TEAM
A seasoned team & advisors with practical knowledge in entrepreneurship and strategic growth in all phases.
INVESTMENTS
Pano founded XRC Ventures in 2015 and is the company’s Managing Director.
Prior to this, he served in a number of leadership roles for media, retail, consumer goods and industrial companies. He also founded four digital media and software startups, including Gather Education, Hangout Industries which was the first to bring video game technology and name brands to Facebook in 2007, Pantero and Syntra / ClearCross. He began his career in supply chain and trademarked the term “global logistics systems.” He received his BA from the University of Delaware and SIA from Columbia University.
Pano Anthos
Founder & Managing Director | LinkedIn
Diana manages the entire investment process and team across XRC's family of funds. Prior, Diana was an investor at WISE Ventures. She built and scaled two companies in retail and consumer tech, including XRC Ventures Cohort 1 company QUINN, leading major partnerships with the Hudson’s Bay Company, Neiman Marcus, MasterCard and Hearst Media. Prior, she spent a decade investing and consulting across the retail, consumer and healthcare sectors for $12B+ funds in CA and NY. Additionally, she helped found FirstGeneration.vc which is an initiative aimed at helping first generation founders successfully scale their pre-Series A startup companies.
Diana Melencio
GENERAL Partner, Brand Capital Fund | LinkedIn
Al manages the XRC Ventures Opportunity fund, an early stage fund investing in disruptive tech and retail capability startups. He also supports XRC Ventures’s Brand Capital Fund which invests in fast-growing consumer brands. Prior to XRC, Al spent 15 years as an early stage venture investor and 25 years as a Retail & Digital Strategy Consultant and Managing Partner at Kurt Salmon Associates and Accenture Strategy. Al lives in Northern California where he continues to be an active angel investor and advisor in startups in the consumer and sustainability space.
Al Sambar
SENIOR ADVISOR AND VENTURE PARTNER, Opportunity Fund | LinkedIn
Andrew brings portfolio founders insights and guardrails from multiple sectors in which he spent the last 30 years operating, acquiring and integrating companies. He also helps screen potential venture investments and assists in governance. Prior to XRC, Andrew led Strategy and M&A at the Estée Lauder Companies for 6 years, and at ConAgra Foods for 5 years before that. He also counseled numerous companies in global retail and consumer goods at McKinsey & Company. Andrew holds an MM from the JL Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and an LL.B from Edinburgh University.
Andrew Ross
Senior Advisor and Venture Partner | LinkedIn
With nearly a decade of management consulting experience and three years with XRC, John leads XRC’s Brand Capital Fund as a principal, responsible for company sourcing, diligence, financial modeling, deal pricing, portfolio management, and board support. John serves as a board observer for Solawave and Homefield, two portfolio companies to XRC’s Brand Capital Fund.
Prior to XRC, John spent nine years with Kurt Salmon, part of Accenture Strategy, contributing to 30+ private equity due diligence acquisition efforts in the consumer sector, representing over $3 billion in invested capital. John graduated from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern (MBA), and UCLA (BA, Business Economics), and currently resides in San Francisco.
John Buccheri
Principal, Brand Capital Fund | LinkedIn
Kelly joins XRC with more than fifteen years of experience on Wall Street, where she covered the retail and consumer space. She started off her career working on II-ranked teams at Lehman, gained buy-side experience on the consumer team at Fred Alger, and was most recently a Director and Senior Analyst at TAG covering the Sporting Goods and Footwear space.
Kelly Chen
Investor, Brand Capital Fund | LinkedIn
PLATFORM & GROWTH
Pax leads XRC’s internal product and technology development. He also advises XRC portfolio companies on product and technology. Prior, Pax was a Product Manager at CoVenture. Within two years, Pax built product with over 9 of CoVenture’s portfolio companies. Pax then helped CoVenture launch their Crypto Index Fund, where he served as Head of Security, led Crypto Research & Development, and designed state of the art Deep Cold Storage and Crypto Trading OpSec procedures.
Pax Anthos
CTO | LinkedIn
Amanda is the Director of Public Relations at XRC Ventures. Amanda spent several years with global communications marketing firm, Edelman, where she led national accounts for The American Heart Association, GSK Consumer Healthcare and The Dannon Yogurt Company. She currently works to garner top-tier press for XRC portfolio companies, adding business and sales value to their brands. Amanda received her BA in communications and film & digital media from Baylor University and has a graphic design certificate through the Parsons School of Design.
Amanda Bell
Director of Public Relations | LinkedIn
ADVISORS
Innovation leader, board member, founder & investor with experience supporting early-stage entrepreneurs & catalyzing change within organizations/educational institutions. Practical strategist passionate about action/results, emerging technologies to solve the world’s most pressing problems. Mentor/judge in startup-accelerator programs. Advisor to industry and higher-ed. Founder & member of mgmt teams of tech startups, partnered with academia/industry to create innovation ecosystems & nurtured venture creation. Expertise in strategy creation/execution; creating innovation cultures; developing higher-ed experiential education; growing the innovation economy; convening diverse views & navigating multi-stakeholder environments. Industry expertise: consumer, e-commerce, mobile & luxury goods, higher-ed innovation.
Co-founded Harvard Innovation Labs (launched in 2011) to support students/faculty/alumni to turn ideas into action. The Ecosystem has an i-lab for students, a Launch Lab for Alumni, and the Life Lab for Life Sciences ventures. Recognized as an industry leader, it supports all Harvard schools, takes a cross-disciplinary approach & is the world’s largest university-based entrepreneurship center. As Executive Director & reporting to the governing board, was a significant catalyst for innovation/change. Spearheaded the idea for many new initiatives, oversaw Ecosystem’s creation & built significant fundraising mechanisms including raising a VC fund while enhancing University fundraising. Created/oversaw all programming/infrastructure (venture incubation, intrapreneurial, mentor/executive in residence programs). Provide global industry thought leadership as a speaker at numerous conferences and advisor to higher-ed institutions. Hosted University leadership, foreign dignitaries/leaders interested in replicating Harvard innovation model. Created innovation conferences including AR/VR & sports innovation that brought together thought leaders/industry experts. To date, the i-lab has incubated 3000+ ventures that raised $5B+, hosted 5,000+ events & had 250,000+ visits to its 55,000 sq ft facility.
Member of advisory boards, Trustee of the University of Vermont. MBA, Harvard & BS, University of Vermont.
Jodi Goldstein
Innovation leader, board member, founder & investor, Co-Founder of Harvard Innovation Labs | LinkedIn
Shama Amalean Skinner is an executive with experience in direct-to-consumer, retail, and international franchise organisations. She is the former Chief Operating Officer of Thinx Inc, the revolutionary period and incontinence underwear company. During her time at Thinx, she played a key role in launching, growing and selling the company. Prior to Thinx, Shama spent six years in product development and merchandising at L Brands. She is an engaged advisor, board member and mentor to start-ups, venture funds and non-profit organisations. She is deeply committed to helping solve the climate crisis and to striving for gender equity. In 2020, New Zealand’s Hillary Institute named her an Edmund Hillary Fellow and in 2023, the Obama Foundation named her an Obama USA Leader.
Shama Amalean Skinner
Former COO of Thinx Inc., Obama USA Leader for the Obama Foundation | LinkedIn
Over his 20-year career, Roy has been a founder, entrepreneur, CEO, venture capitalist, angel investor, advisor and board member, and even a commanding officer in the military - and has worked with successful start-up companies in various industries, geographies and stages. Having invested so far in over four dozen start-up companies, and co-founded two, Roy is currently the Founding Partner of R-Squared Ventures, a venture fund that operates with a ‘founders supporting founders’ mentality, is strategically backed by over 80 industry executives, entrepreneurs and investors as LPs, and is focused on investing in early stage start-ups between the US and Israel, mostly in the areas of Fintech, AI, Enterprise/SMB SaaS, Ecommerce Enablement and Marketplaces.
Prior to starting R-Squared Ventures, Roy was the CEO and Co-founder of Loop Commerce, a company disrupting fintech, retail and e-commerce with its multi-patented and award-winning GiftNow® technology and SaaS, implemented by leading brands, enterprise customers and partners. He started Loop in 2012, raised $30 million from tier-1 industry investors and industry leaders, scaled it through the acquisition by Synchrony in mid-2018, and continued to run the company as a wholly owned subsidiary as its CEO and as a GM and SVP with Synchrony until mid-2020.
Under Roy's leadership, and pioneering the g-commerce (gift commerce) category, Loop became a market leader and created a complete end-to-end solution, encompassing the consumer experience, payments processing, stored value activation, fraud management, data analytics and insights, marketing tools, and best practices. In 2017, a year prior to the acquisition, Loop was awarded the prestigious "Most Innovative Payments Player" award from PYMNTS.
Roy has a passion for innovation and for bringing to market and growing great products and businesses. He continues to be involved in innovation and entrepreneurship as an active investor through R-Squared Ventures, a co-founder and Board Member, and an advisor in a few select funds and companies. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and lives in Silicon Valley, California.
Roy Erez
Founder, entrepreneur, CEO, venture capitalist, angel investor, advisor and board membeR | LinkedIn
Dan is a marketing executive who has worked at agency, brand, platform and start-up, for companies such as WPP, adidas, TikTok/ByteDance and Build A Rocket Boy. Through his career he has built up a rare and deep subject matter experience in social media, creator and community marketing. Dan has a track record of building organizations from the ground up and has navigated his teams through periods of hyper growth. He is an advisor for several companies and offers mentorship to early stage founders. He has worked with XRC Labs since 2021.
Dan Bulteel
marketing executive for companies such as WPP, adidas, TikTok/ByteDance, & Build A Rocket Boy | LinkedIn
Meka is an entrepreneurial C-suite executive with 25+ years of experience growing consumer-facing businesses. Having successfully led the growth of a specialty retailer from start-up to $1+ billion in sales, Meka now serves as an operating advisor, board member, and executive coach, helping organizations refine their business models, forge strategic partnerships, build deeper customer relationships, and create an aligned organization that can deliver superior operational results. Ms. Millstone-Shroff has served as an independent director on the boards of directors for Public Storage (NYSE: PSA), a self-storage REIT, Party City, a vertically integrated retail chain of party supplies, and Nanit, a private technology computer-vision start-up that develops smart baby monitor devices. Meka currently also serves on the boards of Neiman Marcus Group Inc. (NYSE: NMG.A), a chain of luxury department stores; Athletico Physical Therapy, a national provider of orthopedic rehabilitation services; InMarket, a 360-degree marketing intelligence and media platform;, and Aden & Anais, Inc (also dba Halo), a global lifestyle baby care company.
Meka led the rapid growth of buybuy BABY from 2007-2018, from 8 stores at the time of acquisition to the #1 baby retailer in North America with >135 locations and >5,000 associates. She defined/rallied the organization around a common strategic vision, built high-performing teams able to adjust/scale in a rapidly-changing environment, created and continually strengthened the company’s key market differentiators, and translated all of it into the digital sphere. Her expertise in: analytics & consumer insights generation; digital customer experience development; customer acquisition & retention marketing strategies; transformational leadership; mutually-beneficial partnership building; and acquisition integration, informs all her work.
Concurrent with her President & COO roles at buybuy BABY, Meka also served as the Chief Customer Experience Officer and Head of Business Development for Bed Bath & Beyond from 2015-2018. Prior to Bed Bath & Beyond, she worked at McKinsey & Company and currently serves as a Senior Advisor to the firm. Meka has an MBA with Distinction from Harvard, and dual degrees, summa cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania where she earned a B.S. summa cum laude in strategic management from The Wharton School and a B.A.summa cum laude in psychology from The College of Arts & Sciences.
Meka Millstone-Shroff
C-suite executive with 25+ years of experience growing consumer-facing businesses | LinkedIn
James Eisenstein is Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Grupo TorreSur, the largest independent wireless tower company in Latin America. Previously, Mr. Eisenstein served on the Board of Directors of Eaton Towers Limited, a pan-African wireless tower company which operated towers across six countries, from 2012 until its sale in 2019 to American Tower Corporation for $1.9 billion. During the same period, Mr. Eisenstein also sat on the Board of Directors of CTI Towers. Prior to co-founding Grupo TorreSur, Mr. Eisenstein was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Optasite Holding Company, Inc. from 2003 to 2008, and he was Chief Executive Officer of Concourse Communications Group LLC during 2013. From 1995 to 2003, Mr. Eisenstein co-founded and served in various roles at American Tower Corporation, including Chief Operating Officer and Chief Development Officer.
Before co-founding American Tower, Mr. Eisenstein was a Partner and Chief Operating Officer of Amaturo Group, Ltd. from 1990 to 1995, and prior to Amaturo, he was Deputy General Counsel of Home Shopping Network from 1988 to 1990. Mr. Eisenstein was an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom from 1986 to 1988 and at Vinson & Elkins from 1984 to 1986. Mr. Eisenstein sits on the Board of Directors of ATN International, Inc., a publicly traded company (NASDAQ:ATNI) which owns and operates telecom and renewable energy companies. Mr. Eisenstein is a graduate of Georgetown University, and he holds an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
James Eisenstein
Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Grupo TorreSur
Mr. Sadove served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Saks Incorporated from 2007 to 2013. Prior to joining Saks, Mr. Sadove built a distinguished marketing and consumer products career spanning more than 25 years and held senior positions at companies including General Foods (now Kraft) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company as President of Clairol. He led Clairol to become the number one hair care business in the United States, relaunched the Herbal Essences brand into a $700 million business and completed the sale of the beauty care business to Procter & Gamble. Mr. Sadove is also a founding partner of JW Levin Management Partners, a private equity firm.
Mr. Sadove is a former Chair of the National Retail Federation and serves as an advisor to Mastercard. He serves on numerous community and civic boards including Hamilton College as Chairman of the Board of Trustees and AmeriCares. Mr. Sadove is a graduate of Hamilton College and holds an MBA, with distinction, from Harvard Business School. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Commercial Science from LIM College.
Steve Sadove