Founder & Managing Partner at Gradient Ventures · Joined 2017
View Live Interactive Profile →Anna Patterson built a rare technical pedigree in search and AI before turning to venture capital - founding Recall, a search engine acquired by Google, then the ambitious rival search engine Cuil, before returning to Google as VP of Engineering for Search Quality, working directly on the algorithms underlying its core product. She founded Gradient Ventures in 2017 to give Google's AI-focused seed investing a genuinely technical edge, staffing the fund primarily with ex-Google engineers who provide hands-on support on model architecture and data pipelines rather than purely financial guidance. That approach helped Gradient build a portfolio of more than 175 companies including unicorns WRITER and Lambda AI, and in October 2025 the fund reached a new inflection point, spinning out from Google entirely to operate as an independent investment firm better positioned to compete in the rapidly evolving AI venture landscape.