“Shortly after cofounding FirstMark Capital during the 2008 recession, Heitzmann met two young founders at an NYU business plan contest who foresaw a sea change from a text-based world to an image-based one. Their idea became Pinterest, and Heitzmann, the lead investor in its $525,000 seed round in 2009, eventually enjoyed a reported 1,900x return multiple when it went public at a market capitalization in April 2019 of $12.7 billion. “Nothing’s easy, especially when you’re starting in a recession, but it makes you gritty,” says Heitzmann, who is also an investor in Airbnb, Dashlane, Discord, DraftKings, Hubble, Ro Health and Upwork, and who previously was the first institutional investor in Riot Games and StubHub.”

Read the full announcement on Forbes here.