Topher Conway: Born to Be a Venture Capitalist

Even in his early teens, it was already obvious that Topher Conway was going to follow in his father, Ron’s footsteps. Ron Conway co-founded SV Angel, an angel investment firm that helps startups with funding, business development, M&A, and other forms of strategic advice. Being exposed to this kind of industry at a very young age, Topher made his first angel investment in Napster when he was only 13. Today, he is a partner at SV Angel and focuses more on companies in the Niche, Bluebox, Zenefits, and URX categories.

Like many venture capitalists, Topher Conway gathered work experience outside the VC industry before jumping into investing. Prior to joining his father’s firm, Topher earned his stripes by working at EQAL, Inc., a media and technology company which created the viral web video series “lonelygirl15”. At EQAL, he worked closely with both the business development and sales teams. He was responsible for leading the creation of new business opportunities, as well as developing and maintaining close professional relationships with brands and ad agencies. Prior to EQAL, Topher was also able to accumulate work experience by working at eCost and accepting a summer internship at Google’s Direct Sales Organization in 2004.

Investing isn’t Topher’s only responsibility at SV Angel. He is able to put his sales and business development background to good use as he is also in charge of leading platform partnerships. He works closely with corporate partners and establishes strong ties with them. He also helps out portfolio companies with whatever they need when it comes to business and corporate development.

Topher received his bachelor’s degree in History at the University of California, Los Angeles. While at the university, he became a member of the UCLA VC fund which aims to foster and encourage entrepreneurship within the UCLA campus.