Erik Peterson

Overview

Erik Peterson is an angel investor based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He has invested in over 800 startups, including companies like OpenSea, Pipe, Umbra, Relativity Space, Orbit Fab, and ChipperCash. His investment focus spans various sectors, including technology, healthcare, real estate, financial services, consumer internet, clean technology, enterprise software, mobile, biotechnology, agriculture, education & training, transportation, energy & natural resources, manufacturing & engineering, and business services. He has a track record of supporting startups at various stages, from seed to late stage, and across different geographical regions, including the United States, Canada, and Algeria. His investment sizes range from $100,000 to $5,000,000. Erik's investment philosophy involves providing mentorship and strategic guidance to startups, leveraging his extensive experience in software engineering and operations. He has held leadership roles in companies like OneMain Financial and Enova Financial, and since 2019, he has been self-employed as a software engineering consultant and angel investor, mentoring over 750 startups across sectors such as aerospace, space, fintech, biotech, and computing. His eclectic background also includes early leadership in operations at Menna's Joint and a solid foundation in math, physics, and engineering, underscoring a pragmatic, cross-disciplinary approach to solving complex problems. Erik is a strong advocate for Ruby and Rails, with a track record of building scalable web systems, APIs, and bank integrations, continuous deployment, and data-driven decisioning. He has successfully built and run teams spanning software engineering, devops and security, product, QA, data science, fraud prevention, and business intelligence. Erik's investment approach combines deep technical expertise with strategic product and operations leadership, aiming to drive growth and innovation in the startups he supports. He is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs realize their vision and scale their businesses effectively.