Co-Founder & Partner at FirstMark Capital · Joined 2008
View Live Interactive Profile →Rick Heitzmann founded First Advantage before selling it to First American, giving him real operating and public-company experience before co-founding FirstMark Capital with Amish Jani in 2008 as a spinoff from Pequot Capital Management. The two built the firm around a specific conviction that New York, not just Silicon Valley, would become a dominant global hub for technology startups - a bet that looked contrarian in 2008 and has since been repeatedly validated. Heitzmann personally wrote Pinterest's seed check years before its 2019 IPO, and led early investments in Airbnb, DraftKings, Riot Games, and StubHub, earning him five consecutive years on the Forbes Midas List. He remains a regular contributor on CNBC discussing tech and IPO markets, and continues to advise founders and executives across FirstMark's portfolio.