Lane Bess is the founder and principal of Bess Ventures and Advisory. See sector focus and contact routes.
Lane Bess is the founder and principal of Bess Ventures and Advisory, a $100 million venture investment firm he established in 2015 as a family office focused on technology, leveraging capital from his 35-year executive career that included leading Palo Alto Networks and Zscaler to IPOs. His investment thesis centers on early- to mid-stage companies in Internet security, storage, business intelligence, and increasingly space-related technologies that support planetary sustainability. While specific check sizes are not publicly detailed, he typically invests personal funds as an angel investor and has participated in rounds from pre-seed and seed up to Series C, often serving on boards or as chairman. Notable portfolio companies include Arista Networks, Nutanix, ThoughtSpot, Rubrik, Zscaler, Lumu, Zero Gravity, Evident, Panorays, and Blaize Holdings, for which he serves as chairman. A distinctive point of view is his active pursuit of space exploration, having flown to space on Blue Origin’s NS-19 mission in December 2021, which aligns with his growing investment focus on space tech. He also serves as a Trustee on Carnegie Mellon Universit
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