Enjoy a private lunch with Hilarie Koplow-McAdams, Ben Narasin, and Rick Yang, partners at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), at their San Francisco office.
Hilarie joined NEA in 2017 as a Venture Partner on the tech team, where she focuses on enterprise software and services. An enterprise software veteran, Hilarie spent the last three decades at growth-stage technology companies in operating and board roles. Most recently, Hilarie was President at New Relic, responsible for New Relic’s growth strategies as well as leading global sales, marketing, customer success, support, and business development. Prior to New Relic, Hilarie was at Salesforce, where she was named President and led the company’s worldwide sales teams and focused on growing the business globally. Hilarie joined Salesforce from Intuit where she was vice president of direct sales for small business and a member of the executive committee. Hilarie started her career at Oracle Corporation where she held a variety of roles over the course of 18 years, including senior vice president of Oracle Direct where she drove the company’s rapid growth in both the technology and applications markets.
Hilarie currently serves on the board of directors of BloomReach, Duo Security, Tableau Corporation and Zendesk Corporation. She is the Vice Chair of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and serves on the advisory council of the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. She previously served on the board of directors for Informatica Corporation. Hilarie has a master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from Mills College. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband Steve and their two daughters.
Ben Narasin is Venture Partner at NEA. A prolific entrepreneur and highly regarded early-stage investor with three decades of company-building expertise, Narasin has focused on emerging technologies and new markets throughout his investment career. With a portfolio comprising key early successes in some of today’s fastest growing sectors, such as fintech, digital marketplaces, mobile and connected devices. His overarching focus in seeking new investments is, in his words, “to find founders who make me say wow.” Narasin is a 25-year entrepreneur and 10-year early-stage investor. His knack for spotting emerging trends led him to make seed investments in companies like Dropcam, Lending Club, TellApart, Kabbage and Zenefits. Before NEA, Narasin most recently served as a General Partner at Canvas Ventures, and was previously with TriplePoint Capital, where he oversaw the firm’s seed funding investment activities. Like many of NEA’s partners, Narasin’s path to investing is rooted in entrepreneurship. He founded several consumer companies before launching his investing career, including Fashionmall.com, one of the first e-commerce companies, which he founded in 1993 and led to a successful IPO in 1999.
Narasin frequently writes and speaks about technology and investing, as well as food and wine, a lifelong passion. He holds a B.A. in Entrepreneurial Studies from Babson College.
Rick Yang joined NEA in 2007 and is focused on consumer and fintech investments. He also co-manages NEA's seed practice. Rick is currently on the Board of Cape, Drop, Euclid, Lyric, MasterClass, Pilot AI, and Plaid. In addition, he works closely with Fyusion, GoEuro, Opendoor, Robinhood, and Stride Health. He was historically involved with Braintree (acquired by PayPal), Gaikai (acquired by Sony), and Pure Energies (acquired by NRG). Prior to joining NEA, Rick advised on and executed a number of strategic financing initiatives for leading public and private tech companies as part of the Credit Suisse Technology Group.
Rick earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University, where he was also a varsity swimmer.