Ashkan Mizani
Investor at OddBird VC | Preseed and Seed Investing | Former Founder, Ex Division 1 NCAA Athlete
San Francisco Bay Area
Overview
Work Experience
Investor
2024 - Current
Partnering with founders from idea through seed building legendary companies. // recently leaning into AI applied to the physical world
Angel Investor at Preseed
2024
Make smarter product decisions.
Angel Investor at Preseed + Seed
2021
Inbound orchestration platform for revenue teams
PFC Fellow
2024 - 2024
PFC Fellow at Pear VC.
PearX is a bootcamp for pre-seed founders
Co-Founder
2023 - 2024
Allora is an AI-powered assistant helping first-time parents navigate life as new parents. I gained a ton of empathy for the founder journey and learned the importance of stacking the cards in your favor when building an early stage startup - full time founders, working in person, and prioritizing momentum.
Investor
2021 - 2024
I'm scrappy and primarily spend time sourcing pre-seed/seed angel investments through my founder network, current investment founder referrals, and peer investor relationships I've built and keep warm living in SF. Sourced Directly: Default (inbound orchestration for revenue teams) invested at preseed, put more at seed which was led by Craft Ventures. Additional capital by 8VC. Mirage (custom LLMs for productivity) invested at inception, seed by Sequoia Capital Arc program, and acquired by Harvey Pillar (currency and commodity hedging) invested at inception, they got into Neo, seed led by J Ventures Blok (product development in the era of frontier AI) invested at preseed, seed investors included Rackhouse, Weekend Fund, MaC, Protagonist, and others. Sourced through my network: Rupa Health (root cause medicine) series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners, Acquired by Fullscript Varda Space Industries (space manufacturing) series B led by Caffeinated Capital Accern (no-code AI development platform) series B led by Mighty Capital, acquired by Wand AI. And more to be announced at a later date.
Special Projects (Product and Community Building)
2022 - 2022
Plato is a community for engineering leaders. Engineering Leaders engage in 1-on-1 mentorship, benefit from cohort-based learning, and access exclusive content. Plato was acquired by Coda and was previously part of Y Combinator's Winter 2016 cohort. I joined in a white space role to spearhead the build-out of our technical program management community product. I onboarded TPM leaders from Stripe, Amazon, Meta, Airbnb, Coinbase, Robinhood, and more. I also spent my time helping transform company culture and operations from web2 to web3 by hosting weekly company educational office hours and guests to speak.
Plato helps engineering leaders develop soft skills and build better teams.
Raised $3,300,000.00 from 2 | Twelve, Ron Pragides, Slack, FundersClub, Luc Vincent and Kevin Moore.
Business Operations
2020 - 2021
Spin is an e-scooter and e-bike provider serving cities across North America and Europe. Spin was acquired by Ford Motor Company. I led cross-functional teams to develop and implement strategic initiatives in our markets, drove operational efficiency, and managed high-impact projects. I utilized my strong analytical skills to evaluate and report on performance metrics weekly, which helped inform decision-making and resulted in significant improvements in our business outcomes across markets.
Growth Lead
2019 - 2020
I implemented data-driven growth strategies, managed a $250,000+ performance marketing budget to support operations, and drove significant user acquisition and revenue growth through continuous experimentation. I analyzed campaign performance and collaborated with cross-functional teams to optimize local marketing efforts and increase ridership in our active markets.
Spin is a stationless electric scooter company that provides dockless mobility systems.
Raised $8,000,000.00 from Charlie Cheever, Grishin Robotics, Matt Brezina and Moso Capital.
Operations Manager + Supply Side Growth
2018 - 2019
Rinse is a tech-enabled laundry and dry cleaning delivery service serving major US cities. Rinse is backed by leading investors including LG Electronics, Javelin Venture Partners, Arena Ventures, Partech Partners, Asymmetry Ventures, Accelerator Ventures, and more. (Series D as of early 2025) Managed a team of salaried and hourly operation staff members and was accountable for a team of 200+ part-time W2 delivery drivers. I led our driver vertical at a time of high growth, I spearheaded white space projects, enhanced operational efficiency, and surpassed many performance goals for my vertical. I took pride in fostering a collaborative culture and empowered my team to learn new parts of the business excelling in their lanes and ultimately taking on more responsibility.
Operations + Community Manager
2017 - 2018
I grew into a role at Rinse where I managed our delivery driver community. I was adept at fostering engagement and growth through strategic communication and impactful initiatives. I demonstrated a track record of leveraging relationships I cultivated to drive community success and enhance our end-user experiences at their front doors.
Operations
2016 - 2017
Did whatever and went wherever I was needed for the success of our complex operation. I was dependable, had a good attitude, and pushed our pace.
Rinse provides garment care services. Its services include dry cleaning, launder and press.
Raised $23,500,000.00 from Accelerator Ventures, Asymmetry Ventures and Unanimous Capital.
Division 1 Student-Athlete, Football
2012 - 2014
I walked onto the football team and worked my way up the depth chart past many scholarship players onto the 2 deep rotation.
Education
Bachelor of Arts - BA
2010 - 2014