People

What do you get when you combine decades of operating experience with the minds of venture capitalists?
Meet the Next Coast Ventures team.

We really are built by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs. When we started Next Coast Ventures in 2015 we had one fundamental directive: to build a firm where serving the entrepreneur was the driving force behind everything we did.

We have challenged ourselves by simply asking “if we were a founder right now, what resources would we want our investors to bring forward to help us build our business?” This question has sharpened our thinking across all aspects of our firm — from our team, resources, approach and even investment philosophy.
Picture of the Next Coast OfficePicture of the Next Coast team outside their office

Investment Team

Mike Smerklo

Co-Founder and Managing Director

Co Founder & Managing Director at Next Coast Ventures | Author of Mr. Monkey and Me, A real survival guide for entrepreneurs | Navegate Board Member | Everlywell Board Member | Bridgespan Board Member | Tenfold/Callinize Board Member | Submittable Board Member | Brain Check Board Member | Former CEO of ServiceSource (SREV) | Former Director of Business Development of Opsware | MBA, Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management | BS, Miami University of Ohio

Mike Smerklo

Co-Founder and Managing Director

Thomas Ball

Co-Founder and Managing Director

Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Next Coast Ventures | On the Board of Aclaimant, UpEquity, Enboarder: Experience-Driven Onboarding, CoPilot, TrustRadius, GOJA, GoodKind Co, KLRU-TV | Former General Partner at Austin Ventures | Former Investor of Outbound Engineer, and Bazaarvoice | Founder of Tahoe Domains, Inc. | Former CEO/Founder of Razorgator/Openfield Technology | Former VP of Business Development at Lifeminders | Former CEO/Founder of eCoupons | Former Principal at Discovery Capital | Former Engagement Manager at Mitchell Madison Group | MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business | BS in Finance from University of Florida.

Thomas Ball

Co-Founder and Managing Director

Adam Rogers

Partner

Former intern, CTO & CEO at Ultimate Software | Partner at Next Coast Ventures investing in & advising early-stage companies

Adam Rogers

Partner

Anthony Walker

Partner, ETA

Experienced institutional investor - Ex Goldman Sachs | Citadel | Millennium Management. Columbia B.A., University of Chicago MBA

Anthony Walker

Partner, ETA

Dustin Sellers

Partner, ETA

Dustin is a partner at Next Coast Ventures.

Dustin Sellers

Partner, ETA

Tatiana Gaspar

Director, ETA

Director at Next Coast ETA | Former VP at Goldman Sachs | Fundação Estudar Fellow | Women's Search Network Board Member | CAIS Mentoria Advisor | Brown University BA | CFA charterholder

Tatiana Gaspar

Director, ETA

Michael Maloney

Senior Associate

Senior Associate at Next Coast Ventures | Former Investor at The Rockefeller Foundation & Buoyant Ventures and Consultant at Oliver Wyman | MBA, Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management | Masters in AI, Northwestern University - McCormick School of Engineering | BS in Economics & BBA in Finance, University of Texas at Austin

Michael Maloney

Senior Associate

Michael Tian

Senior Associate

Early stage technology investor | Ex-consultant at Strategy& | UT McCombs B.B.A.

Michael Tian

Senior Associate

Operations Team

Jonathan Kaplan

Partner, COO & CCO

Responsible for all operations at Next Coast Ventures and Next Coast ETA | Former Chief Legal Officer at RetailMeNot (NASDAQ: SALE) | DLA Piper | Latham & Watkins | CEO at Technical Production Support, Inc. | JD, Order of the Coif UC Davis | Editor-in-Chief UC Davis Law Review | BA with Honors UCSB

Jonathan Kaplan

Partner, COO & CCO

Kaitlyn DeBernardo

Partner, Head of Platform

Stanford GSB MBA Grad | Early employee at Workrise (formerly RigUp) which raised over $700mm from their Series B to E funding rounds while she was there | Bank of America Merrill Lynch on the equity desk in New York | Stanford Graduate School of Business | Columbia University with a BA in Economics

Kaitlyn DeBernardo

Partner, Head of Platform

Julia Holmes

Controller

Controller of Next Coast Ventures and Next Coast ETA | Former Assurance Senior Manager at EY LLP | Certified Public Accountant | MS in Accounting and BBA Texas A&M University

Julia Holmes

Controller

Laura Schenke

Facilities and Operations Manager

Facilities and Operations Manager at Next Coast Ventures. Former Nationally Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach at Noom | Assistant GM at Big Onion Tavern Group | General Manager & Event Coordinator at VIP Chicago Parties | MS from Concordia University | BS from Eastern Illinois University

Laura Schenke

Facilities and Operations Manager

Venture Partners

Julie Dodd

Operating Partner at Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe | Award-Winning COO & CSO | Former COO, CSO and General Manager at Ultimate Software

Julie Dodd

Paul Rogers

CTO at Equipment Share | Former CTO at RetailMeNot and Namely | Opened Google's Austin office in 2008 | Led the BazaarVoice engineering team during its start-up years

Paul Rogers

Brian Sharples

Co-founder and CEO of HomeAway | Member Board Of Directors at Avalara | Stanford University Graduate School of Business | Former President and CEO of IntelliQuest Information Group

Brian Sharples

Cotter Cunningham

Consumer Internet and Marketplace Executive | Founder, Chair and CEO RetailMeNot (NASDAQ:SALE) | COO Bankrate (NASDAQ:RATE)

Cotter Cunningham

Julian Castelli

Senior Technology + SaaS executive | Serial entrepreneur with proven track record of delivering growth across multiple industries

Julian Castelli

Jason Dorsey

Gen Z and Millennial Expert | Global Keynote Speaker | 5x Author, 3x Founder | Led 70+ Research Studies | Corp Board Member | New book: Zconomy

Jason Dorsey

Scott Miller

EIR @ NCV | Co-Founder & VP Product @ TrustRadius | COO @ Vast (acq. Vroom) | Strategic Planning / APAC Ops @ SolarWinds | Austin Ventures | pcOrder / Trilogy Software | MIT BS + M.Eng, CSEE | HBS MBA

Scott Miller

Expert Network

Our founders are granted access to an expert network of 150+ individuals who are currently leading or have successfully led at companies such as the following: