Team
Richard Goozh
Managing PartnerRichard Goozh
Managing PartnerRichard Goozh is a serial entrepreneur and investor with a passion for building, financing and selling technology companies. His career includes founding companies, investment banking and Fortune 500 leadership roles. Richard is the founder of Cambrian Growth Partners, a private investment and advisory firm focused on high-growth life sciences and high-tech companies. Cambrian has led dozens of successful financing and M&A initiatives.
At heart, Richard is a technologist. Beyond his academic focuses in Electrical Engineering and Industrial Engineering, he has an ongoing thirst for new technologies. This passion has led to deep dives into fields as diverse as biotechnology, software, wireless technologies, semiconductors, thin film technologies and more.
Richard has been an investor in private tech companies for more than 20 years. He holds Board and advisory roles with several portfolio companies including the Cambrian-led financings of Payzaar (SaaS) and CND Life Sciences (diagnostics).
Louis Ponticas
PartnerLouis Ponticas
PartnerLou Ponticas is a founder of Cambrian Growth Partners who continues to advise companies following a career in manufacturing, consulting and technology. Lou is primarily focused on strategy development and associated organizational and managerial transformation efforts. Lou leverages experiences with a multitude of processes and industries, cross-pollinating to deliver robust, strategic plans and scalable operating models. He has worked in a diverse set of industries including enterprise software, financial services, consumer products, health care, manufacturing, and packaging.
Most recently, Lou served as SVP and COO of MuleSoft, scaling distribution operations during a period of rapid growth, while simultaneously managing MuleSoft’s integration into Salesforce (following the 2018 acquisition). Prior to MuleSoft, Lou worked in product operations and business development at PayPal, following over a decade consulting to clients in a diverse set of industries, including technology start-ups.
In parallel, Lou served 24 years in the military reserves, retiring as a Sergeant Major, and including extended deployments in the Gulf War and the recent Global War on Terror. Lou holds an MBA from Northwestern University and a Bachelors in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Virginia Tech.
Bill Schmitt
PartnerBill Schmitt
PartnerBill Schmitt is an experienced startup executive who has focused his career building high performing go-to-market organizations at fast growth technology-enabled companies. Notable exits include: Matterport, Agile Software, Quintstreet, LEVL Technologies and Tempo Automation. Bill has a particular passion for AI/ML enabled businesses and is an active advisor/mentor for early stage companies in both B2B and B2C sectors.
Bob Molinari
AdvisorBob Molinari
AdvisorUntil 2020, Bob Molinari was the founding CEO of Retrotope, Inc., a company focused on control of metabolic processes associated with diseases of degeneration and ageing.
For a dozen years, he led Retrotope from the idea stage to a company pioneering a completely new treatment paradigm for intractable neurodegenerative diseases. Under Dr. Molinari’s leadership, Retrotope raised some $50MM in funding, validated the drug target and first drug compound in a host of orphan neurological diseases, and demonstrated in controlled human trials disease-modifying treatment of the fatal neurodegenerative diseases, Infantile Neuroaxonal Dystrophy and Friedreich’s ataxia. Retrotope has dosed patients successfully in diseases as diverse as Parkinson’s disease, tauopathies, synucleinopathies, Huntington’s disease, Late Onset Tay Sachs, ALS, and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy parkinsonism. Dr. Molinari is a member of the American Academy of Neurologists.
Prior to Retrotope, Dr. Molinari specialized in biotechnology reagents, genomics, proteomics, and biopharmaceutical research companies. He was the founding CEO of Coda Genomics/Verdezyne, a synthetic biology company using computational methods to optimize gene assembly in synthetic biology processes. Bob was also the co-founding CEO and president of Protogene Laboratories, Inc., and, in the mid-nineties, led that company to become the world’s largest supplier of custom DNA before it was acquired by Life Technologies, Inc. He then ran a spin-off of Protogene which developed foundational products and technologies in the early DNA chip industry. Prior to Protogene, Bob served as a strategic advisor in the startup of Nanogen, Affymetrix, and Sequenom. Early in his career, Dr. Molinari was a consultant specializing in biotechnology at McKinsey & Co. Dr. Molinari has an A.B. and an MBA from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry from Brown University.
Laurent Valosek
AdvisorLaurent Valosek
AdvisorLaurent Valosek has 35 years of experience as an entrepreneur, educator, and researcher. He served as CEO of 3 tech start-up companies and led a strategy management consultancy.
He is the CEO of Peak Leadership Institute and the Executive Director of the Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education, a 501c3 nonprofit that provides wellness programs to schools. Over the last 18 years, he has worked with over 15,000 leaders, educators, students, and managers.
Steven Kornfeld
AdvisorSteven Kornfeld
AdvisorSteven Kornfeld is a seasoned investment professional and strategic advisor with three decades of experience in capital allocation, capital markets, governance, strategy, and risk management. In addition to Castle Peak, Steven serves as a Board Observer of Lark Health, an AI powered platform for managing chronic diseases. Steven also serves as an independent director of Forte Biosciences (NASDAQ: FBRX), where he chairs the Compensation Committee and the Nominating & Governance Committee and serves on the Audit Committee.
Until February 2020, Steven served as a Vice President, Portfolio Manager, Research Analyst and Sector Team Leader for Franklin Templeton Investments, where he worked since 2001. Steven led the US equity health care investment research team, allocating up to $10 billion in investments in the biopharmaceutical and health care services industries. In this role, he regularly spoke with C- Suite executives to evaluate strategy, culture, and business trends to support capital allocation decisions. Steven holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University where he was on the Dean’s List. Steven is a CFA charterholder and completed Harvard University’s Behavioral Finance Seminar – Capitalizing on Irrational Investment Practices (2007).