Paul Conley

Paul Conley is the Managing Director and Venture Studio Director at Paladin Capital Group and the CEO of General Inception, based in Palo Alto, California. Before entering venture capital, he spent nearly a decade in multidisciplinary R&D roles, including a postdoctoral position at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and co-founded two startups, Appfluent Technology and BrightScale, where he served as CEO. He holds a PhD in Computational Physics and an MS in Bioengineering from UC San Diego, alongside degrees in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia. Throughout his 15-year institutional investment career, Conley has served on over 30 public and private company boards and backed early-round investments in notable firms such as 10X Genomics and Twist Bioscience. His current investment focus centers on advancing deep-tech applications across cybersecurity, semiconductors, and digital biology.