sid Trivedi, Jaya Gupta, and Leo Lu.^[single-source]
- Notable investments / boards: Investor and/or board member in Jasper.AI (seed lead), SafelyYou, Tonkean, Tennr, Arcade, and CaptivateIQ. Past boards include Tubi (TubiTV, acquired by Fox), Mya (acquired by Stepstone), and EraDB (acquired by ServiceNow).
- Earlier career: Began as an engineer at Cisco; co-founded a mobile gaming company; worked on Wall Street at Jefferies & Company (tech IPOs and M&A) and Probitas Partners (advising VC firms on fundraising). Angel investor at Hyde Park Angels before joining Foundation; also previously associated with Formation 8.
- Education: BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley; MBA from the University of Chicago (Booth).
- Public engagement: Featured speaker at CES, SXSW, and Web Summit; delivered a TED talk on the impact of AI on society (“Confessions of an AI Investor”).^[single-source]
Related
- foundation-capital — the firm where she is a General Partner. init.inc is meeting Foundation Capital (via Jaya Gupta), a fellow enterprise-practice partner.