David Cowan
Partner / Seed/Early
San Francisco Bay Area, US

About David
David Cowan is one of the world’s leading investors, having funded Seed, Series A, and Series B rounds that led to over 30 IPOs. David was ranked sixth on the Midas List and tied for fourth in the Midas List of Hall of Fame.
Based in our Silicon Valley office, David launched Bessemer's practices in cloud, cybersecurity, consumer internet, gaming, space, and quantum computing. Known for taking chances on the unorthodox, David’s early stage bets include Twitch (acquired by Amazon), Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB), and Skybox Imaging (acquired by Google).
David has co-founded three cybersecurity companies incubated within Bessemer’s offices: VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN), serving as initial Chairman and CFO; Good Technology (fka Visto, acquired by Blackberry) serving as CEO; and Defense.net (acquired by F5).
He earned an AB in computer science / mathematics and an MBA, both from Harvard University. Today he serves on several non-profit boards including the Center for Inquiry and the Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He is the co-writer of the Silicon Valley mockumentary series “Bubbleproof,” and Emmy-nominated producer of the award-winning MTV Documentary film “Afghan Dreamers.”
AI
Consumer
Crypto
Cybersecurity
Data & Cloud
Deep Tech & Defense
Developer
Enterprise
Q&A
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The quality you most admire in a founder is...
Resilience. What do you do when your rocket blows up on the launch pad?
Latest News & Research
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Roadmap
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The first generation of AI infrastructure companies unlocked the “brains” for intelligence. The next generation will unleash these engines of intelligence into the real-world.

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The rise of the agentic workforce is pushing CISOs to reimagine the security stack—and rethink the questions they need to ask—as they navigate an evolving threat landscape.

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50 startups transforming industries with physical AI
After decades of promise, autonomous systems and robotics are moving from labs to factory floors and households — powered by breakthroughs in AI and hardware.












