# Cack Wilhelm

> Catherine 'Cack' Wilhelm is a General Partner at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), where she focuses on cloud infrastructure, data infrastructure, and information security investments. A former Nike-sponsored professional runner and seven-time All-American at Princeton, she was the first American finisher at the 2007 World Cross Country Championship in Kenya. Wilhelm is the first woman promoted to general partner at IVP since 1983, having led major investments in companies like Perplexity, Cribl, CircleCI, and Monte Carlo Data. Her unconventional path from elite athletics to enterprise sales at Oracle and Cloudera to venture capital has shaped her approach to partnering with technical founders building transformative infrastructure companies.

- **Role:** General Partner at IVP
- **Organizations:** Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), Perplexity (Board Member), Cortex (Board Member), CircleCI (Board Member), Sublime Security (Board Member), ClickHouse (Board Observer), Cribl (Board Observer), Preface Ventures (Advisory Board Member)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.A. in History, Princeton University, M.B.A., University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- **Known for:** First woman promoted to General Partner at IVP since 1983, Fortune 40 Under 40 (2022), GrowthCap's Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors (2021)

## Career timeline

- **2002-2006** — Princeton University - 7-time All-American in Track and Field, Von Kienbusch Senior Athlete of the Year (2006)
- **2006-2008** — Nike Professional Runner - Competed globally at 5,000m distance, first American finisher at 2007 World Cross Country Championship in Kenya
- **2008** — Joined Montgomery & Company as investment banker (one week before financial crash)
- **2008-2012** — Enterprise sales roles at Oracle (selling databases and data integration tools) and Cloudera (selling Hadoop management applications)
- **2012-2014** — MBA at University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- **2014-2017** — Principal at Scale Venture Partners - worked with CircleCI, CloudHealth (VMW), JFrog, Treasure Data (ARM)
- **2017-2019** — Partner at Accomplice - led seed financings for Altitude Networks and Percy
- **2019** — Joined IVP as Partner in October 2019
- **2022** — Promoted to General Partner at IVP - first woman promoted to GP since 1983
- **2024** — Led IVP's $73M Series B investment in Perplexity, joined as board member
- **2024** — Participated in IVP's 18th fund raise of $1.6 billion focused on AI opportunities

## Achievements

- First woman promoted to General Partner at IVP since 1983
- Fortune 40 Under 40 (2022)
- GrowthCap's Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors (2021)
- First American finisher at 2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, Kenya
- 7-time All-American Athlete in Track and Field at Princeton
- Princeton Female Athlete of the Year - Von Kienbusch Senior Athlete of the Year Award (2006)
- Led $73M Series B investment in Perplexity (2024)
- Led investments in Cribl Series C, CircleCI Series E, Papaya Global Series C
- Competed in 12 of 12 athletic seasons at Princeton (Cross-Country, Indoor Track, Outdoor Track)
- Nike-sponsored professional runner for two years

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — Appeared on CNBC discussing Perplexity's market share gains against Google as board member
- **2024-12** — Commented on Sublime Security's $60M raise, emphasizing email security as critical cybersecurity risk
- **2024-03** — Discussed IVP's 18th fund ($1.6B) and cautiously optimistic outlook on exits in Bloomberg interview
- **2024-02** — Led IVP's $73M Series B investment in Perplexity and joined board of directors

## Links

- Website: https://www.ivp.com/team/cack-wilhelm/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cackwilhelm
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/CackF

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/cack-wilhelm
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-02