Team

Blair Garrou has spent the majority of his professional career advising, operating, and investing in software companies, with a focus on enabling technologies for retailers and brands. He is co-founder and Managing Partner of Mercury Fund, one of the largest early-stage venture capital firms headquartered in Texas. Blair is also an Adjunct Professor at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University where he teaches a course on venture capital. Prior to co-founding Mercury, Blair was CEO of Intermat, a leader in product information management software (acquired by IHS). During this time, he was also named to the Houston Business Journal’s inaugural “40 under 40.” Prior to Intermat, Blair was a Principal of Genesis Park, a Houston-based venture capital and private equity firm, where he focused on software investments. Prior to Genesis Park, Blair helped launch and was the Director of Operations for the Houston Technology Center (HTC), the largest technology incubator in the state of Texas, and led the formation of the Houston Angel Network (HAN), one of the largest and most active angel investment organizations in the U.S. Previously, Blair was an investment banker with Nesbitt Burns (BMO Capital Markets), a credit analyst with Compass Bank (BBVA Compass), and an auditor with Deloitte & Touche (Deloitte). He received a B.S. in Management with special attainments in Commerce from Washington & Lee University. Through his work in the Houston entrepreneurial community, Blair is also a co-founder of the coworking accelerator Station Houston (now a part of the Ion and Capital Factory), and SURGE Accelerator, a mentor-driven seed accelerator focused on entrepreneurs seeking to solve the world’s energy problems using software. Outside of Mercury, Blair serves in board and/or advisory roles for The Artemis Fund, DivInc, Houston Exponential, HTX Impact Fund, UTHealth, and Washington & Lee’s Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship.

Adrian Fortino is a General Partner at Mercury, where he leads Mercury's Midwest office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and focuses on investments in enterprise SaaS, industrial IoT and tech-enabled service companies. Prior to joining Mercury, Adrian was the Managing Director of Detroit Innovate, a seed stage investment fund targeting seed investments in enabling technologies in healthcare, transportation and industrial applications. During this time, Adrian was also the Managing Director of the First Step Fund, a micro-investment, industry agnostic fund focused on seed-stage companies in Southeast Michigan. Prior to Detroit Innovate and the First Step Fund, Adrian co-founded three software companies: Sidecar (acq. by GM), ShepherdIS, and FlockTAG. Prior to founding startup companies, Adrian was the Manager of Powertrain Development with Ricardo, a global engineering consultancy focusing on the automotive, cleantech, military and industrial sectors. Adrian received his BSE in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA with High Distinction from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Outside of Mercury, Adrian teaches venture capital classes at the University of Michigan College of Engineering. He also serves on the board of Michigan Venture Capital Association and the advisory boards of First Capital Fund and the Ann Arbor Entrepreneurs Fund.

Aziz Gilani is a General Partner at Mercury, where he focuses on investments in enterprise SaaS, Cloudand data science startups. He received his BBA from the University of Texas where he was a TILF Scholar, and his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management where he was an FC Austin Scholar. In addition, Aziz is a graduate of the Kauffman Fellows Program 

A recognized expert in Seed Accelerators, Aziz has been quoted in several national publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, ReadWriteWeb, TechCocktail, and The Business Journals. 

Outside of Mercury, Aziz serves in advisory roles for The BFM Fund and SXSW Interactive. He is also a Lecturer at Rice's Jones Graduate School of Business where he teaches entrepreneurial finance.

Aziz received the 2021 National Venture Capital Association Service Award for his work with public policy makers. In 2022 Aziz was appointed to the National Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship by US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. 

Samantha Lewis is a Partner at Mercury Fund. Her specific focus is on Mercury’s Power theme, where she seeks to fund startups utilizing blockchain, data platforms and fintech to rethink the way people access capital and transact globally. Samantha currently serves on the boards of Mercury portfolio companies Plasma (bitcoin sidechain for stablecoin payments), Profitr (alternative investment platform) LISNR (fintech), OpenTrade (embedded web3 fintech), OmniScience (vertical AI), Civitech (data platform), and Cooklist (data intelligence). She previously sat on the boards of, and recently exited, Arden (web3 infrastructure), Brassica (fintech infrastructure), and Apparatus (web3 infrastructure).

Samantha is an active Kauffman Fellow, the world’s premier venture capital fellowship.

Before joining Mercury, Samantha was the Investment Director at Goose Capital, a Houston-based investment group of serial entrepreneurs and F500 CEOs, where she led deal sourcing, structuring and portfolio management.  At Goose, her notable investments include Syzygy Plasmonics, Outrider Technologies, and Rufus Labs. Samantha is a repeat entrepreneur with a background spanning agribusiness, logistics and supply chain, beauty, and deep tech.

Samantha received her MBA from Rice University and a B.A. in Political Science and History from Texas A&M University. Samantha remains deeply committed and involved in the efforts to build diverse, robust innovation ecosystems. Outside of Mercury, Samantha actively mentors founders, teaches a Venture Capital class at Rice University, and supports Ukraine through fundraising and medical supply deliveries.

Heath Butler is a Partner at Mercury Fund, where he invests in Work-Tech, Fin-Tech and Sports-Tech B2B Software. Heath is also the host of Mercury’s podcast, “Go Slow to Grow Fast".

Prior to joining Mercury, Heath founded Gestalt Theory Venture Partners, a venture studio and investment platform for early-stage companies. Prior to Gestalt Theory, Heath held leadership roles as a corporate development executive, fin-tech division president and various Business Development and Product Development roles at Insperity (NYSE: NSP). Prior to Insperity, Heath built his early tech skills by leading product development for EnergyWorkspace.com and co-founded a day-trading fin-tech startup. Heath developed his foundational management skills at Travelers Group, United Parcel Service and his parents’ chain of retail stores in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Outside of Mercury, Heath is an active angel investor, mentors in innovation communities throughout Middle-America, teaches a quarterly “How to Start a Startup” session at The Ion and blogs @ StartupHeat. He is passionate about educating, empowering, and enabling entrepreneurs, and co-founded a not-for-profit focused on closing the innovation, job, and wealth gaps in urban communities across the country – the Innovation Center for Urban Entrepreneurship (iCUE), a non-profit, designed to on-ramp underrepresented communities into the innovation ecosystem. Heath also supports numerous non-profits through board service, including, as a Board Trustee for American Leadership Forum, and as a Board Director for Lemonade Day.

Aileen Allen is a Venture Partner at Mercury Fund. Prior to joining Mercury, Aileen spent 15+ years in B2B software GTM, leading marketing and BDR teams at world-class SaaS companies. Aileen oversaw product marketing teams and ecosystem GTM at Atlassian during the company’s hyper-growth phase (pre and post-IPO), and it’s at Atlassian where Aileen developed a deep level of expertise in PLG and layered sales motions. She subsequently served as a marketing executive at Gremlin, Vanta, and Tailscale.

Aileen is an active angel investor and advisor - she enjoys partnering with founders and executives to design and execute go-to-market strategies, optimize customer journeys, and drive user/customer acquisition, expansion, and retention.

Aileen serves on the Board of Directors of Houston Angel Network, Texas’ oldest angel investment group. Aileen is also a committed volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters and Team Catapult, an organization whose mission is to help disabled athletes achieve their goals. You can find Aileen guiding visually impaired athletes around Houston. 

Aileen earned her BA in Mass Communication and Spanish from St. Edward’s University.

Eddie Lou is an active angel investor in over 60 early-stage tech companies and acts as a mentor, coach, advisor, or board director to many of them.   Lou is a board director at The Mom Project, Albert.io, LemonLight, Human Predictions, HiLink, Infi, and Chowbus.    

Lou is a co-founder of stealth pet startup.   Previously, he was a co-founder of Shiftgig, the mobile app that connects hourly labor with business shifts. Lou grew the company from idea to 200 full-time employees across 13 cities serving 2,000 business clients and 30,000 hourly workers; he raised over $50M of institutional capital during a rapid growth period.  Lou is also co-founder and board director of One Goal, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit that improves college acceptance and persistence by empowering urban high school students through a teacher-led 3-year fellowship.  In the past few years, One Goal has grown to over 220 staff members and a $30 million annual budget in large part due to the program’s success – 98% of program fellows get accepted to college and 78% are persisting.  Since inception, the program has grown from seven students in one school to 20,000 students in 600 schools across 6 cities.

Lou was previously a general partner with OCA Ventures, in Fund I and Fund II, Lou invested in ten portfolio companies in software, consumer internet, and business services. As a board director or observer, Lou worked closely with management teams to scale their business, raise capital, and attract talent.

Lou received his M.B.A. in Finance and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in Saint Louis. He was recognized in 2010 as one of Crain’s Chicago Business’ 40 Under 40, in 2011 as Chicago United’s Business Leader of Color, and in 2012 as a Forbes Up and Comer, in 2015 as Techweek100, in 2016 as Crain’s Chicago Business’ Tech 50, and in 2016 as E&Y’s Entrepreneur of the Year Midwest finalist.

Dan Watkins is a co-founder and Venture Partner at Mercury, where he focuses on investing in startups that utilize AI and machine learning to drive the next wave of scientific innovation in healthcare, life sciences and industrial markets. Additionally, Dan co-founded Mercury Data Science, an AI/ML strategy and product development studio that provides contract services to fast growing companies. As founder and initial CEO of Courier Therapeutics, Dan helped establish and grow the company resulting in a $500M exit.  He is also a co-founder of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship at Rice University, with the mission to support the creation and success of startups and the commercialization of new technologies in the Houston community and beyond. Dan received his B.S. from Rice University and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, all in Materials Science. Outside of Mercury, Dan serves on the advisory boards of Northwestern University’s Innovation and New Ventures Office (INVO), the Rice Alliance, and the University of Illinois Proof of Concept Fund Committee.

Cameron Mejia is an Analyst on the Investment Team at Mercury Fund where he focuses on due diligence and portfolio operations as well as community building. Prior to Mercury, he spent summers working at BlackRock in their Fixed Income group and at Vista Equity Partners as a Private Equity summer analyst.

The proud son of small business owners in his hometown of Chapel Hill, NC, Cameron is passionate about developing Middle America’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and partnering with visionaries on the cutting edge.

Cameron received a BA in Global Affairs from Yale University where he was in Pierson College.

Andreas Galliker is Chief Financial Officer at Mercury. Prior to joining Mercury, Andreas worked with Cintrifuse, a Cincinnati-based venture capital fund-of-funds, and for Northcreek, a mid-market mezzanine fund.  Prior to that, Andreas was a Mandate Manager for an Audit, Tax, and Financial Advisory Firm, where he was responsible for annual reporting, audit mandates, and investment accounts.  Andreas received his BBA in Finance, and his M.S. in Finance, where he was a UGS Scholar, from the University of Cincinnati.  He received a Swiss certified specialist in accounting and finance degree (CPA equivalent) from the Institute of Higher Business Education in Lucerne, Switzerland and is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Society Houston.

Jackie Pfister is the Chief Operating Officer at Mercury, managing all operations for the firm. Jackie collaborates with the entire team to ensure all aspects of the Mercury platform achieve maximum productivity and impact. She works closely with leadership to transform goals into actionable plans and driving them to execution. Jackie also manages community and ecosystem engagement for the firm and is the Executive Director of CXO Summit, the largest gathering of software startup participants in the middle of the country. Prior to Mercury, Jackie worked as a Business Analyst at Trenegy, a Houston-based management consulting firm where she focused on project management, change management, and organizational design related to new enterprise software implementations. Jackie received her BA in Communication with a minor in Business Administration from Texas A&M University in College Station.

Melissa Turowsky is Chief Marketing Officer at Mercury and also works with portfolio companies to refine their marketing strategies. Prior to joining Mercury, Melissa was a strategic marketing consultant working with VC and PE backed companies, helping them meet their business goals.  She was founder of MamaViews.com, a place where expecting and new parents could research and find service providers, and served as Director of Marketing at Epiq Systems (NASDAQ: EPIQ), a legal tech company where she oversaw the brand integration of newly acquired businesses and developed localized branding for Hong Kong and European markets. At Macys (NYSE: M), after the parent company decided to roll various regional stores into the Macy’s brand, Melissa worked as an Art Director, serving on a small team testing the rebrand in a few key markets.  She began her career at an Interpublic Group ad agency in New York. She has a BA from Cornell University and a certificate in graphic design from Parsons School of Design.

Lisa Roberts is the Chief Product Officer at Mercury supporting and consulting with portfolio companies and leaders on all things related to product strategy, development, positioning, and go-to-market. The bulk of Lisa’s career has been in building and leading (as both head of Product and/or Marketing) early stage B2B SaaS businesses through growth to IPO or acquisition. She has specific experience and expertise in ecommerce (Bazaarvoice, FloorFound, Dell, Garden.com), higher education (Civitas Learning), Martech (Yonder, Adlucent), and recommerce logistics (FloorFound). Lisa advises a number of local Austin startups, and has been on the board of the Andy Roddick Foundation since 2018. She received a BA in advertising and journalism from Texas A&M College Station.

Patrick Okorafor is Director of Finance at Mercury. Prior to joining Mercury, Patrick worked for CRG LP, a healthcare focused private equity firm, where he was responsible for financial reporting, capital activity, LP correspondence, and investment fundings. Prior to CRG, Patrick worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, where he audited private equity firms and regulated investment companies. Patrick received a BBA in Accounting and a BBA in Finance from the University of Houston – Downtown, an MBA, with concentrations in Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management, from Rice University, and he is a licensed CPA in the state of Texas.

Tolonye Williams is the Mercury Fund Operations Manager where she supports the investment team through deal flow pipeline and database management; performing venture, company, and market-related research. She also works directly with the Mercury Fund Limited Partners. Prior to Mercury, Tolonye supported executive staff members in various fields including commercial real estate, marketing, and non-profit. A native Houstonian Tolonye attended Houston Community College and The University of Houston.

Rachel Craft is the Office Assistant at Mercury, where she helps the team with administrative tasks and daily operational needs. Prior to Mercury, Rachel worked as a Sales Support Specialist at Experian Consumer Services on the Data Breach Response Team. Rachel received her B.A. in History from Baylor University.