MANAN MEHTA | Founding Partner | Unshackled Ventures 

Born and raised in Silicon Valley to immigrant parents, Manan could always be found playing some sport, often a team sport. However, despite significant success as a kid, something poignant happened when he tried out for the UCLA baseball team. He overheard a coach crack a joke: “Where’s this guy’s flat stick?” The coach was referring to a cricket bat — and Manan realized how pattern biases and expectations would limit him in baseball.

Undeterred by the setback, Manan took his competitive energy to dance and led a collegiate dance team to a national title. After graduating with two degrees, a B.S. in Material Science and a B.A. in Economics, Manan spent three years as an investment banking analyst at the Royal Bank of Canada, followed by three years leading marketing for education software company Kno until it was acquired in 2013. After leaving Kno, Manan launched his first company only to learn that his co-founder’s H1-B visa would prevent him from going full-time on their company. This time, when they asked investors to invest and help sponsor the visa, the joke was, “Won’t the best find a way?” This reminded Manan of the same pattern bias he had heard 12 years prior — And Unshackled was born.

Teaming up with his former colleague at Kno, Nitin Pachisia, Manan and Nitin launched Unshackled in 2014. The purpose was simple — to empower immigrants to start companies in the U.S. by focusing on deploying “friends and family” capital in those who go unrecognized and excluded because of something out of their control—no visa, no capital, no network. In the decade since its launch, Unshackled has raised three funds, invested in nearly 100 companies, created over 1,000 jobs, and helped teams raise over $850M. Through his work, Manan was invited to speak at the U.S. Department of Treasury Freedman’s Bank Forum and the Global Entrepreneurship Summit and has been featured in several national outlets.

He is a husband to a nurse, a father to two kids, an enthusiastic dancer, a practitioner of meditation and mindfulness, an avid golfer, and always seeking ways to grow. These attributes uniquely serve Manan, allowing him to build deeper human connections with various personalities and giving him great energy.

If Manan’s life experiences have taught him anything, betting against pattern biases and expectations is where the outliers lie, and immigrants are our national advantage