Our Team.
Dedicated Focus on Early-Stage Companies.
The Principals at Lacuna have a demonstrated track record of successful investing in early-stage companies and believe investments in this area deliver superior overall returns. The Principals look for “undiscovered” opportunities where their unique skills can help the entrepreneur or the early-stage management team become successful. By providing strategic guidance, coaching teams, helping with executive recruitment and the facilitation of tough go-to-market decisions, Lacuna strives to be known among entrepreneurs for being responsive, empowering, and highly value additive.
Rawleigh Ralls brings 17 years of investing and portfolio management experience from firms such as Goldman Sachs and Precept Capital. In addition, Mr. Ralls has spent the past six years leading a syndicate of angel investors who have invested in numerous early-stage companies, and as a result, he has been actively engaged in many early-stage companies as both a member and a chairman of boards of directors. Mr. Ralls is Lacuna’s Chief Investor overseeing all the Funds’ final investment decisions. He is also actively engaged in deal sourcing through his robust network and he works with the portfolio companies’ managements through seats on their boards of directors or as a board observer.
Sanford Keziah brings 24 years of entrepreneurial, management and strategic planning experience. He has founded two successful ventures, served as CEO or co-CEO of both, and has led one of America’s premier strategy consulting firms which worked with companies such as Coca-Cola, Bank of America, IBM, Kellogg’s, Bacardi, General Motors, Delta Airlines, Kaiser Permanente, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Mr. Keziah is Lacuna’s Chief Strategist and is highly involved in deal flow sourcing through his extensive network as well as assisting all the portfolio companies in developing their go-to-market strategies and ensuring that they are executing with highly evolved operational procedures. Mr. Keziah is formally related to the portfolio companies through seats on their boards of directors or as a board observer.
JK Hullett brings 15 years of financial and operational experience from both public companies, where he worked in corporate and business development at American Airlines, and private companies, where he was CFO of @Last Software and CEO of Net Identity. During his career Mr. Hullett has been involved in over a half of a billion dollars of mergers and acquisitions activity. Mr. Hullett is Lacuna’s CFO and oversees all the Funds’ mergers and acquisitions and its legal compliance. In addition, Mr. Hullett works with the Fund’s portfolio companies on operational and corporate strategy initiatives.
Wink Jones brings 10 years of entrepreneurial and operational experience. Mr. Jones was founder and CEO of Champion Imaging Co which he sold in 2002. Subsequently Mr. Jones served as COO of Net Identity and recently saw the company through a successful acquisition by Tucows in June 2006. Mr. Jones works directly with portfolio companies in executing their strategic and operational plans.
“I am extremely happy Knowledge Factor chose the Principals at Lacuna as our funding partners. They are a pleasure to work with and they are very knowledgeable and truly helpful. I am very impressed with their commitment to be part of our team and actively engaged in our business, bringing connections, clients, strategy and tactics and they bring a wealth of experience in growing a successful business. We were looking for an investment partner that brings not only capital, but also expertise and energy and we found that in the Lacuna Principals.”
Pat Engstrom, Chairman and Founder
Knowledge Factor*
* Knowledge Factor is an investment made by individual principals of Lacuna, and is not a Lacuna portfolio company.