Maia Sharpley is the founder and managing partner of Odonata Ventures, a venture capital firm that is committed to investing in revolutionary technology-enabled education companies. She has been at the forefront of innovation within the education, EdTech, venture, and start-up arenas since the early days of education reform. She has a proven track record of conceptualizing, developing, optimizing, and investing in businesses and has built and run multiple educational start-ups.
Previously Maia co-founded and was managing partner of Juvo Ventures, and prior to that she was a partner at Learn Capital. Maia comes to venture capital as an operator, after many years of building and running businesses around the world. She served as executive vice president of Innovation and Strategic Initiatives for Charter Schools USA; corporate vice president for Strategy and Innovation with Kaplan, Inc.; and executive director of Operations for the New York City Department of Education, where she was a founding member of its Children First team spearheading various reform initiatives.
In addition to the portfolio of company Boards that she serves on, Maia currently serves on the board and/or is a member of multiple (non-investment related) education organizations, including colleges, research think tanks, EdTech accelerators, and start-ups. She is a founder of Innovation for Equity, a nonprofit dedicated to improving outcomes for Black learners of all ages.
Maia is a U.S. patent holder, developing a system and method for managing intellectual property life cycles. She holds a BA in Political Science, International Relations, from Trinity College and an MBA from the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and is a Kauffman Fellow.