Venture Capital: Dan Ciporin ’86 and Michelle Kwon ’20

Dan Ciporin ’86 is general partner at Canaan Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm. He is interviewed by Michelle Kwon ’20, a second-year MBA student at Yale School of Management. Show Notes.

Dan Ciporin ’86 is a general partner at Canaan, an early-stage venture capital firm. He partners with startups to deliver innovation particularly in the areas of financial technology, e-commerce, and marketplaces. Dan joined Canaan after serving as Chairman and CEO of Shopping.com, where he took the company public after leading it from zero to over $100 million in revenue in five years and then sold it to Ebay. Prior to that he was Senior VP of MasterCard International running their global debit program. Dan earned an A.B. from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and an M.B.A. from Yale School of Management in 1986.

Michelle Kwon '20 is a second-year student in Yale SOM's full-time MBA program. Before enrolling at Yale SOM, she worked as a Business Affairs Project Manager supporting the launch of Airbnb Experiences in San Francisco. Before Airbnb, she worked at Soros Fund Management in New York City supporting equity capital markets, securitized products, and growth equity investments. Michelle graduated from Georgetown University with a B.A. in Government and conducted research in South Korea as a Fulbright Scholar. She is from Orange County, CA by way of Cincinnati, OH.