Olga Chumanskaya

I am a VP of Platform at Khosla Ventures, and we are in the business of ventures assistance. Here, I focus on the platform side of venture - which to me means working with the human behind the founder. Every ambitious company is powered by someone carrying an almost inhuman weight: sleepless nights, impossible choices, and the pressure of building something the world has never seen before. My role is to make that load a little lighter - by finding the right people to join the journey, by opening doors when everything feels blocked, by standing next to them when the path gets messy, and yes, at times getting pissed at someone who’s not being friendly to my founder. The path here wasn’t linear: I’ve built cars at Mercedes-Benz, negotiated a $250M manufacturing deal at 22, launched EV charging across 35 countries, co-founded a mining venture, and advised governments on industrial policy. What ties it all together is my obsession with big, complex problems - whether technical, political, or human. I care deeply about how technology reshapes the global order: energy, manufacturing, mining. I’ve lived and worked in five countries, speak three languages, and still chase the same goal I had as a kid staring at a giant world map on my wall - to be a true global citizen and a leader shaping what comes next. Outside of KV, you’ll often find me talking about freedom of speech and democracy, or testing the limits of a dual-career life with my founder partner (where “fix the deck” counts as a love language).