Neil Devani

Founder and Managing Partner

Neil started Necessary to invest in what the world needs. He primarily focuses on technology companies that are increasing access to healthcare, the fight against climate change, and improving the quality of education and financial services.

Neil is an advisor to Upsolve, a nonprofit that has helped relieve Americans of $500M+ of primarily medical debt, and previously to Copia, a venture-backed startup that has delivered millions of meals to people in need while reducing waste and emissions from otherwise unwanted food.

He completed his JD at Stanford Law School after working on the Affordable Care Act in the US Senate, attending medical school at Drexel University, and completing a BS at the Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Nachi Gupta

VENTURE PARTNER AND TECHNICAL ADVISOR

Nachi Gupta was a founding team member of Kriya Therapeutics, a leading AAV gene therapy company focused on ophthalmology, neurology, and metabolic diseases, and most recently served as Chief Innovation Officer. Dr. Gupta is also a board-certified emergency physician practicing in California.

He previously worked in financial modeling and prediction at Brevan Howard Asset Management, specifically focusing on G10 FX, commodities, emerging markets, and U.S. economics. He also previously worked in ballistic missile defense on the computational and scientific team at MIT Lincoln Laboratories and on Hanscom Air Force Base.

Dr. Gupta completed his medical residency training at Mount Sinai Hospital and Elmhurst Hospital in New York City. He received his MD from Brown University and his PhD in mathematics and computer science from Oxford University. He also received graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in mathematics, computer science, economics, and telecommunications.

Adrian James

HealthCare TechNology Advisor

Adrian is the co-founder and President of Omada Health. Omada Health is a digital care company offering innovative and clinically effective digital health programs to help people lead healthier lives. Adrian previously served as a Domain Lead for Medical Products at Ideo, after graduating from Stanford with a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering.

Dr. Edmondo Robinson

Healthcare Technology Advisor

Dr. Robinson is SVP and Chief Digital Innovation Officer at Moffitt Cancer Center, one of the premier cancer centers in the world. He is a practicing internal medicine academic hospitalist with peer reviewed publications focusing on the impact of digital on health care. In addition, Edmondo is a founding member of the Digital Medicine Society's strategic advisory board and advises organizations such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the American College of Physicians (ACP), and the United Way. Dr. Robinson has an MBA from Wharton, a Masters in Health Policy Research from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, an MD from UCLA, and a BS in Animal Physiology and Neuroscience from UC San Diego.

Sheel Mohnot

Financial Technology Advisor

Sheel is cofounder of Better Tomorrow Ventures, a fintech focused pre-seed and seed VC. He previously founded and ran 500 Fintech and also founded three successful startups. He’s invested in leading fintech companies such as Albert, Kin, and Indio as well as companies like Flexport, Ironclad, and Coinbase. He also founded The Pitch, a podcast that takes listeners behind closed doors to the critical moment when aspiring entrepreneurs pitch for investment. Sheel holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a BS from Carnegie Mellon University.

Tom Brown

Financial Technology Advisor

Tom is a partner and general counsel at Nyca Partners. He has spent twenty-five years as an attorney and angel investor in the FinTech space including as co-chair of the FinTech practice at Paul Hastings and investing in or advising Upstart, Chime, Ramp, Mercury, Albert, Digit, Financial Ventures Studio, and many others. Tom earned a JD from the University of Chicago Law School and has an undergraduate degree from Columbia University.

Jeremy Johnson

Education Technology Advisor

Jeremy is a cofounder and the CEO of Andela, a company solving the technical talent shortage by building distributed engineering teams with Africa's top software developers. Andela is known as the "Best Place to Work in Africa," with tech campuses in Lagos, Nairobi, Kampala, and Kigali, and its developers working as full-time engineers with companies ranging from the Fortune 500 to high-growth startups like Gusto and Cloudflare. He previously cofounded 2U and took it public in 2014 after attending Princeton University.

Girish Krishnaswamy

Education Technology Advisor

Girish is the Chief Executive Officer of Sketchy, a leading ed tech company, and was previously Business Officer for Learning Services at Chegg Inc, one of the largest ed tech platforms in the world. He's a Venture Partner with Emerge Education and was selected to be part of Reach Capital's program for distinguished operators and founders. Girish received his MBA from Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

Nancy Fechnay

IMPACT Venture Advisor

Nancy is an entrepreneur and investor, having co-founded three tech companies and a non-profit in addition to working at Kleiner Perkins’ Green Growth Fund, serving as a partner at Flight Ventures, and investing for Notley Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Gaingels. Nancy has a B.S. in Engineering from UVA and an MBA and Masters in Environmental Management from Duke University.

Assad Waathiq

IMPACT Finance Advisor

Assad is an Executive Director of Technology and Disruptive Commerce at JPMorgan. He is an alumnus of BDO, Citigroup, BNP Paribas, The Royal Bank of Canada, and Cornell University. He sits on the advisory boards of Oakland Tech Exchange and The Yosemite Conservancy and is an advisor to Presidio Graduate School, The Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, Third Millennium Alliance, The Oakland Fund for Public Innovation. Assad has an unwavering belief in our ability to address society's urgent problems with sustainable business solutions, and advises companies on strategic finance, communications, partnerships, and business development.

Komal Ahmad

Impact Communications Advisor

Komal is the founder of Copia, a for-profit company that has prevented 6.5M+ pounds of food waste, delivered 5.4M+ meals to those in need, and diverted 30M pounds of CO2 emissions. She's a renowned public speaker having presented at the United Nations, Cal Poly commencement, and The Aspen Institute, and has been awarded the Nelson Mandela Humanitarian Award and Toyota's Mother of Invention for her work with Copia. She helps startups speak about and better understand impact. Komal previously advised small businesses and agencies while working at Google and graduated with a BA from UC Berkeley.