I’ve spent my career at the intersection of entrepreneurship, supporting early-stage founders and building communities. I am inspired and energized by curious and ambitious self-starters who aren’t afraid to be unconventional and reimagine a better way of doing things.
I stumbled into entrepreneurship in college where, along with my best friends, I built a community for expats and spearheaded its expansion to five cities. That’s when I realized I was built for scrappiness and had a knack for creating order out of chaos. After graduating from USC, I joined Interplay Ventures, where I supported the Partners and early-stage incubations. The dynamic mix of building community and working with founders led me to On Deck, where I spent a few years supporting hundreds of founders through their journeys from navigating the idea maze to closing their first round of funding.
Now, I’m very excited to bring these experiences to First Round as Hayley Barna’s Chief of Staff. It’s a privilege to work alongside her to find founders building tomorrow’s breakthrough technologies and to support startups in the First Round community as they bring their transformational vision to life.
I’m half Russian, half Romanian, grew up in Italy, studied in LA, and now call New York home. In my free time, I enjoy running, exploring new cities and cultures, playing backgammon with my grandpa, curating eclectic Spotify playlists (featuring everything from disco to Reggaeton to old Italian music), and spending quality time with family and friends.
