Ian Kennedy

I graduated from Cornell during the financial crisis, which derailed my plans to go into finance but turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise. Instead of spending my 20s crunching spreadsheets in a cubicle, I tried out for the Army Special Forces and was assigned to 1st SFG, where I deployed to Iraq and the Philippines and conducted joint training exercises in South Korea and Thailand. As my team's communications sergeant, I became fascinated by the technology that we were using and spent my free time on deployments writing code and learning about radio waves and cryptography. That led me to quantum computers and the threat they posed to the cryptographic protocols that we rely on to keep our communications safe. Determined to understand the science of quantum computers, I deferred my admission to Stanford GSB to complete a second undergraduate major in physics at Columbia. At Stanford, I combined an MBA with an MS in EE and interned at a Rigetti Computing to get hands-on exposure to the technical and business challenges of the emerging quantum computing industry. During that period, I also explored my interest in finance with internships at Goldman Sachs, Bridgewater, and Virtu Financial. After graduating, I took a job in venture capital at Khosla Ventures, which was the perfect way to merge my interests in technology and finance. At KV, I supported over $1B in new financings and a portfolio of over 60 startups, many of them in deep tech. Since leaving Khosla, I've become a full-time coach, working primarily with founders at early-stage startups and executives navigating life and career transitions. I'm a strong believer in the power of meditation to balance the nervous system and build self-awareness. I started meditating while in the Army to help manage stress and have been practicing regularly ever since.