Team — Leap Forward Ventures

Managing Partner

David Rusenko

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David was previously the founder & CEO of Weebly, which he grew to 350 people and a $365M acquisition by Square, where he went on to run global eCommerce. He is on the board of Building Decarb Coalition and an advisor to Climate Changemakers and has over a decade of experience investing in and advising startups. He has spoken extensively on product-market fit, and written about the climate tech landscape and idea space. He was born in France and grew up in Morocco.

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Venture Partner

Jessica Alter

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Jessica is a two time founder, climate investor, and long time startup mentor. She founded Tech for Campaigns, which brings sophisticated commercial marketing and data strategies to the political world, and FounderDating, the LinkedIn for entrepreneurs (acquired by OneVest). She has also held executive go-to-market roles at Figma and Bebo. She has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Business Administration from University of Michigan.

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Advisor

Michael Wara

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Michael is Director of Stanford's Climate and Energy Policy Program as well as interim Policy Director for the Sustainability Accelerator within the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. He leads a group that provides assistance to policymakers in the development of novel climate and energy law and regulation. Wara's legal and policy scholarship focuses on wildfire, climate mitigation, energy innovation, and regulated industries.

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Advisor

Andrew Krause

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Andrew is the CEO of Northern Pacific Power, a technology-enabled electrification contractor focused on new ways to transition homes away from fossil fuels. He is also a Designer-in-Residence at The Design Lab where he co-founded the Agile Electrification Project to prototype new business models in support of residential solar installers. Andrew brings deep real-world experience to help evaluate potential investments and advise portfolio companies. He has a MS in Sustainability from ASU.

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