About Republic

In May 2016, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enacted Title III of the JOBS Act, allowing non-accredited investors — the majority of the US population — to invest in startups. But the complicated legal requirements demanded for a founder and investor-friendly, easy to use platform to make startup investing truly accessible.

That’s why we built Republic: to democratize investing and level out the fundraising landscape for founders and investors alike. We’re SEC-registered, FINRA-licensed, and if you’re at all interested in startups, you’ve heard of our past work: Republic is part of a family of startup platforms together with AngelList, Product Hunt, and CoinList — one of the most trusted online startup ecosystems in the world.

Why we’re doing this

Startups are here to save the world, but they need money to grow. Many startups’ success depends on their ability to get funded.

Silicon Valley is an amazing place. It’s fostered and funded tech startups for decades, but its limitations have become increasingly apparent: It’s held back by its geography, philosophy and lack of diversity.

Recent legislation has created the opportunity to bring the best of the Silicon Valley to the rest of the country and the world.

It gives the 97% of people previously left behind access to startup investing: the power to choose the future we want to see by funding the companies we believe in.

And, equally important, it makes room for more entrepreneurs — because in a world where anyone can fund anyone, more ideas should get off the ground and grow.

More ideas = more opportunities = more innovation = better future.

That’s why we’re doing this.

Why we focus on diversity

We welcome all kinds of entrepreneurs, but we’re encouraging more startups with diverse teams and backgrounds to apply. Why do we have a special focus on the underserved — women, minorities, immigrant and veteran founders?

Talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not. Equalization of the fundraising landscape will allow more talent to have a chance to build companies, creating more investment opportunities for investors.

Traditional VCs notoriously don’t fund as many female founders as males, or as many Black or Latinx founders as white founders. The same applies to geography: the majority of funded startups come from Silicon Valley & New York.

We believe that most hidden gems for our investors can be found beyond the places where everyone’s looking.

Why we love mission-driven startups

Because we believe that startups are the way to a better future. The greatest companies are mission driven: they start with a vision of the better future — the future they will create.

This isn't just fanciful ideology. It’s highly pragmatic: having a mission helps founders see the big picture and set big goals, to persevere through tough times, and to lead and inspire their team along the way. Building a company isn’t easy. Ultimately, a mission makes it possible for founders to succeed.

Who we are

We're a team of founders and investors, just like you.

Republic was founded by alumni of AngelList — the world's largest online investment platform for accredited investors. AngelList was instrumental in passing the JOBS Act that enabled equity crowdfunding and remains our strategic partner.

Our team has extensive experience in investing, online fundraising, business, law, engineering and community building. We have been founders and investors, builders and operators.

Kendrick Nguyen

CEO

Founding advisor of CoinList. Previously General Counsel at AngelList. Worked at Permal Group and Goodwin Procter. Former Stanford Fellow and securities litigator.

Caroline Hofmann

COO & CCO

Previously at McKinsey & Company in New York and London. Harvard MBA, Masters from London School of Economics.

Peter Green

Head of Product

Previously Founder of Mine, MeetingPulse, Volga Verdi. Worked at Leo Burnett. Masters of management from HSE Moscow.

Bryan Myint

Managing Director, Republic Crypto

Partner at Blocksauce Foundation and Token Sale Advisor. Previously Strategy Consultant at Enterey and Operations Manager at Breeze. Studied engineering at UCLA.

Chuck Pettid

Business

Senior Partner at Republic. GP at RainmakeMe. Worked at Merrill, Pinnacle. Repeat founder. Active investor. Studied business at Nebraska and Fordham.

Nikhil Gopalani

Business

Head of Investment. Co-Founder at Ambition.vc. Investor in Verdigris, Drchrono, Samba TV & FabFitFun. Previously at Orange, VentureBeat and Accredible.

Bianca Caban

Business

Head of Partnerships. Co-founded Taino Capital and AccessLatina. Banking and investment at Credit Suisse, Blackrock, and Atlas Merchant Capital. Harvard BA; Columbia MBA.

Maxwell Rich

Legal & Compliance

Deputy General Counsel. Regulatory advisor to CoinList. Previously at Liberty Mutual and the Clearing House. JD from Boston University, BA in Economics and Political Science from Drew University.

Ilya Beylin

Legal

General Counsel. Previously, GC at AngelList, corporate attorney at Sidley Austin and Sullivan Cromwell, and clerked for the DC Circuit appellate court. JD from the University of Chicago and CS degree from Stanford.

Laurent Mazouer

Product

Previously Associate Technology at SapientRazorfish. Studied Computer Science at Columbia University.

Léo Galley

Product

Senior Engineer. Previously, Engineer at CoinList, Design Director at AngelList, and Head of UX & Design at Mitoo.

Aditya Sarkar

Product

Previously founded Fleet and engineered at Snapchat. Studied Computer Science at Stanford.

Kenneth Ballenegger

CSO

Angel in 40+ startups, Partner at Oyster Ventures. Previously engineering at AngelList, founder at FreshPay, founding architect at Chartboost, and product at Tapulous (acq. by Disney)

Taylor Hedrick

Business

Director, Deal Operations. Previously corporate attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell. AB from Dartmouth, JD/MBA from Yale.

Matt Melbourne

Business

Sales Lead at Republic. Previously Business Development at Global Citizen. BA in Government & English from Georgetown University.

Shrina Kurani

Business

PM and Chief of Staff. Previously engineering at NASA, investing at Better Ventures, business at Sutro, founder at FoodNest, negotiator at UN. MS in Sustainability, BS in Mechanical Engineering. Classical Dancer & Saxophonist.

Jed Halfon

Republic Crypto

Director, Crypto Investment. Previously corporate attorney at Mayer Brown. JD and MA from UPenn. Crypto enthusiast. Contributor @Forbes.

Szandra Fuzesi Ford

Business

Previously Partner at Climb Capital Partners and Management Consultant at Capgemini. MBA from NYU. Finance and Accounting from the University of Michigan.

Dmitry Chernyshev

Design

Previously at Sweatcoin, COUB, Theory&Practice and Trends&Brands. Created Identity and design for web version of Andy Warhol Interview Russia magazine.

Ahrham Cho

Business

Previously Finance and Operations Manager at Noom Inc. Worked as a CPA in a private accounting firm.

Riki Harris

Business

People Operations & Operations. Previously Diversity Programs at Google. UCLA BA.

Frederick Allen

Business

Registered FINRA licensed representative, previously in IB and Equity Research. Bachelor of Business majored in Finance and a Masters of Applied Finance. Active investor.

Pialy Aditya

Operating Advisor

Angel investor. Previously GM @ShopYourWay, co-founder and President @Mintbox. MBA from Harvard. Finance from New York University.

Kyle McCormick

Business

Deal Team at Republic. Former associate at Endeavor. Studied Finance at Boston College.

Cheryl Campos

Business

Business Development Associate. Previously analyst in investment banking and private debt / equity. Harvard '15 concentration in Economics.

Vasja Volin

Product

Software Engineer. Previously Tech Lead and Senior Engineer at Hearst Digital Media. Electrical and Computer Engineer via Rutgers School of Engineering.

Kanwar Sahdra

Product

Studying Medical Sciences & Computer Science.

Justin Potts

Marketing

Previously at Product Hunt and Mozilla. Co-founder of Kite AI. Studied at the University of Oklahoma and Hult International Business School.

Perri Gould

Business

Deal Operations Team. Previously at 92nd Street Y. Middle Eastern Studies at Brown University.

Loc Nguyen

Business

Previously marketing at Proximi & Zapflow. Studying International Business at Aalto University.

Paul Menchov

Advisor and Co-Founder

Head of CoinList Capital. CTO and Co-Founder at CoinList. Previously, CTO at Republic and Head of Fundraising Infrastructure at AngelList. Worked at Zynga. Studied at Cornell University.