Meet Structural Capital
The Structural Capital team has vast investment, operating and entrepreneurial experience from a combined 80+ years of experience in the technology and technology-enabled industries.
Kai Tse
Mr. Tse has excelled for over 20 years as an entrepreneur in Financial Services and brings substantial lending and investing experience. Most recently, Mr. Tse was a Managing Director at TriplePoint Capital, a leading venture debt firm in Silicon Valley, where he was instrumental in building and launching the firm. TriplePoint Capital was involved (in many cases with Mr. Tse as lead investor) in financing the growth of breakout companies such as Facebook, YouTube, Riot Games, Gaikai, Ruckus Wireless and Krux, among others.
Mr. Tse joined TriplePoint Capital in 2005 as one of its key initial hires shortly after its Founding as a VP of Due Diligence/Underwriting. He was instrumental in architecting and building the underwriting function within TriplePoint including recruiting and managing a team of 5-7 investment professionals. This led to a below industry standard principal loss rate.
In 2008, Mr. Tse moved to become a Director of Originations and in 2009, he was promoted to Managing Director of Originations. For several years, Mr. Tse was a top Managing Director originator at TriplePoint including in 2013 prior to his departure to start Structural Capital. Prior to TriplePoint Capital, Mr. Tse was a Principal at Osprey-GKM Ventures where he started as an associate in 2000 and was promoted to Principal in late 2001 and also helped to manage the CFO function for 2 years.
Prior Osprey, Mr. Tse helped to launch Vcapital, an early internet-based marketplace for entrepreneurs to meet capital sources. He also worked in merchant banking with Banque Paribas and in various capacities with PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Mr. Tse holds an M.B.A. (2006) from the U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business and B.S. in Accounting from the University of Illinois (1995). Mr. Tse was granted the CPA certification (1996) and is a CFA charter holder (2000).
Larry Gross
Mr. Gross has over 20 years of C-level management and operations experience in technology, media, biotech and IT. He built and managed companies with invested capital and M&A transaction value of over $2.1 billion, including best of class VC-backed companies with over $600 million in invested capital. Backers include Kleiner Perkins, Draper Fisher, Khosla Ventures, Vivendi/Universal, Knowledge Adventure, Idealab and Lotus/IBM.
Mr. Gross was also Vice Chairman and Director of Idealab (from 1999 – 2001) where he served as Director and COO of CarsDirect.com which later became Internet Brands (NASDAQ:INET). In 2010, Hellman & Friedman ultimately purchased Internet Brands for $640 million in cash. In 2014, K.K.R. purchased Internet Brands for $1.1 billion from Hellman & Friedman.
Mr. Gross served as CEO & President of Knowledge Adventure (from 1995 – 1999) and Davidson & Associates (1997 – 1999), which combined, had over 1,000 employees and more than $250 million in annual revenue before being acquired in 1999 by Vivendi/Universal as part of an $800 million cash transaction.
In 1983, Mr. Gross received his B.S. in Engineering & Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and was a candidate in 1986 for a M.S. in Electrical Engineering at Caltech when his entrepreneurial pursuits began.
Todd Jaquez-Fissori
Mr. Jaquez-Fissori has over 20 years of investment experience, including 13+ years in technology-related transactions. Most recently, Mr. Jaquez-Fissori was the group head of the Energy Technology Practice at Tennenbaum Capital Partners from April 2014 to July 2017.
Prior to Tennenbaum Capital Partners, Mr. Jaquez-Fissori was a Senior Managing Director and Group Head of Technology and CleanTech Lending at Hercules Technology Growth Capital from 2012 to 2014 and, before being promoted, was Managing Director leading the CleanTech efforts from 2009 to 2012.
Previously, Mr. Jaquez-Fissori worked at TriplePoint Capital in 2008 and was the General Partner in charge of CleanTech investing at Siemens Venture Capital from 2004 to 2008. He also held venture capital positions at Battelle Ventures (Partner), Boulder Ventures (Principal), eCOM Partners and Mayfield Fund. While at Wharton, he also worked at the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), a branch of the SBA.
Mr. Jaquez-Fissori holds an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business (2000) and a B.S. in Business from Penn State University (1994).
Sharin Valia
Mr. Valia has over 12 years of investing, lending and investment banking experience with the last 9 years focused on the technology sector, where he has underwritten and executed transactions across a variety of sectors including enterprise software, SaaS, hardware, eCommerce and B2B & B2C marketplaces.
Prior to joining Structural Capital, Mr. Valia was at TriplePoint Capital, where he was first a Vice President from 2013 – 2015 and then promoted to Principal in 2016. Prior to that, Mr. Valia was a Senior Associate (from 2012 – 2013; Associate from 2010 – 2012) at a top tier technology private equity firm, Silver Lake Sumeru, where he focused on software, Big Data & Analytics and hardware transactions.
Mr. Valia began his career in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he focused on M&A advisory, capital raising and leveraged buyout transactions from 2007 – 2010.
Mr. Valia holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance with high honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2007).
Jay Taylor
Mr. Taylor has over 18 years of finance experience. Mr. Taylor’s broad experience includes public accounting, M&A and restructuring advisory, valuation, forensic analysis, audit, private equity, venture finance and consulting for firms such as TriplePoint Capital, FTI Consulting, Deloitte & Touche, and Ernst & Young. Most recently he was Vice President of Finance at a venture debt provider, Trinity Capital Investments. Mr. Taylor is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Master of Accounting degree from the University of Southern California, and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Brigham Young University.
Christine Fera
Ms. Fera has over 20 years of experience in the venture debt/late stage private credit industry. Ms. Fera has worked for leading firms in the industry such as City National Bank (NYSE:CYN), Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc, (NYSE:HTGC), Lighthouse Capital Partners Funds, Comdisco Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank (NASDAQ:SIVB). Ms. Fera holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Jose State University.
Solomon Park
Mr. Park has a diverse set of experience which includes roles within private equity, hedge funds, and engineering. Prior to joining Structural Capital, Mr. Park graduated magma cum laude from Northeastern University where he completed his B.S. in Finance and Mathematics (2019). Most recently, Mr. Park was an investment associate at Black Snow Capital, where he focused on a data-driven investment process to identify systemic risks (2018). Prior to Black Snow Capital, Mr. Park completed a co-op as a financial analyst at Summit Partners, where he supported the Finance team and helped track data on portfolio companies. (2017).
Brandon Law
Mr. Law has over 3 years of investment experience. Prior to joining Structural Capital, Mr. Law was an investment research analyst at the Investment Portfolio Group of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), where he focused on evaluating and monitoring credit driven investment opportunities. Prior to Wells Fargo, Mr. Law completed a role with Deloitte & Touche, where he supported the financial due diligence process on private equity M&A transactions (2016). Mr. Law graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business where he completed his B.S. in Business Administration and B.S in Accounting (2017). Mr. Law has passed all three levels of the CFA Program and will be eligible for the CFA charter upon completion of the required work experience.
