Erik Moore BUSINESS PROFILE Investor With a Vision Correspondent: MG Media Erik Moore is the founder and Managing Director of Base Ventures, who's a passionate angel investor, entrepreneur, creative thinker, and an unabashed optimist. An after a rewarding fifteen-year career in investment banking, Erik secured an early retirement from Merrill Lynch in 2011 and at that point began pursuing his passion for entrepreneurship and investing. He co-founded FlickLaunch.com, a digital streaming platform on Facebook for feature-length movies. He created Rule LX, a successful special-purpose investment fund. Erik formed Base Ventures from a love for investing in trailblazing tech start-ups. During the past 12-years, Erik has invested in almost two dozen trailblazing start-ups. He's always believed in the powerful magic of human potential. Erik was a seed investor in Zappos.com, which was sold to Amazon.com for $1.2 billion. Moore's return on Zappos investment provided upfront money for Base Ventures. Moore's career as a venture capitalist began with a hot tub, and a chance meeting in an elevator. It was 1999, and a guy named Tony Hsieh had just sold his first company to Microsoft. Hsieh wanted to install a Jacuzzi in his penthouse apartment — but it was against policy in the building, where Moore lived, too. Hsieh drafted Moore onto the homeowner's association, where collectively, they got the sought-after hot tub installed, and became friends. Good enough friends that Moore invested in Hsieh's company, Zappos. Erik also invested in Agencourt Biosciences which was sold to Beckman Coulter for $270 million. Erik is deeply involved in his community. He currently serves as a board member for the East Bay College Fund whose mission is to help resilient youth from Oakland, historically underrepresented in higher education, go to college and expand their life opportunities. He has served on the board of Morrisania West, an organization dedicated to at-risk children in San Francisco. Erik was also a board member for Oakland's OK (Our Kids) program which facilitated a partnership between the police, schools, and the community to help prevent kids from entering the juvenile system. He co-founded an organization, Concentric Circles, that provides informal mentoring in the juvenile system. Finally, Erik is a former Trustee of Saint Mary's College High School in Berkeley, his alma mater, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude, taught French in the summer, and captained the football team for two years. Erik earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College, and dual graduate degrees -- an M.B.A. from the Wharton School and an M.A. in International Studies-French from the Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He speaks fluent French.