Trish Costello (born Patricia Costello) is a Silicon Valley-based

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

and

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some specie ...

. She is the Founder and CEO of Portfolia, a collaborative equity investing platform. She was named as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2014 by Goldman Sachs and Top Ten Women to Watch in Tech in 2015 by Inc magazine. She is recognized internationally for her pioneering work in educating and preparing venture capital investment partners, through the

Kauffman Fellows Program The Kauffman Fellowship is a two-year educational, networking, and leadership development program for venture capitalists. It was named after Ewing Marion Kauffman. The Kauffman Fellows Program is a nonprofit with a 20-year history of identifying, ...

. As the founding CEO and CEO Emeritus of the Center for Venture Education, she led the Kauffman Fellows Program for its first ten years. Costello was on the start-up team of the Kauffman Foundation's entrepreneurship center, where for eight years she directed its efforts 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 ...

angel investing An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...

, entrepreneur support programs, and programming to accelerate high potential women entrepreneurs. She played a leading role nationally in obtaining greater financial equity investments in women's businesses and in funding initiatives supporting high-growth women entrepreneurs. Costello continues to serve as President of CVE Capital Corp, a holding company affiliated with a venture capital

fund of funds A "fund of funds" (FOF) is an investment strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing directly in stocks, bonds or other securities. This type of investing is often referred to as multi-manager investment. A f ...

created to endow the Kauffman Fellows Program. Her prior experience includes Directing the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at

Babson College Babson College is a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Established in 1919, its central focus is on entrepreneurship education. It was founded by Roger W. Babson as an all-male business institute, but became coeducational i ...

, developing small business products and marketing strategies at

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

and launching medical ventures for an investor group of twenty prominent children's hospitals as Executive Vice President of the start-up Child Health Corporation of America. She serves on the National Advisory Board of the National Science Foundation for its Small Business Innovation Research Grants. She was an advisor to the

Small Business Administration The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is an independent agency of the United States government that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The mission of the Small Business Administration is "to maintain and stren ...

on its work with entrepreneurs under President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

and served on the Small Business Administration Transition Committee under President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

. She has served on numerous boards and advisory committees to entrepreneurial organizations and institutes, including the National Venture Capital Association, the International Business Forum, and the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program. Currently, Trish resides in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. She has twin daughters, born in June 1990.

Personal life

Born in

Pittsburg, Kansas Pittsburg is a city in Crawford County, Kansas, United States, located in southeast Kansas near the Missouri state border. It is the most populous city in Crawford County and southeast Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the ci ...

, Trish attended

Pittsburg State University Pittsburg State University (Pitt State or PSU) is a public university in Pittsburg, Kansas. It enrolls approximately 7,400 students (6,000 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate students) and is a member of the Kansas Board of Regents. History P ...

and received a B.A. in 1978, where she was the Student Body President and named the Outstanding Woman Graduate. She holds an MBA in Executive Management from Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO.

External links

News archive
at ''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Costello, Trish 1956 births Living people