Dan Caruso ^{Ultimate Decision-Maker}

Board Member at Quantum Ventures

Current Job Duration: 2 yrs 3 mos (until March 2026)

HEADLINE:
Managing Director, Caruso Ventures

PERSONAL SUMMARY:
Dan Caruso is Managing Director of Caruso Ventures, a 3x decacorn entrepreneur and an avid supporter of entrepreneurship. Dan is host of The Bear Roars Podcast, author of the epic book Bandwidth, and songwriter of Stretch. In 2020, Dan founded Caruso Ventures with the mission of being Colorado's most catalytic tech investor with a ten-year goal of cementing Colorado as the top tech ecosystem between the west coast and northeast. Current investments include Infleqtion, Boom Supersonic, Agile Space Industries, BiFrost, Atom Computing, Noctal, Spiridellis Bros. Studios, Outside, Maybell Quantum Industries, VUZ, Firefly, Toters, and Zayo Group.Dan was the Founding Chairman and CEO of Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ZAYO), where investors enjoyed a $8.5B equity exit on a $1.0B investment. Dan was a co-founding executive of Level 3 and joined Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS) as it began to scale. All three exited for enterprise values > $14B. Dan also led the take private of ICG, which achieved a 25X return and led to the ideation of Zayo.Dan is a supporter of Colorado’s and Chicago’s entrepreneurial community. He serves as Chairman of the Board for Endeavor Colorado and is on the boards of Colorado Thrives and Elevate Quantum.In 2015, Dan and Cindy established The Caruso Foundation to Support Initiatives that Inspire Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Inclusion.Dan is a recipient of several awards including the Chicago Booth Distinguished Alumni Award for Entrepreneurship, University of Illinois Alumni Award for Distinguished Service, Colorado Technology Association’s Bob Newman Lifetime Achievement Award, University of Colorado Leeds Corporate Partner Award (Zayo), and Colorado Governor’s Corporate Citizenship Medal.Dan gave the commencement address for the University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering (2019) and the University of Colorado Boulder MBA (2020).Dan holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois.

Languages:

EDUCATION:
School: The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Degree: MBA, Finance
Activities: None

School: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Degree: BS, Mechanical Engineering
Activities: None

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