Kirsten Green (born 1971/1972) is an American venture capitalist, the founder and managing partner of Forerunner Ventures."A Day in the Life of Silicon Valley Power Player Kirsten Green"
WSJ, October 3rd, 2017

Early life

Green was born and raised outside of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

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 ...

. She attended the

University of California Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, where she obtained a degree in business economics.

Career

Following her studies at UCLA, Green worked as a stock analyst for

Montgomery Securities Montgomery Securities was an investment bank based in San Francisco, California, that specialized in high technology and health care sectors. The firm was founded in 1978 by Thom Weisel. The bank was acquired by NationsBank Corporation on Jun ...

covering retailers. For several years, she worked as an angel investor and independent consultant before founding San Francisco-base
Forerunner Ventures
in 2010, where she is also the managing director. On August 14, 2020, ''

Daily Front Row The ''Daily Front Row'' is a fashion industry publication, commonly known as ''The Daily''. Brandusa Niro is the editor-in-chief. In 2011, Niro bought a controlling interest in the magazine, which was formerly owned by IMG. Niro founded ''The D ...

'' listed Green as one of a group of high profile investors who purchased ''

W magazine ''W'' is an American fashion magazine that features stories about style through the lens of culture, fashion, art, celebrity, and film. W was created in 1972 by James Brady, the publisher of sister magazine ''Women's Wear Daily'' (''WWD''), ori ...

'', a troubled fashion magazine.

Honors and recognition

Green was listed in the

Forbes list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women Since 2004, the American business magazine ''Forbes'' compiled an annual list of the 100 most powerful women in the world. It is edited by notable ''Forbes'' journalists, including Moira Forbes, and is based on visibility and economic impact. Fo ...

in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, with ranks of 95, 89, 95, and 95, respectively. She was included in Time's 100 Most Influential People; named a Top 20 Venture Capitalists by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in 2017 and 2018; and was on

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

' 2017 and 2018

Midas List The ''Forbes'' Midas list is the annual ranking by ''Forbes'' magazine of the most influential and best-performing venture capital investors. Described by Kara Swisher as the "Oscars for venture capitalists in tech," the Midas List uses parameter ...

s. She was named VC of the Year at

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately ...

's 2017

Crunchies The Crunchies was an industry award given out from 2007 to 2017 by several technology blogs to the Silicon Valley companies and venture capitalists they cover. The awards have been sponsored and co-hosted by blogs such as GigaOm, TechCrunch, Ventu ...

Awards, and listed on '' Vanity Fair's'' New Establishment list. Green is a founding member of the female mentorship collectiv
All Raise
and champions women in the tech industry. She gave a

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

keynote speech on diversity in a male-dominated industry.

Personal life

Green is married, has two children, and lives in

References

Living people 1970s births University of California, Los Angeles alumni American women chief executives American venture capitalists American company founders American women company founders 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American women {{US-business-bio-1970s-stub