Jeff Hammerbacher

Co-Founder, Techammer; Co-Founder, Open Athena AI Foundation at techammer

Reviewed Updated May 1, 2026

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Location Bay Area / New York
Check Size Angel-scale
Last Verified Investment Open Athena AI Foundation (Founding) — 2024
Social @hackingdata LinkedIn
Stage Focus
pre-seed seed
Sector Focus
data-infrastructure ai machine-learning digital-health biotech healthcare developer-tools

Background

Jeff Hammerbacher grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father worked at a General Motors plant and his mother was a nurse 1. He studied mathematics at Harvard University, where he met Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg 1. After graduating, he worked briefly as a quantitative analyst at Bear Stearns before joining Facebook in April 2006 1.

At Facebook (2006–2008), Hammerbacher managed the data team that built early versions of the Hive data warehouse and contributed to the development of Cassandra, both released as open-source projects 1. He is widely credited, along with DJ Patil, with popularizing the job title “data scientist” during this period 1.

In 2008, Hammerbacher co-founded Cloudera with Christophe Bisciglia, Amr Awadallah, and Mike Olson to commercialize Apache Hadoop 1. He served as Vice President of Products and later Chief Scientist 1. Cloudera went public on the NYSE in 2017 and merged with Hortonworks in January 2019 to form Cloudera, Inc. 1.

From 2013 to 2019, Hammerbacher was Principal Investigator at Hammer Lab, affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai from 2013 to 2017, where he worked on cancer immunotherapy, neoantigen vaccine design, and immune checkpoint blockade biomarkers 2. In 2019 he co-founded Related Sciences, a biotech venture creation firm focused on computational drug discovery, where he served as Managing Partner from 2019 to 2021 2.

Since 2024, Hammerbacher has been co-founder and co-CEO of the Open Athena AI Foundation 1. He is also a board member at Datavant, PerkinElmer, and emids, and a Senior Advisor at Blackstone and Sixth Street 3. He is married to entrepreneur Halle Tecco (founder of Rock Health and Natalist), with whom he co-founded the Techammer angel investment vehicle 4.

Stated Thesis

Techammer, the family office Hammerbacher runs jointly with Halle Tecco, describes its focus as: “We invest in data science, digital health, and companies that make science go faster. We get especially excited by companies bettering the lives of everyday Americans” 4.

Hammerbacher’s most-quoted public statement reflects the motivation behind his shift from social media to harder problems. In an April 14, 2011 Bloomberg Businessweek profile by Ashlee Vance, he said: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks” 5. The remark, made shortly after he left Facebook to start Cloudera, has been frequently cited as a critique of Silicon Valley priorities.

Inferred Thesis

Hammerbacher’s investment behavior, recorded jointly under Techammer with Halle Tecco, has produced a portfolio that is unusually broad and exit-rich for an angel vehicle. Public sources state Techammer has made over 100 angel investments since 2008, with over 20 acquisitions among them 46.

Sector composition (based on the 22 publicly disclosed exits below): - Data / analytics / machine learning: 8 of 22 (36%) — Aardvark, DataPad, Kaggle, Lex Machina, Lookflow, Statwing, Panjiva, SkipFlag - Developer tools / infrastructure: 4 of 22 (18%) — CardSpring, Locu, RockMelt, Upverter - Health / bio / science: 3 of 22 (14%) — Epinomics, Genome Compiler, Misfit - Consumer / commerce: 4 of 22 (18%) — DIY, Endaga, RentJuice, Clara Lending - Enterprise / vertical SaaS: 3 of 22 (14%) — Authorea, Building Robotics, ScoutRFP

This distribution mirrors Techammer’s stated focus on data science and digital health, while reflecting Hammerbacher’s specific technical background in data infrastructure.

Stage: Techammer invests at angel / pre-seed and seed 4. Specific check sizes are not publicly disclosed; the volume of investments (100+) implies small individual checks typical of angel-scale activity.

Co-investor and acquirer patterns: Exit acquirers skew strongly toward Hammerbacher’s natural ecosystem — Google (Aardvark, Kaggle), Cloudera itself (DataPad), Facebook (Endaga), Yahoo (Lookflow, RockMelt), Twitter (CardSpring), Workday (ScoutRFP, SkipFlag), and Qualtrics (Statwing). The pattern suggests deal sourcing from his Facebook and Cloudera network and from the broader Bay Area data community.

Notable gap vs. stated thesis: Techammer claims a focus on “companies bettering the lives of everyday Americans,” but the verified exit list is dominated by enterprise data tools and developer infrastructure rather than consumer-facing health or civic technology. Digital health appears more prominently through Halle Tecco’s separate Rock Health work than in the joint exit list.

Sample size caveat: This analysis is based on the 22 acquired companies publicly disclosed on Techammer’s about page. With 100+ total investments, this represents roughly 20% of activity; sector percentages should be read as directional rather than precise.

Portfolio

Public Techammer portfolio companies (acquired exits, per the Techammer About page) 4:

Company Year Stage Outcome Source
Aardvark ~2009 Seed Acquired by Google 4
Authorea ~2013 Seed Acquired by Wiley 4
Building Robotics ~2012 Seed Acquired by Siemens 4
CardSpring ~2011 Seed Acquired by Twitter 4
Clara Lending ~2015 Seed Acquired by SoFi 4
DataPad ~2013 Seed Acquired by Cloudera 4
DIY ~2012 Seed Acquired by littleBits 4
Endaga ~2013 Seed Acquired by Facebook 4
Epinomics ~2015 Seed Acquired by 10x Genomics 4
Genome Compiler ~2011 Seed Acquired by Twist Bioscience 4
Kaggle ~2010 Seed Acquired by Google 4
Lex Machina ~2010 Seed Acquired by LexisNexis 4
Locu ~2011 Seed Acquired by GoDaddy 4
Lookflow ~2012 Seed Acquired by Yahoo 4
Misfit ~2011 Seed Acquired by Fossil 4
Panjiva ~2009 Seed Acquired by S&P Global 4
RentJuice ~2010 Seed Acquired by Zillow 4
RockMelt ~2010 Seed Acquired by Yahoo 4
ScoutRFP ~2014 Seed Acquired by Workday 4
SkipFlag ~2015 Seed Acquired by Workday 4
Statwing ~2012 Seed Acquired by Qualtrics 4
Upverter ~2011 Seed Acquired by Altium 4

Years are approximated from founding/early-investment timing; the Techammer page lists exits without specific investment dates.

In Their Own Words

“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.”

— Jeff Hammerbacher, quoted in Ashlee Vance, “This Tech Bubble Is Different,” Bloomberg Businessweek, April 14, 2011 5.

The Techammer site states the joint thesis as: “We invest in data science, digital health, and companies that make science go faster. We get especially excited by companies bettering the lives of everyday Americans” 4.

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials about Hammerbacher’s behavior as an angel investor were found during this research pass. Techammer does not publish founder testimonials, and the angel-scale checks typically yield less public commentary than larger venture rounds.

Connections

  • Co-founder, Cloudera — alongside Christophe Bisciglia, Amr Awadallah, and Mike Olson 1
  • Manager, Facebook Data Team (2006–2008) — early colleague of Mark Zuckerberg, Adam D’Angelo, and the early Facebook engineering organization 1
  • Spouse and co-investor, Halle Tecco — founder of Rock Health and Natalist; the two operate Techammer jointly 4
  • Board member, Datavant; board member, PerkinElmer; board member, emids — current corporate board seats 3
  • Senior Advisor, Blackstone and Sixth Street 3
  • Co-founder, Related Sciences (2019) — biotech venture creation firm; Managing Partner 2019–2021 2
  • Co-founder, Open Athena AI Foundation (2024) — co-CEO 1
  • Faculty, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2013–2017) — Hammer Lab Principal Investigator (2013–2019) 2

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, “Jeff Hammerbacher,” accessed May 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Hammerbacher↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Grokipedia, “Jeff Hammerbacher,” accessed May 2026. https://grokipedia.com/page/Jeff_Hammerbacher↩↩↩↩

  3. Quiver Bioscience team page, “Jeff Hammerbacher,” accessed May 2026. https://www.quiverbioscience.com/team/jeff-hammerbacher↩↩↩

  4. Techammer About page, accessed May 2026. http://techammer.co/about↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  5. Quote Investigator, “The Best Minds of My Generation Are Thinking About How To Make People Click Ads,” documenting Ashlee Vance, “This Tech Bubble Is Different,” Bloomberg Businessweek, April 14, 2011. Accessed May 2026. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/06/12/click/↩↩

  6. Cloudera press release, “Cloudera Co-Founder Recognized by Bloomberg Businessweek as a 2010 Best Young Tech Entrepreneur,” April 22, 2010. Accessed May 2026. https://www.cloudera.com/about/news-and-blogs/press-releases/2010-04-22-cloudera-co-founder-recognized-by-bloomberg-businessweek-as-a-2010-best-young-tech-entrepreneu.html↩