Sonja Hoel Perkins

Background

Sonja Hoel Perkins is a venture capitalist with over 35 years of experience in technology investing. She is the founder and managing director of The Perkins Fund (founded 2016), co-founder of Broadway Angels (founded 2010), and a former general partner at Menlo Ventures ¹².

Born and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia, Perkins is the daughter and granddaughter of Norwegian immigrants. Her father earned a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from UC Berkeley and chaired the Civil Engineering department at the University of Virginia; her mother did not attend college due to gender restrictions ³. She graduated with Distinction from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia (class of 1988) and later received her MBA from Harvard Business School ¹⁴.

Perkins began her venture capital career in 1989 at TA Associates in Boston, where she was the only woman analyst at the firm ³. During this period, she identified McAfee Associates as an investment opportunity. When John McAfee was about to sell his company to Symantec for $20 million, Perkins brought the deal to managing director Jeff Chambers with an alternative pitch — McAfee’s revenue growth rate was more than 90 percent with pre-tax margins of 80 to 90 percent. TA Associates invested, valuing McAfee at $20 million while McAfee retained half the company. McAfee went public the following year, raising $42 million, generating substantial returns for TA Associates ⁵.

After TA Associates, Perkins joined Symantec in a business development role before moving to Menlo Ventures in 1994 ¹³. At age 29, she became the youngest general partner in Menlo Ventures’ history and the only woman venture capitalist at the firm ²³. She remained at Menlo for 22 years, during which she received Menlo Ventures’ “Investor of the Year Award” six times ¹². She was named to Worth Magazine’s list of the “100 Most Powerful People in Finance in the World” in 2015 ¹⁶.

In 2016, Perkins left Menlo Ventures to launch The Perkins Fund, an independent investment vehicle focused on “people and companies that matter” ²⁷. She also co-founded Broadway Angels in 2010 alongside Jennifer Fonstad and Magdalena Yesil, creating an invitation-only network of over 60 senior women from venture capital and technology ¹²⁸.

Perkins was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2008 and became an adoptive mother of an infant daughter the same year. She has described these experiences as transformative, saying she “became a feminist overnight” ⁸. She is one of four women profiled in journalist Julian Guthrie’s book Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts Who Took On Silicon Valley’s Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime (2019) ⁴.

She is the founder of Project Glimmer, a national non-profit that has reached over 700,000 girls across all 50 states with programs focused on self-confidence and career exploration ¹⁹. She holds board seats at the McIntire School of Commerce Foundation, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, and the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. She is a member of C200, Women Moving Millions, and the Maverick Collective ⁴¹⁰.

Stated Thesis

Perkins publicly frames her investment philosophy around backing “people and companies that matter” ²⁷. The Perkins Fund’s stated focus is high-technology companies addressing unmet market needs through the combination of technology, marketing expertise, and execution ⁷.

Perkins has articulated a clear investment priority hierarchy: market size first, then product, then management. She has stated publicly: “You can never fix the market, so if you have a product that nobody is buying because the market doesn’t want it, you’re never going to be able to fix that.” She considers product and management problems solvable: “You can always fix the product if it’s broken. You can always fix the management team.” ¹¹

She has also stated that people matter increasingly in her investment process over time: “As I’ve gotten older I tend to focus more on people, too.” She looks for founders who are “nice” and possess track records of success in hiring, product development, and market selection ¹¹.

Broadway Angels describes its focus as primarily information technology, with an openness to other sectors. The group emphasizes that “corporate governance is essential to the long-term success of any company” and takes an advisory role rather than routinely seeking board seats ¹².

On diversity, Perkins has stated: “We invest in both men and women and we are return-driven, just like the venture capital industry as a whole.” She has noted that investing in markets traditionally overlooked by male investors — such as women’s fashion and consumer products — creates alpha opportunities ⁸.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 20 verified investments in the portfolio table below (representing a partial view of 60+ career investments), the following patterns are observable. This sample skews toward The Perkins Fund and Broadway Angels era (2010–2021); Menlo Ventures-era investments have limited public attribution at the individual level.

Note on data: Sonja Hoel Perkins has invested in 60+ companies over her career across TA Associates, Menlo Ventures, The Perkins Fund, and Broadway Angels. The portfolio table below captures 20 investments with verifiable sourcing. The sample is too small for reliable percentage calculations across her full career; patterns below are qualitative inferences from the available data.

Sector Patterns (from 20 verified investments)

The verified portfolio spans security/networking (McAfee, F5 Networks, Acme Packet, Q1 Labs, Tempered Networks, BitSight, 128 Technology), consumer/fashion (The RealReal, Hint Water, Minted, Autumn Adeigbo, Rocksbox), fintech/investing (Ellevest), water/sustainability (KETOS), enterprise SaaS (GridGain, Interos), health (Mercy BioAnalytics), and parenting/care (UrbanSitter). Her Menlo Ventures-era portfolio concentrated on enterprise networking and security; her post-Menlo work has expanded substantially into consumer, women-focused services, and sustainability.

Stage Distribution

At Menlo Ventures, Perkins invested predominantly at Series A and later venture stages. Through Broadway Angels and The Perkins Fund, she invests across seed through growth stages. The Perkins Fund typically invests in less than 10% of funding rounds and selectively considers board seats ⁷.

Founder Profile Patterns

Women founders represent over 50% of The Perkins Fund portfolio, compared to an industry average of less than 15% ⁷. Black women represent 12% of the portfolio versus a reported industry average of 0.27% ³⁸. Forty percent of Perkins’ angel investments have been in companies started by women ¹⁴. More than 30% of Perkins Fund founders had previously received backing from Perkins, reflecting a relationship-driven approach ⁷. Broadway Angels also invests in women and people of color “at much higher rates than traditional venture capitalists” ⁸.

Co-investor Patterns

Broadway Angels operates collaboratively with other angel networks and VC firms, typically taking small fractional positions in rounds. Verified co-investors include Rethink Impact, Better Ventures, Motley Fool Ventures (KETOS Series B), NightDragon (Interos Series C), G20 Ventures (128 Technology), Canaan Partners and Advanced Technology Ventures (Acme Packet), and Draper Fisher Jurvetson (via Jennifer Fonstad’s involvement).

Geographic Concentration

Investments are concentrated in San Francisco and the broader Bay Area, with some East Coast presence (128 Technology in Bedford, MA; Interos in Arlington, VA).

Notable Patterns

Perkins has backed companies addressing markets that are large but often underestimated by male-dominated VC: luxury resale, jewelry subscription, women’s investing, and sustainable consumer goods. The RealReal (online luxury consignment, IPO 2019) and Rocksbox (jewelry subscription, exited) are examples. This pattern aligns with her stated view that overlooked markets — particularly those serving women — can generate outsize returns.

Portfolio

Note: Perkins has invested in 60+ companies across TA Associates, Menlo Ventures, Broadway Angels, and The Perkins Fund. Menlo-era investment years are estimated from the companies’ known funding histories; many individual attribution records are not publicly available. This table represents approximately 30% of her known career investments.

In Their Own Words

On investment priorities (Fortune, January 2016):

“You can never fix the market, so if you have a product that nobody is buying because the market doesn’t want it, you’re never going to be able to fix that.” ¹¹

On fixing problems (Fortune, January 2016):

“You can always fix the product if it’s broken. You can always fix the management team.” ¹¹

On persistence (Fortune, January 2016):

“If you want to get a job in venture capital, you have to get a job in venture capital. I just never gave up.” ¹¹

On people (Fortune, January 2016):

“As I’ve gotten older I tend to focus more on people, too.” ¹¹

On investing in Interos (GlobeNewswire, December 2021):

“Broadway Angels invests in the best companies in the best markets, and we’re thrilled to invest in Interos. The past year has highlighted the vulnerability of the global supply chain and Interos provides the solution that gives organizations real time visibility that is essential to business continuity in today’s world.” ²⁰

On her mission after personal crisis (Women Moving Millions, accessed March 2026):

“If I don’t do this, who will?” ⁸

On visibility and inspiration (Women Moving Millions, accessed March 2026):

“People cannot be what they cannot see.” ⁸

On investing and life purpose (Beginning Well podcast, accessed March 2026):

“What I really wanted to do is invest in people and companies that mattered. So I still wanted to invest as a venture capitalist, but I also wanted to invest in my family and my parents and my community, which required reducing the hours of work.” ²¹

On creating options (Beginning Well podcast, accessed March 2026):

“It’s about creating options for yourself. So it’s about being able to choose what you want your life to be versus someone telling you what your life is.” ²¹

On work-life balance (Beginning Well podcast, accessed March 2026):

“You can do everything. You just don’t have to do everything all the time.” ²¹

What Founders Say

Jennifer Bisceglie, Founder and CEO of Interos (GlobeNewswire, December 2021):

“I couldn’t be more excited to have Broadway Angels on board with us. The partnership presents a unique opportunity to demonstrate how a woman-led investment group and a woman-led business can support one another, especially in an area that has long lacked female representation.” ²⁰

No additional independently sourced founder testimonials found for Sonja Hoel Perkins specifically. The Broadway Angels website and The Perkins Fund website contain firm-curated promotional materials but no individual founder testimonials with direct attribution.

Sources