Monday 23 March 2020

Former Slack exec April Underwood has joined Obvious Ventures as a venture partner

April Underwood, who until early last year was Slack’s chief product officer, has joined Obvious Ventures as a venture partner, she announced on Twitter today.

Underwood said that as part of the firm’s team, she will “invest in great companies seeking to solve the big problems facing humanity: our climate, human health and wellness, and how we work.” Of Obvious’s focus on “backing company with world positive impact,” she said its mission “couldn’t possibly feel more needed than it does in this particular moment.”

For Underwood, the role is one of several that she is currently juggling. She founded a startup advisory outfit called Wise Owl last year. She is also a cofounder of #Angels, an organization that focuses on investing in female founders and to which Underwood remains very committed, she said today, tweeting that her focus on “getting more women on the cap tables of successful startups will continue unabated.”

Underwood is now among a growing number of #Angels cofounders — powerful women at Twitter who introduced the initiative in 2015 — to be investing on pretty much a full-time basis.

In addition to Underwood, who spent nearly five years as a director of product at Twitter before joining Slack, #Angels was founded by Jana Messerschmidt, who is now a partner with Lightspeed Venture Partners; Jessica Verrilli, who is now a general partner with GV; and Katie Stanton Jacobs, who recently closed her own first venture fund with $25 million in capital commitments under the brand Moxie Ventures.

Another #Angels founder Vijaya Gadde, was and remains the General Counsel at Twitter. Meanwhile, Chloe Sladden, a former VP of Media at Twitter, last year cofounded a seed-stage startup making collaborative parenting tools called Honeycomb Labs.

Underwood, who also sits on the board of Zillow, was in charge of much of Slack’s strategy and product decisions during her nearly four years with the company.

Underwood is now one of three venture partners who are working with Obvious Ventures.

The others include serial entrepreneur, investor and advisor Julie Hanna, and Di-Ann Eisnor, who was previously the Director of Urban Systems at Google’s Area 120 and, before that, started the U.S. office of Waze in 2009.

Obvious Ventures — cofounded very notably by Twitter cofounder Ev Williams — closed its third fund with roughly $270 million in capital commitments earlier this year.