Shane Kelly has mobilized capital and community across technology and media ventures for 2 decades, leading venture funds, angel syndicates, startups, and media investments. He founded Cinematica Labs to build ecosystems for mission-driven entrepreneurs, partnering with organizations including Pharrell Williams’ Black Ambition, Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, PledgeLA, Black Owned Media Equity and Sustainability Institute, and New Media Ventures to deeply engage 800 founders and 100 mentors since 2022. By designing for founder well-being and minoritized communities, Cinematica Labs catalyzes economies centering people and the planet.
Shane also serves as Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship for the Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business where he teaches the Venture Lab, guiding students to make $50k startup investments out of the USC Marshall Venture Fund, with investments including Adway and FedML. He previously taught Venture Capital to emerging investors through his role as Investor in Residence for HBCU.vc, after which Fellows were placed into paid internships with top Venture Capital firms including Foundry, Slauson & Co, and Bloomberg Beta. An active member of the tech startup community, Shane serves on the investment committee for Cap Table Coalition, a community of over 1,000 angel investors and fund managers.
Shane’s work as a tech entrepreneur and investor has been featured by TenOneTen’s LA Venture podcast, AI on the Lot, Google Developers, and Forbes. As a tech investor, Shane founded Wolverine Angels, an angel syndicate for University of Michigan alumni where he invested in startups including FEM Prizma (Acquired by Nielsen Gracenote) and Neurable. He went on to run investments for Titan Fund, powered by CrowdSmart. The company’s proprietary platform combines human expertise and artificial intelligence to increase transparency and reduce bias for venture funds. Shane led 15 investments for the fund including Air and Syntiant.
Previously, Shane helped GreeneStreet Films raise several rounds of venture capital and build a slate of 20 motion pictures generating $250 million at the box office including Movie 43 and A Prairie Home Companion.
Shane holds an MBA with distinction from University of Michigan where he was a Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Fellow. He earned a BS cum laude from Morehouse College where he studied Math and Physics.