Dave Merrill joining Lemnos as EIR
I am excited to share some great news! I am joining the team at Lemnos Labs as Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR).
As one of a small number of venture investors that are receptive to hardware deals, and of an even smaller set that ONLY back hardware, Lemnos Labs has been on my radar since its early days. I remember going over for dinner at Jeremy’s house a few years ago, soon after he and Helen raised the first fund. The group was made up of his friends, roommates, and founders of the first few Lemnos-backed companies. I quickly realized that everyone around the table was super talented and working on amazing projects and companies, each on a course to make their own dent in the universe. Knowing that today an even larger version of this community surrounds Lemnos Labs was one of the reasons I jumped at the opportunity to join.
Following almost a decade in user interface research at Stanford and MIT, I have been part of the hardware startup community for the past 7 years – first via my own company Sifteo that I spun out of the MIT Media Lab, then at 3D Robotics via acquisition where I helped build out the product group, ship a consumer-friendly drone and run R&D. I know firsthand that building great hardware companies is hard, and I am pumped to contribute to the ecosystem in my new role.
As EIR at Lemnos I have two goals: First, I’ll be spending part of my time alongside Eric helping the companies that Lemnos has already invested in, thinking with the founders about product, technology, team-building, fundraising, and go-to-market strategy questions that come up all the time in the life of a young company. Smart move (IMHO) for the partners at Lemnos to grow their team with people like me and Tim to help their portfolio companies succeed! Second, I am getting started on my own next project – stay tuned.
I can be found at Lemnos Labs in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco most days. You can find a little more about me here. If you have a hardware startup that you think Lemnos Labs should fund, or you’re doing robotics, AR, VR, cool stuff with sensors or human-computer-interaction – drop me a line: dave@lemnoslabs.com
Onward!