[ vice president ]
Grant Allen is a Vice President at Core Capital Partners and focuses on early- and growth-stage investments in the Internet, new media, analytics, wireless infrastructure and business services spaces with particular emphasis on mobile applications and enabling technologies.
Before joining Core in 2007, Grant was a Product Manager at Microsoft Corporation in the Mobile & Embedded Devices division where he developed a strategic roadmap for the Windows Mobile smartphone operating system. Previously, he was a consultant at Dean & Company, where he focused on transitioning telecommunications companies to new growth sectors such as mobile gaming and location-based services, cost reduction strategy for wireline carriers, and other technology-related strategy consulting projects. He began his career working with a number of young companies, including Bates White, an economics consulting firm; Nextera Interactive, an Internet incubator and IT consulting firm; and A-k Presence, a web design and e-commerce services firm he co-founded in 1998.
Today, Grant is a frequent speaker on wireless and new media industry topics, sits on the Board of Mobile Monday DC, and is on the Steering Committee for the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association’s Capital Connection. He is highly involved with the MIT Enterprise Forum and is a guest lecturer through the University of Maryland on topics of entrepreneurship. Outside of Core, he is Chairman of the Ocular Melanoma Foundation, a non-profit devoted to patient advocacy and novel cancer research, and consults to and invests in a number of start-ups, including LNS Media and FareShare.
He holds a B.S.E. cum laude from Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he was a Citi Foundation Leadership Fellow, an Executive Director of the Wharton Graduate Association, and served on the Board of the Wharton Alumni Association.
Board Involvement:Grant represents Core on the Boards of Directors of buySAFE, LimeLife, Mobo Systems, and UpdateLogic.