Mike Edelhart 

Advisor

Mike Edelhart is the General Partner for Ataraxia, a fund management company. Ataraxia currently manages 3 sets of funds: Social Starts, Joyance Partners and Versity Partners. Mike has been active in technology journalism, product testing, startups, and venture capital for four decades.

 

The 10 Ataraxia funds represent $200M AUM. The funds have invested in more than 400 companies over the past 12 years, including positions in 9 unicorns and performance over 4X in the mature funds. Ataraxia has developed a unique AI-driven methodology for identifying companies of great valuation potential at their earliest stages.

 

Mike was a partner at Redleaf, a multi-stage VC fund and consulted on startup activities with AARP, Reuters and Bloomberg. He was part of Softbank's initial US team, where he directed content for the Seybold, Interop, and Comdex conferences and supported early investment activities. Mike has been CEO at many startups, including Olive Software, Inman News, and Zinio and Deep Dyve. He was a board member at Women.com and helped found Third Age Media, the first internet site for older adults.

In the 1980s, Mike helped found PC Magazine, PC Week, and other Ziff-Davis computer magazines, oversaw the Ziff product testing labs, and later was Ziff's Executive Vice President. Mike has authored more than 20 books on topics ranging from micro processing challenges to a social history of Virginia, and currently hosts Inception, a podcast about how startups are created, funded, and ultimately, win.