Career
The Ugly Duckling
Author
Responsibilities
Http://uglyduckling.substack.com
The story of how I went from being homeless to becoming a VC.
Platform
Resources
Pricing
General Partner / Long Journey Ventures
Cyan Banister is a prominent American angel investor and entrepreneur, currently a General Partner at Long Journey Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. She is known for her successful early investments in companies like Uber, SpaceX, DeepMind, Postmates, Flexport, and Affirm, having invested in over 100 companies. Her career journey is notable, as she went from being homeless to becoming one of the most successful investors of the decade. She also co-founded Zivity and is the author of the Substack "The Ugly Duckling."
Author
Http://uglyduckling.substack.com
The story of how I went from being homeless to becoming a VC.
Investor
Investor
Owner
https://angel.co/cyantist
Partner
Partner
Ev"angel"ist
Ev"angel"ist
Co Founder
Support the art you love!
Zivity, a San Francisco start-up which launched at TechCrunch40 in 2007, is a subscription and vote-based artist/fan interaction platform that sits at the intersection of American Idol, Facebook and Playboy.
Fans interact with artists and vote for their favorite content. Zivity’s dollar-backed votes distribute cash payments to its content producers.
Co-founder
Secret for now ;-) More soon.
Investor
Investor
Recruiter
I no longer actively recruit, but I'll pass on resumes to companies I'm involved with, so if you are an engineer, please contact me.
Senior Manager, Security Operations
Managed the SpamCop operations group which oversaw the world's largest known spammer blacklist. Spam submissions were sent in from an avid community of reporters from around the world who each individually did their part in the fight for the reduction of spam for our inboxes. The SpamCop blacklist is used as a weight in many popular spam fighting engines that protect email infrastructure for governments, large enterprises, schools and private individuals.
Oversaw a 24/7 Virus & Malware threat operation center who's primary responsibility was monitoring real-time attacks and deploying rules to IronPort's world-wide customer infrastructure.
Managed a team of multi-lingual rule writers for IronPort's anti-spam engine.
IronPort's engineers were responsible for 99% of the efficacy of our engines and our team was responsible for the remaining 1%. Senior Manager, Security Operations
Manager of Strategic Support and Anti-Spam Operations
Created a group that continues to exist within Cisco that oversees the metrics, customer satisfaction and support infrastructure for IronPort's world-wide customer base. Manager of Strategic Support and Anti-Spam Operations
Manager of Support, Worldwide
Manager of Support, Worldwide
Standards and Practices Manager
Standards and Practices Manager
Standards and Practices Manager
Standards and Practices Manager
CTO
CTO
Tools and Automation Engineer
Tools and Automation Engineer
Operations - Systems Administration - Development Support
Operations - Systems Administration - Development Support
Systems Admin / Support Manager
Systems Admin / Support Manager
Core technical, operational, and investment competencies developed across a career spanning engineering, security, entrepreneurship, and venture capital.
Venture Capital
Angel Investing
Fundraising
Strategic Partnerships
Deal Evaluation
Pattern Recognition
Recruiting
Hiring
Management
Leadership
Scaling Operations
Team Building
Business Operations
Information Security
Anti-Spam Abuse Investigation
Technical Fire Fighting
Systems Administration
Software Development
Ruby on Rails
Start-ups
Entrepreneurship
Product Management
Monetization
Community Management
Content Strategy
Venture Capital, Early-Stage Investing, Technology, Startups, Entrepreneurship
Information Security, Anti-Spam Operations, Social Networking, Content Platforms
Visionary, Resilient, Entrepreneurial, Candid, Inspiring
Venture Capital, Technology, Social Impact, Personal Storytelling
A robotic, objective summary of Cyan Banister's professional profile, focusing on her current role, investment track record, and unique content platform.
She has invested in over 100 companies throughout her career, starting with Banister Capital in August 2008.
Yes, she is known for her successful early investments in major companies, including Uber, SpaceX, DeepMind, and Affirm.
"The Ugly Duckling" is her Substack where she shares her personal journey, including her experience going from homeless to a successful investor.
She was a Partner at Founders Fund from February 2016 until she departed the firm in February 2020.