Pete Sonsini ’96 MBA

Backing research that becomes reality

For Pete Sonsini ’96 MBA, technology has always been personal. Over the last 30 years, he’s built a legacy in venture capital by putting people at the center of every investment he makes.

A son of Silicon Valley, Pete developed an early appreciation for the impact technology has on our everyday lives. Growing up, his father built a legal practice alongside the rise of the region’s global tech ecosystem, representing iconic companies, including Apple, from their earliest days.

While Pete had no interest in following his father’s footsteps to law school, he was drawn to the same frontier and has since played a pivotal role in shaping some of the most influential technology companies of our time.

“I saw how fulfilling it would be to be involved with such amazing companies in some way, shape or form,” Pete says. “I knew that I very much wanted to stay in the technology field and, if I were so lucky, be able to make a difference like my dad did.”

As co-founder and general partner of Laude Ventures, Pete is setting a different standard for success in Silicon Valley. His work reflects a commitment to backing people as much as ideas, shaping leaders over time and carrying forward the values he learned at Kellogg.

Leadership is learned

Pete began his career hoping simply to play a small part in building great things. His impact, however, quickly proved larger than he anticipated. He began in investment banking with a clear eye toward eventually becoming a technology operator. “I was always very interested in venture capital because you have this amazing [look] at how the world may unfold,” he says.

Pete came to Kellogg expecting to build operational expertise for his next chapter. What he didn’t expect was a fundamental shift in his understanding of leadership itself. Leadership, he believed, was something that came naturally to someone, or not at all.

It was a simple remark from Professor Robert Duncan during an organizational behavior course that reframed Pete’s mindset. When Professor Duncan said Kellogg specialized in teaching people leadership skills, Pete began to listen differently to his professors, his classmates and himself.

As he began to embrace his leadership potential, the warm, optimistic and collaborative community played a defining role in shaping his style. To this day, Pete values authenticity and integrity above all and carries those principles forward in his work as a venture capitalist.

Leaning in long term

After Kellogg, Pete took his newfound leadership skills to the venture capital space. A unique ability to understand complex technology and an innate sense for creating business value solidified his place in the industry.

While at VMware, Pete saw firsthand the power of pairing technological innovation with academics through his work with Stanford University. He carried that insight with him to New Enterprise Associates, where he focused on funding early-stage companies with ties to academic research.

That approach came into sharp focus in 2014 when Pete invested in Databricks, a cloud-based data intelligence platform born out of his undergraduate alma mater, UC Berkeley. As Databricks worked to commercialize, they faced significant financial pressure, coming close to collapse in 2015. Rather than pull back, Pete leaned in and took on the lead financing role.

“One of the reasons we’re still here today and we’re a $134 billion market cap company is that Pete stuck out his neck and invested in us when no one else wanted to,” says Ali Ghodsi, CEO and co-founder of Databricks. “He really supported, mentored and stood by his founders, and I think he uniquely did that in a way that almost no other investor does.”

Laude-able Ventures

After years of investing on behalf of other firms, Pete is stepping into the role of entrepreneur himself alongside Andy Konwinski, co-founder of Databricks. They recently launched Laude Ventures, continuing the hands-on, values-driven work that has come to define Pete’s career.

Convinced that deeply technical founders with research backgrounds build the most consequential companies, Laude Ventures invests in start-ups rooted in breakthrough research. The firm partners closely with researchers in leading U.S. institutions to implement programs for PhD students to begin thinking about commercialization.

More than capital, Pete invests time, energy and genuine confidence in his ventures. He has honed a clear sense of where he can actively add value, helping founders navigate defining moments that shape a company’s idea, vision and strategy.

“Pete is there to help you discover the key to unlocking each of those moments and hold your hand and point the flashlight ahead as you navigate,” Andy says.

In 2026, Kellogg presented Pete with the Distinguished Alumni Service Award, which honors those who have made significant investments in shaping the school’s strategy, culture and brand and have demonstrated how to effectively lead organizations. By embracing emerging technologies and creating opportunities in higher education, Pete's work aligns with Kellogg’s goals as a global, innovative institution.

“Kellogg has always been good at strategically playing the long game, and research, by definition, is a very long-horizon initiative,” Pete says. “That’s critical and Kellogg has embraced that.”

As for Pete’s own long game, it’s driven by the relationships he’s built and an enduring curiosity about technology and its potential. Even amid the uncertainty brought on by AI, Pete finds excitement and is ready to face the challenges head on.

“When things are changing so fast, you need to really stay vigilant, be scanning continually and learning the best way of doing things,” Pete says. “Why would I stop now? I want to keep doing this for a long, long time.”