# Leigh Marie Braswell

> Leigh Marie Braswell is a Partner at Kleiner Perkins, one of Silicon Valley's most storied venture firms, where she backs early-stage founders building the next wave of AI infrastructure and ML applications. A rural Alabama native who became MIT's top competitive female mathematician, she cut her teeth as an early engineer and the first product manager at Scale AI, helped label data for GPT-2, then sharpened her investment instincts at Founders Fund before joining KP in 2023. Her bets - Windsurf (acquired by Google), Neon (acquired by Databricks), Chronosphere (acquired by Palo Alto Networks), and a first angel check into Ambience Healthcare at a $1.1B valuation - reveal a pattern: she backs fast-moving technical founders before anyone else does, using a poker-trained lens for probabilistic decision-making.

- **Role:** Partner at Kleiner Perkins
- **Organizations:** Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Scale AI, Jane Street
- **From:** Alabama, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science, Mathematics with Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Secondary Education (Valedictorian), Phillips Exeter Academy
- **Known for:** Partner at Kleiner Perkins, one of Silicon Valley's most iconic venture firms, First product manager at Scale AI (joined when company had ~3-5 employees), Helped label data used to train OpenAI's GPT-2

## Career timeline

- **2014-2018** — Studied Mathematics with Computer Science at MIT; competed as top female mathematician
- **2017** — Interned at Jane Street, the quantitative trading firm; became serious about poker
- **2018** — Joined Scale AI as an early engineer (3rd-5th employee era); became first product manager
- **2019-2020** — Led 3D annotation product at Scale AI for autonomous vehicles, robotics, and AR/VR
- **2020** — Wrote first angel check into Ambience Healthcare
- **2020-2022** — Joined Founders Fund as Principal; led investments in Chronosphere, Persona, Neon
- **2023** — Joined Kleiner Perkins as Partner, focusing on AI infrastructure and ML application founders
- **2024** — Led investment in Windsurf (Codeium); portfolio includes Nooks, Convoke, Reevo
- **2025-2026** — Multiple portfolio acquisitions: Windsurf by Google, Neon by Databricks, Chronosphere by Palo Alto Networks; backed Applied Compute and Avoca

## Achievements

- Partner at Kleiner Perkins, one of Silicon Valley's most iconic venture firms
- First product manager at Scale AI (joined when company had ~3-5 employees)
- Helped label data used to train OpenAI's GPT-2
- First angel check into Ambience Healthcare, now valued at $1.1 billion
- Led investment in Windsurf (Codeium), subsequently acquired by Google
- Led investment in Neon, acquired by Databricks
- Led investment in Chronosphere at Founders Fund, acquired by Palo Alto Networks
- Top competitive female mathematician in high school; valedictorian at Phillips Exeter Academy
- MIT graduate in Mathematics with Computer Science
- Over 2,000 Substack newsletter subscribers

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Invested in Applied Compute and Avoca as early-stage AI companies in her KP portfolio
- **2026-02** — Featured in Fortune on her poker-based approach to risk and VC decision-making
- **2025** — Portfolio exits: Neon acquired by Databricks, Windsurf acquired by Google (Alphabet), Chronosphere acquired by Palo Alto Networks
- **2024-12** — Quoted in Fortune explaining why AI agents 'don't work' in their current state
- **2024** — Led investments in Windsurf, Nooks, and Convoke at Kleiner Perkins

## Links

- Website: https://kleinerperkins.com/people/leigh-marie-braswell/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leigh-marie-braswell
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/LM_Braswell
- GitHub: https://github.com/LeighMarie
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leighmariebraswell/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/leigh-braswell
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-09