Quinn Li's path to venture capital ran directly through engineering: after earning his PhD in electrical engineering, he spent years working on 3G wireless standards at Lucent Technologies before roles at Broadcom and IBM gave him exposure to product strategy and deal-making. He got his real introduction to venture investing during his Cornell MBA, working as an investment professional for a small, student-run VC fund, and joined Qualcomm Ventures in 2005 calling it his dream company. His investment philosophy is explicit about playing to Qualcomm's own technical edge - he's said the firm invests where its parent company's scale and industry position give it 'unfair knowledge' that generalist VCs don't have. That approach has produced more than a dozen exits, including A123 Systems, Eero, Enovix, InvenSense, Pensando, and Zoom, and Li now oversees Qualcomm's global venture portfolio of more than 150 active companies across seven regions.
Education
BS, MS & PhD, Electrical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis