Rick Bolander

Rick Bolander is a Managing Director and Co-Founder in Gabriel Venture Partners. When Rick Bolander co-founded Gabriel Venture Partners in 1999， he sought to create an innovative venture capital firm with the strong organizational structure and entrepreneurial focus needed to build the next generation of market-leading technology companies. Rick identifies the smartest entrepreneurs and works side-by-side with them to build highly successful companies from the ground up. Rick’s hands-on approach stems from his deep operational experience and long track record as both an entrepreneur and a VC. Rick co-founded Gabriel Venture Partners in 1999. During his venture career， he has been involved in more than 50 venture deals and has led over $100 million in early-stage financings. He currently focuses on investments with disruptive business models in digital media infrastructure and applications， communications， information technology， and the Internet. Before joining Gabriel， he served as General Partner at Chicago-based Apex Investment Partners， where he honed his early experience spanning angel， early stage， late stage， and large institutional rounds for four years.

At Gabriel， Rick focuses on identifying early innovators in the communications， digital media sector and disruptive business models. Recent investments include Chegg， the first online college textbook rental service； Jacked， an innovative provider of a browser-based publishing platform for contextually synchronized media， advertising and commerce； and Kajeet， the leading mobile virtual network operator focused on the young “tween” demographic. With Rick’s hands-on guidance， Gabriel portfolio companies in the digital media space build market dominance and reach cash-flow positive or exit more quickly and efficiently. Rick’s strong connections with serial entrepreneurs， angels， super angels， and other venture capital funds， including August， KPCB， Oak， Sequoia and Venrock， allow him to forge strategic relationships for Gabriel’s portfolio companies