Team | EduLab Capital Partners

Leadership Team

Led by experienced investors, operators, and company builders

Liam Pisano

Managing Partner

Norihisa Wada

Managing Partner

Edwin Derecho

Chief Financial Officer

Sally Sorte

Principal

Aditya Vikram

Analyst

Venture Fellows

Amy Wang

Campus Ambassador – 2020
Northwestern University

Aron Nunez

Campus Ambassador – 2020
Stanford University

August Riess

Campus Ambassador – 2020
Boston College

Jason Berger

Campus Ambassador – 2020
Middlebury College

TianYu Wong

Campus Ambassador – 2019
Boston University & Columbia University

Harrison Cuker

Campus Ambassador – 2022
Cornell University

Tanay Rishi

Campus Ambassador – 2022
University of Texas, Austin

Karen He

Campus Ambassador – 2022
University of Pennsylvania

Shengran Zhou

Campus Ambassador – 2022
Yale University

Hudson Ramirez

Campus Ambassador – 2021
Tufts University

Jacob Bassil

Campus Ambassador – 2020
Williams College

Jae Kim

Campus Ambassador – 2018
Brown University

Laura Fleming

Campus Ambassador – 2022
Boston College

Liam Pisano

Managing Partner

Liam Pisano is a Managing Partner at EduLab Capital Partners. Prior to co-founding EduLab Capital Partners, Liam was the Managing Director at LearnLaunch, an early-stage education technology investment platform, and co-working space. There he managed all LearnLaunch investment activity and drove domestic and international strategy for the organization. He has over 16 years of direct investing experience, holding investment professional positions at Spectrum Equity Investors, Hercules Capital, and Patriot Capital. He also co-founded one of the first MOOC’s for student use, Academic Earth, which was named as Time Magazine top websites of 2009 and was eventually sold to an ABRY Partners portfolio company.

Liam received his B.A. in Political Science from Williams College, where he was a member of the two time National Championship Division III cross country team. He received his M.B.A from Yale University where he was a founding member of the Yale Economic Review.

He is a proud 19-year member of the Big Brothers Association of Massachusetts, a two-time big brother and former Big Brother of the Year. He is also co-founder of the William Gaines Foundation (Biggie’s Kids), a non-profit organization serving underprivileged inner-city high school students.

Norihisa Wada

Managing Partner

Norihisa Wada is a Managing Partner at EduLab Capital Partners. He is also a Director of Edutech Lab, Inc. USA, and an Executive Vice President and CMO of EduLab, Inc. Norihisa has been responsible for EduLab’s investment portfolio into both Edtech companies and fund investments. Norihisa is heavily involved in Edtech, a mentor at GSV Labs, and served as a GESA (Global EdTech Startup Awards) finals judge for the past two years.

Before joining EduLab, Norihisa served as a Senior Vice President of an entertainment games company where he achieved an unprecedented number of hit titles for NintendoDS & Wii setting the global trend of nintedoDS Study, new business development consultant at the largest non-profit testing institute in the world and as an advisor at CHINA MOBILE in China. Norihisa still serves as an Industry-Government-Academy Collaboration Advisor at Kyoto University Inter-Graduate School Program for Sustainable Development and Survivable Societies where he is part of behavior change studies.

Norihisa was an early member of Advanced Media Inc., managing the Education, Entertainment, and Mobile Business departments. He eventually led the company’s IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers.

Norihisa holds a BA in Policy Management from Keio University.

Edwin Derecho

Chief Financial Officer

Edwin Derecho joined EduLab Capital Partners as Chief Financial Officer in October 2019. Previously, he served in senior financial positions for multinational corporations and entrepreneurial firms, including Manager of International Treasury for RCA, VP in Mergers & Acquisitions at Citibank, Director of Capital Markets for PepsiCo, Inc., VP & Treasurer at Sunbeam Corporation and Office Depot, and Chief Financial Officer at Furniture.com, Spencer Technologies and Celebrity Series of Boston. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and holds a B.A. in Economics and Communication from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Sally Sorte

Principal

Sally Sorte is a principal at EduLab Capital Partners. She is an MBA student at Harvard Business School class of 2022. Sally has an extensive background in education as a Teach for America corps member and founder and Executive Director of Academy 360, a charter school serving a historically disadvantaged community in Denver, CO. She also brings experience as a marketing strategist with Google and a consultant with McKinsey. Sally has an MPA from the University of Colorado and a Masters in Education from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Aditya Vikram

Analyst

Aditya is an Analyst at EduLab Capital Partners. Prior to that, he worked as an Analyst at LearnLaunch, part of the team at the early-stage education technology investment platform LearnLaunch Accelerator. The platform looks for private companies solving education problems across PreK, K-12, Higher Ed, and Workplace. Aditya was responsible for supporting the fund by assisting investment due diligence, designing a Limited Partner fund reporting process, maintaining the pipeline for the accelerator program, and contributing to cohort and conference success. Aditya is originally from New Delhi, India, and graduated from the University of Delhi, Sri Venkateswara College with a BA (Honours) in Economics and Boston University with an MS in Management Studies.

Dahler Battle

Senior Associate

Dahler Battle is a Senior Associate at EduLab Capital Partners. Before working at EduLab, Dahler served as an Associate at Village Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in ventures solving major global challenges in education, agriculture, fintech, healthcare, and sustainability. While at Village Capital, Dahler’s responsibilities included developing investment theses, finding and building an investment pipeline, supporting the due diligence process, and selecting companies for the firm’s associated accelerator programs. Dahler is originally from Birmingham, Alabama, and graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Economics and Foreign Affairs.

Amy Wang

Summer Analyst & Campus Ambassador

Amy Wang is a Summer Analyst with EduLab Capital Partners. She is currently an incoming senior at Northwestern University studying Economics and Financial Economics. On-campus, she is a member of the Women’s Volleyball team where she was a two-time Academic All-Big 10 Student-Athlete. She is also involved with The Garage, Northwestern’s start-up incubator.

Aron Nunez

Campus Ambassador

Aron Nunez is a Campus Ambassador with EduLab Capital Partners. He is currently a dual senior and master’s student at Stanford University studying Management Science and Engineering with concentrations in financial analytics and healthtech modeling. On campus, Aron is involved in several educational and volunteer extracurriculars like the Leland Scholars Program, Barrio Assistance and Los Hermanos de Stanford. Before EduLab, Aron held internship roles at Goldman Sachs, XRC Labs, and StartupHealth.

August Riess

Summer Analyst

August is a Summer Analyst at EduLab Capital Partners. He is currently an incoming senior at the Boston College Carroll School of Management, concentrating in Finance and Business Analytics. While at Boston College, he volunteered at the finance department of CEPAM, an Ecuadorian NGO, where he secured funding through assessing and adjusting prices of workshops that CEPAM would offer to third party companies. He worked as a private tennis instructor while bringing his network of private clients to public recreation programs through Foxborough Recreation and Boston College.

Jason Berger

Campus Ambassador

Jason Berger is a campus ambassador with EduLab Capital Partners. He is currently a Junior at Middlebury College Double Majoring in Economics and History on track to graduate in the Spring of 2022. Hailing from New York City, Jason has always had an innate interest in the financial services industry. He has previous experience in asset management working for Shark Tank Host Kevin O'Leary's portfolio companies Beanstox Investments Inc and O'Shares ETF's. On campus, Jason is the Co-President of the Middlebury College RISE (Research and Investment in Sustainable Equity) Group which focuses on ESG investing and manages over $375,000 of the institution's illustrious endowment. Recently, he published an economic statistics paper with some of his peers and Professor Paul Sommers entitled, "A Biting Review of Shark Attacks Off Florida’s Coast, 1960 - 2016" which can be found in the Journal of Student Research.

TianYu Wong

Summer Analyst

TianYu Wong was a campus ambassador in 2019 and joined Atento Capital as an investment associate in 2021. He graduated from Boston University in 2018 with a B.S.B.A in Finance and Columbia University in 2019 with an MS in Applied Analytics.

Tanay Rishi

Campus Ambassador

Tanay is a rising junior at the University of Texas studying Finance and MIS as part of the Canfield Business Honors Program. On campus, he serves as the leadership development head for the school's Scholars of Finance chapter and is a chairholder for the professional committee of the Honors Business Association. Tanay is very passionate about entrepreneurship and venture capital; he has previously been a venture fellow at Laconia and Republic and is currently a venture scout at Anthos Capital, a startup consultant at Startery, and a portfolio founder of the Blackstone LaunchPad Future Founders accelerator program. This summer, he will be interning at Zendesk as part of the financial strategy and operations team.

Karen He

Campus Ambassador

Karen He is currently a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania studying Economics in Wharton with concentrations in finance and management. On campus, Karen is involved in various consulting and market research based clubs. Through a nonprofit she co-founded in Silicon Valley that focuses on arts, education, and public service, she found the impact of creative education very inspiring. Karen continues to serve the community through various nonprofits.

Shengran Zhou

Campus Ambassador

Shengran Zhou is a Capital Formation Intern at Echo Investment Capital, where he is responsible for supporting all aspects of the fundraising process. Before interning with Echo, Shen was a Campus Ambassador for EduLab Capital Partners. He is currently a junior studying Computer Science and Economics at Yale University. At Yale, he is involved with the Alzheimer's Disease Research Unit, where he works as a Student Research Assistant. Shen has previously interned for Volt (formerly Respond Flow) and Atento Capital.

Hudson Ramirez

Summer Analyst

Hudson was a campus ambassador in 2021. He joined Tufts University as a freshman in 2021.

Jacob Bassil

Summer Analyst

Jacob Bassil is a Summer Analyst at EduLab Capital Partners. He is a two-sport student-athlete at Williams College, class of 2022, double-majoring in Economics and History while playing on the Varsity Baseball and Squash teams. Before interning at EduLab, Jacob was a professional squash player on the PSA World Tour reaching a High of #243 in the World, #1 in Lebanon, and former #12 in the United States. Jacob has experience working as a Business Development Associate for a personalized sports nutrition app called ZoneIn, and as a Brand Influencer with lululemon.

Laura Fleming

Campus Ambassador

Laura Fleming is a rising senior at Boston College studying finance in the Carroll School of Management, with a secondary major in communication. Currently pursuing a career in wealth management while interning at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Laura has a long term goal of working to increase financial literacy amongst elementary age students. In addition to academics and career aspirations, Laura serves as a Student Leader for the Boston College Marching Band and Dance Team.

Leadership Team

Liam Pisano

Norihisa Wada

Edwin Derecho

Sally Sorte

Aditya Vikram

Venture Fellows

Amy Wang

Aron Nunez

August Riess

Jason Berger

TianYu Wong

Harrison Cuker

Tanay Rishi

Karen He

Shengran Zhou

Hudson Ramirez

Jacob Bassil

Jae Kim

Laura Fleming

Come Work With Us

EduLab Capital Partners is always looking for world class entrepreneurs focused on impactful outcomes. We would love to learn more about your mission

Liam Pisano

Norihisa Wada

Edwin Derecho

Sally Sorte

Aditya Vikram

Dahler Battle

Amy Wang

Aron Nunez

August Riess

Jason Berger

TianYu Wong

Tanay Rishi

Karen He

Shengran Zhou

Hudson Ramirez

Jacob Bassil

Laura Fleming