Erik Moore is the founder and managing director of Base Venture Partners. Prior to Base Ventures, Erik spent 15 years in investment banking at Merrill Lynch and 10 years as a successful angel investor. He made early investments in Zappos (sold for 1.2B to Amazon in 2009) and Plangrid (sold to Autodesk for $875mm in 2018) among others.
In the 11 years since its inception, Base Ventures has raised three funds and invested in more than 100 startups. Fund I invested in three unicorns ($5.2B, $4B and $1B), and six companies worth $500MM+. Base funds have returned cash to investors: almost 50% of invested capital to fund I LPs. Notable investors include: Tony Hsieh (Zappos CEO), Prakash Janakiraman (Founder of Nextdoor), Google Ventures, Partners at Welsh Carson, Greenspring and Berkshire Partners, and Serena Williams. Base has also raised several SPVs alongside its main funds, the most successful one returned 11x to participants.
Featured in publications such as the WSJ and USA Today, Erik is regularly referred to as one of the most prominent African Americans in technology. In 2013, Business Insider named him one of the ten most influential blacks in Silicon Valley, along with David Drummond (Chief Legal Officer at Google) and John Thompson (Chairman of Microsoft). In 2016, the Silicon Valley Black Chamber of Commerce awarded Erik with their Next Generation of Excellence Achievement Award. In 2017, he was the recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from The Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce and he was named a Ford Man of Courage.
Erik is a sought out board member for arts, business, and social change including being on the board of the Common Ground Foundation (which empowers youth from high potential communities), founded by Grammy, Oscar and Emmy award winning artist, Common. He is a former board member of Russell Simmons’ Art For Life (which exposed disadvantaged youth to the arts). He currently serves on the board of the Oakland Museum of California and serves on the advisory board of the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), a Smithsonian Affiliate. Erik serves on the board of The Black Ambition Prize, founded by Pharrell Williams. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf recruited Erik to the City of Oakland’s Fund Advisory Board, and finally, he was named to the Alumni Advisory Council at his undergraduate alma mater, Dartmouth College. Erik earned his MA in French from the University of Pennsylvania, and his MBA from The Wharton School of Business. Through all his work, his most important role is father Blair, who is a freshman at Spelman College and whose accolades and accomplishments put Erik’s to shame.
