Brad Gerstner

Brad Gerstner is an American entrepreneur, investor, and venture capitalist known as the founder, chairman, and CEO of Altimeter Capital, a technology-focused investment firm managing both public equity and venture capital portfolios. Gerstner founded Altimeter Capital in Boston, Massachusetts, launching it with less than $3 million from friends and family during the financial crisis. He manages $20 billion of assets invested in public companies and private startups. Before launching Altimeter, Gerstner built a career spanning securities law, public service, and entrepreneurship. After practicing securities law and serving as deputy secretary of state of Indiana, he attended Harvard Business School, graduating with an MBA, then became a founding principal of General Catalyst and worked at several travel startups before becoming a portfolio manager for PAR Capital.

Gerstner has led investments in technology companies, including Snowflake, where he led the Series C investment and maintained a 30 percent ownership through its $70.4 billion IPO, delivering $7 billion in investor returns. Other investments include Google (pre-IPO), OpenAI, and ByteDance. Gerstner and Altimeter bought Nvidia shares despite bearish forecasts, later expanding their position after the debut of ChatGPT, with Gerstner publicly predicting an artificial intelligence supercycle that would reshape the global economy. He appeared on the Forbes Midas List following Altimeter's successful investments in Snowflake and Grab. Bloomberg referred to him as the online travel king in recognition of his internet-related travel investments, including Booking Holdings, Uber, and Expedia.

Gerstner is known for engaging publicly with the companies he invests in. He gained public attention when he published an open letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, urging the company to reduce headcount, cut capital expenditure, and limit investment in the metaverse—a letter credited with helping catalyze Meta's subsequent year of efficiency and stock price recovery. Earlier, Gerstner and Altimeter advocated for changes to United Continental Holdings' board of directors, resulting in board changes. He has participated in more than 100 IPOs as an anchor, sponsor, and investor. His investment philosophy centers on identifying technology supercycles, focusing on cycles spanning the internet, mobile, cloud, and artificial intelligence.

Beyond investing, Gerstner is a prominent voice on economic policy and financial inclusion. He introduced the concept of providing every American child with a $1,000 investment account at birth, an idea that influenced the Invest America Act. He founded the Invest America Foundation, which helped advance the Invest America Act—federal legislation that created $1,000 tax-advantaged investment accounts for every child born within a specified period. Gerstner also co-hosts "BG2Pod," a bi-weekly podcast on technology, markets, investing, and capitalism, alongside venture capitalist Bill Gurley, further establishing his role at the intersection of technology, markets, and public policy.