Gary Swart

Overview

Gary Swart is an angel investor and former CEO of oDesk, investing in early-stage technology companies. He is a General Partner at Polaris Partners, a venture capital firm based in Atherton, California. Swart's investment focus includes sectors such as Health Care, Remote Work Tech, Enterprise Software, HR Tech, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Information Technology (IT), Marketplace, Software, Biotechnology, Health and Hospital Services, Productivity Software, Consumer Internet, Digital Health, SaaS, Big Data, and Media and Entertainment. He typically invests in Seed and Pre-Seed stages, with investment sizes ranging from $300,000 to $2 million. Swart has a proven track record as a CEO and operator in enterprise software prior to his venture role. He has been involved in investments in companies like Livara Health, FloQast, and Preply. Swart holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Maryland, College Park. He has also served as an advisor, mentor, and investor, and has spoken at various conferences and events, including the Inc. Leadership Conference, The Economist’s Ideas Economy panel, South by Southwest, TechCrunch 50, TiECon, GigaOM’s Net:Work Conference, and at Harvard Business School, which teaches a case study on oDesk. His commentary has appeared in publications such as Forbes, TechCrunch, The Washington Post, and The Next Web, and he has appeared on TV and radio shows including the BBC, National Public Radio, CNBC, and Bloomberg TV. Prior to his role at oDesk, Swart led SMB Sales for the Americas at IBM’s Rational Software Product Group and served as VP of Worldwide Sales and Operations at Intellibank. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Investment Focus

• Early-stage technology companies

Portfolio Companies