Charlie O'Donnell

Charlie O’Donnell has been an active member of the NYC startup community for nearly 20 years, with a reputation of being the most accessible early stage investor in New York. After being hired as the first analyst at Union Square Ventures and helping to open First Round Capital’s first NYC office as a Principal, he founded Brooklyn Bridge Ventures in 2012. He helped source First Round’s investments in GroupMe (acq. by Skype), SinglePlatform (acq. by Constant Contact), Moat (acq. by Oracle) and Backupify (acq. by Datto).

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures has made over 70 investments since it was founded, making it one of the most active funds investing in pre-seed and seed rounds in the city. It often leads or co-leads, investing in a wide variety of startups founded by a diverse pool of founders including Petal, Brigit, The Wing, Shortcut (formerly Clubhouse), Hungryroot, Canary, and Imagen, among others. The fund was the first to be launched in Brooklyn--where he was born and raised.

Charlie is one of only a dozen individuals to be named to Business Insider’s 100 Most Influential People in NY Tech 5x or more. He served on the founding board of the New York Tech Meetup and is one of the group’s first 100 members. His blog, This is Going to Be BIG!, is one of the ten most widely read VC blogs in the country. He has spoken at SXSW and Techcrunch Disrupt.

Charlie started his career at General Motors Asset Management’s Private Equity Group (now Performance Equity), where he analyzed late stage VC investments, buyouts and secondary fund investments. He co-led two secondary portfolio transactions totaling over $100+ million in value.

A NYC native, Charlie has taught entrepreneurship and various other business and technology courses at Fordham University and NYU-Poly. He competes in triathlons, bikes to work, and founded the Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse--a free kayaking program on the East River.

Companies

• Founder and General Partner Brooklyn Bridge Ventures (2012)
• Board Member/Co-Founder Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse (2010)
• Founder nextNY (2006)
• Adjunct Professor NYU-Poly (2013 — 2013)
• Adjunct Professor Fordham University (2005 — 2012)
• Principal First Round Capital (2010 — 2012)
• Entrepreneur-in-Residence First Round Capital (2009 — 2010)
• CEO/co-founder Path 101 (2007 — 2009)
• EIR (Entrepreneur-in-Residence) ITAC (2008 — 2009)