Meet the Team
Our team is on a mission to change what is to what could be. We are creating a world that future generations can live in.
Chris Kim
Founder, Managing Partner
As a founding partner of UNION, Chris is a scientist and technologist who has a deep understanding of science, technology, and rapid product development. Prior to UNION, Chris was the CTO and head of product for August Home, a manufacturer of smart locks and video systems, acquired by Assa Abloy. During his tenure he drove the team to focus on privacy and full-spectrum security, covering areas from device encryption to protect against attacks and supply chain compromise. Before August, he managed cybersecurity and consumer e-commerce products at eBay, Bank of America and other startups.
Chris began his career in management consulting, working for Monitor Group in Boston, London, and Istanbul.He has a BA in physics from Williams College.
Chris is an accomplished free diver, from a family of physicists, and a new amateur cyclist.
Nate Williams
Founder, Managing Partner
As a founding partner of UNION, Nate is a hands-on entrepreneur who knows how to finance, execute, and build emergent businesses. Prior to UNION, was an EIR at Kleiner Perkins focusing on opportunities in DeepTech (IoT, Robotics, AI/ML, Autonomous Vehicles). Before Kleiner Perkins, he was CRO & Head of Business at August Home, Inc. a leader in Smart Home Access which was acquired by Assa Abloy in 2017. Nate was the CMO & Head of Business at Greenwave Systems and Senior Director of Marketing & Business Development at Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility (following their acquisition of 4Home where he was the CMO & Head of Business). He earned an MBA from The UCLA-Anderson School of Management and a Bachelors in Communication Science from The University of Connecticut.
Nate is a competitive cyclist, co-founder of three elementary-aged kids, and new amateur free diver.
Annie Le
Director of Operations
Annie is the Director of Operations at UNION. She oversees all operational aspects of the firm and fund including people ops, platform & community, fund administration, legal, tax, marketing, and investor relations. Prior to UNION, Annie ran operations at Pryze, a blockchain-based marketing automation protocol. Before Pryze she was the Chief of Staff at Juicero, ran partnerships at Bluewolf (an IBM company), supported the trade team at Thiel Capital, and accounting at Deloitte. She received her degree in business at Sonoma State University and a culinary degree at SFCS.
Annie is a master at making eclairs & macarons. She has a yearly goal to run a half marathon and is enjoying being a new mom.
Bogdan Cristei
Senior Associate
Bogdan is an Investment Associate at Union Labs VC where he sources deals, leads deal tracking and supports portfolio companies. He grew up in Romania and started his career in technical consulting covering biotech, sustainability and energy engineering working with clients like Adobe, Broadcom, Amgen or Genentech among others on the consulting circuit. He then moved into venture capital, first at corporate climatetech fund Evergy Ventures, and now at Union Labs. Bogdan received his Chemical Engineering degree in Orange County at UCI, then went over to UC Berkeley for an MBA as well as a masters in IEOR – Industrial Engineering and Operations Research where he focused on ML/AI. In his spare time, he enjoys strengthening his meditation practice and mountain biking.
Sri Rao
Venture Partner
Sri is a Venture Partner at UNION where he spearheads Founded@UNION, our day zero startup formation efforts spanning internal ideation and development, co-founding with EIRs, and pre-seed investments. Prior to UNION, he served in product leadership at Samsung and Meta (formerly Facebook) focusing on big-bet investments in connectivity, digital media, e-Commerce, machine perception, computer vision, NLP, AR, and connected devices. Sri has also been involved in startups as an operator (Exchange.com acq. Amazon, Real Talk Media Group), early hire (Firefly acq. Microsoft), and angel investor-advisor (Celect acq. Nike, Daylife acq. Newscred, Cruise acq. GM).
Sri enjoys playing ice-hockey, tennis, and jamming on the drums.
Kaylyn Shibata
Entrepreneur in Residence
Kaylyn Shibata is a technologist with a decade of experience in senior business leadership and scaling early stage operations in Big Tech and Aerospace. Previously, Kaylyn built out the Business Operations team at Astra Space, was the Director of Strategy & Operations for Johnson and Johnson, and product lead at Google. Kaylyn is part of the founding team of Gold House, a nonprofit collective focused on elevating Asian and Pacific Islanders to lead and thrive in culture and commerce through unity, investment opportunities, and promotion. Kaylyn graduated from Brown University with a B.Sc in Neuroscience. .
Tejash Unadkat
Entrepreneur in Residence
Tejash Unadkat is an EIR at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and Union Labs. Previously, Tejash was the CEO at Motiv Inc, a smart ring company, that was acquired by Proxy Inc. Prior to that Tejash held executive and leadership roles at August Home (acquired by ASSA Abloy), Basis Science (acquired by Intel), Adobe and Paypal. Tejash has a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from University of California at Berkeley.
Andrew Krioukov
Entrepreneur in Residence, Founder/CEO of Antimatter
Andrew Krioukov was the CEO of Comfy, an IoT startup backed by Emergence Capital, Google Ventures, M12 and others that he co-founded based on his research at UC Berkeley. Comfy was acquired by Siemens in 2018. Previously, he was a PhD Candidate in Computer Science at UC Berkeley working on operating systems and energy efficiency. He is now working on ideas to restore trust on the Internet using recent advances in cryptography.