Tom Chavez
Tom Chavez
Biography
Tom Chavez is the co-founder of super{set}, a venture studio that founds, funds, and forms technology startups.
For the past 20+ years, Tom’s professional focus has centered on using data, decision science, and AI to solve hard, interesting problems. Prior to forming super{set}, Tom was the CEO and co-founder of Krux, a martech platform acquired by Salesforce in 2016. Before Krux, Tom was the CEO and co-founder of Rapt, a provider of software for media monetization acquired by Microsoft in 2008. Over time the companies Tom has led have generated a 17.5x return for investors and substantial wealth for employees. He is also an investor in his friends’ ventures, which include companies like SafeGraph, Datavant, Survata, Postie, FLEXE, Finix, MintExchange, CocoTerra, and VOIQ.
Alongside former Salesforce colleagues Vivek Vaidya and Chris O’Hara, Tom co-authored Data Driven: Harnessing Data and AI to Reinvent Customer Engagement, published in 2018. The book aims to explain and “de-geekify” the latest data-driven techniques that marketers use to drive stronger engagement and smarter experiences for consumers.
Apart from being a determined entrepreneur, Tom cares deeply about civil discourse and the techniques advocacy and political groups use to advance voter and civic engagement. To that end he co-founded Beacon (fka RiseUP), a data management and app provider that applies lessons learned from Krux to modernize political advocacy and civic participation, with focus on digital/mobile, as opposed to TV/mail.
Together with his sister Elena Chavez Quezada and his wife Rosalyn Chen, Tom co-founded the Chavez Family Foundation. The philanthropy invests in non-profit projects at the intersection of education, immigration, and entrepreneurship. It is Tom’s way of honoring his amazing parents and carrying forward the values they instilled. Tom sits on the non-profit boards of KQED (public media for the Bay Area) and MTV’s Save the Music.
Born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Tom lives and works in San Francisco. He holds a B.A. in Computer Science and Philosophy from Harvard University and Ph.D. in Engineering-Economic Systems and Operations Research from Stanford University, where he was a NASA Doctoral Fellow.