Ben Paulo

Venture Capital - Hustle Fund & Mangusta Capital | Startup Advisor | Enterprise GTM, Partnerships and Business Development | Ex-LinkedIn, Dell | On a mission to help people and businesses reach full potential

United States3.9k followers

Mangusta Capital

ex-Techstars

ex-LinkedIn

Engineer → Founder → GTM Operator → VC & Ecosystem Builder.
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I began my career as a geologist, worked on oil rigs, and somehow ended up closing enterprise deals with global multi-billion dollar corporations, leading digital transformation projects at Dell Technologies, LinkedIn, and Verkada, and sitting in VC rooms helping empower the next generation of startups with capital. The path wasn't accidental. It reflects a core belief I have, which is in combining science, technology, business, and capital to solve problems that matter and enable human potential. Today I sit at the intersection of GTM and VC. Here are 3 core ways I contribute to the tech ecosystem: - For Startups & Scale-Ups: I help B2B SaaS and AI startups and scale ups grow revenue through strategic partnerships and business development, working with C-level executives across SMB, mid-market, and enterprise to identify growth challenges and solve them through cloud computing, AI infrastructure, SaaS, and GTM - For Investors (Investment Banks, Family Offices & VC Funds): I help investors by evaluating early-stage to series C startups as part of investment committees, M&A opportunities, lead investor relationships and communities, and serve as a BD partner for portfolio - For Ecosystems & Communities: I bridge startup ecosystems across London, San Francisco, Austin, and Africa through founder–VC events and community building. Career Highlights: Mandela Washington Fellow - Selected by the White House for a S. State Department leadership program initiated by former President Obama, focused on business Forbes 30 Under 30 VIP Delegate – Featured on national media discussing startup growth, venture capital, and business Helped Raise £323K for The King’s Trust – 2nd place nationally in Dell’s Million Makers Campaign, delivering measurable fundraising AI Forge Judging Panel - selected top startups for one of UK's leading AI acceleratorUK Cabinet Office Panel Judge – Selected startups for national initiatives in digital inclusion, mental health, and employment.

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GTM Index

MANGUSTA CAPITALJOB
1. Venture Capital Scout
  1Y 2M
HUSTLE FUNDJOB
1. VC Fellow & London Lead
  3Y
REVENUE SYNDICATEJOB
1. Angel Investor & Member
  3Y 9M
TECHSTARSJOB
1. GTM Mentor
  1Y 10M
LINKEDINJOB
1. Enterprise Account Executive
  1Y 1M
VERKADAJOB
1. Regional Account Executive
  7M
DELL TECHNOLOGIESJOB
1. Enterprise Account Mgr - H…
  2Y 4M
2. Enterprise BD
  9M
TALENTWAVEJOB
1. BD Executive
  1Y 2M
ADMC,LDA - ANGOLA DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT COMPANYJOB
1. BD Lead
  1Y 8M
HAMMERBITS DRILLING, LDAJOB
1. Executive Dir
  1Y

Job: Mangusta Capital — Venture Capital Scout · 2025-08 – present · 1y — Mangusta Capital is a venture capital firm led by Managing Partner Kevin Jiang (ex-founding team at SoftBank Vision Fund), and anchored by the Del Vecchio family office (Luxottica). We invest in AI-native platforms purpose-built for sector-specific workflows with real-world impact. Stage focus: Pre-seed -> Series A Check size: 500k-> 2M Our portfolio includes breakout companies like xAI, TaxGPT, and other category-defining ventures. Founders benefit from our proprietary go-to-market channels, a portfolio of 40+ operating companies, and global reach via the Luxottica platform. Backed by a global network of institutional and angel LPs, we actively support the next generation of AI leaders…
Job: Hustle Fund — VC Fellow & London Lead · 2023-10 – present · 2y 10mo — Hustle Fund is a Venture Capital ﬁrm that focuses on investing in pre-seed and seed-stage companies with 125 million+ assets under management. Notable early investments include Webﬂow, Nerd Wallet, Boom Supersonic and others. • Co-leading the London community for Angel Squad, bringing together our amazing community of investors, operators and founders. • Sourcing and evaluating early-stage startups across fintech, crypto, SaaS, and AI, applying a structured investment framework to assess team, product, and market fit. • Doing due diligence of investments and making recommendations • Judging the startup pitches and selecting the top startups for evaluation. • Writing investment memos on the…
Job: Revenue Syndicate — Angel Investor & Member · 2023-01 – present · 3y 7mo — We are an investment community & syndicate built exclusively for experienced go-to-market operators. Our members are some of the best go-to-market practitioners in Europe and are driving the growth of the fastest-growing companies in the world. Founders can raise money from people who understand what it takes to generate revenue. Our members can help them build their revenue engine and scale from zero to exit.
Job: Techstars — GTM Mentor · 2023-09 – 2025-07 · 1y 10mo
Job: LinkedIn — Enterprise Account Executive · 2022-08 – 2023-09 · 1y 1mo — H2- 405% revenue target achieved Led new business acquisition and strategic partnership growth across a portfolio of enterprise clients in key industries including insurance, fintech, retail, consumer goods, legal, finance, and manufacturing etc. Advised C-level leaders across HR, L&D, Technical, and Sales functions on how to drive talent development, upskilling, and retention through LinkedIn’s SaaS platform. Managed full sales cycle: from strategic outreach and discovery to co-creating scalable learning solutions and closing enterprise contracts. Helped organizations align learning initiatives to core business outcomes, including future-proofing workforce capabilities, improving engagem…
Job: Verkada — Regional Account Executive · 2021-06 – 2022-01 · 7 mo — Joined Verkada’s early EMEA GTM team, driving market expansion and closing one of the top 4 largest deals in EMEA history at the time. Developed expertise in tactical and strategic sales, complex deal navigation, channel partnerships and scaling SaaS GTM motions across new markets.
Job: Dell Technologies — Enterprise Account Manager - Hybrid Cloud, Data Protection, Storage · 2019-02 – 2021-06 · 2y 4mo — Responsible for account management and new business acquisition, either directly or developing strategic channel partnerships. Aligned to Dell’s tier 1 enterprise accounts across multiple sectors namely Media, Entertainment, Gaming, Retail, Financial Services, Telco, focused on account management, retention, growth and new business acquisition, advising CTO's and CIO's on digital, IT, cybersecurity and workforce transformation, adoption of multi-cloud environments and data protection strategies. Stakeholders included C-level and technical leaders, and solutions provided were part of Dell's strategically aligned portfolio (Dell, Dell-EMC, RSA, Virtustream, VMware, Secureworks & Pivotal), sp…
Job: Dell Technologies — Enterprise Business Development · 2018-05 – 2019-02 · 9 mo
Job: TalentWave — Business Development Executive · 2017-02 – 2018-04 · 1y 2mo — TCP Solutions, acquired by People2.0
Job: ADMC,Lda - Angola Development and Management Company — Business Development Lead · 2015-04 – 2016-12 · 1y 8mo
Job: Hammerbits Drilling, Lda — Executive Director · 2015-06 – 2016-06 · 1y
School: Imperial College Business School — Imperial Venture Capital: Master Startup Funding and Investment Strategies
School: University College London, U. of London — Master of Science (MSc) Technology Entrepreneurship, MSc. Technology Entrepreneurship
School: University of Nevada, Reno — Business and Entrepreneurship, Organizational Leadership
School: Wall Street Prep — Financial Valuation and Modeling
School: University of Plymouth — Bachelor of Science (BSc), Applied Geology
School: University of the Western Cape/Universiteit van Wes-Kaapland — Bachelor of Science (BSc), Applied Geology

Skills

Community BuildingOnline Lead GenerationSales FunnelsCommunity LeadershipDeal SourcingInvestment StrategiesFinancial AnalysisDue DiligencePipeline Generationenterprise salesLead GenerationTerritory PlanningConsultingE-LearningPhysical SecurityNetwork SecurityPartner Relationship ManagementDigital MarketingTraining and Development (HR)Storage Area Network (SAN)

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Ben Paulo

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