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Meet The Partners

Venture Catalyst Partners, LLC. works shoulder-to-shoulder with our investments, combining game-changing leadership with bonafide business approaches to foster rewarding business opportunities. We are dedicated to using ethical business practices to advance businesses and careers exponentially and welcome anyone who wants to see their opportunity, business, or career flourish. connect@venturecatalystpartners.com

Bill Henderson

General Partner | Founder | Venture Strategist 

One of Bill's governing principles is Occam's Razor: "other things being equal, a simpler explanation is better than a more complex one." Those who know him especially well will attest that there is another principle that defines Bill: the principle of "anything for a story." 



As a lifelong sailor and commercially licensed captain, Bill is adamant that you can never know enough to not be taught a new lesson, especially when the forces of nature and mankind are involved. His experience and business knowledge are very much akin to his love of sailing—likewise to how he's never met a boat that wasn't worth his time, from 19th-century Schooners to 100-ton passenger vessels plying the waters on the Eastern and Western seaboard and the San Francisco and New York harbors, he's never encountered a business that he couldn't find any ability to add out-sized value to.

It goes without saying that anyone who resists change or is unable to learn is ignoring within themselves the very things they oppose in their business. On the contrary, a drive for continuous improvement and learning, as well as the precept of Kaizen "Change for the Better," are all ingrained in Bill's DNA. As such, he is determined to help every company identify this ethos and employ it to their advantage.

 

Bill had been pursuing Masters in Economics before realizing the incredible pace of technology and businesses led by technology in particular. Bill was especially enamored with the requisite technology at the time, as well as its incredible evolution, starting from PC based technology to the Internet mainframe to mobile computing.

Always the one in the group to find the conventionally accepted limit first, Bill is consistently pushing the envelope. After all, anything worth doing is worth doing well in an aggressive, lean forward way. This way of moving forward provided a useful core competency in risk management. As you learn how to defy conventional wisdom, you begin to recognize on your own when things are likely to break and how; you learn to either hold back at that instance or push ahead.

 

Experience in the alternative investment, trading, currency markets,  and structured products (such as ABS issuance) spaces made Bill aware of downside risk and the benefit of embracing it as an opportunity to enhance the upside of your portfolio. Fundamentally, one should go with whatever nature dealt them. And when that's not working, draft it towards a new outcome.

Bill brings to Venture Catalyst Partners, LLC. his personal vision of bringing out the significant value that many opportunities have but, for some reason, can’t evolve to value expansion.  Bill has consistently worked closely with some of the brightest entrepreneurial, business and technical minds and most innovative Internet and Enterprise technology solutions, in Alternative Investment and Financial Engineering, Automotive Manufacturing and Retail, Banking (Global Cash Management), Finance (Investment / Debt / Trading), e-Procurement, Supply Chain and Logistics Management, Defense and Aerospace - Sensors, and Homeland Security and Combating Global Terrorism. 

 

With the common linkage within each industry representing groundbreaking software development, Bill's immersive nature enables him to get up to speed quickly. The breadth and depth of his experience help elevate companies and enable them to grow past their early successes.

Andy Kiger

Senior Partner | Principal | Venture Strategist 

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Lieutenant Colonel Andy Kiger, US Army Retired, became a partner with Venture Catalyst on January 1, 2021.  He has worked application development with iOS/ Android/ HTML/ Java-script the past several years, and most recently worked direct sales with V3 Electric, a solar provider.

 

Andy enlisted into the United States Army in 1984 serving as an airborne ranger with 3rd Ranger Battalion at Fort Benning, Georgia.  He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers through the ROTC program at UC Davis in 1992 and served in various troop assignments in the United States and overseas.  He was a Platoon Leader, Executive Officer and Assistant S3 in the Arctic Light Brigade at Fort Wainwright, Alaska; Brigade S1, Brigade Engineer, and Company Commander in the 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division at Fort Riley, Kansas; Automation Officer in the 1st Special Forces Group at Fort Lewis, Washington; Facility Engineer for the Gordon Regional Security Operations Center at Fort Gordon, Georgia; Brigade Engineer and Battalion S3 in the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and the Deputy District Commander for Sacramento District, US Army Corps of Engineers in Sacramento, California.  His operational deployments include Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines 2002 with the 1st Special Forces Group and Operation Iraqi Freedom 2005-2006, 2007-2009 with the 101st Airborne Division.  Andy retired with 23 years of active service in December 2011.

 

Andy holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science engineering from the University of California – Davis and a Master of Science in engineering management from the University of Missouri – Rolla.  He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger, Sapper, Airborne, Air Assault, and Jumpmaster courses, the Engineer Officer’s Basic and Advanced Courses, and the Command and General Staff College.

 

His awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit; Bronze Star Medal (2 awards); Meritorious Service Medal (3 awards); Joint Service Commendation Medal; Army Commendation Medal (4 awards); the Army Achievement Medal (3 awards); the Master Parachutists Badge, the Expert Infantry Badge, the Combat Action Badge, and the Bronze Order of the de Fleury Medal.

 

He is married to the former Jennifer Rose Gonzales of San Francisco, CA and they have one daughter (Connie – 18) and three sons (Jonathan – 24, Joseph – 20, and William – 10).

Jonathan Pyo

Senior Partner | Principal | Venture Strategist 

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Jonathan, is a seasoned executive in management consulting and enterprise software industry, Jonathan built his career on a simple principle: customer delight.  Jonathan’s passion is all about delivering value and enabling customers’ success.  He brings to Venture Catalyst Partners, LLC the same passion and commitment to the clients and enterprises seeking to accelerate growth and achieve ultimate customer success for their firms.

 

In his various management and executive positions at leading firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Consulting Services, BearingPoint, Flextronics, IBM Global Business Services and SAP, Jonathan had a chance to work with many different companies in myriad of background and circumstances.  Jonathan helped clients to drive successful business transformations by leveraging and enabling emerging technologies and solutions from start-ups to large, complex firms alike.

 

Jonathan believes every enterprise has a chance to succeed and thrive.  Given the right combination of strategy, innovation and market opportunity, what will take successful enterprises stand out among the rest is right leadership combined with firms’ sheer determination to succeed and just good old grit in execution.

Ajish Nair 
Senior Partner | Principal | Venture Strategist 
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Ajish is a serial entrepreneur, and founded his first big success in the year 2015, Social Pulsar. 12+ years of experience has made him churn rich expertise in almost all facets of business intelligence and digital intelligence which helped him knit a lucid vision and mission for the organization. He began his career with a startup in India, as a software engineer. He chose to explore further by working for companies like Apple, PayPal, eBay, Oakley, PG&E etc. Ajish brings advanced development execution skills as well as digital marketing and social media expertise.

Paul Signorelli 
Senior Partner | Principal | Venture Strategist 
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