Our team members have solved some of the hardest problems in data science and engineering and have scaled businesses from the earliest startup days all the way through exit. We have a variety of expertise across business functions and support our founders as a team to ensure the best opportunity for success.

Our Team

Investment Team

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Nick Adams

Managing Partner

  • Nick is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Differential Ventures.

    Previously, Nick was a Venture Partner at Supernode.vc, f.k.a. Flatiron Investors, where he evaluated seed-stage tech companies and led the due diligence for multiple investments. Before joining the venture capital community, Nick held senior sales, marketing and product management roles for software companies that have realized over $1.3 billion in exit value, including: Opower (IPO), RAGE Frameworks (acquired by Genpact), Basware (Publicly-traded on OMX), and Comverge (acquired by Itron).

    Nick sits on the board of several tech companies, including Ocrolus, which was named the '2020 Fastest Growing FinTech Company in the US’ by Inc. Magazine. He is also on the board of ‘Off the Record,’ a non-profit dedicated to the support of venture-backed startup founders. He has a MSc in Global Finance from NYU and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, a MBA in Corporate Finance from Northeastern University, and a BA in History from Brandeis University where he played four years of varsity baseball.

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David Magerman

Managing Partner

  • David is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Differential Ventures.

    Previously, he spent the entirety of his career at Renaissance Technologies, widely recognized as the world’s most successful quantitative hedge fund management company. He helped found the equities trading group at Renaissance, joining the group in its earliest days, playing a lead role in designing and building the trading, simulation, and estimation software. After a decorated career in quantitative finance, he is using his data science, software development, and statistical modeling expertise to help startups succeed in the global marketplace.

    David holds a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University where his thesis on Natural Language Parsing as Statistical Pattern Recognition was an early and successful attempt to use large-scale data to produce fully-automated syntactic analysis of text. David also earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Sciences and Information from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Tom Driscoll

Principal

  • Tom is a Principal at Differential Ventures.

    Previously, Tom was a Strategy Manager in Samsung’s Consumer Electronics Division, where he led several business model innovation projects for the Home Entertainment, Home Appliance and B2B/B2C Display businesses. Prior to Samsung, he was on the Business Operations team at Latch, where he drove the company’s growth strategy to its billion-dollar IPO. Tom’s first job out of college was as part of Lenovo’s Global Future Leaders rotational development program. There, he worked in a variety of operating roles, including Service Delivery Operations, Sales Operations and Product Marketing.

    Tom graduated from Vanderbilt University with a BA in English Studies and a minor in Corporate Strategy. In his free time, you can find Tom exploring a new coffee shop, catching a new Broadway show or at the gym.

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Tina Vinod

Associate

  • Tina is an Associate at Differential Ventures.

    Previously, she worked as an Associate at the Houston Angel Network, where she began her career bridging connections between the founders of promising tech and life sciences companies and angel investors plugged into the local Houston community. Following that, she worked with the family office, Unorthodox Ventures, based in Austin, TX, to evaluate early-stage medical device deal flow. Since then, her passion for supporting pre-seed and seed-stage companies has only grown, giving her the opportunity to source, speak to, and assist in the funding process of 100+ startups. Now, with a network of investors and founders spanning the greater Texas area, she aims to expand her conversations to NY.

    Tina graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BSBA in Accounting. In her free time, you can find Tina nose deep in an Asimov novel or practicing her whistling skills.

Allen Duan

Venture Partner

  • Allen Duan is a Venture Partner at Differential Ventures.

    In addition to his role at Differential, Allen is a Venture Partner at B Capital, a multi-stage investment firm affiliated with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) with over $9B in AUM. He focuses on enterprise technology and AI, leads strategic partnerships with foundational AI model companies, and serves on the boards of Extend Financial and Odeko.

    Previously, as a General Partner, Allen launched B Capital’s New York office in 2017 and helped scale the firm’s global portfolio, supporting companies through follow-on financings and M&A outcomes in partnership with BCG teams worldwide. Select investments include Reality AI (acquired by Renesas Electronics), Empath (acquired by Apollo Education Group/University of Phoenix), and Tembo Health.

    Earlier in his career, Allen held executive roles at Hearst, Paramount (formerly Viacom/MTV Networks), and Sony, and began his career at Microsoft in product management, business development, and product planning.

    Allen earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and an A.B. (magna cum laude) from Harvard University, where he studied Mechanical Engineering and Economics and was a John Harvard and IBM Thomas J. Watson Scholar. Beyond his passion for software and AI, he spends time on his investment in Pied-a-Terre Wines and with his wife running after their three children.

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Operations Team

Lloyd Appel

Chief Financial Officer

  • Mr. Appel has over 30 years of financial management experience, mostly as the Chief Financial Officer of alternative asset firms, including hedge funds and venture capital funds.

    Since 2020, Mr. Appel has been consulting for numerous established and start-up venture capital funds by providing strategic guidance, setting up and maintaining books and records, writing policies, assisting with service provider selections and relationships, and coordinating compliance responsibilities. Prior to that, Mr. Appel was the CFO of two venture capital firms – focused on technology and/or life science investments. Previously, Mr. Appel was the CFO or controller of several hedge funds, as well as the controller of a large multi-strategy alternative asset platform. Mr. Appel began his career at BDO, where he left as a financial services audit manager.

    Mr. Appel received a BA in Accounting and Economics from Queens College. He is a CPA and a CFA.

Jeremy Kirsch

Operating Partner

  • Jeremy Kirsch is an Operating Partner at Differential Ventures.

    Jeremy is a mission-driven entrepreneur, board member, and senior operator. He has been leading high-performance teams, and building businesses for close to 25 years. Since 2017, Jeremy has supported a portfolio of high-growth companies and select venture investors. His work typically focuses on aligning operating plans with growth goals, and driving outcomes with early-stage management teams.

    As a foundation to his current work, Jeremy was a two-time public company head of sales. From 2008-2016, Jeremy was EVP and GM for Worldwide Sales at Opower (formerly NYSE: OPWR; acquired by Oracle for $621 Million) where he built and led the team that grew Opower from $1M to $150M ARR, and which signed over $1.25 Billion in SaaS contracts over 8 years. Prior to Opower, Jeremy was an executive in the Viisage Secure Credentialing business at L-1 Identity Solutions (formerly NYSE: ID) where he held a series of senior positions including VP Sales and Business Development and VP Marketing and Strategy. He was responsible for a $100M+ business. Jeremy was also influenced by his work at Art Technology Group (formerly NASD: ARTG) and InvestorTree.com.

    Jeremy began his career as a Special Operations Officer in the U.S. Navy. He served on active duty for four years and completed his Naval Service with the rank of Lieutenant. Jeremy received his BA in Economics from Stanford University (’96) and his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management (’04). He lives in Washington DC with his wife, Lindsay; three daughters, Talia, Taylor, and Tobin; and their dog Barkley.

Leah Mitchell

Chief of Staff

  • Leah is the Chief of Staff at Differential Ventures.

    Previously, she worked in Corporate Affairs as a Communication Associate at the Australian bank, Westpac, where she executed organization-wide campaigns and strategic communications, and frequently authored stories for the company’s newsroom. She started her career in the Rotational Graduate Program at Westpac in the Corporate Services function where she worked in a variety of roles, including gaining experience in the Chief Operating Office of the General Manager of Property, Procurement & Protective Services.

    Leah graduated from the University of New South Wales with a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing. When she’s not at work, you can find Leah cooking for friends or finding the best Australian coffee in NYC.