Howard Lee Mosbacker, PhD received his doctorate in physics in 2008. During his academic career he published over a dozen research papers with 1000 citations and an h-index of 18. His entrepreneurial activities continued while studying physics.
In 2007 he moonlighted in the Fisher Business school. During this time he secured a $2M tech licensing deal for Battelle. In 2008 he received his PhD in physics from The Ohio State University and won the Fisher Business Plan Competition. His camera company Traycer, raised over $10M from venture capital and the Department of Defense. He created the HELIOS lab at Ohio State in 2012.
Transitioning to San Francisco in 2013, Lee further expanded his entrepreneurial portfolio by developing an AI tool and hedge fund for sports betting, aptly named Fan Fund. The success of Fan Fund led to its acquisition by Michael Sampoerna in 2018, subsequently operating a $200M hedge fund. Leveraging the proceeds from his ventures, Lee, alongside Michael, launched Kobol Fund I in 2020, investing in ten startups with an average check size of $150k.
Using the proceeds from sports betting, Lee and Michael started Kobol Fund I in 2020 investing in 10 startups with an average check size of $150k. In 2022, the State of Ohio and Kobol Fund II founded OGTF, a $10M seed investment firm.
After being in venture capital for nearly 20 years, he co-created Cyrannus, a platform that reinvents the venture asset class and makes it more appealing to investors. As of 2024, he has self-funded Cyrannus for $1M and has commitments of more than $100M to be invested on Cyrannus.
