First Check for Deep Tech.

Adam Draper

Co-Founder, Managing Director

Adam Draper is the founder and managing director of Boost VC. Adam is a 2x entrepreneur and a 4th generation venture capitalist.

For Adam, no idea is too crazy. He dreams of building an ironman suit and leads the deals in the wildest SciFi Tech investments - exoskeletons, jetpacks, rockets... Go big or go home. The focus of Boost VC on future technology development stems from Adam Draper’s dream to create an Iron Man suit. He co-founded Boost VC after his success as an Angel Investor in companies like Coinbase, Amplitude and Plangrid. In a previous life, he wanted to be a professional tennis player and has an odd affinity for Australians. He once drank an entire bottle of tabasco sauce (the big ones) in 43 seconds. 4th generation venture capitalist, 2 time entrepreneur, and most importantly, he’s a friend : )

FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...
Sci-Fi Book: Harry Potter, and I know it’s fantasy, not Sci-Fi.
Superhero: Spider-man (Ironic, since I’m trying to build the IronMan suit)
Place you’ve been: Australia - great people, great accents.
VR Experience: Space Pirate Trainer, had a top 300 score for a while.
Crypto: Bitcoin.

Brayton Williams

Co-Founder & Partner

Brayton founded Boost VC over a decade ago and has been responsible for over 150 of Boost's investments, returning nine figures back to investors, making it on Forbes 30 under 30 and is always on the hunt for founders building something most believe impossible.

He manages the team at Boost VC, bringing process and metrics to the organization and advises portfolio founders on everything from fundraising to co-founder relationships.

Brayton is an avid bucket lister and extremely competitive, mostly with his co-founder Adam Draper in SuperSmashBros on n64. He was the first member of Boost VC to buy a Bitcoin at $25 and won a California state free-throw championship at age 11. 

FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...
Sci-Fi Book: The Three-Body Problem
Superhero: Iron Man - Power of knowledge (& money)
Place you’ve been: New Zealand, where my brother lives.
VR Experience: Golf+
Crypto: Ethereum

Maddie Callander

Partner

Prior to joining Boost VC, she built out the private aviation department for the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana, where she managed member air transportation: marketing, selling and arranging private shuttles (Boeing 737s), private flights (XOJET), and shared-ride options. Additionally, she’s held operation and marketing roles in healthcare and real estate industries & freelanced as an event coordinator for NYC event firm Van Wyck & Van Wyck. She attended Draper University in Fall 2013.

Maddie is on a mission to help women and underrepresented founders get a seat at the table in frontier tech. She is a Coalition Member for The Women in XR Fund, which is focused on funding female founders in the virtual and augmented reality space; and Chair of the Women in VR Showcase for the US National Committee for UN Women (SF Chapter) - an event that combines virtual reality with incredible storytelling by VR female film directors from all over the world. Maddie has a B.A. in Art History and Spanish from Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Olivia Pope is her patronus.

FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...
Sci-Fi Book: Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness or Ready Player One (and Two), Ernest Cline
Superhero: Wonder Woman
Place you’ve been: Trinidad, Cuba... magical.
VR Experience: Dedicated LongBow player, but I love BeatSaber too.
Crypto: Decentraland.

Gus DOMEL

Principal

Gus is a scientist and engineer who loves working at the forefront of scientific innovation. He spent his PhD at Harvard and his postdoc at Stanford developing a wide range of futuristic technologies, including an octopus-like soft robot, shark skin-inspired aerodynamic surfaces, and sensor-embedded brain injury wearables. His various works have been featured in National Geographic, Newsweek, The New York Times, and the Syfy Network, among others.

Prior to joining the investment team at Boost VC, he served as the Chief Scientist & Director of Product at a brain health tech startup developing novel technologies to understand and prevent traumatic brain injury. He brings his startup and scientific background to Boost VC where he believes he can have the broadest impact possible, helping many startups grow and pursue a better future world.

FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...
Sci-Fi Book: Foundation, Isaac Asimov
Superhero: Iron Man / Batman - technology over superpowers
Place you’ve been: Scottish Highlands
Food: Pasta (my mother is from Italy!)
Game: Rocket League

derek brown

Controller

Derek dedicated the latter part of his career to solving the complexities of operating a venture capital business. With stints at Carta, Juniper Square, and Sydecar, he has built teams and products designed for the challenges of the venture landscape. Now, he's channeling that expertise into propelling Boost to new heights. Outside of Boost, Derek enjoys podcasts spanning topics from Bitcoin and macroeconomics to fantasy football and taking his boys to (many) Seattle sporting events.

Once a college track runner, Derek now channels his competitiveness into constantly pushing Boost to iterate and improve. He's also trying to determine what is happening with all the UAP disclosures.

FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...
Sci-Fi Book: Ender’s Game
Superhero: Thanos
Place you’ve been: Barcelona
Game: Star Wars Episode I: Racer (N64)
Crypto: Bitcoin

Mark Beylin

Associate

Mark is an ex-founder and crypto product builder, with 7+ years of experience building protocols, products, and NFTs on Ethereum. His first project was an early bounty platform, which was funded by ConsenSys and at its peak grew to $1M+ TVL in 2017-19. Since then his work has centered around mechanism design, tokenized incentives, and the increasingly blurry line that exists between companies and their external constituents (aka “communities”). His background in Computer Science (BCS from the University of Waterloo) and in Business (BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University) combine to help Mark operate across all levels of the crypto stack, from architecting core protocols all the way up to designing end-user experiences.

Outside of his professional life, Mark brings a strong passion for art history, dance, and long distance running, having completed 1 of 6 World Marathon Majors so far.

FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...
Sci-Fi Book: The Last Question
Superhero: Dr. Manhattan
Place you’ve been: South Africa
Game: Rainbow Sphere
Crypto: Ethereum

Emily Yu

University Associate

Roboticist by training, Emily spent her career in the dynamic world of startups and big tech innovation across additive manufacturing, logistics, and food and bev. She’s built robotic bartenders for the offices, teleoperator robots for medical facilities, and mini-battle bots (for fun!). Most recently she led design teams at Amazon Robotics shaping the future of warehouse automation.

She fosters interdisciplinary collaborations at the crossroads of science, engineering, and business while pursuing her MBA at MIT Sloan. She loves working with people and actively advises founders on research commercialization as well as adopting the winning entrepreneurial mindset.

Outside of Boost, she’s an avid runner, traveler, and food blogger. She also mentors FIRST Robotics teams and can be found refereeing for state qualifiers. In the pursuit of equity in deep tech, particularly for women, she believes in harnessing the collective wisdom and ingenuity of diverse minds to advance society through technology. At Boost VC, she’s dedicated to support the visionaries and trailblazers shaping the future.

FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...
Sci-Fi Book: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 
Superhero: Iron Man (MIT pride)
Place you’ve been: Saudi Arabia - wealth and mystery.
VR Game: Richie’s Plank
Food: 100% dark chocolate

Danielle Sosnick

Community & Events

Danielle is on the Platform team at Boost VC supporting the amazing Maddie and Boost VC portfolio! Before she became a community building + events extraordinaire + founder support guru, she helped build companies in the medical, education & marketplace spaces.

She holds a B.S. in Biology with a Genetics & Behavior emphasis from WSU and started her career as a South African Penguin Keeper at Tanganyika Wildlife Park. She has been scuba diving since she was 12 years old and has traveled to 26 countries.

When she’s not supporting the Boost VC Portfolio, she’s hiking with her puppy or practicing music (piano, guitar & singing in a band!). She’s also a fan of travel, especially to new destinations.  

FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...

Sci-Fi Book: A Wrinkle In Time
Superhero: Poison Ivy
Place you’ve been: Malta
Game: Mario Kart or Duck Hunt (only two games I have ever played, but open to trying more!)
Food: Cooking my way through the Blue Zone Cookbook, but also really enjoy ice cream

Claire Kolling

Executive Assistant to Adam Draper

Claire is the Executive Assistant to Adam Draper at Boost VC. Before she became a calendar-Tetris queen and task ninja, she taught high school and community college English for 7 years. 

She holds a B.A. in English with a Creative Writing Concentration in Poetry from UCLA, a M.A. in Education and Single-Subject Teaching Credential in English from UC Santa Cruz, and a M.A. in English Literature from Northern Arizona University. Claire is a licensed realtor and published one of her graduate papers titled, “‘The Struggle is Real’ Hamlet and Mental Health in the English Classroom” in The Magazine of the National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE). 

She once received a standing ovation at a karaoke bar in Boston after belting out Mary J. Blige’s “I’m Goin’ Down”, and when she’s not herding Adam off to his next meeting, she’s in the gym or on a hike. She’s also a fan of solo travel, especially to beach destinations.  

FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...
Sci-Fi Book: The Hunger Games (Dystopian - close enough) and Fourth Wing (Fantasy - also close enough).
Superhero: Black Widow / Harley Quinn.
Place you’ve been: The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Santorini (because, beaches).
Game: Mortal Kombat (Kitana is her go-to).
Food: Mac n’ Cheese. Cheesecake. Cheese.