Moj Mahdara

Moj Mahdara is an Iranian-American entrepreneur, investor, and operator with a career focused on the intersection of technology, consumer behavior, and cultural change. Early in their career, Mahdara worked with Goldenvoice on sponsorship and brand partnerships for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, shaping an approach to community-driven brands. Prior to founding the agency Made With Elastic, Mahdara served as CEO of Exopolis, a digital interactive studio, expanding the company from four to more than 100 employees and developing a client roster that included Apple and Microsoft, with annual gross revenue exceeding $30 million.

Before launching Kinship Ventures, Mahdara was chief executive officer of Beautycon Media, a global festival and media company centered on beauty and popular culture. As CEO of Beautycon, Mahdara expanded the platform to millions of community members in more than 100 countries, partnering with brands such as L'Oréal, Unilever, and Target. Beautycon organized a Creator Town Hall in Los Angeles where Hillary Clinton met with YouTube creators, highlighting the platform's cultural influence. Mahdara received the WWD Beauty Inc. Disruptor of the Year Award for entrepreneurial disruption in the beauty industry through Beautycon's integration of content, commerce, and community.

Mahdara is co-founder and managing partner of Kinship Ventures, a multi-stage venture platform built alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, supporting founders reimagining how people live, work, and care. Kinship invests from inception to IPO across consumer technology, AI-enabled tools and fintech, behaviorally intelligent products, CPG 2.0, and health and wellness infrastructure. The firm has invested in companies such as OpenAI, MoonPay, Olipop, Caddis, Seed Health, goop Kitchen, Public, and Ceremonia. Before founding Kinship, Mahdara was a partner at Intuition Capital, a seed-stage venture fund investing in early consumer and technology companies including Poppi, Bonza, Public, Chroma, Starface, Bilt, and Owner.com.

In addition to venture capital, Mahdara advises executives, political figures, diplomats, and global organizations on media intelligence, digital ecosystems, and narrative strategy, focusing on how audience behavior and cultural signals shape public sentiment and markets. Mahdara is also a founder of The Iranian Diaspora Collective, a non-partisan, multi-faith group inclusive of multiple backgrounds, genders, and LGBTQ+ identity, with members from business, technology, media, entertainment, fashion, and beauty. During the pandemic, Mahdara initiated weekly virtual calls for beauty industry founders to share ideas, ultimately co-founding Beauty United as an official nonprofit.

Mahdara has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the "Most Creative People in Business," by The Hollywood Reporter as a "Top 25 Digital Power Player," by Variety as a "Digital Executive to Watch," by Marie Claire as one of the "50 Most Influential Women," and by Women's Wear Daily on its "Digital Power Posse" list. A Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a recognized voice in Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times, Mahdara offers insight on global markets, digital ecosystems, and consumer psychology. Mahdara has spoken at conferences worldwide about culture, influence versus affluence, financial literacy, and diversity and inclusion, contributing to ongoing conversations at the intersection of technology, commerce, and culture.