Adam R. Dell (born January 14, 1970) is an American

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

ist and is the brother of

Michael Dell Michael Saul Dell (born February 23, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies. As of May 2025, accordin ...

, the founder of computer manufacturing company

Dell Inc. Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

Early and personal life

Dell was born in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, to a German-Jewish family. He earned a BA in

political economy Political or comparative economy is a branch of political science and economics studying economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and national economies) and their governance by political systems (e.g. law, institutions, and government). Wi ...

from

Tulane University The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...

and a JD from Texas Law. His elder brother

is the founder of the

Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

technology company. In 2010, he became father to a daughter with model and actress Padma Lakshmi.

Career

He began his career working as a corporate attorney for Winstead Sechrest & Minick, in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, before joining the venture capital firm of Enterprise Partners in

La Jolla, California La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood in San Diego, California, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. The climate is mild, with an average daily temperature o ...

. He then joined Crosspoint Venture Partners, in Woodside, California, where he became a partner in 1999. In 2000 he formed Impact Venture Partners, a $100mm early stage venture capital firm, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Dell joined Austin Ventures as a venture partner in 2009. Dell joined

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

as a partner in 2018. During the course of his career, Dell invested in numerous technology companies such as Hotjobs.com, which was acquired by

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

in 2002; Ingenio, which was acquired by

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

in 2007; and OpenTable. Dell founded six companies, Clarity Money, which was acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2018; Civitas Learning; Buzzsaw.com, which was acquired by

AutoDesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that provides software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquarte ...

in 2002; and MessageOne, which was acquired by Dell, Inc. in 2008 and Domain Money, a financial advisory business. Dell was an adjunct professor at

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a Private university, private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and one of ...

teaching business, technology, innovation. He is a visiting professor at Texas Law where he teaches a class on the role of law in innovation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dell, Adam Living people 1970 births American venture capitalists Tulane University alumni Businesspeople from Houston Businesspeople from New York City University of Texas School of Law alumni American people of German-Jewish descent 20th-century American lawyers Lawyers from Houston 21st-century American Jews Goldman Sachs people American financial company founders