Ian Sobieski

Business leader, Concerned citizen, Engineer, Idea generator, Inventor, Investor, Technologist, World traveler

Since August of 1997 Ian has co-directed the Band of Angels­-an exclusive group of high-net worth individuals who were also former officers or founders of high technology companies. The Band has invested approximately $180M of capital into 200+ startup companies in the Silicon Valley creating more than 3,000 jobs. Of these, more than 40 have exited for a profit to investors and 9 have had Nasdaq IPOs, generating a +53% IRR since inception. Dr. Sobieski has been a founding partner in three venture funds totaling $65M in capital. He is currently helping invest the Band Acorn Fund, focused on investments in entrepreneurs with focussed strategies for building value and either exiting or becoming profitable on the Fund's sole investment. His previous two funds were focused on seed round financings as stepping stones to larger VC rounds. Ian has managed more than eighty direct investments totaling fifty million dollars and has served on twenty boards of directors. Seven of his seed investments have exited for a gain via M&A including SeaDragon Software, Quorum Systems, and Ordinate Corp. Two of his seed investments have gone public; Genitope Corp in 2003 and PortalPlayer in 2004. Dr. Sobieski has an aerospace engineering PhD and MS from Stanford University, and a BA in philosophy from Virginia Tech. He is vice-chairman of the Angel Capital Association and is a member of the Young Venture Capitalists Association, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the National Ski Patrol Alumni Association. He is the author of a dozen technical publications and is a former lecturer in the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the University of California at Berkeley.

Angel investing, entrepreneurship