Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com)

My name is Furqan Nazeeri. When it comes to startups, I’ve done a little bit of everything (employee, founder, board member, investor, advisor, champion and cheerleader).  My day job is a Partner at ExtensionEngine where I get to innovate and work with awesomely talented people every day.

For the last 15-ish years I’ve lived in Boston but I grew up in Boring, Oregon and then got a degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan. My real passion at Michigan was the solar car team where I was team captain. Not surprisingly, I spent the early part of my career working on transportation-related stuff (plug-in electric vehicles). After getting a MBA at Harvard, I spent the next several years working in the financial technology industry at three different startups (two of which I founded or co-founded).

One of those startups was Pivot, one of a the largest trading networks for hedge funds with something like 8,000 traders.  We raised $15-ish million in venture capital in a couple of rounds from folks like DFJ, Softbank and others. We sold to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (Nasdaq:CME).

Maize & Blue: 1993 University of Michigan Solar Car

Maize & Blue: 1993 University of Michigan Solar Car

After Pivot I did a stint as Entrepreneur-in-Residence with Softbank Capital (Pivot investor) where I worked on new business ideas and pretended to be a VC. It was a rare opportunity to get a look at venture investing from the other side of the table.  

It was not soon after that when I joined ExtensionEngine, after having been a client for a few years. I love my job. I get to work with the best of my team at Pivot and we build awesome stuff…we are one of the leading experts in building online learning programs that make a difference.

I started Altgate (this blog) primarily to share tips and advice on startups and fund raising that I wish someone told me back when I was doing it the first time. Most of my posts are on startups, but occasionally I’ll slip in color commentary on other topics.

Thanks for reading.