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AI research company that builds reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.
Mary is a partner at Bessemer, where she primarily focuses on cloud software investments. She serves as a board member or observer for Teleport, Netlify, Imply Data, LaunchDarkly, and GetInsured.
Mary is a co-author of Bessemer’s Scaling to $100 Million report, annual State of the Cloud Reports and the 10 Laws of Cloud, and she is a key architect of the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index, which serves as the benchmark for public cloud companies. She also developed Bessemer’s Cash Conversion Score and authors the annual Cloud 100 Benchmarks Reports. Mary was previously named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 List in Venture Capital and is a protagonist in a Harvard Business School case on Bessemer's Century Fund.
Prior to Bessemer, Mary worked in Equity Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley and held roles at Apple and at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Mary graduated with honors with an A.B. in Politics from Princeton University and holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management, where she now sits on the Board of the International Center for Finance. In her free time, Mary enjoys cheering for the 49ers, listening to country music, and spending time with her husband and daughter.
Mary is a partner at Bessemer focused on cloud software investments. She prides herself on being a trusted and engaged advisor and partner to CEOs, providing guidance on the strategic areas that are most critical to the portfolio company — whether that’s product development, market analysis, or financial planning — identifying the changes and improvements that will drive business outcomes.
Mary began honing these skills early in her career. She started in equity capital markets at Morgan Stanley where she helped raise capital for tech giants like Uber and Airbnb. Wanting to gain experience in company operations, she joined Apple’s procurement team and there developed an interest in product strategy. Mary was drawn to investing because it combined the two things she valued most about her previous experiences: partnering with exceptional executive teams and working at the strategic level over the long-term.
As an investor, Mary prides herself on partnering with companies that democratize technology and activate offline or previously unempowered user groups. It’s easy to underestimate such companies at first glance, as often happened to LaunchDarkly back when Mary first invested in 2019. At the time, many saw feature management as a niche, but Mary believed that the LaunchDarkly team’s valuable product insights and deep customer empathy would turn feature management into its own category. Fast forward and LaunchDarkly has grown into a must-have infrastructure for software development teams. Across Mary’s investments in developer tools, data infrastructure, and vertical software, she prioritizes teams that have a clear “why now” for their market, and product excellence.
In her personal life, Mary loves live events, especially Broadway shows and concerts (she’s been to over 300). She’s also a big football fan and a 49ers season ticket holder, and appreciates the chance to share these memorable experiences with her husband, Kyle, and their daughter, Genevieve.
WSJ Pro: Q&A with Bessemer’s Mary D’Onfrio
Forbes: Inside The 2023 Cloud 100 List
TechCrunch Equity: Is today’s market sad or sane?
Collision 2022: The developer revolution is here. Is your business ready?