Strengthening our Team: Croom Beatty Promoted to Partner & Grace Ge Promoted to Principal

Matt Murphy, Partner at Menlo Ventures @mmurph

Today we are thrilled to announce the promotion of Croom Beatty, Menlo’s newest Partner. We are also excited to share that Grace Ge has been named Principal. It’s great to promote from within, and both Croom and Grace have earned these promotions through hard work, performance, and the embodiment of the “All In” ethos that defines the teamwork and commitment that are core to the Menlo approach. We are excited about their contributions and impact to date and to recognize these well-deserved promotions.

Croom came to Menlo in 2017 by way of Payoneer, a public B2B payments company where he launched and ran their lending business, and Susquehanna Growth Equity, where he spent several years focused on fintech at the growth stage. Since day one, he rolled up his sleeves to support and refine our investment process, and do whatever it took to help his partners succeed. He won everyone over with his positive attitude, clear thinking, and ability to identify high-quality opportunities. He hit the ground running at Menlo and quickly transitioned from Associate to Principal, with a focus on the fintech and healthcare IT sectors. His interest in both industries is particularly anchored around automating broken workflows and knocking down data silos to build better, more collaborative processes.

Croom is passionate about improving B2B workflows and simplifying underlying data flows between industry constituents. He has sourced investments in Fieldwire, Particle, ShipBob, Fleetsmith, and Qualio, and led funding rounds in Finch, Prodigal, and Rivet. Croom also provides ongoing support and strategic counsel with board or observer roles at ShipBob, Fieldwire, Particle, Ophelia, Rivet, and Prodigal. We’ve heard nothing but consistent positive feedback from founders about Croom, as he has supported them with his hustle in everything from financial models and hiring, to marketing, sales, and more.

Grace has been a terrific team member and impactful player within Menlo and for our portfolio companies since she joined us in 2019. She is widely sought out within the firm for her incredibly thorough diligence work and resourcefulness to get to experts in areas we are pursuing. She also deeply understands business metrics and competitive dynamics in specific industries, which is very helpful to her partners and the early-stage entrepreneurs she collaborates with. In two years at Menlo, Grace has sourced companies including Matik, Teamflow, Vareto, and Vivun. Grace will focus her efforts across SaaS, productivity tools, and next-gen data-based technologies.

One of our goals at Menlo is to create a place for talented, resourceful people to develop their careers as venture capitalists. Many of the senior partners at Menlo have spent time at other firms, and when we came together at Menlo, we were very deliberate in building a firm culture we could be proud of. Key to our success is that everyone has a voice, and we aren’t afraid to share a different perspective or point of view. In fact, as we hire, we want the people around the table to draw on their own experience when evaluating investment opportunities, and expand our network and perspective through theirs. We’ve seen that happen with both Croom and Grace. Grace has been very proactive in mapping out new sectors and expanding our network through building a community of product managers that meets regularly to trade experiences and share key learnings. Croom’s operating background at a fast-growing unicorn payments company has helped us think more deeply about the new fintech stack and ecosystem.

We’re grateful to have Croom and Grace on board as part of Menlo’s next generation of investors helping find, get to know, and ultimately back amazing entrepreneurs. Everyone at Menlo looks forward to watching their bright futures unfold, and rolling up our sleeves with them as part of our All-In team.

Please join us in congratulating them and for those who know them, we continue to welcome your help in their success through your own networks and the always appreciated invaluable referrals!