Joel Cutler

Joel Cutler is the co-founder and Managing Director of General Catalyst, one of the most influential venture capital firms in the world. Since co-founding the firm in 2000 with David Fialkow - a partnership forged at summer camp at age 8 - Cutler has backed transformative companies including Airbnb, Warby Parker, Venmo, Lemonade, and KAYAK, which he literally conceived and assembled from scratch. A law school graduate who never practiced law, a self-described non-visionary who keeps a 'Wall of Shame' of deals he missed, and a travel obsessive who attended Phocuswright for 20+ consecutive years, Cutler operates with a contrarian philosophy: he only wants 'exciting, different, and risky' bets, believes great teams beat great ideas every time, and insists that if you don't fail, you're a bad investor.