Jake Jolis

Jake Jolis is a serial entrepreneur and investor, currently bootstrapping Answering Machine, an AI-powered phone receptionist service. This venture was directly inspired by a personal anecdote where his phone number was accidentally publicized, leading him to identify a market need for AI-driven solutions for small businesses to manage calls and avoid lost revenue. jakejolis+2

As the Co-founder and CEO of Verbling, Jake successfully built and scaled an innovative video chat-based language learning platform. Under his leadership, Verbling attracted millions of users and thousands of teachers, ultimately leading to its acquisition by Busuu, which was later acquired by Chegg for $436 million, demonstrating his ability to found and exit successful technology companies. jakejolis+2

Following his entrepreneurial success, Jake transitioned into venture capital as a Partner at Matrix Partners. Here, he focused on early-stage investments (pre-seed, seed, Series A), particularly in AI/ML, SaaS, and fintech. He is recognized for his hands-on approach and for leading or contributing to investments in notable companies such as Steadily, Keeper Tax, Educative, Dray Alliance, Smartcat, Applied Intuition, and previously Afterpay, Lever, Logikcull, and Iterable. mercury+2

With a background as a Stanford dropout who participated in Y Combinator (S11 batch), Jake Jolis embodies the agile and unconventional spirit of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship. His career highlights a consistent drive to turn overlooked problems into game-changing startups, combining his experience as a founder with his insights as a venture capitalist to support and build transformative companies. stanford-entrepreneurs+3