J. Skyler Fernandes

J. Skyler (Sky) Fernandes is ranked as a Powerlist 100 VC and is the Founder, Chairman, & General Partner of VU, a global venture capital and private equity investment fund, with offices in San Francisco (United States), Hong Kong (China), Munich (Germany), and Sao Paulo (Brazil).VU's senior investment partners have over 100+ years of venture capital and real estate private equity investment experience, have invested $2+ Billion in venture capital and $7+ Billion in real estate / private equity, and has been an early investor in over 25+ unicorns, with 20+ multi-billion exits, including SpaceX, OpenAI, Figure AI, Nueralink, Anduril, Erebor, Beyond Meat, FabFitFun, Facebook (Meta), Twitter (X), Uber, Flyr Labs, Oculus, Oscar, Palantir, Tyme Group, Wayflyer, etc.VU's investment platform includes:- VU Venture Partners: A global venture capital fund with a 60+ person investment team across six verticals: Consumer, Enterprise, Fintech, Frontier, Healthcare, PropTech.- VU Capital Partners: A global private equity fund, focused on real estate, growth equity, pre-IPO, and leveraged buyouts.- Bonded Capital: An investor syndicate with over 5,000+ accredited investors across angel investors, family offices, fund-of-funds which invest on a deal by deal basis.- Venture University: An investor accelerator platform for venture capital and real estate private equity, which includes academic programs and investment apprenticeship programs.- Finally Admin: An investment administration platform for creating and managing SPVs and funds.Previously, Sky was the Managing Director of Investments at Cleveland Avenue, a fund focused on food and beverage brands, food related technology, and new restaurant concepts, co-founded by the former President and CEO of McDonald's.Prior to Cleveland Avenue, Sky was the Founder, Head, and Managing Director of Simon Venture Group (SVG), the investment arm of Simon Property Group, an S&P 100 company, and the largest retail real estate company and public REIT in the world, which at the time had more retail sales than Amazon and Apple combined.Sky has developed a number of key resources for the startup community, such as "The Best Startup Pitch Deck" (viewed and downloaded 700,000+ times and used by leading accelerators and business schools). Sky also created the #1 startup and VC board game, "The Next Big Thing: The Game of Entrepreneurship", http://www.nextbigthingboardgame.com/Sky graduated early from New York University (NYU), summa cum laude, due to his studies at Harvard University in Physics and Foreign Policy.