Susan Akbarpour is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and educator building and investing in human-centric solutions for the digital economy. A Stanford GSB alumna and recipient of the 2025 Stanford GSB Centennial Alumni Catalyst Award, she has spent more than thirty years founding and scaling disruptive technology companies.
Susan is the Managing Partner of Candou Ventures, investing in foundational AI, SaaS, and platforms, and General Partner of Monjeri Investment, her venture studio incubating initiatives like Democracy 3.0, CIMA.VC and Markit.Place. A dedicated governance leader, she sits on the boards of KQED, OII, Entropy, and How Women Lead and founded the Akbarpour Aalaei Fellowship for graduate students at Stanford GSB.
A sought-after speaker and contributor to Forbes and the IPR Journal, she also serves on the faculty at the Harbour.Space Graduate School of Business, teaching Designing and Investing in Products for Impact.