Lisa Calhoun is an experienced leader in venture capital. Lisa was recently named Atlanta Investor of the Year 2024 by Startup Atlanta and ranked among Business Insider’s best 30 women seed investors in 2023. She is the founder and managing partner of Valor Ventures, the South’s first woman-led, institutional venture capital firm, now investing its third fund. Valor’s portfolio employs just over 1,000 people and has a footprint across 25 countries. Lisa is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 23), recipient of the Kauffman Fellows Leadership Award for Class 23, and frequent speaker. She’s spoken recently for NASDAQ, SuperReturn, KPMG, and the Kauffman Leadership Summit. Her insights have been featured in Forbes, Inc., and the Venture Capital Journal. She also shares insights as co-host and founder of the Atlanta Startup Podcast and on Valor’s blog, The Real Deal.
Under her leadership, Valor leverages a portfolio of AI and SaaS software companies based in the South that are frequently celebrated as forerunners in their fields, including Saile.AI, a G2 Top 100 Fast Growing Technology of 2025; Visalaw.AI, winner of the 2024 American Legal Technology AI Innovation Award; FinQuery, a 2025 G2 Best Real Estate Software; Allelica, a 2023 GHG Global Excellence in Polygenic Risk Score award winner; Arpio, one of the 10 Hottest Data Storage Startups of 2024; Aetos Imaging, a Georgia Top 10 Innovative Company, and, STEMuli, winner of the 2024 global United Nations AI for Good competition. Valor is also known for developing Vic, a visionary AI-powered investment management platform integrated with industry leaders like Salesforce, Carta, and PitchBook. Valor funds are backed by notable institutional investors as well as thoughtful private capital.
In Lisa’s board work, she is privy to multi-year trends and insights on issues including the pricing of enterprise AI, the corporate adoption curve of AI, risks around AI and AI augmentation, and use cases in the global Fortune 1000 for artificial intelligence. Investors who invested alongside or after Valor include Draper, Bezos Expeditions, Blumberg, Goldman Sachs, Mackenzie Scott, Google, Mastercard, the Gates Foundation, S3, Lewis & Clark, and Open Prairie.
Philanthropically, Lisa’s passion for discovering top investments from visionaries from all backgrounds led her to establish the Startup Runway Foundation in 2016, now the nation’s largest nonprofit (501c3) for introducing underrepresented founders to their first investors. Startup Runway is underwritten by organizations committed to equity in early stage investing, including the American Family Institute, NCR Foundation, Cox Enterprises, and the National Science Foundation. Startups from under-represented founders who have gone through the program have raised nearly $100M.
Lisa is also active in her local community through her board work for the nonprofit Heart of South Downtown, an economic empowerment organization.
Prior to founding Valor in 2016, Lisa founded a digital marketing agency that was recognized by HubSpot as a top 10 firm for startups. She helped guide founders to successful exits through developing meaningful sales funnels and communication platforms. Earlier in her career, Lisa specialized in enterprise IT software, consulting for leading IT departments including GDOT and UPS.
Lisa holds an MBA in management science with a concentration in statistics from the University of Texas and a BA with honors from Baylor University, which she attended on National Merit Scholarship. Lisa recharges by spending time alone. Her hobbies include gardening and dressage. She’s a USDF Bronze Medalist and competitor.
