Iris Choi
Partner
Floodgate
Iris Choi is a Partner at Floodgate who works with portfolio companies on corporate relationships, business development, and financings.
Bio
Professional summary
Ann Miura-Ko is a co-founding Partner at Floodgate. Floodgate’s official profile describes her as a repeat Forbes Midas List investor and a New York Times Top 20 Venture Capitalists Worldwide honoree. Her technical background includes a Stanford PhD in math modeling of cybersecurity and a Yale undergraduate degree in electrical engineering. Floodgate identifies her as an investor in healthcare, consumer commerce and curation, marketplaces, SMB and solopreneur software, and AI companies. The profile specifically names SmarterDX, Lyft, Counsel Health, Hebbia, and ReadyOn. She is also a Stanford entrepreneurship lecturer, co-director of the Mayfield Fellows Program, co-founder of All Raise, and served on the Yale Corporation Board of Trustees from 2019 to 2025.
Investment focus
Stage, sector, and overall fit
Stage
pre-seedseedvery early stage
Sector
AIhealthcareconsumer commercemarketplacesSMB softwaretechnical companies
Thesis
Highly technical companiesHealthcare, consumer commerce, marketplaces, and SMB softwareSeed and pre-seed AI companies
Notable companies
Selected portfolio companies the partner has backed
SmarterDXLyftCounsel HealthHebbiaReadyOnTaskRabbit
How to approach
Framing and angles for outreach
Pitch framing
Best fit for founders with a deep technical wedge, especially AI, healthcare, marketplace, or SMB software companies with a strong path to product-market fit.
Personalization hooks
- 1Tie the pitch to a technically differentiated insight rather than a generic market opportunity.
- 2Reference her Stanford teaching and product-market-fit orientation if discussing founder learning or company-building discipline.
Recent signals
What the partner has said or done recently
Floodgate profile states SmarterDX had a $1B+ exit in 2025.
Floodgate profile states she served on the Yale Corporation Board of Trustees from 2019 to 2025.
Background
Career, education, and skills
Career history
- FloodgateCo-Founding PartnerMay 2008 - Present
- Stanford UniversityCo-Director, Mayfield Fellows ProgramJan 2019 - Present
- Yale UniversityMember, Board of TrusteesMay 2019 - Jun 2025
- Charles River VenturesAnalystSep 2001 - Jun 2003
- McKinsey and CompanySenior Business AnalystSep 1998 - Aug 2001
Education
- Stanford UniversityPhD, Quantitative Modeling of Computer Security2003–2010
- Yale UniversityB.S., Electrical Engineering1994–1998
Skills
Seed InvestingCompany BuildingTechnical Due DiligenceEntrepreneurship Education
Languages
Japanese
Other partners at Floodgate
4 more profiles
Mike Heller
Partner
Floodgate
Mike Heller is a Partner at Floodgate. His official profile highlights operating experience at Dropbox and Clearbit, plus hands-on sales and product-market-fit advisory work with seed-stage startups.
Mike Maples, Jr.
Co-founding Partner
Floodgate
Mike Maples, Jr. is a co-founding Partner at Floodgate and an early-stage investor known for backing category-defining startups including Twitter, Twitch, Okta, Chegg, Demandforce, Applied Intuition, Clover Health, and Outreach.
Sam Beskind
Associate
Floodgate
Floodgate associate and Mike Maples Jr. chief of staff with climate and hard-tech founder research experience.