Michael Gruber has over 25 years of experience in building and investing high growth companies. Michael Gruber is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Salveo Capital, a private investment fund focused on the legalized cannabis sector as well as Managing Director of JLS Fund, a fund focused on psychedelics & technology focused on behavioral health. Each of these funds were amongst the first in each of these sectors. 

Prior to Salveo & JLS, Mr. Gruber was a founding Partner of Independence Equity, a committed venture capital fund focused on investments focused on improving resource utilization, with key areas of interest including: water; energy efficiency; material science; and agriculture. Mr. Gruber had served as Director at Taproot Ventures, an early stage investment affiliate of The Harbour Group, an investment holding company with assets under management exceeding $1.5 Billion.  Mr. Gruber has founded and run several private investment organizations of high net worth investors and family offices focused on growth stage investments, including Cornerstone Angels and its affiliate Cornerstone Opportunity Partners, LLC.  Collectively, the portfolio companies have raised in excess of $5.5 Billion in capital, including companies such as Robinhood, Teladoc, and more. 

Mr. Gruber’s prior industry experience includes key operational roles in high-growth corporations (Koei Corporation, Intuit, InsWeb, Silicon Investor), two of which went public and one of which was acquired by a strategic investor.  In addition, Mr. Gruber has significant investment banking and M&A transaction advisory experience. 

Mr. Gruber currently serves on several boards of emerging growth companies. Mr. Gruber received a BA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University, and a certificate in Japanese from Nanzan University in Japan. Mr. Gruber is also a frequent speaker and panelist relating to entrepreneurship and venture capital.