Red Bear Ventures (RBV) is a new community-first investment platform which invests exclusively in companies founded or managed by the students, faculty, staff, and alumni of Cornell University, one of the world’s most innovative and entrepreneurial universities.
Led by industry veterans and long-time business partners Dan Stoller (Cornell ‘93) and Gus Warren (Cornell ‘94), RBV plans to make 10-12 new investments per year, across stages and verticals, primarily via special purpose vehicles (SPVs).
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RBV Portfolio
(RBV started investing in December 2024)
Stage: Series A
About: A platform to deliver affordable, reliable fusion power
Cornell Affiliation: Will Regan, President/Co-Founder, Cornell AB Physics ‘06
Stage: Seed
About: A virtual bank for international students, executives, and businesses
Cornell Affiliation: Amarildo Gjondrekaj, CEO/Co-Founder, Cornell JGSM ‘19 and Sarah Schmitt, COO/Co-Founder, Cornell JGSM ‘19
Stage: Pre-seed
About: The world’s first employee resilience AI
Cornell Affiliation: Alberto Escarlate, CTO/Co-Founder, Co-head Startup Studio @ Cornell Tech
About Us
Red Bear Ventures evolved out of Red Bear Angels, a group of 500+ angel investors which has been investing for over a decade in Cornell-affiliated companies. RBA charges an annual membership fee to access deal flow, while RBV is free and available to anyone affiliated with Cornell.
Unlike traditional venture firms, RBV is developing a proprietary community platform that connects the 350,000+ people in the Cornell community. This hub allows entrepreneurs to easily engage with Cornell’s vast network of subject matter experts for mentorship and guidance, as well as reach out to potential partners, customers, and investors.
As Managing Partners of RBV, Dan Stoller and Gus Warren – friends for over thirty years and business partners since 2020 – have 60+ years of experience managing venture funds, working with c-level executives and assessing, investing in, and operating early-stage technology companies. They have started, or been early employees of, eight startup companies, five of which were acquired and two are still in operation.
Gus Warren was part of the venture group at Hambrecht and Quist, and has managed, or helped manage, venture funds for British Telecom, Samsung, Time Warner and Texas Instruments. He was also a Venture Partner at FirstMark Capital. His investments have included InfoGear (acquired by Cisco), Digital Fountain (acquired by Qualcomm), XtremeSpectrum (acquired by Motorola), Speakeasy (acquired by BestBuy), Arroyo Video Solutions (acquired by Cisco), BigBand Networks (IPO), Entropic Communications (IPO), Skystream Network (acquired by Tandberg Television, now Ericsson), and Visible World (acquired by Comcast).
Dan Stoller played an instrumental role in the early days of the Internet advertising business, then spent 16 years in executive roles at AOL and Time Warner, most recently as Group Vice President, Corporate & Technology Strategy at Time Warner Cable, where he headed a team that analyzed and advised on the key technical, competitive, and policy issues driving the business. He also developed and managed the TWC “Greenlight” process that deployed hundreds of millions in capital for technology, infrastructure, and new products.