Adam Nash is the CEO and co-founder of Daffy,
a new fintech platform focused on charitable giving. Nash has been influential in fintech most notably as a serial angel investor, advisor, and board member in over 100 companies such as
Acorns,
Gusto,
Figma, and
Opendoor
Opendoor Technologies Inc. is an online company that buys and sells residential real estate. Headquartered in San Francisco, it makes instant cash offers on homes through an online process, makes repairs on the properties it purchases and relists ...
. His investments are geared towards making financial tools more accessible to the public via tech-enabled products. Nash’s interest in democratizing access to technology and its communities extends through his non-profit work starting in 2011 with Oshman Family JCC and most recently as the co-Chairman of ICON, a non-profit organization with the mission of creating a community in Silicon Valley for those who are passionate about Israeli technology & innovation and harnessing the strength of this community to help Israeli entrepreneurs & startups.
Nash currently serves as an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University. He was the Vice President of Product & Growth for
Dropbox
Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropb ...
from 2018 to February of 2020. Nash was previously the President and
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
of
Wealthfront
Wealthfront Inc. is an automated investment service firm based in Palo Alto, California, founded by Andy Rachleff and Dan Carroll in 2008. As of September 2019, Wealthfront had $21 billion AUM across 400,000 accounts.
History
Wealthfront was f ...
from January 2014 to October 2016. He served as an
executive in residence at
Greylock Partners
Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $3.5 billion under management. The firm focuses on early-stage companies in the consumer, enterprise software and infrastructure as wel ...
, vice president of product management at
LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
, director at
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
and held strategic and technical roles at
Atlas Venture
Atlas Venture is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in life sciences startup companies in the U.S. Atlas is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the majority of its investments are located. Atlas rolled out its eleventh ...
, Preview Systems and
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
.
Nash holds a bachelor's and master's degree in computer science from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
and an
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
from
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...
.
Early life
Adam Nash was born and raised in Silicon Valley. During high school Nash did speech and debate and was state-ranked in
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
for Impromptu speaking.
In 1990, he did an internship at
NASA Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...
where he worked on fluid-dynamics simulations in software. Nash graduated from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
with a bachelor's and master's degree in computer science with a focus on human computer interaction.
Career
After college, Nash began working as a software engineer on the WebObjects team, originally a part of
NeXT
Next may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare
* ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage
* '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film
Lit ...
, a computer company acquired by Apple.
[ After working for Apple, Nash began working for a start-up company called Preview Systems, and began his ]MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
at Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...
in 1999.[ After business school Nash worked in ]venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...
for two years, before becoming a product manager for eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
. He eventually became the Director of eBay Express, a website that focused on fixed-price products.[
Nash continued his career in product management as vice president of product management at ]LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
in 2007.[ He originally led LinkedIn's core product and user experience team, and then led LinkedIn's platform and mobile products, including the open developer platform and their native applications and mobile web experiences.][ He founded LinkedIn Hackdays, a seminal program aimed at driving the innovation culture at the company.][ He left LinkedIn to join ]Greylock Partners
Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $3.5 billion under management. The firm focuses on early-stage companies in the consumer, enterprise software and infrastructure as wel ...
in October 2011 as an executive in residence, where he advised the leadership teams of the firm's consumer technology companies and evaluated new investment opportunities.[
In January 2013, Nash joined Wealthfront, an automated investment service, as ]COO
COO or coo may refer to:
Business
* Certificate of origin, used in international trade
* Chief operating officer or chief operations officer, high-ranking corporate official
* Concept of operations, used in Systems Engineering Management Process
...
.[ At the time, Wealthfront had less than $100M in client assets under management.][ Nash became ]CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
of Wealthfront in January 2014, staying with the company through December 2016.
In September 2017, Nash became an adjunct lecturer in the Computer Science department at Stanford University, teaching the original seminar, "CS 007: Introduction to Personal Finance". In 2018, he joined Dropbox
Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropb ...
as Vice President of Product & Growth.[ Nash left Dropbox in February of 2020 to focus on building a new company combining his fintech expertise with his non-profit interests with co-founder Alejandro Crosa.][
In September 2021, Nash launched Daffy, the Donor-Advised Fund for You™, a not-for-profit community built around a new, modern platform for giving.][
]
Investor
Nash has been heavily involved as an investor in consumer software, marketplaces, and fintech for the past ten years. He began his advisory roles in 2010 as a mentor at 500 Startups. He was also a mentor at MuckerLab from 2011 to 2014. Nash was an advisor to Marin Software and Covexum and currently advises LoanSnap, Bitwise Asset Management, Raisin GmbH, and Gusto. Nash previously served as a member of the Board of Directors in an observer capacity at Wrapp and PullString, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Acorns (has filed to go public) and Shift (public in 2020).
Along with advisory and board positions, Nash has invested in over 100 private startups, primarily at the seed stage. His investment philosophy is informed by his career in product and he has historically backed founders building differentiated user experiences. Past investments include Firebase
Firebase is a set of hosting services for any type of application (Android, iOS, Javascript, Node.js, Java, Unity, PHP, C++ ...). It offers NoSQL and real-time hosting of databases, content, social authentication (Google, Facebook, Twitter an ...
(sold to Google), Sunrise (sold to Microsoft), Gusto, Figma, and Opendoor
Opendoor Technologies Inc. is an online company that buys and sells residential real estate. Headquartered in San Francisco, it makes instant cash offers on homes through an online process, makes repairs on the properties it purchases and relists ...
(IPO in 2020), PullString (sold to Apple), Kabbage
Kabbage, Inc., is an online financial technology company based in Atlanta, Georgia. The company provides funding directly to small businesses and consumers through an automated lending platform. American Express acquired the company in 2020.
Hi ...
(sold to American Express), Bitwise, PeerStreet, and Alto IRA. A full list of his portfolio companies can be found on AngelList.
Non-Profit Work
Nash has been heavily involved in non-profit organizations since 2011. He served for six years on the Board of Directors for Oshman Family JCC, a hub for the Silicon Valley Jewish community aimed at creating inclusive and meaningful experiences to incorporate innovation into modern life. Operationally, the organization manages a $300M facility with over 200 employees and an annual budget of over $30M.
Nash currently is a Co-Chairman and Executive Committee member of ICON, (“Israel Collaboration Network”), a non-profit organization with the mission of creating a community in Silicon Valley for those who wish to support Israeli technology & innovation and harnessing the strength of this community to help Israeli entrepreneurs & startups expand to the United States.
Personal life
Nash is the oldest of four siblings. His father is an OB/GYN
Obstetrics and Gynaecology (also spelled as Obstetrics and Gynecology; abbreviated as Obs and Gynae, O&G, OB-GYN and OB/GYN) is the medical specialty that encompasses the two subspecialties of obstetrics (covering pregnancy, childbirth, and t ...
and his mother serves as Clinical Faculty with the Psychology Department at Stanford University.[ He was born and raised in ]Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
where he lives with his wife and four children.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nash, Adam
Stanford University alumni
Harvard Business School alumni
American chief executives of financial services companies
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
American chief operating officers