get to know us

we are visible ventures

Lori Cashman

Managing Partner

Suzanne Norris

Managing Partner

Yuriy Dovzhansky

Principal

Molly Vaughan Sellers

Head of Business Development

Taryn Jones Laeben

Operating Partner

our advisors

Kyle Andrew

Branding & Ecommerce

Former Chief Brand Officer, Athleta; CMO, American Eagle Outfitters;
CMO, Kate Spade; VP of Marketing, Gap.

Abu Bakar

Information Technology

Former Chief Information Officer, Summit Health; CIO, Chobani;
SVP of IT, Barneys New York; CIO, Vineyard Vines.

Frances Frei

Leadership & Diversity

20+ year Professor of Diversity & Inclusion at Harvard Business School;
Co-Founder, Leadership Consortium.

Anne Morriss

Leadership & Diversity

Co-Founder, Leadership Consortium;
Founder & CEO, Genepeeks.

Managing Partner

Lori Cashman

Lori is known as the firm’s visionary and master multi-tasker. In a world where “relevance is everything” and customers are looking to be delighted, Lori loves thinking about how a company’s differentiated value proposition can be leveraged to drive innovation.

Lori is always scanning emerging consumer and technology trends and finding opportunities from an investor perspective that will capitalize on these developments. She entered an accelerated M.B.A. program right out of undergrad and got her CPA as she served clients in the private equity space. This quickly led to investing roles with The Seidler Company and Heritage Partners before she co-founded Lineage Capital, LLC. Lori’s investing background provides a well-rounded perspective on successful business models, operational and market issues and consumer trends. In her service as a board member for several of her portfolio companies, Lori also fine-tuned her skills as a partner to management and a champion of strong governance models.

Lori is a graduate of Duke University, Boston University’s Questrom School of Management (Accelerated MBA, CPA), and HBS Executive Education’s Women On Boards. She holds board positions at Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy, Babson Center for Women and Enterprising Leaders, Derby Academy, Camp Harbor View Foundation and The One Love Foundation. Within the Visible Ventures portfolio she holds board positions with Droplette, Rae, Standard Dose and previously The Nue co. Lori is a recipient of the Forever Duke Award given to select alumni who advance the Duke ideal of knowledge in service to society.

Lori and her husband live in Hingham on the south shore of Massachusetts with their four sons and daughter.

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MANAGING PARTNER​

Suzanne Norris

Suzanne is our rock star expert in building consumer businesses as well as a self described data junkie and master connector.

Suzanne brings a unique skill set to the Visible Ventures team with both an investment and operating background. She started her career in investment banking at Robertson Stephens at the beginning of the Internet boom where she got a front row seat in seeing how Internet business models would take shape. This led to roles at CMGI where she evaluated acquisitions and investment opportunities before joining The Parthenon Group where she worked with clients on their corporate, customer segmentation and sales channel strategies as well as with private equity clients to due diligence their investment opportunities.

After Parthenon, Suzanne joined Liz Claiborne Inc where she developed e-commerce strategies and led the e-commerce businesses for 7 portfolio brands including Kate Spade. After leaving Kate Spade, Suzanne started her own consulting practice to work with smaller consumer brands that wanted to develop e-commerce strategies that aligned brand and commerce goals. Suzanne is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Business School and holds board positions at Derby Academy and Winsor School Alumnae Board. She and her husband live in Cohasset and enjoy life in a small seaside town with their three kids and dog.

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Principal

Yuriy Dovzhansky

Yuriy has a depth of experience partnering with consumer companies. Prior to joining Visible Ventures, Yuriy worked at an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in high-growth consumer brands and at a multi-stage healthcare fund focused on digital health and healthcare technology.

Yuriy began his career as a management consultant at Deloitte, where he worked in the firm’s Strategy & Operations practice. At Deloitte, Yuriy drove the creation of go-to-market, growth, and customer strategies for consumer and life sciences companies and served clients in a variety of industries including retail, technology, and healthcare. Outside of client service, Yuriy worked on several entrepreneurial and social impact initiatives, including pro-bono consulting for a Zambian transportation provider and a Ghanaian social enterprise network.

Yuriy earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his BBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Head of Business Development

Molly Vaughan Sellers

As part of a large, entrepreneurial family, Molly gained her passion for business, her love of engaging in conversation and her natural ability to network and make connections early in life. With the energy and focus of a marathon runner (she’s run 4!) and an ability to make anyone laugh, Molly is a natural fit to lead the firm’s business development and social media programs.

Molly brings ten plus years of business development experience in research, sales, and finance to the Visible Ventures team. Her work at Forrester Research involved understanding the impact of technology on various aspects of small and large businesses. Previously she worked on the equity sales trading desk at The Jefferies Group. Molly is an active member of the Georgetown Alumni Association and as an avid runner has raised funds for several organizations including, Team in Training Cancer Research, Neurofibromatosis Research, and Every Mother Counts.

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Operating Partner

Taryn Jones Laeben

Taryn joined Visible Ventures as an Operating Partner after collaborating with Lori and Suzanne for many years. As Lori likes to say, “Taryn adds the gasoline to the fire.”

Taryn’s career has been spent focused on empowering founder vision and unlocking hypergrowth for mission driven companies. Taryn brings her extensive experience establishing and building consumer brands to the role, which will deepen Visible Ventrues’s operational expertise and resources for its portfolio companies. Taryn is a seasoned operator, having held leadership roles at Kate Spade New York, Casper and SoulCycle. She recently founded IRL Partners, an advisory firm that actively collaborates with a select portfolio of high potential start-ups, including Mirror, Parade, edn and Standard Dose, to optimize for successful hypergrowth. Taryn continues to run IRL Partners as she takes on the Operating Partner role at Visible Ventures.

Taryn is a graduate of Columbia University and lives in Connecticut with her daughter.

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