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Lee Hower

Co-Founder & Partner at NextView Ventures

Lee Hower, Co-Founder & Partner at NextView Ventures

Lee Hower is a co-founder and Partner at NextView Ventures, a thematic, seed stage venture capital firm with offices in Boston and New York.12 He has spent his entire career as an entrepreneur and investor in early-stage software and internet startups.2

Career Highlights

  • Started his career as an early employee of PayPal in product and business development roles, through the company's 2002 IPO and sale to eBay24
  • Co-founded LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) and served as head of corporate development during the company's early years124
  • Began his VC career at PJC, a Boston-based early-stage VC firm, where he was a Principal and led investments in Multiply (acq. by Naspers) and FanIQ24
  • Co-founded NextView Ventures in 2010 with partners Rob Go and David Beisel34

Education

  • Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Management & Technology program, with a BAS in Systems Engineering and a BS Economics from the Wharton School24
  • Selected as Wharton's Commencement Speaker in 20002

Lee lives with his wife and small daughter and splits his time between Boston and San Francisco.24 He is active on Twitter as @leehower.5

Highlights

Apr 3 · twitter

I love that this is sorta going viral

Dec 29 · twitter

A thoughtful essay on financial “degen” among millennials and Gen Z. This dynamic has a variety of complex causes behind it.

One of the passages which most stuck me is the impact of broad visibility of a platonic “ideal” lifestyle delivered via social media. Not a new concept to me but this is one of the most well expressed versions of this issue.

“Previous generations had limited visibility into how others lived. You compared yourself to your neighbors, your coworkers, maybe some celebrities in magazines. The reference class was narrow. Now the reference class is infinite. A 25-year-old making $70k is constantly fed content from people their age making $2mn, living in Bali, "working" four hours a day. The baseline for "enough" keeps moving.”

Aug 2 · TechCrunch
NextView Ventures just sealed up its third fund with $50 million - TechCrunch
NextView Ventures will invest in the 'everyday economy' with newest fund - Boston Business Journal

Related Questions

What are some of the most successful startups that NextView Ventures has invested in?
How did Lee Hower's experience at PayPal influence his approach to venture capital?
What are the key themes that NextView Ventures focuses on in their investments?
How did Lee Hower's role at LinkedIn shape his career in venture capital?
What makes NextView Ventures different from other seed-stage VC firms?
Lee Hower
Lee Hower, photo 1
Lee Hower, photo 2
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Experience

Co-Founder & Partner at NextView Ventures (May 2010 - Present)
Investor / Board Director at Grove Collaborative, PBC (March 2015 - Present); Investor at Skillz Inc. (November 2012 - Present); Co-Founder / Board Director at Quilt (December 2015 - August 2018); Founding Team / Director of Corporate Development at LinkedIn (December 2002 - November 2004); Director, Financial Services at PayPal (May 2000 - December 2002)

Education

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) and Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) from University of Pennsylvania (1996 - 2000)

Location

Greater Boston