Reid Hoffman
Co-founder, LinkedIn & Inflection AI; Investor, Greylock; Using AI to benefit humanity; protecting US democracy
ai
investing
startups
ai-operators
Early capital, AI expertise, the networks and platform
The AI Operator Advantage
We bring unique technical, operating and investing expertise. As a team, we have built startups, built AI categories, raised venture capital, and scaled and exited an AI company.
We have walked in the shoes of the founders we back. We know how to source, diligence and support AI companies to drive venture-scale outcomes.
Rana’s journey from AI scientist to AI founder to AI investor brings a uniquely powerful perspective rarely seen in our industry.
Team
Dr. Rana el Kaliouby
Co-founder and Managing Partner
Rana el Kaliouby, Ph.D. is an AI scientist, founder, investor, and leading voice in the field. She co-founded and led Affectiva, the MIT spinout that pioneered Emotion AI, through its 2021 exit.
Her work spans machine learning and computer vision research, AI product development, company building, fundraising, and early-stage investing—combining deep technical AI expertise with firsthand experience building, scaling an AI company.
Rana is also the bestselling author of Girl Decoded and host of the award-winning Pioneers of AI podcast, which gives her a far-reaching platform to surface important ideas, showcase emerging innovation, and amplify the founders Blue Tulip backs.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaliouby
https://www.instagram.com/ranaelkaliouby/
Pioneers of AI Podcast
Gabi Zijderveld
Co-founder and Operating Partner
Gabi Zijderveld is a technology executive and startup advisor with decades of experience across seven startups and two public companies, including IBM. Over the past 12 years, she has worked at the forefront of AI, turning complex and emerging technologies into differentiated products, new technology categories, and scalable businesses.
Gabi’s expertise spans corporate strategy, product, go-to-market, partnerships, and market development. She has led teams through critical inflection points, including product-market fit, fundraising, category creation, international expansion, organizational scale, M&A, and post-acquisition integration. Previously, she was CMO and Head of Product at Affectiva.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabiz
Trina Van Pelt
Venture Partner
Trina Van Pelt is a global technology investor and board director who has stewarded companies through scale-up, transformation, and value creation across venture, growth capital, and M&A. She has deployed capital and driven exits at scale with institutional discipline, including 20 years at Intel Capital. Her deep expertise spans AI infrastructure and applications, from compute and software to edge and physical AI. Trina brings a triple lens - investor, buyer, and trusted advisor - to early-stage AI investing.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/trinavanpelt/
Advisors
Eric Horvitz
Chief Scientific Officer, Microsoft; President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
ai
product-technical
health-wellness
Claire Johnson
Advisor and Former COO, Stripe; Author, Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building
operations-finance
people-culture
startups
Karim Lakhani
Prof. Harvard Business School, Tech Management & Innovation; Author, Competing in the Age of AI
productivity-learning
ai
startups
Sophie V. Vandebroek
Advisor, Trustee, Director, Investor. Former COO IBM Research & CTO Xerox. Global innovation expert.
investing
product-technical
Nick Thompson
CEO, The Atlantic; Co-founder, SpeakEasy AI; Former Editor in Chief, WIRED
media-communications
ai
Esther Dyson
Journalist, author, business model scrutineer, Wellville founder, board member and investor
health-wellness
investing
startups
media-communications
Karl Iagnemma
Robotics expert and autonomous driving pioneer; Founder/CEO, nuTonomy; CEO, Motional, Vecna Robotics.
product-technical
startups
Mohamed Amersi
Internationally renowned businessman & telecoms dealmaker. Trustee, Eisenhower Fellowships
operations-finance
investing
Dune Thorne
Partner, Brown Advisory, Strategic investment solutions; Co-founder, Investing in Girls
investing
operations-finance
Taryn Southern
AI Strategist & Speaker; Creative Technologist; Chief Storytelling Officer, Blackrock Neurotech
ai
product-technical
people-culture
Kathy Pham
Former VP AI, Workday; Senior Advisor, Mozilla; Faculty & Fellow, Harvard; Advocate responsible technology
ai
product-technical
people-culture
Natalie Monbiot
Virtual human pioneer, Head of Strategy, Hour One; the Virtual Human Economy
ai
media-communications
go-to-market
Eric Cohen
CEO, Livio Labs, Using AI for better Mental Health; Harvard startup mentor; Reebok PUMP Inventor
health-wellness
startups
ai
Tim Peacock
Former GM and VP of AI/Data, Smart Eye; COO & Head of Engineering, Affectiva; 25+ years of startups
ai-operators
startups
product-technical
operations-finance
Brent Sapiro
SVP of Revenue, 20+ years scaling startups through IPO; early Affectiva executive
go-to-market
startups
Pam Boiros
Building AI-forward marketers; experienced HR Tech, Ed Tech, AI and startup CMO
go-to-market
people-culture
productivity-learning
startups
Julie Stuecken
CMO & Brand Officer, Experiential Consumer Marketing, Farmtech Startup Entrepreneur
go-to-market
media-communications
startups
Sasha Luccioni
Former AI and Climate Lead at Hugging Face; AI & Social Justice Chair; Adjunct Professor McGill
ai
sustainable-living
Founding story
A Decade of Emotion AI
Rana and Gabi met at Affectiva in 2014 and spent the next decade building the Emotion AI category from research through scale and exit. They are close thought partners with complementary skills. Over ten years, they have seen what it takes to turn AI innovation into products, companies, and categories—and where founders most need support.
Amplify human potential
They also developed a shared conviction about how AI should be built and deployed. The most valuable AI will not simply automate or extract. It will unlock human potential: expanding what people, teams, and institutions can do while creating durable economic value.
About that blue tulip
At Blue Tulip Ventures we invest in early-stage startups building Human-Centric AI — AI that is good for you, good for the planet and ethical. We celebrate our portfolio companies with the blue tulip because they are unlike anyone else and inspire us.
The Most Rare
Achieving almost unicorn status, the extraordinary blue tulip is rare and elusive in nature.
The Most Beautiful
Its beauty signifies peace, harmony, balance, trust, loyalty, creativity, and uniqueness.
The Most Unique
Gifting a blue tulip expresses that the recipient is unlike anyone else and inspires you.