Erik Moore is the founder of Base Ventures, a seed-stage venture fund. Prior to Base, Erik spent 14+ years in investment banking at Merrill Lynch and 10 years as a successful angel investor where he made early investments in Zappos (sold for $1.2B to Amazon) and PlanGrid (sold to Autodesk for $875mm) among others.

Base Ventures has raised four funds and invested in more than 100 startups, including five unicorns. Notable investors in the fund include Tony Hsieh (Zappos CEO), Prakash Janakiraman (Founder of Nextdoor), Harper Reed (Obama CTO), Serena Williams, Chris Sacca, Google Ventures, and a prominent family office in the Chicago area.

Featured in publications such as the WSJ and USA Today, Erik is regularly referred to as one of the most active African American investors in technology. Business Insider named him one of the ten most influential blacks in Silicon Valley, along with David Drummond (former Chief Legal Officer at Google) and Marissa Mayer (former President of Yahoo!).

Erik is a sought-out board member for arts, business, and social change, including the board of The Black Ambition Prize, founded by Pharrell Williams, and the board of the Common Ground Foundation, founded by Grammy, Oscar, and Emmy award-winning artist Common. He is a former board member of Russell Simmons' Art for Life and the Oakland Museum of California, was recruited by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to the City of Oakland's Fund Advisory Board, and was named to the Alumni Advisory Council at his undergraduate alma mater, Dartmouth College. His most important role is father to Blair, a student at Spelman College whose accolades and accomplishments put Erik's to shame.