Joe Blair
Advisor
Joe Blair has spent the past 20 years building and investing in mission-driven technology companies. Over the last 13 years, he has invested in more than 30 early- and growth-stage companies and served on 10 portfolio company boards.
Most recently, Joe was an early-stage investor at Cota Capital, a $1.4 billion crossover investment platform, where he focused on sourcing, evaluating, and supporting venture investments across a wide range of sectors, including AI and machine learning, climate technology, enterprise SaaS, semiconductors, edge computing, government technology, manufacturing, IoT, 5G, and health technology.
Previously, Joe was a venture investor at Obvious Ventures, an impact-focused firm co-founded by Twitter founder Ev Williams. There, he focused on electric mobility, sustainable construction, robotics and automation, insurance technology, synthetic biology, and the future of work. He led or supported investments in companies including Lilium (NASDAQ: LILM), Dyno Therapeutics, Canvas, Hedvig, Amply Power, and Wheelhouse. Earlier in his career, he invested at Chrysalix Venture Capital, a firm dedicated to technologies addressing climate change.
Joe began his career in operating roles, including business development at FlexEnergy, a clean energy company, and as part of Ingersoll Rand’s engineering leadership program.
He holds a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he received multiple honors for entrepreneurship and leadership. He currently serves on the Harvard Business School Professional Development faculty.