Ben Metcalfe

Monochrome Capital invests in early-stage software and AI-driven startups that are solving the toughest business challenges.

Founded in 2007, Ridge Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund investing in experienced founders redefining how the world interacts with software. We back companies delivering advanced technologies, new distribution models and incredible user experiences to market. Our approach - fast, flexible and founder-focused - creates the right relationship from the word “go” helping companies become market leaders quickly. Alignment matters. Here’s the proof: Krux, MindMeld, Next Games, Minted, Fastly, for starters. Ridge Ventures was formerly IDG Ventures USA. To learn more, visit us at http://ridge.vc

Rafay is a turnkey SaaS platform that automates the highly complex work DevOps teams do today to manage the lifecycle of their containerized apps running across any number of Kubernetes clusters in cloud and hybrid environments. The Rafay platform delivers an industry-first abstraction and blueprinting framework that lets companies adopt these complex technologies today. Ridge Ventures led the Series A investment in May 2019.

25% of the Fortune 50 trust Samasource to deliver secure, high-quality training data and validation for the technology teams driving humanity forward. From self-driving cars to smart hardware, Samasource fuels AI. Founded over a decade ago, we’re experts in image, video and sensor data annotation and validation for machine learning algorithms in industries including automotive, navigation, AR/VR, biotech, agriculture, manufacturing, and e-commerce. Our staff are driven by a mission to expand opportunity for low-income people through the digital economy, and our social business model has helped over 50,000 people lift themselves out of poverty. Ridge Ventures led the Series A investment in Samasource's for-profit entity, which was spun out from the original Samasource non-profit entity in late 2018.

Funding awesome Gigster clients so they may achieve success and change the world.

I founded Uber's Public Policy innovation team that designed, built and deployed strategically vital technology products to drive Social Good and Social Change. I recruited and led a team of engineers, designers, data science and operations folks that built custom tools to support citizen engagement across legislative matters. My team and I also created social good features and projects, including the massively acclaimed 'Beethoven' project. One of the most proudest launches of my career, Beethoven delivered Uber Driver tools to empower a highly under-employed section of our community to work on the platform and provide for their family (see video links below). The work of my team and I ensured Uber was able to enter the multi-$billion Nevada market and kept Uber in key markets across the world such as New York, California and parts of LatAm.

As a rapidly growing company, once we were out of our 'all-hands-on-deck' period I held executive roles looking after marketing and then later strategy. WP Engine is one of the most mature premium managed hosting platform for websites and apps built with WordPress. WP Engine powers tens of thousands of websites, delivering the fastest, most reliable, and most secure web experience. Businesses large and small have come to rely on WP Engine’s exceptional customer service team that specializes in solving problems ranging from troubleshooting plugins, making themes scalable, and mitigating site migration headaches.