About Susan
Susan Akbarpour is a philanthropist, entrepreneur and venture capital. She is the founder of several start-ups and has over 30 years of hands-on experience building innovative products and businesses in technology and media.
During the last 10 years after graduating from Stanford University Graduate School of Business with the Master of Science (MSc), Management, she has made it her mission to develop, invest in and leverage consumer-centric technologies that can end the internet consumer as-a-product model.
Some of these technologies include omnichannel marketplace as-a-service, universal shopping cart, cross-pollinated and contactless commerce (C-Commerce), blockchain-based influence marketing, tokenized content monetization, smart contract as a service, shop-able content publishing platform as-a-service and very recently micro-mobility and AI based face recognition.
Susan Akbarpour has joint Candou, an early stage fund, as a managing partner and works on sourcing, development and support of startups focused on SaaS, AI, blockchain and consumer internet. She also serves on Facenote and Algopix board of directors.
She is also a limited partner in other funds such as Practical VC and Venture University Venture Partners.
Susan has received multiple media, community and business awards and spoken at various conferences. She is also a contributor writer to Forbes, IPR Journal, Disruptor daily and is frequently featured in mainstream media.
Susan has been providing guidance as a trustee as well as financial support to various non profit organizations and in 2021 created “The Akbarpour Aalaei Fellowship”, which provides need-based financial aid to Farsi-speaking MBA, MSx, or PhD students who are enrolled in Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB).