Our Approach
Louis Beryl
General Partner
Louis has spent his career building and investing in companies. He was co-founder, COO and CFO of Solid Energy (IPO on NYSE: SES), led Earnest (acquired by Navient (NASDAQ: NAVI) and Rocketplace as CEO. He started his career at Morgan Stanley followed by partnership roles at Andreessen Horowitz and Y-Combinator. Louis studied financial engineering at Princeton prior to receiving his MBA/MPP at Harvard where he graduated as a Baker Scholar.
George Davies
General Partner
George has spent the last ten years investing in and advising technology companies. He was previously a General Partner at Hambro Perks and an Associate Partner at McKinsey. He started his career as an advisor to Tony Blair and the Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. George studied Modern History at Oxford University prior to receiving his MBA at Harvard.
Ben Hutchinson
General Partner
Ben has spent the last decade as an entrepreneur — co-founder and COO of Rocketplace and Earnest (acquired by Navient; NASDAQ: NAVI). He started his career in M&A at UBS, followed by roles as Corporate Finance Advisor at HM Treasury and Head of Commercial Finance at the BBC. Ben studied Mathematics at Edinburgh University.
Matthew McKnight
Operating Partner
Matt leads Concentric, the biosecurity division of Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA). He was previously a PE investor at Decision Resources Group and IndUS Growth Partners, both where he focused in the healthcare industry. Matt studied history and government at Dartmouth College and served as a Marine Corps officer prior to receiving his MBA/MPP at Harvard.
Mia Nguyen
Operating Principal
Mia started her career as Chief of Staff at an early-stage venture capital firm prior to joining Four Cities. She is also involved with All Raise and WISE, two nonprofits focused on diversifying those who build and fund early-stage companies. Mia studied finance at Northeastern University.
Ethan Bernstein
Venture Partner
Ethan is an entrepreneur, startup advisor, board member, and angel investor. Previously, he was the founder & CEO of Four Cities portfolio company Freebird (acquired by Capital One). Ethan studied at Brown University prior to receiving his MBA from Harvard with Distinction.
Our Values
We believe in Founders
We build partnerships with Founders who think differently about the future and work to enable their immense ambition. As Founders ourselves, we recognize the criticisms every Founder faces and the challenges they go through. We understand that Founders don’t have all the answers and will make mistakes.
Great Founders are experts with comprehensive knowledge about their companies and their domains. Founders need support and we are here to help them define the future.
We exist to enable the ubiquitous companies of tomorrow
We seek out the disruptors, innovators, builders, scientists, and technologists. We are techno-optimists, and we look for companies pursuing breakthroughs at the intersection of multiple disciplines and where there are extremely large market opportunities.
Outcomes in venture are asymmetric and we seek to partner with Founders who have a radical vision for how to improve the world. We push our Founders to look beyond 10x ideas and build 100x companies with a relentless focus on building sustainable long-term competitive advantages.
We believe software continues to eat the World, for the better
The rate of technological innovation in the world continues to accelerate and we believe that the compounding of innovation will continue to be a force for good. The rapid convergence of technologies is creating an expanding set of opportunities. We embrace this reality, not just in our investments, but also in how we organize as a firm.
Our companies are innovators and we too must innovate. Their businesses are global and we too must organize globally. As the world continues to change, so will we.
We choose to go to the moon
We don’t do what’s easy, we do what’s hard. We want to have an impact on society and the economy that is much bigger than ourselves and we partner with companies with the ambition to do the same. We are relentless in our desire to be the most valuable partners to our companies at the early stage. We earn the right everyday to partner with the defining companies of tomorrow, work with the most outstanding people, and partner with trailblazing Founders.
We build infrastructure that puts our competitive advantages at the service of the Founders we back and coach them to strength. We think in decades, not dollars.
We prioritize character
We believe that our reputation will be the primary driver of the value we create over the very long term. There are no shortcuts. We have incredibly high standards and our actions and the relationships we build will define our success. We are honest and trustworthy, and we always stand by our commitments.
We are never transactional. We seek a high degree of alignment and work only with people who are aligned with us. We treat everyone with respect and always seek to add value, even in the deals we don’t do.
We are building a firm, not a fund
Our ambition is to build a permanent and preeminent investment firm that companies, Founders, and LPs strive to do business with. We want to win. We do the hard, often unglamorous, work to make things happen. We only work with outstanding and exceptional people who love the work we do.
We are building a firm that Founders seek out for the value we add, the expertise we bring, the honesty and respect they deserve, and the actions we deliver.
