17: GUEST - Ross Mechanic

NOTE: We will be combining the two 10:15a sections in 217 Towne today. Please report to 217 Towne so we may begin promptly at 10:15a.

Today’s guest speaker is Ross Mechanic, co-founder and CEO of Maybern, a startup that is digitizing private assets by building software to automate the workflows and calculations of private funds, such as venture funds, private equity funds, and real estate funds. Maybern launched in 2023 and has raised more than $24MM in venture financing to date. Investors include venture funds, such as Camber Creek, Human Capital, MetaProp, Grafton Street Partners, Primary, and Friends & Family Capital, as well as angel investors including Ric Clark, the former Chairman of Brookfield Property Group and currently Managing Partner of WatermanClark. Maybern designed its core product in partnership with seven institutional fund managers, including some of the world’s largest real estate funds.

Before starting Maybern, Ross worked at Human Capital as an Entrepreneur in Residence. Prior to Human Capital, Ross ran an engineering team at Cadre, a real estate investment marketplace. Ross graduated in 2017 with a BSE from the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in Computer Science and minored in Engineering Entrepreneurship.

Read the “PE Fund Lifecycle” chapter posted on Canvas in \Files\Readings. This chapter from the book, Private Equity Accounting, by Mariya Stefanova (published by Private Equity International, Nov 2011) provides a useful understanding of the way private funds operate. The reading is focused on private equity funds, but the concepts carry over to venture and real estate funds.

Read the original “Maybern Investment Memo,” also posted in the \Files\Readings folder on Canvas, to understand the opportunity that Maybern is addressing.

Based on the above online sources, knowledge you have gained in EAS545 this semester, and additional related research you may conduct, type up a list of 5 questions to ask Ross, time permitting, during the Q&A session following his talk. Focus your questions on our speaker’s career path leading up to, and contributing to, his entrepreneurial venture, and the current development of this startup company. Submit your list of questions via Canvas before the beginning of class. Questions will be graded on their substance, relevancy to engineering entrepreneurship, and the evident level of effort in your research about the speaker. Vague, generic, or off-point questions of little substance will be penalized.

Out of courtesy to our speaker plan to arrive at class a few minutes early so the class can begin on time without interruption.