Josh Mohrer

Co-Founder & former General Partner (2019-2021) at shine-capital

Reviewed Updated Apr 26, 2026

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Location New York, NY
Check Size $25K-$50K (angel) / Shine Capital fund-level $1M-$7M
Last Verified Investment Hivemapper (Series A (Shine Capital participated)) — Apr 5, 2022
Social @joshmohrer LinkedIn
Stage Focus
seed series-a
Sector Focus
transportation marketplaces mobility consumer regulated-industries crypto enterprise

Background

Josh Mohrer is best known as Uber’s New York General Manager from January 2012 through May 2017, where he was one of the company’s earliest 40 employees and grew the New York / New Jersey / Connecticut / Pennsylvania market from launch to over $3 billion in annual gross bookings 123. He attended Stuyvesant High School (class of 2000), earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Columbia University, and an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business; before Uber, he held marketing and business development roles at Covestor, Lot18, and CollegeHumor 3.

In May 2017, after five years at Uber, Mohrer left to join Tusk Ventures — the political-strategist-led venture firm founded by Bradley Tusk, an early Uber investor and adviser — as Managing Director 14. At Tusk, Mohrer led the firm’s Series A and B investments in scooter company Bird 5. Tusk Ventures closed its $36M debut fund in November 2017 6.

In parallel, in mid-2018 Mohrer co-founded Moving Capital with William Barnes, who had led Uber’s West Coast operations. Moving Capital is an AngelList-based syndicate of roughly 100 former Uber employees that invests in startups founded by Uber alumni and in “Uber-adjacent” two-sided marketplaces and transportation businesses; portfolio companies disclosed at launch included Lime, Cargo, Replicated, Service, Salido, and Bird 57.

In July 2019, Mohrer co-founded Shine Capital with Mo Koyfman (former Spark Capital General Partner). The firm was first reported in September 2019 as targeting $150M for an inaugural fund focused primarily on Series A rounds 89. Mohrer served as Founder & General Partner at Shine from July 2019 through February 2021 710. In May 2021 he announced he was joining metabolic-health company Levels as Global Head of Operations, writing on X: “I haven’t been this excited about a company since Uber” 11. He worked at Levels through November 2022 and in April 2023 founded Wave AI, a consumer AI note-taker and transcription app he has bootstrapped solo to multi-million-dollar ARR 1213. Mohrer also serves on the Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association Board of Trustees 3.

Note: Mohrer is no longer listed on Shine Capital’s current team page 14. This profile documents his Shine-era role and his individual angel/operator track record; for current Shine activity see the Mo Koyfman profile and the Shine firm page.

Stated Thesis

Mohrer’s publicly articulated investing posture has consistently been operator-focused rather than thesis-focused. On AngelList, his self-description for his syndicate reads: “I’ve grown Uber’s largest market from the ground up and want to lend that operational expertise to a new class of up and coming startups” 15. Describing Moving Capital, he told TechCrunch in 2018: “We believe that people who help build transformative companies will go on to do other awesome things. The idea is that we can really move the needle for companies who are doing things that are Uber-adjacent” 5.

In a 2018 podcast with Working Capital Review, he framed his evaluation framework as: “A really, really great idea is table stakes… The next level is can the people that are trying to solve the problem do it? You need both a great idea, whatever you’re selling or the service has [to be] great, but also the team doing it has to be able to execute well” 16.

Signal by NFX records his angel-stage parameters as $5K-$50K checks (sweet spot $25K) with a focus on FinTech at Seed and Series A 17. Self-reported on AngelList, his syndicate expected ~4 deals per year 15. Note that Shine Capital’s fund-level parameters (Series A focus, $1M-$10M average check) were authored under Koyfman post-Mohrer’s 2021 departure and are documented on the Mo Koyfman profile.

Inferred Thesis

This analysis is based on a small set of publicly verifiable Mohrer-specific investments (~9 entries across his Tusk, Moving Capital, Shine, and personal angel activity). Sample size is too small for reliable percentage breakdowns, so this section uses qualitative descriptions.

Dominant theme — Uber-adjacent and operator-led mobility/marketplace bets. Mohrer’s verifiable investments cluster heavily around two-sided marketplaces, transportation, and mobility: Bird (scooters, Tusk-led Series A and B) 5, Lime (Moving Capital) 5, Cargo (in-vehicle commerce, Series A) 518, Postmates and Beepi (early angel, marketplaces) 15, Kyte (vehicle subscription / mobility, Seed 2020) 19. The shared pattern: companies whose unit-economics, supplier-network management, or city-by-city playbook resemble what he ran at Uber NYC.

Secondary theme — operator-network sourcing. Moving Capital is explicitly designed around the proposition that ex-Uber operators are a high-signal sourcing channel for adjacent businesses. The syndicate has roughly 100 former Uber employee-LPs and prefers founders from the Uber alumni network or businesses adjacent to Uber’s surface area 57. This is a pattern-recognition thesis rather than a sector thesis.

Stage and check size: Heavy concentration at Seed and Series A. As an individual angel, $5K-$50K checks (sweet spot $25K) 17. Through Tusk, larger fund-level checks at A/B for Bird specifically 5. Through Shine (2019-2021), participation in seed/Series A rounds — Shine’s first publicly reported Mohrer-era investments include Hivemapper 9, though most Shine-era deals listed in the firm’s current portfolio (Tropic, Reggora, iVerify, etc.) closed after Mohrer’s February 2021 departure. The Shine investments most plausibly attributable to Mohrer’s tenure are those announced before February 2021, but firm websites and aggregator pages typically attribute investments at the firm level rather than the partner level.

Geographic focus: New York / Tri-State for personally sourced deals (consistent with his 5-year ground-up tenure running Uber NYC and his ongoing residence in NYC) 311. Bird, Lime, and West Coast marketplaces via Moving Capital co-founder William Barnes’ SF network 5.

Founder profile patterns: Operator-turned-founder bias — heavily favors founders from operating roles at scaled tech companies (especially Uber alumni). The Moving Capital thesis is explicit on this point 57.

Notable gaps versus stated thesis: The “regulated industries” framing of Tusk Ventures applies to the Bird investment (heavy local-government engagement) but is less visible in his personal angel checks. The Shine Capital “iconic businesses” manifesto language (authored under Koyfman) is broader than the marketplace/mobility cluster Mohrer’s own deals fit into.

Caveat on attribution: Beyond the Tusk-led Bird Series A/B and the Moving Capital launch portfolio, partner-level attribution for Shine investments is not consistently published. Several Shine-era investments may have been Koyfman-led rather than Mohrer-led. Treat this section as directional, not definitive.

Portfolio

Company Year Stage Source
Beepi ~2014 Angel 15
Fitmob ~2014 Angel 15
Sproutling (acquired by Mattel) ~2014 Angel 15
Directr ~2014 Angel 15
Postmates ~2014 Angel 15
Ticketbis ~2014 Angel 15
Poshmark ~2014 Angel 15
AltSchool ~2014 Angel 15
Bird 2017-2018 Series A & B (Tusk Ventures lead) 5
Cargo 2018-09-27 Series A (participated via Moving Capital) 518
Lime 2018 Moving Capital syndicate 5
Replicated 2018 Moving Capital syndicate 5
Service 2018 Moving Capital syndicate 5
Salido 2018 Moving Capital syndicate 5
Kyte 2020-12-08 Seed (CB Insights record) 19
Hivemapper ~2019-2022 Multiple rounds (Shine Capital firm-level) 920

This table represents ~16 entries — the publicly attributable Mohrer-specific investments across his angel, Moving Capital, Tusk, and Shine activity. It is not a complete portfolio: aggregator data on Mohrer is sparser than for his Shine partner Koyfman because (a) AngelList syndicate deals default to private; (b) partner-level attribution at Shine and Tusk is not consistently published; and (c) some of his earliest angel checks predate systematic tracking. Years marked ~ are best estimates from secondary sources where exact dates were not located. For the broader Shine Capital portfolio (post-Mohrer departure), see the Mo Koyfman profile.

In Their Own Words

“After five amazing years running Uber New York, I’m thrilled to announce that I’m joining Tusk Ventures as Managing Director.” — Josh Mohrer, Medium farewell post, May 2017 21

“As the General Manager of Uber New York, I’ve been fortunate to lead a team that has fundamentally changed how millions of people get around our city.” — Josh Mohrer, Medium farewell post, May 2017 21

“I give my Uber ride ‘5-stars’ and am so grateful for the opportunity Travis gave me to join the team.” — Josh Mohrer, Medium farewell post, May 2017 21

“Tusk Ventures invests time and capital helping startups thrive in heavily regulated markets.” — Josh Mohrer, Medium, May 2017 21

“I think there is a difference between having a binder of information you would come by once a week and check or me delivering you a CSV file that is mined for things like our growth, which we would want to keep secret.” — Josh Mohrer, NYC TLC public hearing on data submission, October 2014 22

“Things have been going on at Uber always. Whatever mistakes were made, Uber is well on the way to fixing them.” — Josh Mohrer, TechCrunch, May 30, 2017 1

“I see in retrospect that that was wrong” — Josh Mohrer to TechCrunch, on the 2014 incident in which he tracked a journalist’s location with Uber’s internal tools 1

“It was a mistake. And I regret it.” — Josh Mohrer to TechCrunch, on Operation SLOG (coordinated cancellations against competing services) 1

“We believe that people who help build transformative companies will go on to do other awesome things. The idea is that we can really move the needle for companies who are doing things that are Uber-adjacent.” — Josh Mohrer, TechCrunch interview on Moving Capital, July 2018 5

“A really, really great idea is table stakes… The next level is can the people that are trying to solve the problem do it?” — Josh Mohrer, Working Capital Review podcast, November 2018 16

“I graduated from Uber in the middle of 2017. After about five and a half years there, I was running the Tri-State area in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.” — Josh Mohrer, Working Capital Review podcast, November 2018 16

“How it started / How it’s going: I recently joined @Levels as Global Head of Operations. I haven’t been this excited about a company since Uber.” — Josh Mohrer on X, May 7, 2021 11

“I’ve grown Uber’s largest market from the ground up and want to lend that operational expertise to a new class of up and coming startups.” — Josh Mohrer, AngelList syndicate page 15

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials specifically describing the working relationship with Josh Mohrer were located within the time budget for this profile. Bradley Tusk publicly praised Mohrer’s hire at Tusk Ventures, but Tusk is the firm’s founder, not a portfolio-company founder, so that quote is not included here 1. If a reader has a sourced founder quote about working with Mohrer, please submit it via the profile page.

Connections

  • Co-founder, Shine Capital (2019-2021) — alongside Mo Koyfman; Mohrer departed in February 2021 78
  • Co-founder, Moving Capital (2018-) — alongside William Barnes (former Uber West Coast operations lead); ~100 former-Uber-employee LP base 57
  • Managing Director, Tusk Ventures (2017-2018) — under founder Bradley Tusk; led Bird Series A and B 15
  • General Manager, Uber New York (2012-2017) — Tri-State and Pennsylvania markets; one of Uber’s first ~40 employees 13
  • Founder, Wave AI (2023-) — solo-bootstrapped consumer AI app 1213
  • Global Head of Operations, Levels (2021-2022) — metabolic-health hardware / app company 11
  • Board of Trustees, Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association 3
  • Notable Uber-era colleagues: Travis Kalanick (CEO during his tenure) 21; Bradley Tusk (early Uber adviser, later employer) 14
  • Frequent co-investor pattern (Moving Capital era): Founders Fund and Coatue (Cargo Series A lead) 18; Bird’s later cap table including Sequoia and Accel via the Tusk-led rounds 5

Sources

  1. TechCrunch, “Uber’s New York manager, Josh Mohrer, joins Tusk Ventures as managing director,” May 30, 2017. Accessed April 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/30/ubers-new-york-manager-josh-mohrer-joins-tusk-ventures-as-managing-director/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. CNBC, “Uber’s New York general manager is leaving to join Tusk Ventures,” May 30, 2017. Accessed April 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/30/ubers-new-york-general-manager-is-leaving-to-join-tusk-ventures.html↩

  3. Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association, “Josh Mohrer ‘00” Board of Trustees profile. Accessed April 2026. https://stuyalumni.org/who-we-are/board-of-trustees/josh-mohrer-00/↩↩↩↩↩↩

  4. Crain’s New York Business, “Bradley Tusk made $100 million helping Uber conquer New York. Now he’s helping other startups disrupt the status quo,” September 12, 2017. Accessed April 2026. https://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20170912/TECHNOLOGY/170919983/bradley-tusk-made-100-million-helping-uber-conquer-new-york-now-he-s-helping-other-startups-disrupt-the-status-↩↩

  5. TechCrunch, “Two ex-Uber execs have an investor syndicate to fund Uber alum,” July 24, 2018. Accessed April 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/24/uber-exec-syndicate-moving-capital/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  6. TechCrunch, “Tusk Ventures has closed its debut fund with $36 million,” November 3, 2017. Accessed April 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/03/tusk-ventures-has-closed-its-debut-fund-with-36-million/↩

  7. Crunchbase, Josh Mohrer person profile. Accessed April 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/person/josh-mohrer↩↩↩↩↩↩

  8. PitchBook News, “Prominent angels create Shine Capital.” Accessed April 2026. https://pitchbook.com/newsletter/prominent-angels-create-shine-capital↩↩

  9. Shine Capital, homepage and portfolio. Accessed April 2026. https://shine.vc/↩↩↩

  10. Schneider Speech podcast, “#77 Josh Mohrer: Disruptions and Feedback Loops.” Accessed April 2026. https://schneiderspeech.com/blog/77-josh-mohrer-disruptions-and-feedback-loops↩

  11. Josh Mohrer on X (Twitter), announcement of Levels role, May 7, 2021. Accessed April 2026. https://x.com/joshmohrer/status/1390686487260409858↩↩↩↩

  12. Josh Mohrer personal website. Accessed April 2026. https://www.joshmohrer.com/↩↩

  13. Adapty, “Wave AI: Growing an indie app from $0 to $4M ARR with Adapty” case study. Accessed April 2026. https://adapty.io/case-studies/wave/↩↩

  14. Shine Capital, “Team” page. Accessed April 2026. https://shine.vc/team↩

  15. AngelList, Josh Mohrer syndicate page. Accessed April 2026. https://venture.angellist.com/joshmohrer/syndicate↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  16. Working Capital Review, “Podcast: Josh Mohrer, From Uber to VC,” November 2018. Accessed April 2026. https://workingcapitalreview.com/2018/11/podcast-josh-mohrer-from-uber-to-vc/↩↩↩

  17. Signal by NFX, Josh Mohrer investing profile. Accessed April 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/investors/josh-mohrer_2↩↩

  18. TechCrunch, “In-car commerce startup Cargo raises $22 million led by Founders Fund,” September 27, 2018. Accessed April 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/27/in-car-commerce-startup-cargo-raises-22-million-led-by-founders-fund/↩↩↩

  19. CB Insights, Josh Mohrer investor profile. Accessed April 2026. https://www.cbinsights.com/investor/josh-mohrer↩↩

  20. BusinessWire, “Hivemapper Raises $18M From Multicoin Capital to Create the World’s First Decentralized Mapping Network,” April 5, 2022. Accessed April 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220405005894/en/Hivemapper-Raises-18M-From-Multicoin-Capital-to-Create-the-Worlds-First-Decentralized-Mapping-Network↩

  21. Josh Mohrer on Medium, “My next 5-star ride,” May 30, 2017. Accessed April 2026. https://medium.com/@joshmohrer/my-next-5-star-ride-uber-tusk-ab70f7998232↩↩↩↩↩

  22. Josh Mohrer on Medium, “An open reply to City Hall. Dear First Deputy Mayor Shorris,” July 19, 2015. Accessed April 2026. https://medium.com/@joshmohrer/an-open-reply-to-city-hall-b2f62ac2b41c↩