Neal Goldman

Operating Partner

Neal is an experienced entrepreneur, CEO, investor, and board member.  Neal enjoys his role as a mentor and coach to several of the portfolio company CEOs and strives to be the consistent and supportive resource he always wished he had had throughout his career.

Neal’s CEO and entrepreneurial experience includes founding and serving as Chairman and CEO of Capital IQ, for which he raised approximately $40 million and subsequently sold to the Standard & Poor’s division of McGraw Hill for $225 million.  Additionally, he is the Chairman of Relationship Science and the Co-Founder of Goode Holdings, an investment holding company which is the sponsor of approximately $600 million of private capital funds focused on investing in middle-market consumer companies.

Earlier in his career, Neal was an investment banker in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Lehman Brothers.  Neal is a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a Member at the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Young Presidents Organization, and a board member or advisor to several private companies and non-profit organizations.  Additionally, Neal has served as an Adjunct Faculty Member at Columbia Business School.  He received a B.A. from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

 

Why do you enjoy working with Founders?
Founders are a unique type of highly creative people manifesting change in the world.  By starting businesses, they are demonstrating tremendous courage, commitment and a capacity for hard work.  I appreciate and have deep respect for every founder I meet.  I know how hard it is to “move the mountain” in face of the natural state of inertia.  It gives me great pleasure to be one of the people that truly helps founders on their way to where they are going.

How do you help Founders in the portfolio?
I have been the founder and CEO of several companies over my career.  I have executed many financings, hired and managed many people, built technology and commercial operations, and bought and sold companies.  While I certainly haven’t seen everything, I do have a deep reservoir of experience to share with founders that can help inform their perspective and decisions.  I try always to be available to our founders to help them in any way I can.

What advice do you have for founders who are starting out?
Remember to take care of yourself.  Founders often put themselves last in terms of giving their energy to the company and their other commitments, which can lead to exhaustion and anxiety.  This is a long and difficult journey, and the warrior who does not know how to rest will quickly be unfit for battle.