J. Skyler Fernandes

J. Skyler (Sky) Fernandes is ranked as a Powerlist 100 VC and is the Co-Founder & General Partner of VU Venture Partners, the most scalable venture capital fund in the world, focused on Consumer, Enterprise, Fintech, Healthcare, Frontier Tech, and Prop Tech, and is the Co-Founder & CEO of Venture University, a trade school for venture capital, private equity, and angel investing. VU Venture Partners is redefining the value of an investment fund by creating an investment team that is capable of covering markets broader, deeper, faster, and smarter than a typical fund, providing a significantly more powerful network that can better support portfolio companies, and offering greater value to LPs. Previously, Sky was the Managing Director of Investments at Cleveland Avenue, a fund focused on food and beverage brands, food related technology, and new restaurant concepts, co-founded by the former President and CEO of McDonald's. Sky was the Founder, Head, and Managing Director of Simon Venture Group (SVG), the venture capital arm of Simon Property Group, an S&P 100 company, and the largest retail real estate company in the world. CB Insights ranked SVG as a top 5 investor within retail alongside GV(Google Ventures), Intel Capital, and Comcast Ventures and focused on investing in retail technology, rising new brands, and internet of things for smart cities and buildings. Sky has developed key resources, such as "The Best Startup Pitch Deck" (viewed and downloaded 500,000+ times and used by leading accelerators and business schools). Sky also co-founded with his wife the #1 startup and VC board game, "The Next Big Thing: The Game of Entrepreneurship", http://www.nextbigthingboardgame.com/ Sky graduated early from New York University (NYU), summa cum laude, due to his studies at Harvard University in Physics and Foreign Policy.