Bio

Active venture and PE investor in emerging fast-growth projects. 25 years seasoning as an entrepreneur, CFO, board member, and VC in public and private life science, tech, RE, and PE companies. In 1988, John Douglas Steuart co-founded Savvy Properties, L.P., with Michael Kraszulyak. In addition to co-founding Savvy, John was managing director of Claremont Creek Ventures (co-founder), Prolog Ventures, and Steuart Ventures. In 1995, John co-founded CyberGold, an Internet payments, and loyalty marketing company. The founding team built the company from three co-founders to 150 employees, venture of venture, and an IPO. After IPO came to a $500 million merger with a competitor, Mypoints. The combined company was acquired by United Airlines. John worked at its corporate VC arm, United Airlines New Ventures, serving as the Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships. In 2007, John D. Steuart led the Series A investment in Natera together with Sequoia Capital. The molecular diagnostic company successfully completed an IPO in July 2015. In August 2015, Roche acquired John's portfolio company GeneWeave in a $425 million transaction. In August 2016, Myraid Genetics purchased John's portfolio company Assurex in a $410 million deal. John currently serves on the boards of Natera (NTRA), SmartZip, and Rally4. John Douglas Steuart is an Industry Fellow at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the College of Engineering and a member of the Advisory Council to the Lester Center's Berkeley Entrepreneurs' Forum at UC Berkeley. Early in his career, he joined Alafi Capital, a venture firm specializing in early-stage biomedical companies, where he served as an officer of the General Partner. At Alafi, John led investments in more than a dozen successful start-ups and served as the senior executive and board member of various firms such as Tanox (acquired by Genentech), Software Ventures (acquired by PSInet), Lipomatrix (acquired by Collagen Corp.) and Megan Health (acquired by Avant Immunotherapeutics).