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Our Story
We – Rana el Kaliouby and Gabi Zijderveld – founded Blue Tulip Ventures as we believe this time of unprecedented AI innovation presents a massive economic opportunity and the potential to tackle some of humanity’s biggest challenges. We have conviction that the best way to realize this is through human-centric AI – that is in service of humans and the planet we live on.
In our careers and a decade of collaboration we have laid the foundation for human-centric AI and now is the time to make it the gold standard for how AI is done right. With Blue Tulip Ventures we do this at scale through venture capital, by backing the most innovative AI startups and building a thriving ecosystem.
Blue Tulip Founders
Rana el Kaliouby, Ph.D.
Co-Founder and General Partner
AI Scientist, Entrepreneur and Investor
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Rana is a renowned AI scientist, entrepreneur, innovator, investor and thought leader. She was previously founder and CEO of Affectiva, a MIT spin-out, which she sold in 2021. She also raised a $12M fund that has been deployed in 40 early-stage AI companies. She is a venture partner at BOLD Capital Partners and an executive fellow at the Harvard Business School. Rana is the host of Pioneers of Podcast. She has been recognized on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list and Forbes' Top 50 Women in Tech. She holds a Ph.D. from University of Cambridge and postdoc from MIT.
Gabi is a seasoned technology executive, innovator and startup mentor with 10+ years building and commercializing AI products. She has decades of operating experience at 7 startups and two public companies, including IBM. She has led product and marketing teams, and built partnerships and ecosystems. She has created new technology categories, devised go to market strategies and launched numerous v1 products. Gabi loves mentoring early stage AI startups in all aspects of growing their business.
Gabi Zijderveld
Co-Founder and General Partner
Technology Operator, AI Innovator, Startup Mentor, and Board Advisor
Why Us
01
Decades of AI & Startup Expertise
We understand AI technology, trends and business models and what it takes to launch, scale and exit startups – we have done it before.
02
Global Networks & Influence
We are well ingrained in innovation ecosystems and active in technology, AI and leadership networks. We influence the AI narrative.
03
Highly Respected & Stellar Reputations
We are well known and regarded for our work in AI and in startups. Founders find us and want us on the cap table.
04
We find the deals, we win the deals
We see exciting deals early and are invited to participate. Founders want us to to support their growth.
05
AI Investment Experience
Rana’s “Fund 0” invested in 40 early-stage AI companies. She has won 100% of the deals she wanted to invest in.
Our Advisors
Our advisors are experts in AI, venture capital, and innovation ecosystems out of academia and industry.
Reid Hoffman
Co-Founder LinkedIn & Inflection AI; Investor, Greylock. Using AI to benefit humanity.
Eric Horvitz
Chief Scientific Officer, Microsoft;
President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
Claire Johnson
Advisor and Former COO, Stripe;
Author, Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building
Karim Lakhani
Prof. Harvard Business School, Tech Management & Innovation; Author Competing in the Age of AI
Carla Brodley
Prof. Northeastern University Dean of Inclusive Computing: Interdisciplinary ML Research
Nick Thompson
CEO, The Atlantic; Co-Founder SpeakEasy AI; Former Editor in Chief WIRED
Mohamed Amersi
Internationally renowned businessman & telecoms dealmaker. Trustee, Eisenhower Fellowships
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Esther Dyson
Journalist, author, business model scrutineer, Wellville founder, board member, investor, court jEsther
Trina Van Pelt
25 years of multi-stage investment, company building and acquisitions leadership, Intel Capital
Dune Thorne
Partner, Browne Advisory
Strategic investment solutions;
Co-Founder, Invest in Girls
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Taryn Southern
AI Strategist & Speaker; Creative Technologist; Chief Storytelling Officer, Blackrock Neurotech
Kathy Pham
VP AI, Workday; Senior Advisor, Mozilla; Faculty & Fellow, Harvard; Advocate responsible technology
Zoë Weil
Co-Founder & CEO, Faber Labs;
Leading Expert in NLP/IR; Staff Applied Scientist, Etsy; SVP of AI, Citi
Natalie Monbiot
Virtual human pioneer, Head of Strategy Hour One; the Virtual Human Economy
Eric Cohen
VP Capgemini, Healthcare company Founder; Harvard startup mentor; Reebok PUMP Inventor
Tim Peacock
GM & VP AI Data, Smart Eye; COO & Head of Engineering, Affectiva; 25+ years of startups
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Brent Sapiro
SVP of Revenue, 20+ years scaling startups through IPO; early Affectiva executive
Pam Boiros
Building AI-forward marketers; experienced HR Tech, Ed Tech, AI and startup CMO
Julie Stuecken
CMO & Brand Officer, Experiential Consumer Marketing, Farmtech Startup Entrepreneur