Jeff BussgangManaging Partner & Founder at The Graduate Syndicate General Partner & Co-Founder at Flybridge Capital Partners

Jeff Bussgang

Managing Partner & Founder at The Graduate Syndicate
General Partner & Co-Founder at Flybridge Capital Partners

Jeff’s investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in agentic AI, AI-native vertical SaaS, and AI-native fintech start-ups. He also serves as a part-time Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School and teaches a popular class on entrepreneurship and lean start-ups called Launching Technology Ventures and a class called VC Journey. In this capacity, he has co-authored over fifty HBS cases, book chapters, and teaching notes regarding startup management and entrepreneurship. Jeff also runs The Graduate Syndicate (TGS), a micro-seed fund that Flybridge created to invest in startups co-founded by recent Harvard graduates. TGS has invested in nearly 100 companies since inception in 2016, including Amartha, Banyan, Connie Health, Habi, Noetica.ai, and Tomorrow.io.

Prior to co-founding Flybridge, Jeff co-founded and served as President, Chief Operating Officer, and Board Director at Upromise, a loyalty marketing and financial services firm that was acquired by Sallie Mae. He also served as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Business Development, Vice President of Worldwide Professional Services and head of Product Management at Open Market, an Internet commerce software leader that went public in 1996. Prior to Open Market, Jeff was with the strategy consulting firm, The Boston Consulting Group.

In 2025, Jeff authored The Experimentation Machine: Finding Product-Market Fit in the Age of AI. In 2017, Jeff authored a book for startup joiners, Entering StartUpLand: An Essential Guide to Finding the Right Job. In 2010, Jeff authored a book on venture capital and entrepreneurship, Mastering the VC Game, to provide entrepreneurs an insider’s guide to financing and company-building. The book has been hailed by the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, TechCrunch and The Financial Times as an essential guide for entrepreneurs. The first chapters of each of his three books can be downloaded here.

Jeff is an active community member, particularly in the areas of social justice, diversity, and equity. He co-founded and serves as board chair of Hack.Diversity, a nonprofit that breaks down barriers for under-represented professionals in tech. He co-founded and serves as board chair of LEADS, an economic and leadership development program that invests in diverse communities to build civic infrastructure. Jeff is also an active board member at educational non-profit, Facing History and Ourselves, which uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and students to stand up to antisemitism, bigotry, and hate.

Jeff graduated from Harvard College in 1991 magna cum laude in computer science and from Harvard Business School in 1995, where he was a Baker Scholar and a Ford Scholar.