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Your private investment team

What we believe

We exist to simplify fiduciaries' lives and help their clients reach their goals

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The private investment process is broken

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All investors deserve access to high-quality private investments

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Modern tech will streamline private investing

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Aligned incentives are key to great partnerships

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Who we are

Experts

We are a team of investors, allocators, operational specialists, and technologists from the world's top financial institutions and technology companies.

Innovators

We are relentless technological innovators, committed to changing the way fiduciaries experience private markets.

Partners

We believe in the value of advice and that fiduciaries deserve better, simpler, and more scalable options for accessing private markets confidently and efficiently.

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We are Opto

Opto is your long-term partner for building smarter private markets portfolios.

Our advisors

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David Barnard

Former Head of Private Wealth Management, AllianceBernstein

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Steve Lockshin

Founder & CEO, Advice Period

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Keri Findley

CEO, Tacora Capital

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Michael Batnick

Managing Partner, Ritholtz Wealth Management

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Isaac Applebaum

Founder & Partner, Mizmaa Ventures

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Kelly O'Connor

Founder & CEO, Lumiere Partners

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Mark Goldberg

Senior Advisor, Apollo Global Management

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James Waldinger

Founder & CEO, Artivest

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Todd Ruppert

Founder & CEO, Ruppert International

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David Barnard

Former Head of Private Wealth Management, AllianceBernstein

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Steve Lockshin

Founder & CEO, Advice Period

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Keri Findley

CEO, Tacora Capital

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Michael Batnick

Managing Partner, Ritholtz Wealth Management

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Isaac Applebaum

Founder & Partner, Mizmaa Ventures

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Kelly O'Connor

Founder & CEO, Lumiere Partners

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Mark Goldberg

Senior Advisor, Apollo Global Management

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James Waldinger

Founder & CEO, Artivest

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Todd Ruppert

Founder & CEO, Ruppert International

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Thoughtful guidance, world-class guides

The Opto leadership team

A team of proven investors, operators, and technologists committed to helping your clients meet their goals.

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Ryan VanGorder

Chief Executive Officer
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Ryan VanGorder is Opto Investments' Chief Executive Officer.

Prior to joining Opto, Ryan was a Managing Director at BlackRock, leading finance in the Asia Pacific region. Ryan has more than 20 years of financial services experience and began his career in 2001 at Quellos, a Seattle-based hedge fund-of-funds.

When he's not focused on building Opto into a world-class business, you might bump into Ryan running or biking on a trail near you.

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Jacob Miller

Co-Founder

Jacob runs Opto's Advisory practice. He works directly with our clients, is actively engaged in our investment committee, and drives the development of investment frameworks to ensure a great client experience.

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Jacob was previously at Bridgewater Associates. He has a passion for sensible long-term investing, systematizing investment processes, and distilling complex market dynamics into clear, logical linkages that help people understand goals and performance in intuitive and actionable ways.

Jacob has been managing money for family and friends since he was 16 and is a certified market junkie. While he has a background in macroeconomics and high-yield debt, he finds the challenges and opportunities in the private markets space far more interesting and important for investors and society.

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Kamal Jafarnia

Co-Founder, General Counsel

Kamal provides legal guidance and strategies to the leadership team and is responsible for ensuring that the platform remains in regulatory compliance enterprise-wide.

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Kamal Jafarnia has more than 30 years of experience as an attorney, compliance professional, and financial industry veteran. He has advised public and private companies—including alternative investment program sponsors—on complex securities offerings, regulatory and compliance issues, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance.

Prior to joining Opto, Kamal served as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Artivest Holdings, Inc., Altegris Investments, Altegris Advisors, and as CCO for the Altegris KKR Commitments Fund. Before Artivest, he was a Senior Vice President with New-York based W.P. Carey in its managed funds business.

Kamal received his LL.M. in securities and financial regulation from Georgetown University Law Center and graduated from Temple University School of Law with a Juris Doctor degree. He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Matt Reed

Co-Founder, Engineering

Matt leads engineering efforts at Opto, ensuring we build scalable technology solutions that support our tech-first approach to private investment management.

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Matt has 20 years of experience building mission-critical technologies for the aerospace and financial services industries.

Matt began his career building satellite flight control systems for Northrop Grumman Space Technology. Following an interest in investing, he transitioned to the quant finance space and built the core software platform for Strategic Global Advisors.

Matt then joined Addepar, where he held a variety of engineering and leadership positions, most notably delivering its public API and integrations platform. Matt holds a Master of Financial Engineering from UC Berkeley, a BS+MS in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech, and is a CFA charterholder.

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Matt Malone

Head of Investment Management

Matt oversees Opto's investment activities, fund structuring, and product development to ensure we serve our clients' needs and stay on the cutting edge of private markets.

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Matt has over 15 years of experience across all aspects of alternative investments, including investment management, manager research, and product development. He serves as President of Opto's registered investment adviser and chair of its investment committee.

Matt came to Opto from a large alternative investment firm where he was a managing director in its investment management division and also served as head of due diligence. Prior to that, he was a partner at a leading alternative investment research and diligence firm.

Matt has served as Chair of the CFA Society of Washington DC and President of the Alternative and Direct Investment Securities Association, and is a CFA charterholder and licensed attorney.

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Sean Mulcahy

Head of Investment Operations

Sean heads up our investment operations, and is laser-focused on making the advisor investment workflow as seamless, intuitive, and integrated as possible.

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Sean Mulcahy is the Head Of Investment Operations at Opto. He is responsible for investment operations and platform transactions, including ecosystem integrations, reporting, and client service.

He has over 15 years of experience building alternative investment technology solutions, focused on the independent wealth management channel. Before Opto, Sean worked at Flow and consulted at Addepar Marketplace. Previously, Sean spent six years at CAIS as an SVP in the operations group. He is a CAIA charterholder and a member of the Rising Leaders Council for the Insitute of Portfolio Alternatives (IPA).

He graduated from Northeastern University with a BS in Political Science and Government.

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Eytan Schindelhaim

Head of Product
Eytan leads product management and design for Opto, using technology to transform clients' experience when building and executing private markets investment programs.
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Eytan has dedicated his career to making financial markets more efficient, transparent, and navigable through technology. In several years in the fintech space, he has designed and built elegant, intuitive systems to manage portfolios representing billions of dollars in assets.

Prior to Opto, Eytan was director of product management at Cadre, a commercial real estate investment platform, designed data science tools for financial institutions at Enigma Technologies, and developed next-generation portfolio analysis and reporting software at Addepar.

Eytan holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Columbia Business School, and is a member of various fintech and product management groups in New York City.

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Joe Lonsdale

Co-Founder, Executive Chairman

Joe has seen firsthand how private investing is broken and is committed to fixing it. As co-founder and chairman, Joe is heavily involved in helping build and guide Opto, shaping our vision and strategy.

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Joe is an American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. Over the course of his career, he's been a part of founding more than a dozen mission-driven companies, including Opto Investments, Palantir, Addepar, Affinity, and 8VC.

Joe is passionate about repairing broken industries and government, inculcating classical virtues, prioritizing families, and enabling a free and prosperous society where everyone can thrive.

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Mark Machin

Vice Chairman

Mark plays a vital role in enabling Opto's growth, offering strategic input and tapping his vast network and expertise to support our sourcing and investment efforts.

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Dr. Machin has 30 years of experience in investment and finance. Most recently, Mark was the President & CEO at CPP Investments, the largest pension fund in Canada. During his time there, AUM grew to nearly $500B with returns of over 11% per annum, while he was voted one of Canada’s Top 10 CEOs by Glassdoor in its 2018 Employee Choice Awards.

This followed a 20-year career at Goldman Sachs, where he was Head of Capital Markets, Head of Investment Banking, and Vice Chairman of Asia ex-Japan. Mark is a member of GIC's International Advisory Board and is also an advisor to the GIC Investment Strategies Committee. He was on the board of Sequoia Heritage from 2018 to 2020.

Mark holds a BA in Physiological Sciences from Oxford University and a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery from Cambridge University.

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Join the team!

  • Flexible working arrangements
  • Comprehensive healthcare
  • Investment benefits
  • Fitness, education & WFH stipends

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