25-06-2025
Venture capitalist Eric Paley accepts Mass. econ post
Eric Paley is moving on from venture capital, 16 years after helping to launch seed-stage firm Founder Collective and backing from such companies as Uber, Trade Desk, Cruise, Airtable, and Whoop.
Driving the news: He's agreed to become the next Massachusetts secretary of economic development, with the switch effective after Labor Day.
What they're saying: Paley tells Axios that the first outreach was from Yvonne Hao (ex-PillPack, Cove Hill Partners), shortly after she announced plans to step down from the post.
"She said she was going to put me at the top of a short list requested by Governor [Maura] Healey, but that I could tell them no," he recalls. "My reply was that I could tell her no now and tell them no later. I felt I had the perfect career set-up."
"But then I truly couldn't sleep that night, thinking about making a bigger societal impact and how this was an opportunity for me to serve within the constraints of what I'm good at and in a community I care deeply about."
By the next morning, he wanted in and began doing research.
