Overview
Charlie O'Donnell is Founder and General Partner at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures [1], a position held since January 2012 [6]. O'Donnell currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences [4] and as an Investor Coach at VCto11 [5]. O'Donnell holds a BS in Finance from Fordham University [11] and previously taught at Fordham University as an Adjunct Professor from 2005 to 2012 [10]. O'Donnell founded nextNYC in February 2006 [8] and serves as Board Member and Co-Founder of Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse [7]. O'Donnell is currently authoring a book titled "Founder Unfriendly" [3].
Profile introduction
*** NO LONGER INVESTING IN STARTUPS *** Charlie is a highly sought after coach to top VCs and also teaches entrepreneurship at NYU’s Courant Institute. For 20 years, Charlie has been a mainstay in the NYC startup and innovation community–starting as the first analyst at Union Square Ventures after working in the General Motors pension fund’s venture capital and private equity group. He went on to help First Round Capital open up their NYC office in 2009, where he sourced investments in GroupMe, Singleplatform, Moat, and Backupify among others. In 2012, he started Brooklyn Bridge Ventures–th…
Career history
- Book AuthorApr 2026 to presentFounder Unfriendly
- Adjunct ProfessorSep 2024 to presentNYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
- Investor CoachJul 2023 to presentVCto11
- Founder and General PartnerJan 2012 to presentBrooklyn Bridge Ventures
- Board Member/Co-FounderJan 2010 to presentBrooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse
- FounderFeb 2006 to presentnextNYC
- Adjunct ProfessorJun 2013 to Aug 2013New York University - Polytechnic School of Engineering
- Adjunct ProfessorMay 2005 to Dec 2012Fordham University
Education
BS, Finance1997 - 2001Fordham University
- Regis High SchoolSep 1993 - Jun 1997
In the news
- More Human Than Human: Using AI to Connect to Actual People“A phantom in a box, shadow in your head.” — White Zombie
Nobody ever asked for VCs to start quoting song lyrics—but if you’re going
to, it might as well be someone happily partnered for 20+ years, a longtime
and animal welfare advocate, and known for being professional and kind to
crews and fans.
Rob Zombie > Kanye
People are usually surprised to find out I'm a Rob Zombie guy. I’ve
Brooklyn Bridge Ventures · Sep 10, 2026
- Would You Invest All Your Money at This Price?If I handed you the cash equivalent of your vested equity today — two
million dollars, or whatever crazy number the last valuation of your
company would imply — would you turn around and put all of it back into the
current Series D?
Maybe you’d rather spread it out among the three other well-funded
competitors who are all doing the same thing—infrastructure for agentic
e-commerce or f
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