Rick Desai is a Managing Partner at Listen, a consumer focused venture capital that has invested in Factor, Calm, Kiwi Crate, Public Goods and Slumberkins. Rick is also a co-founder of Dashfire, a startup studio that built and invested in over 40+ companies from 2009 to 2014 including 20 that were MBA led. Rick was awarded a Clinton Fellowship in 2008 and spent one year leading social enterprise strategies in urban Indian slums for the NGO SAATH, where he remains an active contributor.  He previously was an investor at Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm.

Rick is an Adjunct Entrepreneurship Lecturer at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, teaching New Venture Development and was awarded a Faculty Impact award in 2018.  He is a graduate of Georgetown University.