Our Team

Dave Furneaux

CEO and Chairman

Dave Furneaux has spent his nearly 30-year career as an entrepreneur and venture investor, forming, leading, building, and investing in numerous high growth companies in information technology, including successful cybersecurity companies and IT infrastructure companies, Watchfire (acquired by IBM), Skystone (acquired by Cisco), Application Security (acquired by Singtel), RMI (acquired by Broadcom) and Aironet (acquired by Cisco). Dave founded and led Kodiak Venture Partners, which went on to invest in and build successful companies, such as Appnexus (acquired by AT&T), Channel Advisor (NYSE: ECOM), Greenlight Biosciences (Nasdaq: GRNA) and WHERE (acquired by Paypal).  Through BlueIO, Dave has worked to build and scale remarkable companies such as Virsec Systems, Lufa Farms, Cybersaint, Lumicell and others. Dave partners with amazing entrepreneurs to solve challenging problems and creating solutions that benefit the world. Dave holds a B.A. from Colorado College, Phi Beta Kappa.

Jan Haas

President and Vice Chairman

Jan Haas is a 30 year veteran of technology finance and an active investor and advisor to entrepreneurs. Jan has spent most of his career providing innovative financing solutions to entrepreneurial companies. Before joining BlueIO, Jan served as the Group Head of NXT’s Venture Finance division, where he managed all aspects of the business and helped establish one of the largest pools of capital dedicated to venture lending. Prior to NXT, Jan co-founded Velocity Financial Group in 2007, a $400 million specialty finance business dedicated to mid-market and venture lending, which he subsequently merged with NXT in 2011 to form the Venture Finance division. During his time at Velocity, Jan and his team invested in Cadent (acquired by Align Technologies), Interwise (acquired by AT&T), Schoolnet (acquired by Pearson), and Veracode, as well as 29 other high-growth venture-backed companies. Jan holds a B.A. from Middlebury College and an MBA from the University of North Carolina.

Justin Deckert

Chief of Staff and Operating Partner

Justin Deckert helps to lead investor and advisor relations, portfolio management, strategy, and operations. Prior to joining the team at BlueIO, he worked in Investment Banking at Citigroup, specializing in infrastructure finance and as a Venture Capital Fellow at Third Sphere (formerly Urban Us). He also has additional experience working in government both at the State and Federal levels. Justin is passionate about building vibrant, purpose driven companies. He spends most of his time serving as the Chief of Staff & Director of Corporate Development at BlueIO’s portfolio company, Virsec. Justin holds a BA in Government from Colby College and an MBA from Babson College – F.W. Olin School of Business.

Alison Furneaux

Operating Partner

Alison forms, invests in, and builds companies, working to build companies with global impact potential using purpose-driven capital and a passion for tech innovation. Alison began her journey as a next-generation company builder in her early years and has been a part of over five technology startups at various stages from formation through growth, and part of the BlueIO team. As a strategic advisor to BlueIO companies, Alison works to support the BlueIO team and each companies’ activity through the formation stage through key growth milestones. As CMO and a part of the founding team at CyberSaint, one of BlueIO's companies, Alison is focused on enabling comprehensive marketing and positioning strategies from demand generation through customer retention, corporate development, and strategic partnerships. Alison is passionate about building BlueIO into a platform for generations, connecting with next-gen builder capitalists and entrepreneurs, and activating community members around new company ideas, investment opportunities, and collaborations.