Erik Lassila is Managing Partner of Peakview Capital. His twenty plus years of venture capital experience and industry knowledge uniquely give Erik an insider’s view of the ingredients that make venture firms succeed.  

Erik has invested with three firms including Mayfield Fund, Charter Ventures and Clearstone Venture Partners, and has served on sixteen boards of directors with VCs from a large number of today’s leading venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners, Menlo Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and New Enterprise Associates. He has a demonstrated track record of long relationships and friendships throughout the venture capital ecosystem.

As Managing Partner, Erik sets the firm’s strategy and direction. He also heads up the firm’s investment committee. 

Starting with an engineering degree from Iowa State University and operating experience in semiconductor companies, experience further shaped by a Stanford MBA, Erik’s life and career have been driven by his passion for technology and how it can evolve rapidly to meet the constantly changing needs of society, consumers and enterprises. Erik has great respect for entrepreneurs who pursue their vision and follow through.  

His working style can be described as collaborative, focused on the big picture and driving results but Erik is also detail-oriented and dedicated. He believes in the power of coupling great ideas with great execution. 

Erik feels an indescribable rush when a company is working and growing fast, and in helping teams solve hard problems when times are tough. The satisfaction of bringing together teams and finding solutions as well as serving Peakview’s investors’ needs with transparency and integrity drives him toward excellence every day.

Outside of work, Erik spends his time and energy systemically tackling the important challenges of our time. He believes in working together across different beliefs and cultural backgrounds as well as in using technology to solve big problems, and then to solve the challenges brought on by new technology: “I believe that keeping the unfathomable power of AI out of the hands of bad actors will require the world’s leading economies to work together at a level unseen since WWII.” 

Outside of Peakview, Erik enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, skiing, playing chess and guitar.

He has lived in five countries and speaks three languages. He is a strong believer in the importance of cross-cultural tolerance and globalism. He has learned the most from his five kids who each follow their own path, and they show him daily what is truly important!

“My vision for Peakview since its founding in 2015 is to provide our investors with the highest risk-adjusted returns by investing in the leadership tier of venture capital firms in carefully balanced portfolios, and very selectively investing in the most promising inflection-stage companies. We pride ourselves in delivering performance for our investors over scale of assets under management.”  – Erik Lassila

Mr. Kevin McQuillan is a Partner with Peakview Capital, bringing his experience and expertise to firm operations, fund investments and direct investments.

Kevin is a General Partner with OCA Ventures and the founding General Partner of Focus Opportunity Fund. He was also Co-Founder and General Partner at Focus Ventures, whose first fund was the 7th highest IRR fund of all time (Preqin). He is a five-time member of the Forbes Midas List and was also highlighted on AlwaysOn’s VC 100 List. To date, Kevin has been involved with more than (26) IPOs (most recently Inspirato). Focus Opportunity Fund investments include Paydiant (acquired by PayPal), Sensity (acquired by Verizon), Shape Security (acquired by F5), Area 1 BitGo, Dynamic Signal (acquired by FirstUp), Inspirato, Lever (acquired by Jobvite), NimbleRX, Reputation and Tact.ai.

Kevin has over three decades of experience in venture capital and focuses on investments in the Saas, internet infrastructure, AI and enterprise markets. He led Focus Ventures’ investments in Active Software (WebMethods), Agile Software, Alteon Websystems (Nortel), Aruba Networks, Commerce One, Financial Engines, Pixelworks, Ruckus and Upwork; all of which became public companies. Notable M&A transactions include Centrality (acquired by SiRF), DATAllegro (acquired by Microsoft), Kace Networks (acquired by Dell) and LogLogic (acquired by Tibco).

Tyler Hartsock is a Partner with Peakview Capital. Tyler joined Peakview in 2022, bringing with him over a decade of experience in the venture capital industry. At Peakview he helps manage the Firm’s investment practices and fundraising initiatives.

Tyler started his career as one of the early employees of Greenspring Associates, a $12 billion global venture capital FoF based in Baltimore, MD where he was responsible for sourcing and evaluating investments across the Firm’s multiple strategies, including primary fund investments, secondary investments and direct co-investments. More recently, Tyler was a Partner at Next Play Capital, a VC FoF based in San Francisco, where he served on the investment committee and led Next Play’s fund partnership investment practice and emerging manager strategy. Prior to Next Play Capital, Tyler was with Northgate Capital, where he co-managed the Firm’s flagship VC FoF and was active on all aspects of the investment process and fundraising initiatives.
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Tyler graduated magna cum laude from Virginia Tech, where he holds a B.S. in Finance.

Mr. Steven Simonian serves as Peakview Capital’s Chief Financial Officer. Steve’s responsibilities include finance, legal, and administration. Steve joined Peakview in 2019.

Mr. Simonian has been in the venture capital industry since 1991. Steve currently operates his own consulting practice, S Squared Consulting, where he provides finance and operational services to venture capital funds, private equity funds, and operating companies.

Prior to his consulting practice, Steve served as Chief Financial Officer at August Capital. Steve previously served as Chief Financial Officer at Gabriel Venture Partners and Meritech Capital Partners. Steve earned a B.A. in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Mr. Paolo Zhang is a Senior Associate at Peakview Capital. Paolo joined Peakview Capital in 2016 as one of the early members of the team. Prior to Peakview, Paolo worked at a VC fund of funds and direct investment group in Beijing since 2014. Paolo began his investment career in 2013 as an investment analyst through an internship at Hopu Investments, a leading Asian private equity firm. In 2018 Paolo was named by Forbes Asia magazine as a “30 Under 30” in the Finance and Venture Capital industry.

Paolo received a BSc Degree in Automotive Engineering and a MSc Degree in Engineering and Management from Polytechnic University of Turin, in Italy.

Ms. Stacy Xu serves as Peakview Capital’s VP of Operations. Stacy joined Peakview in 2015 and manages the firm’s internal operations, including legal, accounting and regulatory compliance. Stacy also assumed the role of Chief Compliance Officer in December 2019 when Peakview registered as a Registered Investment Adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In this role, Stacy ensures compliance with SEC regulations as well as adherence to internal policies and procedures.

Stacy was previously employed at Vaughan de Kirby Law Offices and at formerly NASDAQ-listed company Qunar. Stacy earned her MBA from California State University.

Ms. Nicole de Moulpied joined Peakview Capital in 2022 as Director of Marketing. She manages the firm’s internal and external communications and works closely with the CEO assisting him with special projects and administrative matters.
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Prior to Peakview, Nicole held marketing and sales roles at Ansys, Inc., Clearstone Venture Partners, and several international startups. She graduated magna cum laude from Babson College with a B.S. degree in International Business Studies.