Investor and serial entrepreneur with over ten years venture capital experience as a general partner in Anthemis, with $1.5b AUM. I currently work for a stealth AI immunology startup.

25+ years entrepreneurial experience in technology, in Geneva, London, San Francisco and New York,with a focus on business and product design. Co-founder of MRL Ventures, an incubator backed by Peter Thiel, where I led the project which became Yelp and went public; co-founder of the first news search engine, Moreover, which was acquired by Verisign and co-founder of Origins, the first online genealogy service, acquired by D.C. Thomson.

Operational expertise in highly technical business and product design. Built two venture studios and co-founded one of the first startups using AI for classification in 1999. I have held multiple board seats in private technology companies and one publicly listed one.

As a product designer, created several key components of social networks, including: co-authoring RSS (the technology that underlies online syndication and podcasts); innovating the use of one line bios (and the subsequent link-in-bio economy); pioneering visual bookmarking (the concept behind Pinterest) and building the first social news feed application with the founder of Twitter.

Qualified as an architect in the UK, began career working for Norman Foster and then Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd set designers, Fisher Park. Survived an 800ft fall in a climbing accident, as a teenager and have lived life to the full, since.

Om Malik: “David has a nasty habit of predicting the future before everyone else”.

Work

2025 to present
Stealth AI Immunology startup.

2024 to 2025
F2N. AI and Robotics investment and strategy.

2014-2023
Partner, Anthemis Group, Geneva & London, Financial Services VC. I started the Anthemis foundry (company builder) and developed investment insights and themes across all funds.

2011-2014
Partner, DWG, Geneva. Product and business strategy for startups.

2006-2011
Founder, Curations, New York. First social shopping services. Creation of the visual bookmarking concept: Wists that became the basis for Pinterest.

2004-2005
Entrepreneur in residence, MRL Ventures, San Francisco (Companies spun out include Yelp.com (NYSE:YELP) and Slide.com (acquired by Google))

1999-2003
Co-founder, Moreover.com, San Francisco. First news search engine, provider for Yahoo, MSN and enterprises. Acquired by Verisign.

1997-1998
Co-founder: Origins, London. Online genealogy service. First commercial Internet service to provide access to UK government data. Acquired by D.C. Thomson.

1994-1997
Co-founder: Realtime Anywhere, London. One of first Internet companies in UK. Developed first large scale Intranet in UK, managing contract staffing for 60 uk hospitals.

1993-1994
Architect: Fisher Park, London: Stadium rock concert set design for bands such as the Rolling Stones, U2 & Pink Floyd.

1992
Architect: Valode et Pistre, Paris. Paris Wine Vaults conversion.

1989-90 (1991 part-time)
Architect: Norman Foster and Partners, London: Cranfield Library, Kings Cross Masterplan, Norman Foster Apartment.

Teaching/Presenting:

Visiting Critic/Lecturer: NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program, Columbia University, University of North London, Undergrad Architecture. UCL, Post Grad Architecture. CERN. Speaker at various Technology conferences including SXSW and O’Reilly Media.

Education:

1993
RIBA Chartered Architect.

1990-1992
University College London/Turin Polytechnic, Italy: Architecture Post Graduate Dip Arch.

1986-1989
University College London: BSc. Architecture.

Publications/standards:

Co-author RSS 1.0 (widely used internet standard) Link
Co-author RSS Ping (a method for enabling real-time search across the web) Link
Co-author Bio, ‘One Line Bio’ (standard for simple biographical information, used by Facebook, Twitter, SixApart). Link About