Investment Team

Alexi Sevastopoulos

Alexi was born and raised in Silicon Valley and earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2006. He began his career as an applications engineer at Linear Technology and eventually became one of the founding members of Armature Systems, an enterprise networking and security consulting firm that continues to serve numerous Fortune 500 companies today.

In 2019, Alexi helped Morgan Slain build Santa Clara University’s flagship venture accelerator, which ultimately led to the creation of Santa Clara Ventures—a fund backing the best and brightest SCU alumni founders.

After settling in Santa Cruz in 2021, Alexi began researching the region’s history of innovation and was inspired by the legacy of successful founders quietly building world-class companies over the past 30+ years. In 2023, Santa Cruz Ventures was proudly launched with a mission to back the most promising early-stage products and services born out of the region.

Morgan Slain

Founder and General Partner at Santa Clara Ventures, and founding director of Santa Clara University’s Bronco Venture Accelerator, where he continues to serve as a director. Previously, he was a Partner at UP2398, the seed-stage venture firm founded by eBay’s Pierre Omidyar.

As a former founder and CEO, he led investor-backed ventures to successful exits—one to Google (Quickoffice) and another to private equity (TeamsID). He was also an early investor in Chainlink, Ethereum, and Patreon.

His executive experience spans several world-class organizations, including serving as Chief Digital Officer at Frost & Sullivan, CEO of SPARC, and Vice President of New Media & Business Development at The Walt Disney Company.

Advisors & Associates

  • Doug Erickson

    Technology Veteran & Executive Director of Santa Cruz Works, UC Santa Cruz (B.A)

  • Marc van den Berg

    Global Managing Partner, Climate Investment, Santa Clara University (B.S.EE)

  • Mark Mitchell

    Founder of CodeSourcery (acq. Mentor Graphics), Member of Sand Hill Angels, Harvard (A.B.), Stanford (M.S.)

  • Tony Nethercutt

    Former VP of Sales at YouTube and CRO at AdMob and PlaceIQ, USC (B.S.)

  • Ben Richardson

    Former Sr. Executive DoD, Portfolio Director Defense Innovation Unit, Colonel Marine Corps Reserves, Advisor to Numerous Energy Startups, Co-Founder, Board Member, Georgia Institute of Technology (B.S.)

  • John Grant

    Investor and Advisor to Multiple Venture Capital Funds and Start-Ups Nationwide, Northwestern (M.S., PhD)

  • Federico Spadini

    Technologist, Expert in Embedded Systems, Software, RF, and Electronics, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (BSEE), University of Bologna (PhD)

  • Victoria Sevastopoulos

    Associate - Event Management

  • Cristina Cismas Florea

    Associate - Development