# Michelle Valentine

> Michelle Valentine is the co-founder and Executive Chair of Anrok, the tax-compliance company she started with Kannan Goundan in 2020. Her career spans public-sector investment banking at Goldman Sachs, early-stage software investing at Index Ventures, and product work at Airtable. She studied at Stanford and Oxford and now also focuses on investing and the transition to powerful AI.

- **Role:** Co-founder and Executive Chair at Anrok
- **Organizations:** Anrok, Airtable, Index Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Alpha
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science, Stanford University, Master of Science; full scholarship, University of Oxford
- **Known for:** Co-founded Anrok in 2020 and led it as CEO before becoming Executive Chair., Led Anrok through seed, Series A, Series B and Series C financing; by October 2025 the company reported over $100 million raised., Received a full scholarship for graduate study at Oxford.

## Career timeline

- **Before 2017** — Worked in Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division on public-sector infrastructure and debt secured by tax revenue.
- **2017** — Started venture investing at Index Ventures, with a focus that included AI and infrastructure software.
- **2018** — Signed with Airtable and subsequently worked on product, including the Blocks application ecosystem.
- **2020** — Co-founded Anrok with Kannan Goundan.
- **2021** — Anrok publicly announced a $4.3 million seed round backed by Index Ventures and Sequoia.
- **2022** — Anrok announced a $20 million Series A.
- **2024** — Anrok announced a $30 million Series B on April 10.
- **2025** — Anrok announced a $55 million Series C led by Spark Capital on October 21.
- **2026** — Brad Silicani announced his move to CEO and Valentine’s transition to Executive Chair.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Anrok in 2020 and led it as CEO before becoming Executive Chair.
- Led Anrok through seed, Series A, Series B and Series C financing; by October 2025 the company reported over $100 million raised.
- Received a full scholarship for graduate study at Oxford.
- Delivered a keynote at SaaStock USA 2024 on AI.

## Latest updates

- **2026-01** — Brad Silicani publicly announced he would become Anrok CEO, with Valentine transitioning to Executive Chair.
- **2026-01** — Updated her personal essay about why she continues working on Anrok.
- **2025-10** — Anrok announced a $55 million Series C led by Spark Capital, taking total funding above $100 million.

## Links

- Website: https://www.michelle-valentine.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellevalentinehk/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/_vltn

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/michelle-valentine
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-11