Brian Lew
Managing Partner, Founding Team Member
Oceans Ventures
Brian Lew is a Managing Partner and Founding Team Member at Oceans with experience in acquisition, investment, corporate development, engineering, sales, and marketing.
Bio
Professional summary
Joshua Rahn is Co-Founder and General Partner at Oceans. Oceans' official team page says he was hired in 2007 as the seventh person in Facebook's New York office, where he worked with partners on Facebook's platform and audience base. His official bio says he helped grow Facebook's monetization efforts and led his team and the New York office through major transitions including News Feed, mobile, cross-device measurement, and early machine-learning optimization. It also says he built and mentored Facebook's first $100M office, helped drive 100% year-over-year growth for five consecutive years, and managed integrated marketing partnerships as Facebook scaled from 20 million to 1.5 billion monthly active users. Before Facebook, he had two startup exits, including a tech startup sale to Sony 550 Ventures.
Investment focus
Stage, sector, and overall fit
Stage
Formative-stage startups, inferred from Oceans' stated focus on helping startups at their most formative stages.
Sector
Consumer internet and social platformsMarketing, monetization, and platform partnershipsStartup company-building and team development
Thesis
Founder coaching and early company-buildingMonetization, marketing partnerships, and platform growth
Notable companies
Selected portfolio companies the partner has backed
FacebookSony 550 Ventures
How to approach
Framing and angles for outreach
Pitch framing
Emphasize monetization strategy, platform partnerships, growth execution, or founder/team learning loops rather than purely financial metrics.
Personalization hooks
- 1Reference his experience scaling Facebook's New York monetization office.
- 2If relevant, connect to platform transitions, mobile growth, cross-device measurement, or machine-learning optimization.
Background
Career, education, and skills
Career history
- OceansCo-Founder & General Partner2018 – Present
- Facebook/MetaProduct Marketing / Platform Partnerships2007 – ~2016 (~9 years)
- SonyEarly careerMid-1990s
Education
- Washington University in St. LouisDegree
Skills
Venture CapitalProduct MarketingPlatform PartnershipsCompany Building
Other partners at Oceans Ventures
5 more profiles
Glenn Handler
Co-Founder, General Partner
Oceans Ventures
Glenn Handler is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Oceans with a background in recruiting and HR leadership across Morgan Stanley, Google, and Facebook.
Sara Barek
Managing Partner, Founding Team Member
Oceans Ventures
Sara Barek is a Managing Partner and Founding Team Member at Oceans, focused on operations and cross-functional execution.
Sasha Levyn
Associate
Oceans Ventures
Oceans Associate investing in early-stage future-of-work, SaaS, and AI companies.
Steven Rosenblatt
Co-Founder, General Partner
Oceans Ventures
Steven Rosenblatt is Co-Founder and General Partner at Oceans, with operating experience at Foursquare, Apple iAd, and Quattro Wireless.