We are a dynamic team of founders, mentors, operators, and investors. We leverage our expertise to identify high-potential early-stage businesses and advise corporate venture building. Our goal is to not only provide strategic guidance, but also to participate, nurturing these ventures towards remarkable success.
Act 5 Leadership
Peter has been an angel investor for over 18 years, and an entrepreneur for over 30 years, founding and launching 12+ startups in SaaS, Fintech, professional services, mobility, and consumer products, and experiencing exits to both public and private markets along the way. He’s also been a researcher at HP and Apple, CIO at Global Insurer Argo Group, and mentor to countless startup entrepreneurs. As both a hardcore techie and pragmatic economist, he’s spent his career connecting innovation to value, and having fun every step of the way.
A lifelong “phile-ophile”, Peter collects and curates things tied to one or more of the five senses: music, headphones and other audiophile equipment; videos, photography and antique cameras; spices and eclectic cooking apparatus; books; and of course vintage personal computers. Ask for a tour!
Peter Henry
Founder, Managing Director
Birgit is a globally-experienced, award-winning German/South African entrepreneur with a strong performance history of launching and scaling large, complex operations. She has an exceptional ability to inspire people and steer and streamline businesses, as demonstrated in her leadership roles in multinational corporations and startups, including heading complex, distributed organizations with interdisciplinary teams as Group Director of Lufthansa's global customer service network where she was in charge of 8 service centres in 8 countries with 1,800 consultants offering +200 services in more than 30 languages. Birgit also co-founded two tech startups, where she served as CEO & COO. With her diverse international experience and demonstrated HR and communication skills, she is well-equipped to drive organizations' strategic growth. In addition, Birgit is a seasoned strategist with proven implementation experience, consistently delivering exceptional results.
Shelley Alger brings over 25 years of business development, operations, investor relations, strategic growth and marketing experience within the startup ecosystem. She has been part of the Bay Area angel investment ecosystem since 2004.
She was the first employee and ran business development and M&A for Critical Path, one of the first SaaS companies, and later co-founded a spirits import business that produced Trader Joe’s products as well as a food technology company, Treasure8. She has served on leadership teams as well as non-profit boards. She is an advisor to multiple early-stage and social impact companies such as Stasher, Barnraiser, Boomity, Change Finance, and EFD, as well as an angel investor.
She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and explores as much of the globe as possible, capturing wildlife and “the endangered wisdom of the planet” as an award-winning photographer. Shelley’s photography can be enjoyed at www.shelleyalger.com.
Shelley Alger
Venture Partner
Birgit Thümecke
Managing Director
Tony brings 25+ years of US, UK and International technology and business experience into Act 5, to provide practical experience to entrepreneurs. He launched his career in Canada with successful technology product deliveries, business performance and intelligence in the Canada and US markets
Moving on to Senior Management roles in the UK, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. Tony brought a focus on leadership, development, problem-solving through mentoring, coaching and general oversight across entire business functions for successful outcomes. He brings pertinent financial and operational experience from HSBC Holdings PLC, AT&T M&A, JLL EMEA , Sodexo UK and Robertson Stephens LLC.
Tony lives in London, and circulates regularly throughout the EU, US and Canada. For fun, he gets out bicycling, chases (or is chased by) young, daughter Matilda, and engages in extreme arm-wrestling contests.
Anthony Moore
Managing Director
Jonathan, aka “Speedo” has 35 years of business development, finance, and start-up experience with companies such as Manufacturers Hanover Trust, Kidder Peabody, Citibank, and myCFO. He was most recently CFO and VP of Operations at Versal Group, e-Learning technology company. In January 2020, Jonathan launched a data insights company, 1790 Media. He has advised—as a mentor or board member—non-profit, professional, and entrepreneurial organizations such as Youth Mentoring & Sports and the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation, the CFO Leadership Council (co-chair, San Francisco chapter)—and Astia, Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship). He serves on numerous advisory other advisory boards.
Jonathan holds a BA in Political Science from Brown University. In 2014, Jonathan completed an MA in Military History from Norwich University, capping his lifelong interest in the subject, and seriously bolstering his trivia contest performance.
Jonathan Speed
Venture Partner
Nicole DeMeo is an accomplished business launch, growth, and turnaround expert, as well as fund advisor. A Silicon Valley veteran, she works closely with global executive teams to develop marketing strategies and guides companies through major lifecycle events and crises. Her participation in more than 50 company launches - including four of her own – has resulted in significantly increased valuations, acquisitions and IPOs.
Nicole has served as brand ambassador and marketing strategist for industry leaders such as Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, and Carly Fiorina and Fortune 500 companies including Apple, Hewlett Packard, and Accenture. Nicole has served on leadership teams including Andra Capital, Glispa, and Organic and advises fast-growth companies and funds like Barnraiser, EyeEm, Peak Games, Burson Cohn & Wolfe, Earlybird Venture Capital, and How Women Invest.
She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and delights in making wine as the owner of Media Luna Vineyards.
Nicole DeMeo
Venture Partner
The link between purpose, people & technology. Götz is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in sales & marketing, consulting, and business development. He has a strong track record of founding successful startups and has served as CEO, CMO and CTO for Eventerprise AG, an EvenTech SaaS platform where he oversaw the development and dissemination of technology, established brand positioning and design, and oversaw business development & marketing. Götz is skilled in strategic planning and execution, end-to-end customer processes, and leading diverse high-performance teams. He is passionate about combining his creativity with agile execution and staying at the forefront of advanced brand and marketing strategies. Götz is also known for his ability to forge strategic partnerships and lucrative alliances. In addition, he has developed and implemented a global talent scouting strategy that saw 120 young professionals from elite universities worldwide complete the program.
