Joel Cutler
Co-Founder & Managing Director·General Catalyst
Bio
Professional summary
Joel Cutler is Co-Founder and Managing Director at General Catalyst. His official profile states that he supports young entrepreneurs across the full startup journey and is especially interested in big ideas that define new fields rather than incremental improvements in crowded markets. Before co-founding General Catalyst, he built businesses in travel, specialty and targeted consumer-direct commerce, and consumer fintech. His profile says he partnered with Paul English and Steve Hafner in General Catalyst's early days to start KAYAK. It lists current or sample involvement with companies including Multiverse, Empathy, Warby Parker, Sesame Health, TravelPerk, Zego, Beauty Pie, and Blank Street Coffee, and past companies including Airbnb, Lemonade, Oscar Health, KAYAK, ITA Software, Handy, OLX, and Venmo.
Investment focus
Stage, sector, and overall fit
Stage
Sector
Thesis
Notable companies
Selected portfolio companies the partner has backed
How to approach
Framing and angles for outreach
Pitch framing
Emphasize a non-incremental consumer or marketplace idea that can define a new category or create a major inflection point in customer experience.
Partneralization hooks
- 1KAYAK creation story inside General Catalyst's offices
- 2Preference for companies that are meaningfully better or chart new territory
Background
Career, education, and skills
Career history
- General CatalystCo-Founder & Managing DirectorPresent
Education
- Colby CollegeBA
- Boston College Law SchoolJD
Skills
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