We are First In.
Investment Team


RENNY MCPHERSON
Managing Partner
Renny began his career as a Marine Corps intelligence officer and served in Iraq and East Asia. He went on to work in national security and intelligence policy at RAND from 2007–2009, during which time he researched and analyzed issues pertaining to national security.
Renny’s work has been profiled in The Washington Post, NPR, and Inc.com. He is a graduate of Harvard College cum laude and Harvard Business School.


ARTHUR KARELL
Partner
He began his career as an attorney with Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, and then volunteered for service in the United States Marine Corps as an infantry officer, serving as a platoon commander and executive officer with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, and later as an advisor team leader with Special Operations Joint Task Force – Afghanistan. Following active duty, Arthur joined FiscalNote (NYSE: NOTE) as its fifth employee. As FiscalNote’s general counsel and head of corporate development, he helped grow the startup into a global policy and market intelligence platform. He then joined the legal team at Anduril Industries, where he led its defense technology contracting with special forces and international partners, and created Anduril’s corporate development team. He sourced, negotiated, and closed acquisitions of autonomous aircraft, submarine, and ground sensor companies. Arthur went on to join the founding team of Seashell Financial, a digital asset technology firm and became an advisor for Iris Technology Inc., a computer vision AI company.
Arthur received his A.B. from Harvard University and J.D. from the University of Virginia.


LENORE KARAFA
Partner


GABRIELLE FONG
Gabby is a native of Louisville, Kentucky and a graduate of Yale University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and minored in Education Studies. In 2022, she was selected as an Aspen Strategy Group Rising Leader. She lives in Maryland with her wife, Crysta. In her spare time, she serves on the board of The Disinformation Project and volunteers with Service to School.
Venture Partners


DR. JOSH LOSPINOSO
Josh is a US Army veteran, having served 10 years as a cyber officer leading teams within the Department of Defense, Army Cyber Command, and the Cyber National Mission Force.
Josh is the author of C++ Crash Course (No Starch Press, 2019), dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles spanning multiple disciplines, and multiple patents.


KRISTIN WOOD
Kristin Wood is a venture partner who sources investment opportunities for First In. Kristin has deep experience in the cybersecurity, open source, defense, and intelligence verticals. She is additionally a non-resident Fellow for the Intelligence Project at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Kristin is a Central Intelligence Agency veteran, serving 20 years and rising to the position of Deputy Director of the Innovation & Technology Group at the CIA’s Open Source Center as part of the Agency’s Senior Intelligence Service. Her service career included leadership roles in the Director’s area and three Agency directorates, delivering the President’s Daily Brief, and standing up the Sherman Kent School’s Senior Analyst Program.
Previously, Kristin served as the CEO of Grist Mill Exchange and also led a consulting firm that developed technological solutions for companies to support US government customers. Kristin graduated with an AB in Political Science from Occidental College.
Operating Team


ISH BOYLE
Ish is a sales leader at Zscaler working with a team to support many Fortune 1000 clients in their digital transformation. Prior to Zscaler, he was a sales leader and individual contributor at Splunk, the World’s first data-to-everything platform. He began his career as a Marine Corps infantry officer.
Ish has served on the board of local and national not for profits that support our veterans, military families, and fallen heroes, and for several years was a regular contributor to Huffington Post on matters pertaining to the military. He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy.


PATRICK METKE
Patrick brings extensive domain experience at the nexus of national security and the private sector as an Operating Partner. He is a management consultant in a global management consulting firm’s government practice, where he uses operational data science to solve interagency and defense client concerns. He also owns Hello Garage of Raleigh, a garage transformation business seeking to promote veteran- and military-spouse-operated ventures.
Recently retired after a 20+ year military career, Patrick served as a United States Army officer in a special mission unit and the Special Forces. Prior to Army special operations roles, he served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps.
Patrick received an MBA from London Business School, an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a BA from Hobart College.


BOBBY TUOHY
He has worked in operations, product management, and hardware design across government agencies, military units, and commercial companies. He conducts technical diligence and advises portfolio companies on technology and growth opportunities.
Bobby is a veteran of the U.S. Navy and a graduate of the United States Naval Academy. He received his MBA at Harvard Business School and a Master in Engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.


MAGGIE ENGLER
Maggie Engler is a technologist and researcher focused on mitigating abuses in the online ecosystem. Currently, she is working on the safety of large language models at Inflection AI.
Previously, Maggie built machine learning systems for policy enforcement at Twitter and taught at the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. Before that, she led data science development at Global Disinformation Index and worked on authentication and modeling user behavior at Duo Security.
Maggie holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University with a Notation in Science Communication with distinction and was an Assembly fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.