Jason Starr

Managing Director

Jason has over two decades of experience spanning operations, technology, venture capital, and private equity. Jason is the founder of Consumer Ventures™, a venture capital firm focused on investing in and building emerging consumer brands and companies. Before Consumer Ventures™, Jason was the fund manager at CircleUp in San Francisco, through which he invested in dozens of consumer ventures. Prior to CircleUp, Jason spent over eight years at Winona Capital Management, a consumer-focused private equity firm in Chicago with over $300 million under management. Before Winona, Jason worked at venture capital firm Opus Capital in Silicon Valley and was a founder or early employee at several high-tech start-ups in Denver including BoldTech Systems, a “Deloitte Tech Fast 50” and “Inc. 500” company that was acquired by Perficient (NASDAQ PRFT). Prior to his entrepreneurial ventures, Jason spent over five years at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) where he was a project manager and software engineer. Jason graduated from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with an MBA and holds a BSBA and MAS from the University of Denver, where he was an alumni scholar and graduated summa cum laude.

Jason’s Midwest roots set the guiding principles at Consumer Ventures™, which can basically be summed up as treat others as you would want them to treat you. Fanatical about entrepreneurship, Jason relishes the opportunity to roll up his sleeves and help emerging companies…whether that includes thinking through strategic options, financial planning, improving operations, implementing technology, or just pounding the pavement at trade shows. Jason and his family live in the Chicago area where his free time is spent coaching a variety of youth sports and volunteering at the University of Chicago as a mentor, coach, and judge in their business plan competitions and start-up accelerator / incubator programs.