Lorenzo Thione

Lorenzo Thione is a Tony Award-winning Broadway producer, AI pioneer, and venture capitalist who sold his search engine startup Powerset to Microsoft for $100 million in 2008. As Managing Director of Gaingels, he leads one of the world's largest LGBTQ+ venture syndicates with $1B+ deployed across 2,700+ portfolio companies. He founded StartOut, the largest LGBTQ+ entrepreneur network, and has produced acclaimed Broadway shows including Hadestown, The Inheritance, and Allegiance with George Takei. An Italian-born computer engineer turned operator-investor-activist, Thione builds what he calls a flywheel of queer economic empowerment by positioning diversity as a source of better returns.