Our Team
Matthew Rappaport - General Partner
Matthew Rappaport is the General Partner of Future Frontier Capital (FFC). Matthew managed hundreds of early stage technology, market and patent landscape analysis projects through his firm, IP Checkups since 2004.
He has made investments in Canopy Growth Corporation, Blue Ocean Barns, Magrathea, and Level 42 AI.
Matthew is on faculty at the Fung Institute of Engineering Leadership at the University of California - Berkeley.
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Mark Garner - Data Analyst
Mark Garner is the Chief Technology Officer and Data Scientist Future Frontier Capital (FFC). Mark built, oversaw, and managed an enterprise SaaS solution for a technology and IP analysis firm.
He has developed ML/AI models related to mining patent information to identify trends in emerging technologies.
He earned a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Oklahoma.
Venture Team
Bowman Heiden - Venture Partner
Dr. Heiden is the Executive Director of the Tusher Strategic Initiative for Technology Leadership at UC-Berkeley and co-chair of the Technology, Innovation, and Intellectual Property program at the Classical Liberal Institute at the NYU School of Law. He is also the Director of the Center for Intellectual Property (CIP) at University of Gothenburg, which is a joint platform between academia and industry focused on the transformation of knowledge into wealth and welfare.
Dr. Heiden was recently a member of the European Commission Expert Group on Standard Essential Patents. Dr. Heiden is the co-founder of the Berkeley Deep Tech Innovation Lab, the Dynamic Competition Initiative, ICM Global, and Increasing Diversity in Innovation. Over the past fifteen years, Dr. Heiden has also managed over 150 innovation projects with industry, university research institutes, healthcare providers, and start-up ventures.
Dr. Heiden holds degrees in engineering, technology management, and economics, and his research is at the interdisciplinary interface of economics, law, and innovation, in particular, intellectual property, innovation economics, and competition policy in knowledge-intensive sectors. Before turning his focus to the fields of innovation strategy and policy, Dr. Heiden played professional basketball in a number of European countries. This is why he is so tall.
Viktor Ström - Venture Partner
Dr. Ström is a Venture Partner of the Berkeley Gateway Accelerator. He is a Research Fellow at the Deep Technology Innovation Lab and an invited Visiting Researcher, sponsored by Professor David J. Teece, at UC Berkeley’s Tusher Strategic Initiative for Technology Leadership. He is also a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Unit for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, and a member of the university’s research Centre on Knowledge-Intensive Innovation Ecosystems (U‑GOT KIES).
He holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, an M.Sc. in Entrepreneurship and Business Design, and a Ph.D. in Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Intellectual Capital Management. Dr. Ström’s research analyzes how knowledge is created, transferred, and disseminated in various types of knowledge networks—spanning university-industry engineering collaborations, mergers and acquisitions of knowledge-intensive firms, and the emergence and growth of deep tech ventures.
Chang Zi Qian - General Counsel/Venture Partner
Chang Zi Qian is the General Counsel and Venture Partner of the Berkeley Gateway Accelerator. He was a Visiting Scholar at Berkeley Law specializing in AI law and legal technology innovation. His career trajectory spans litigation practice, government innovation policy, and entrepreneurship. After starting out as a commercial litigator, he served in the Singapore Prime Minister’s Office, where he shaped startup policy and managed government venture investments.
Prior to his Berkeley appointment, Chang spent a decade as Founder and CEO of INTELLLEX, pioneering AI-driven knowledge management solutions for the legal industry. He currently also serves as a Frontier Research Fellow at the Berkeley Center for Responsible, Decentralized Intelligence (RDI). His work bridges cutting-edge technological innovation with practical commercial applications and responsible governance frameworks.
Kavisha Shroff - Program Manager/Venture Associate
Kavisha Shroff is the Program Manager and Venture Associate at the Berkeley Gateway Accelerator. She is a bioengineer by training who works at the intersection of science, strategy, and storytelling. As Program Manager at the Deep Tech Innovation Lab (DTIL), she leads marketing and communications while supporting operations, industry partnerships, and educational initiatives. She also serves as Venture Associate at the Berkeley Gateway Accelerator, contributing to founder support and startup sourcing.
Previously, Kavisha helped launch the iGEM Indian League and established her university’s first bioengineering research club to drive interdisciplinary collaboration. At TIDE (Together in Development and Education), she led teacher training pilots, built internship programs, and supported enterprise development.
Her early experiences span science education, biotech research, and startup strategy—building a foundation in research translation, stakeholder engagement, and go-to-market planning. Kavisha holds a Master of Engineering in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley and a B.Tech in Bioengineering from MIT ADT University, Pune, India.
Advisors
Joan Salwen
Joan Salwen is the CEO of Blue Ocean Barns, maker of Brominata, the most effective burp suppressant for cattle. Brominata is a 100% natural Hawaii-grown seaweed. When added in small amounts to regular cattle feed, Brominata reduces cows' methane emissions by 80% or more. Joan was a Managing Director at Accenture, a global consulting firm, for 20 years before building a team at Stanford University to explore the efficacy and safety of red seaweed as a feed additive. Joan grew up in rural Iowa in the long shadow of her family farm, which is still farmed by her aunt and first cousins.
Lisa Salley
Lisa Salley is an award-winning corporate executive entrepreneur. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Heritage Solutions Group (HSG), a boutique strategy and operations firm focused on mentoring, staffing, and financing projects in emerging and underserved urban markets.
Lisa spent over 25 years in executive officer positions at General Electric, Dow chemical, Underwriters' Laboratories, and the American Petroleum Institute where her expertise in strategy, commercialization, scalability, and operations were honed through roles ranging from Nuclear Materials Engineer to Division President.
Lisa teaches part-time at Babson College in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program. She serves on the Philadelphia Board of Education and on the Advisory Board of the Materials Engineering Department at Carnegie Mellon University where she earned a BS in Metallurgical Engineering & Materials Science. She also holds a MS in Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. For the past few years, Lisa has been listed on the Philadelphia Tribune’s List of Most Influential African Americans in Philadelphia.
Dr. Frank Davis
Dr. Frank Davis has over twenty years of clinical experience and has worked in various mental health settings with diverse populations. He has extensive training in family systems, psychodynamics, attachment, trauma, and multicultural focused psychotherapy. Dr, Davis has developed expertise in working with K through 12th grade student athletes, college level student athletes and professional athletes.
Dr. Davis advises various professional groups on the underlying dynamics that operate within organizations. He provides workshops on diversity issues to graduate schools and mental health agencies throughout the Bay Area. Dr. Davis received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology in 2008. He received his Master's degree in Counseling Psychology from John F. Kennedy University, in 2000.
Ryan Anderson
Ryan Anderson is the CTO for Palo Alto Networks at IBM, where he leads the technical strategy and execution of the company’s joint AI-powered security offerings. He serves as an Advisor at Future Frontier Capital, a venture fund backing frontier technology startups. He is an active investor in deep tech companies such as TensorWave and Trailhead Biosystems.
Previously, Ryan was Principal at IBM Technology for Global Industries, covering sectors like telecom, aviation, retail, and transportation. He also served on the Governing Board of the Linux Foundation’s LF Edge initiative and held multiple product and strategy roles across IBM’s cloud, AI, and edge computing businesses.
Steve Krawczyk
Steve Krawczyk is a business development and IP strategy expert advising startups across biotech, AI, and deep tech. He serves as a strategic advisor at Level 42 AI and Blue Ocean Barns and leads IP consulting engagements through IP Checkups and Magrathea. With over a decade of experience in life sciences commercialization, Steve supports clients in patent strategy, portfolio evaluation, and regulatory-aligned IP execution. He also helps design information delivery systems from a human factors perspective, manages product development and positioning, and builds go-to-market strategies by deploying cohesive sales teams.
He is also an investor in companies like Alio.ai and a limited partner in venture funds including J-Ventures and Rubicon Venture Capital. Steve holds a law degree from Santa Clara University and is a licensed attorney in California. His specialties include prior art searching, pharmaceutical M&A due diligence, aligning patent strategies to commercial realities, market research, software design, sales strategy, and customer retention.
Dr. Peter S. Fiske
Dr. Peter S. Fiske is a seasoned executive with more than 2 decades of experience leading technology organizations and initiatives across industries such as Water, Renewable Energy, Defense, and Natural Resources. He has successfully commercialized several technologies including Reactive Atom Plasma (RAP) processing for optics and semiconductor manufacturing, biomimicry-inspired high-efficiency fluid mixing and process control technology (PAX Water) and has served as a board member or advisor to a number of technology start-ups. As CEO of PAX Water Technologies, he led the development, marketing and sales of three lines of premium process control technologies for the municipal water market, maintaining unusually high gross margins in a cost-sensitive industry with stiff competition. Under his leadership, his team of talented industry outsiders won several major industry awards for advertising and design, and maintained profitable growth of >20% per year, culminating in the acquisition of the company in January 2017 in an all-cash transaction. But he is most proud of the many talented professionals he has had the opportunity to recruit and coach throughout his career.
Fiske is also a nationally-recognized author and lecturer, teaching innovation, entrepreneurship and personal career strategy to scientists and engineers in industry and research. He is a regular contributor to Nature (the #1 international science journal) and a past columnist for Science (the #1 US scientific journal). His articles have also appeared in The New Scientist. Fiske is the author of Put Your Science to WORK!, the most widely-read career strategy guide for early-career scientists and engineers. He is a frequent keynote speaker and lecturer at leading research universities such as MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Caltech and has given his acclaimed 2-hour workshop to over 25,000 scientists and engineers in the US, Europe and the Middle East.
Leah Edwards
Leah Edwards is an experienced board member and educator focusing on technology and financing innovation. Throughout her career, she has helped both startups and corporations use new technologies and business models. Leah started her career in management consulting and then launched new products for Intuit, Oracle and Taligent, a joint-venture of Apple and IBM.
She then joined the founding team of an enterprise SaaS company, Post Communications, which was acquired by Netcentives within two years for $380 million. After advising and serving in interim leadership roles for sustainability startups, which she helped sell to major companies, including the US Green Business Council and SolarCity, she co-founded a marketing technology company, Overstat, which was purchased by Tealeaf Technology (now IBM). Leah serves on the Boards of Cumplo.com, an SMB lending platform, and NameCoach, an AI- based name pronunciation and personalization platform. Leah is also an executive coach and a Lecturer for UC Berkeley’s Engineering School and DeepTech Innovation Lab. Leah’s involvement in Higher Education began in 2012 as the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Leah has specialized in commercializing new technology and set up external education partnerships for Autodesk. While serving as Partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures, she made investments aligned with each corporate investor’s strategic priorities and helped set up innovation collaborations. Leah holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA and Certificate of Public Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Nirav Bisarya
Nirav Bisarya is a technology and real estate investor with over 15 years of experience scaling B2B startups and SMBs across software, hardware, and services. He is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Coral EV, advancing turnkey EV charging solutions for businesses, and the Founder of TREC Ventures, a co-investment platform focused on sustainable and affordable real estate and proptech. Nirav also serves as Managing Partner at Gen3 Ventures, where he leads investments at the intersection of real estate, infrastructure, and technology.
He has deep domain expertise in SaaS sales, marketing, and customer success, with prior roles across high-tech electronics, financial services, and government sectors. In parallel, Nirav has over a decade of experience in investment management through a family office, spanning real estate, early-stage venture (B2B), private equity, and alternative credit. He holds degrees from Notre Dame and Washington University, and has worked across nine cities in three countries.
Bruce Kahn
Bruce Kahn is a Senior Portfolio Manager at Shelton Capital Management, where he leads ESG-focused investment strategies within the Shelton Sustainable Equity Fund. With over two decades of experience in sustainable finance, Bruce brings deep expertise in environmental science, ecological economics, and responsible investing. Prior to Shelton, he served as Executive Director and Climate Solutions Specialist at MSCI, advising clients on technical implementation of climate tools and datasets.
Bruce is also a long-time lecturer at Columbia University’s Sustainability Management Program, where he teaches sustainable finance and statistics for sustainability. His career includes roles at Macquarie Group, Edgewood Capital, and other financial institutions where he supported capital formation, risk evaluation, and impact investment planning. He holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin and has built a career at the intersection of science and sustainable investment strategy.