Dan Levitan

Maveron

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• http://www.maveron.com/

Overview

Dan is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Maveron. Since starting the firm with Howard Schultz, he’s been the key player on many of Maveron’s home runs, including zulily most recently. Dan came to venture capital in an unconventional way. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, he was an investment banker in New York. He met Howard Schultz and helped the Starbucks team accomplish their blockbuster IPO. Wanting to partner more with entrepreneurs and seeking a professional adventure, Dan headed West in 1998 and launched Maveron with Howard. Along the way, he’s climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Rainer and found a mentor in Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. Indeed, it’s Krzyzewski who has taught Dan the central lesson of Maveron’s consumer-focused success: always ask “Do you love your team?” Dan does— his colleagues, his investors and most of all, his entrepreneurs. And they love him back, too. Dan currently serves on the boards of Earnest, PayNearMe, Peach, Pinkberry, Potbelly (NASDAQ: PBPB), Pro.com, Trupanion (NYSE: TRUP), the Seattle Children’s Hospital Foundation, and the Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, where he acts as a judge in the annual New Venture Competition. He also is chair of Brothers for Life, a charity that helps wounded Israeli combat soldiers. Recognizing Dan’s leadership, Forbes recently named him to its Midas List—the magazine’s annual ranking of the top 100 VCs in the world.