Krishna K. Gupta

General Partner

Krishna founded Romulus Capital while a hungry, entrepreneurial undergrad at MIT – first in a dorm room, then from a basement – in 2008 when the world was in recession. Almost a decade later, the original values that sparked the genesis of Romulus remain present in the firm’s DNA: Krishna and the team focus on building, not betting on, technology-enabled businesses that have the capability to transform entire industries.

Krishna has always been inspired by the idea of “building to last.” Over the years, Krishna has led Romulus to be the first institutional partner of a diverse set of early-stage companies. He works closely with these companies to help them build powerful foundations, much as he has done at Romulus. He particularly enjoys partnering with companies (mostly B2B) that have innovative technology or science at the core of their value propositions. He sits on the boards of Aila Technologies, Allurion Technologies, Ceres Imaging, Cogito, Cohealo, Humanyze, PetaGene, Placester, Presto, Vyome Biosciences, and ZeroCater, has additionally led investments into ClassPass, Ginger.io, Ambit.ai, Akamara Therapeutics, and has been an Advisor to ClearMotion. He has helped 5 of these companies grow from $0M to over $15M in annual revenue.

Prior to Romulus, Krishna spent time at McKinsey & Company and JPMorgan, where he helped several Fortune 100 clients on billion-dollar deals in technology, media, and telecom. He has a broad set of intellectual interests – he has conducted physical chemistry research at the University of Chicago and the Weizmann Institute in Israel, produced a film on English ancient history used at Cambridge and Oxford, adventured in conflict zones in India, and competed as a finalist at the USA Mathematics Olympiad. He’s a keen sports fan (American football, basketball, tennis, and cricket), is a student of political and military history, and finds the arts a great way to relax and discover.

Krishna received SB degrees in Materials Science and Engineering and Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a graduate of Phillips Academy Andover. To learn more about Krishna, visit his personal website.

What’s something few people know about you?

I love exploring conflict zones. They are microcosms of intractable, real-world problems with real, suffering human beings trapped within them; without understanding them on the ground, we have no chance of finding solutions. I have been in Nepal as the 10-year civil war was ending, in Kashmir in the midst of deadly violence and strikes, in Israel as the evacuation from Gaza was underway; I’ve weaved through Turkish checkpoints in the Kurdish hinterland, and I’ve been taken by separatist battalions amidst the tea plantations of Assam. I’ve grown as an individual through these adventures.

What inspires you?

Authenticity really inspires me. I love people discovering and living who they are, without feeling constrained by people or society around them. The most inspiring creators – of companies, empires, technology, art, anything – are always authentic to themselves. They are decisive because they know what they want and are unabashedly ambitious about pursuing it.

What would you tell an aspiring entrepreneur?

To start a company for the right reasons, to listen to the opinions of the few, and not to care about what the majority think or say. Building a large company will often feel like an entirely solitary journey on an entirely uncertain surface, and you should embrace all of that right up front.