Founder and Managing Director of Cottonwood Technology Fund I, II and III.

Founded and former Managing Director of Southeast Interactive, the first and largest information technology-focused fund based in the Southeast. Raised three funds totaling over $175 million.

Directly involved in fundraising and exit transaction events totaling in excess of $1 billion in enterprise value across the portfolio.

Dave has extensive experience working with the National Labs and research universities in the Southwestern US, as well as nationally at the leadership and research-heads levels.

Dave holds a MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Alain has 25+ years’ experience in Technology on board level positions (former member of the Executive committee of corporate Getronics PinkRoccade) and as CEO of startups.

Alain studied at the technical University of Twente and graduated in 1994 with a double degree. Before the Cottonwood period successful angel investor. Expert in strategy, marketing, product launching, pricing and international business acceleration.

In the past Alain was one of the founders of the European Accelerator Program for the European Institute for Technology and Innovation and coached more than 200 high-tech startups in Europe.

Alain has a huge network and direct access to lots of corporates and all relevant ecosystems in Europe (Paris, Berlin, London, Helsinki, Stockholm, Leuven, Munich, etc.).

Alain joined Cottonwood in 2014 as partner and supported in the setup of the European office and Fund II.

Alain graduated in 2001 cum laude for an Executive MBA at Business School Nederland.

Lee Rand has over 15 year’s   experience in tech investments in   early-stage. Lee has experience in   starting and managing technology   related businesses at both start-ups   and large corporations as well as investing in companies and funds both in the US and abroad.
Prior to joining Cottonwood, he worked 14 years at venture firm Sun Mountain,  founded Knogee, a semantic search company, ran business development for Intel’s consumer electronics group, launched and led product management at semiconductor start-up Netboost (acquired by Intel). Lee also has business consulting experience having worked at Ernst and Young and as an independent consultant brought in by investors and boards to work with start-ups on strategy and operations. Lee has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a dual BA in Computer Science & Mathematics from Cornell University.

Ytsen finished his Master of Science study in Strategic Innovation Management in 2016 at the University of Groningen. In 2022 Ytsen also finalized an executive Master in M&A and Valuation.

After 2 years of consultancy Ytsen van der Meer started in 2018 his venture career at the NOM in Groningen, were he prior joining Cottonwood ended up as Senior Investment Manager, mainly investing in seed and Series A rounds in innovative startups. Ytsen was a board member and board observer at several portfolio companies and an advisory board member at two early stage venture capital funds. 

Within Cottonwood Technology Fund Ytsen is involved in deal sourcing, finance, performance tracking, financial dashboards, reporting etc. Besides that Ytsen is involved in screening of companies. due diligence processes, analyses markets and competitors.

Sabine worked before joining Cottonwood 12 years within an IT company in several roles, where she was first responsible for Operations Support, Finance and later on engaged with Sales and Customer Relationships.

Sabine started in 2022 at Cottonwood Technology Fund. Her main tasks include corporate & investor relations, office support, LP relationships, support in fund finance, capital calls, portfolio support, fund marketing and fund reporting.

Sabine is located at the European offices in Enschede and Amsterdam.

Shinjan is Senior Technology Analyst at Cottonwood Technology Fund. He has 18 years’ experience in technical research and market analysis at Fortune 500 companies and scale-ups.

Shinjan graduated in 2003 cum laude at the University of Madras (India) in Mechanical Engineering (MSc.).

Charles serves as an Special LP in Cottonwood Funds I and II, sourcing both Skorpios Technologies and Incitor.

Charles is also General Partner in Phase One Ventures, a small ($2M) angel fund, and an active angel investor.

Charles holds a BS in Chemical Engineering with Highest Honors from Montana State University and am MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Davis. Charles was previously employed by the Lawrence Livermore National Lab.

Specialties: General management, leadership coaching, start-ups. intellectual property management, technology commercialization and business development.

Alan is on the board of New Mexico First Financial, Inc., a one bank holding company of Western Heritage Bank with locations in New Mexico and Texas. He chairs the Compensation Committee and serves on the Asset Liability and Audit Committees. Alan has served as a Special LP & advisor to the investment committee of Cottonwood Funds I, II & III. Alan is the Managing Member of Plutus Ventures, a family investment firm that invests in diversified venture funds. Alan also serves on the investment committee of Saba Investments. Alan was appointed by the Governor of Texas to serve as a Director of the Emerging Technology Fund & as a board member of the Center for Innovation & Commercialization for the El Paso region. He serves on the Investment Committee for the Paso del Norte Foundation & as an advisor to the Medical Center of the Americas startup seed fund. At the Trustee of Pacific University he served on the Investment & Finance Committees. Alan is a graduate of Stanford University, holds an MBA from the University of Texas and is a CPA.