Founder & Managing Partner at Cowboy Ventures · Joined 2012
View Live Interactive Profile →Aileen Lee spent 13 years at Kleiner Perkins, working hands-on with companies from Series A through IPO including Bloom Energy, Rent the Runway, and Trendyol, after earlier operating roles at Gap Inc. and as founding CEO of RMG Networks. She left in 2012 to found Cowboy Ventures in Palo Alto - one of the first venture firms founded by a woman - and the following year coined the term 'unicorn' in a widely-read TechCrunch article that has since become permanent industry vocabulary, though Lee herself has noted the term's imperfection: 'it's an ephemeral word, a point in time.' Her early conviction in Dollar Shave Club, whose founder she described as having 'such a clear brand voice' despite very little money, culminated in Unilever's roughly $1 billion acquisition in 2016. Lee co-founded All Raise in 2018 to accelerate success for women across venture capital, and has been named to the Forbes Midas List, Fortune's Most Powerful Women, and Time's 100 Most Influential People.