Michael Palmer is a partner at Great Wave Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm backed by Japanese institutions investing in technology that modernizes construction, real estate, and the built environment. He’s spent his career straddling investing and operations, most recently as head of strategy and real estate development at Volumetric Building Companies (VBC), where he led the acquisition and turnaround of Katerra’s flagship factory through a bankruptcy transaction, acquired Polcom, and raised and deployed a $100M real estate fund backed by PIMCO. Previously, he worked in corporate development at Sidewalk Labs, Alphabet’s smart city project, and held roles at Dow, DuPont, Whiting-Turner, and Jacobs. He holds a BS in architectural engineering from Penn State and an MBA from Chicago Booth.