OUR TEAM
Scott Roth, Managing Member
A successful investor having founded two large institutional hedge funds (Severn River and Sagamore Hill) managing several billion dollars in assets between 1999 and 2014. Scott now runs his family office and makes investments in both public and private securities. Scott enjoys helping startup ventures and learning about the intersection of genomics and computer technology. Prior to his first hedge fund, Scott was a nuclear engineer for the Navy, attended Harvard Business School and was a proprietary trader at Goldman Sachs. He lives in Greenwich, CT with his wife and two daughters.
Kyle Rusconi, Founder
Kyle is a founder of First In Ventures. Kyle began his career at the intersection of computers and finance on one of the first high-frequency trading desks on Wall Street. He went on to build and lead trading teams across Asia and North America. He served in various banking roles, including country and global head of high-frequency, quantitative, and fundamental driven strategies. After seventeen years in trading, Kyle began focusing on investing in start-ups and founding his own startup. Today, he is CEO of Cognitive Genetics, a company that was part of the 8th Illumina Accelerator class. While Kyle was taking his startup through the accelerator, he witnessed talented founders with strong ideas struggle to land initial financial support. It was in talking with Amanda Cashin, a co-founder of the Illumina Accelerator, about possible solutions to this problem that the idea for First In Ventures was born.
Ven Medabalmi, Investment Committee
A successful serial entrepreneur, operator and currently an active investor through his family office with a portfolio of over 50 startup investments, Ven offers a valuable combination of diverse experiences. His background includes bioengineering and law degrees from University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, startups in the digital services and technology field, IP, venture and corporate law practice, advising and mentoring of early-stage startups and hands-on operational experience in day- to-day management of traditional brick and mortar enterprises.
Andrew Sieghart, Investment Committee
Andrew spent much of his career at Lehman Brothers in its global real estate group in New York, and its principal transactions group in Hong Kong. Later, Andrew held senior positions at Nomura Securities and G2 Investment Group, concentrating on highly structured asset-based direct equity and debt investments. Currently, he is the Managing Partner at Framework Capital Partners, a family office.
Richard D. Levinson, Investment Committee
Dick is a founding partner of Canaras Capital Management LLC, a New York based SEC RIA that focuses on corporate credit. He is also a principal of Sage Group, an international advisory company focused on structured finance and resolutions of complex financial situations. Previously, he spent 18 years with Citibank where he served as Citibank’s U.S. Country Treasurer, a founding member of its Market Risk Policy Committee, Chairman of the US Asset Liability Committee and global treasurer and head of structured finance for the Citibank Private Bank. Dick holds a B.A. in Economics, an M.S. in Operations Research from Union College and an M.A. in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he completed course work and passed qualifying exams for a PhD in Finance. He served as adjunct faculty at the Wharton School and other business schools and provided seminars for central banks and other regulatory agencies in several countries.
Karoline Silva, Investor Support
A Brazilian attorney with international legal experience on both the public and private sectors. Karo came to the US to get her Masters in Law, successfully passed the New York Bar Exam and is currently doing a MS in Taxation/Accounting. While in the US, she has previously worked at Cantor Fitzgerald’s tax department, assisting on audits as well as administrative matters.