Shawn Merani

Shawn Merani is the Founder and Managing Partner of Parade Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on pre-seed and seed-stage startups. Before establishing Parade Ventures, he served as a co-founder at Flight Ventures and a founding partner at Liquidnet’s Private Shares marketplace, which generated over $150 million in gross merchandise value during its first two years. Earlier, he was Senior Director of Business Development at ReachLocal and earned degrees from UC Berkeley and the UCLA Anderson School of Management. As an investor, Merani has backed prominent companies including Dollar Shave Club prior to its acquisition by Unilever, and Sapho, which was acquired by Citrix. His current firm has led at least nine investment rounds to date. Merani focuses on supporting emerging software, internet, and mobile enterprises during their earliest phases of capital formation.