Gideon Yu

Founder& Co-Chairman at Stampede Ventures

Gideon Yu is the Co-Owner and former President of the San Francisco 49ers. Gideon holds the distinction of being the first person of color to be the President of any team in the history of the National Football League. In his time with the 49ers, Gideon led the team’s efforts in financing and building Levi’s Stadium, including securing the then-largest construction loan ever in professional sports and the largest long-term stadium financing in NFL history. During his tenure, the 49ers appeared in three consecutive NFC Championship games and Super Bowl XLVII.

Previously, Gideon was the Chief Financial Officer of both Facebook and YouTube, the first two internet companies to surpass one billion active users.

Gideon is also a longtime venture capitalist, investor and advisor. Most notably, he led the founding investment in Jack Dorsey’s Square and was the first outside board member. Gideon’s 2009 initial investment valued Square at $45 million, while today, Square’s market capitalization is over $100 billion. He is also an early investor/advisor in such technology unicorns as Alibaba, Dropbox, Twitch, Razer, Opendoor, Cloudera, etc.

Gideon was named to the “Executive Dream Team, Startup Edition” by Fortune Magazine, and listed among the “Names You Need To Know” by Forbes Magazine.

Gideon earned his BS in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Stanford University, and his MBA from Harvard Business School. He is on the Board of Trustees of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the National Leadership Council of the Navy SEAL Foundation.