
Jacques Benkoski is a General Partner at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) in Menlo Park, California, where he has invested since 2005 with a focus on cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, enterprise software, and data services. Born in Belgium, educated at the Technion in Israel and Carnegie Mellon, he built his operational chops founding and running EDA and semiconductor startups before turning to early-stage investing across the U.S. and Israel. He is also the author of 'The Market Entry Strategy,' a book drawn from a seminar he gave to over 5,000 entrepreneurs.
Jonathan Root is a General Partner at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) in Menlo Park, California, where he has invested in early-stage companies since 1997. A board-certified neurologist who spent nine years in clinical medicine - including as a Director of the Neurology-Neurosurgery ICU at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center - Root brings a rare clinician's lens to venture investing. He focuses on medical devices, biotech, and healthcare IT, with a portfolio that spans Omada Health, Carlsmed, Cleave Biosciences, and Inari Medical (acquired by Stryker in 2025). His guiding principle: 'The greatest idea in the world will not be successful if it's not practical.'
Matt Garratt is a General Partner at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) in Menlo Park, California, where he focuses on enterprise SaaS and AI investments. A former first employee at Salesforce Ventures — where he built one of tech's most successful corporate venture arms with 100+ investments and $2B+ in returns, including Zoom, Snowflake, Twilio, and MuleSoft — Garratt brings a rare combination of engineering rigor (materials science from Purdue), policy experience (UN clean energy work), and two decades of venture investing to back the next generation of AI-native companies.
Rick Lewis is a General Partner at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), a storied Silicon Valley venture firm based in Menlo Park. A two-time startup founder turned investor, he joined USVP in 2004 and was promoted to General Partner in 2012. He focuses on early-stage enterprise SaaS, cybersecurity, and consumer services, with a track record that includes exits to Airbnb, Viacom, Microsoft, Slack, PayPal, IBM, Oracle, and Nordstrom. Lewis holds degrees from UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and Harvard Business School, and is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 10).
Steve Krausz is a General Partner (now Senior Advisor) at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), one of Silicon Valley's longest-running early-stage venture capital firms. With over 35 years of investing experience, he has led or co-led board-level involvement in landmark exits including Check Point Software, Box, Guidewire Software, Imperva, and Trusteer (acquired by IBM). A Stanford-trained electrical engineer and Arjay Miller Scholar MBA, Krausz joined USVP in 1985 and has built deep domain expertise in cybersecurity, enterprise software, and data analytics. He currently serves on the boards of Cato Networks, Human Interest, Quantifind, Badge, Informed.iq, and Zefr, and is a strategic advisor to the B612 Foundation, which tracks near-Earth asteroids.