Lauren Kolodny

Who they are

Lauren Kolodny is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Acrew Capital — she previously co-founded Aspect Ventures in 2014 and built its fintech investing practice before spinning out to start Acrew in 2019.

Person

Lauren co-founded Acrew Capital in 2019 from a standing start with four partners — Theresia Gouw, Vishal Lugani, Asad Khaliq, and Mark Kraynak — when the firm had 11-50 employees and no track record of its own. Before that she was at Aspect Ventures, where she made Partner by 2017 and led its fintech investing practice — she and Gouw had been building that partnership since co-founding Aspect in 2014. The earlier career tells you a lot: Brown University (BA in International Relations and Economic Development, magna cum laude, 2008), then Clean Technology Partnership Development at the Clinton Foundation, then Product Marketing Lead for Google Drive. The arc is economic development → mission-aligned tech → operator at scale → investor — each move building fluency with how companies grow and how capital flows. She holds dual Stanford graduate degrees, an MBA from GSB and an MS in Sustainable Design, which is an unusual pairing that signals she thinks about capital and its downstream effects simultaneously. She writes on Medium and LinkedIn about fintech investing, AI adoption in financial services, and the case for consumer fintech; she's appeared on the Fintech Leaders, FinTech Silicon Valley, Smart Venture Pod, and Money20/20 podcasts, and spoken at SALT, Silicon Valley Open Doors, and CB Insights events. She also serves as an independent board director at Alumni Ventures and as Trustee Emerita and member of the President's Leadership Council at Brown.

Company

The most recent move on record: in August 2026, Acrew participated as a new investor in Horizon3's $250 million Series E, a cybersecurity round that tripled Horizon3's valuation — a signal of where Acrew is deploying at growth stage right now. Earlier in April 2026, Acrew led a $30 million Series B for Moderne, an AI developer platform, and also made a first-time investment in Monk and a follow-on in Cato Networks. The firm's macro backdrop is the $700 million in new capital it closed as of October 2024, bringing AUM to over $1.7 billion — a significant step up for a firm that launched from scratch in 2019. In January 2026, Acrew added Aliisa Rosenthal, former Head of Sales at OpenAI, as a General Partner, deepening the AI-native operating expertise on the team. The firm runs as a five-partner 'crew' backed by a 600+ person operator and executive community that co-develops thesis and supports portfolio companies.

Market

Acrew plays across early and growth stages in fintech, AI, health tech, cybersecurity, and data infrastructure — a portfolio of 142 companies including 16 unicorns, with named positions in Chime, Gusto, Coinbase, Vanta, and Discord. The VC market it operates in has seen valuation corrections and increased down rounds through late 2024, creating a tighter environment for the growth-stage deals Acrew increasingly competes for. Named competitors include Norwest Venture Partners and Yellowstone Capital Partners, though in practice Acrew's fintech and AI-native focus puts it up against a wider field of multi-stage firms chasing the same category leaders.

Network

Lauren's closest working relationship is Theresia Gouw, with whom she co-founded both Aspect Ventures (2014) and Acrew Capital (2019) — Gouw serves as Board Chair and Founding Partner at Acrew and their partnership traces back to Brown University. Mark Kraynak is another long-running collaborator — he worked with Lauren at Aspect Ventures and is a co-founder of Acrew. Aliisa Rosenthal, former Head of Sales at OpenAI, joined the partnership as General Partner in January 2026, adding AI go-to-market depth to the team.

Theresia Gouw· Co-Founding Partner and Board Chair, Acrew Capital
Mark Kraynak· Co-Founding Partner, Acrew Capital
Aliisa Rosenthal· General Partner, Acrew Capital (joined January 2026)
Kevin Levitt· Co-panelist (NVIDIA), Money20/20 Everything is Fintech

How they likely show up

Co-founding two VC firms with the same core team (Aspect in 2014, Acrew in 2019) → operates on deep, long-cycle trust — she builds partnerships over decades, not sprints.
Dual Stanford graduate degrees (MBA + MS in Sustainable Design) alongside a BA in Economic Development → likely frames investment decisions through both commercial and systemic lenses; not purely returns-focused.
Career moved from Clinton Foundation (mission) → Google Drive PMM (scale product) → VC partner → firm co-founder → suggests she values operational texture in founders and probably asks about product mechanics, not just market size.
Public writing and podcast circuit covers fintech thesis, AI in financial services, and 'traits of rising star VCs' → comfortable being a practitioner-explainer; responds well to substantive engagement, not surface-level flattery.
Possibly — the 600+ operator community Acrew has built as a co-investment thesis tool suggests she thinks networks compound; she likely views every meeting as a potential node in that graph.
Independent board role at Alumni Ventures alongside running Acrew → high agency, comfortable holding parallel obligations; not someone who needs a single clean lane.

Conversation tips

→ Reference a specific portfolio bet — Chime, Vanta, or the recent Moderne Series B lead — and ask about the thesis behind the entry; she responds to investors and founders who've done the reading.
→ Her Fintech Leaders interview is titled 'The Case for Consumer FinTech' — if consumer fintech is relevant to your conversation, that's a specific hook she's already articulated publicly and will enjoy stress-testing.
→ She has a dual degree in business and sustainable design — if your work touches systemic or structural angles (financial inclusion, health access, infrastructure), that framing will land better than pure-return pitches.
→ She's been building with the same co-founders for over a decade — team durability and co-founder dynamics will resonate as topics; she'll have strong views.
→ Don't pitch surface-level 'AI + fintech' without a specific mechanism — the Horizon3 and Moderne investments show she's already at Series B/E on AI-native companies; she needs to see what's differentiated, not just the category.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the Horizon3 Series E in August 2026 — Acrew came in as a new investor at a $250 million round that tripled the company's valuation; that's a pointed bet on AI-native cybersecurity at growth stage, and she'll have a view on why now.
Reference the Aliisa Rosenthal hire in January 2026 — bringing in OpenAI's former Head of Sales as a GP is a specific signal about where Acrew thinks AI go-to-market is headed, and it's recent enough that it's shaping the firm's thesis right now.
Mention the Fintech Leaders episode where she laid out 'The Case for Consumer FinTech' — it's a specific published thesis you can engage with directly, and citing it signals you've done more than a quick LinkedIn scroll.

Discovery questions

You led the Moderne Series B in April 2026 — an AI developer platform is a different category bet from your fintech roots; how does that fit the Acrew thesis, and is that a new vertical or a natural extension?
The 600+ operator community you've built as a co-investment and portfolio support layer is unusual for a firm of your size — how does that community actually change the way you diligence or support a company versus a traditional model?
You've been building with Theresia Gouw since Aspect Ventures in 2014 — over a decade as co-founders across two firms; what does a working partnership that long teach you about evaluating co-founder dynamics in the companies you back?

Avoid

Don't lead with generic 'fintech is hot' framing — she has a specific, published thesis on consumer fintech and AI in financial services, and vague sector enthusiasm will read as under-prepared.

Make it yours