About Chris Gardner

I am happiest when sitting across the table from people way smarter than me. This has led to a career spent with brilliant colleagues at several venture-backed startups as well as at big public companies like PayPal where most recently, I ran the P2P, PayPal Here and In-store products.

While my most recent work has been focused on fintech, I am an omnivore when it comes to science and technology and am just as likely to be digging into a blog on machine learning, genetic engineering, quantum computing, sustainability, or vintage tube amplifier repair. I have a car lift in my garage and a recording studio in my barn. I am not an engineer or scientist, but I am still a nerd that likes to build/break/fix things and then tell a story about it. I've been a product manager, a marketer and an engineering leader.

I’ve also been very, very lucky. I am pretty good at picking companies and people to work with, but even more importantly, I’ve been fortunate to be at the right place at the right time. My last five roles resulted in exits which were good for the buyer, our employees, and our investors. Today, I'm a partner at Underscore VC.