Rick Grinnell

Rick Grinnell is Founder and Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures, focused on investing in AI-enabled security and enterprise infrastructure. As an experienced venture capitalist and operator, Rick has invested in some of the most dynamic companies in security, storage, analytics, and SaaS applications during his 24-year tenure. Rick has led investments and/or serves on the Board of Directors of Allure Security, Black Kite, Flux, Lambent, Nametag, Realm.Security, Trustle, Digital Guardian (acquired by HelpSystems), EqualLogic (acquired by Dell), Prelert (acquired by Elastic), Resilient Systems (acquired by IBM), TrackVia (acquired by Primus Capital) and VeloBit (acquired by Western Digital). Rick also has deep operating experience, having held senior marketing and engineering roles at Adero (acquired by Inktomi), ClearOne Communications (acquired by Gentner Communications, later renamed as ClearOne), and PictureTel (acquired by Polycom). Rick is a member of the Educational Council at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a Venture Capital Advisor at the Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard, Board Member of the MIT Sandbox, an MIT iHQ Mentor, and a frequent judge at MassChallenge. His contributions to the broader community include being on the Board of the Advanced Cyber Security Center, New England’s public/private security collaboration, the Board of Advisors at the Museum of Science in Boston, and a former member of Board of Directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts, where he is still active. Rick has been recognized as one of the most important VCs in Boston by Business Insider and has been honored with the Community Leadership Award by New England Venture Network. Rick holds BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from HBS. Areas to support: - General start-up foundation development - AI roadmap and talent recruiting - GTM strategy - Driving initial customer adoption - Career advice