Venture Investor · VC Platform & Portfolio Growth · Ecosystem Leader

I work with people and institutions at the moments when something new is taking shape.

My work spans venture investing, company building, portfolio growth, and institutional innovation.

Galina Ozgur
New York, NY

At H/L Ventures

Venture capital

Company building

Active engagement

My primary professional work

Investing in—and building alongside—founders.

At H/L Ventures, I invest in and work closely with early-stage companies through uncertainty. My work extends beyond capital into strategy, leadership, go-to-market, financing, partnerships, and the systems that help companies endure.

A point of view

One idea runs through all of the work.

Nothing consequential is built in a vacuum.

Companies, institutions, and lives are shaped by context—timing, access, relationships, identity, and the choices people make before the outcome is obvious.

That belief runs through how I invest, build, advise, convene, and interview.

The work, in practice

Moving between the immediate decision and the larger system.

01

Invest and build

Backing founders and working closely with leadership teams as companies move from ambition to execution.

02

Connect people and systems

Building ecosystems, strategic partnerships, institutional initiatives, and trusted networks around consequential work.

03

Explore what shapes outcomes

Following the context, relationships, identity, timing, and human behavior beneath the visible result.

Independent editorial series · In development

The Becoming Project.

Created and hosted by Galina Ozgur

Deeply researched conversations about the forces that shape a life.

People from different worlds. The experiences, relationships, obsessions, accidents, and choices that gave their lives a particular shape—and what is still changing.

Learn more

The Becoming Project is produced solely in an independent editorial capacity. All views expressed are solely those of the person expressing them and do not necessarily reflect the views of any past or present employer, client, portfolio company, fund, investor, partner, affiliate, or other organization with which the creator or any participant is or has been associated. Identification of, or reference to, any person or entity does not constitute or imply affiliation, sponsorship, approval, or endorsement. Content is provided solely for general informational and editorial purposes and does not constitute investment, legal, tax, accounting, financial, or other professional advice; any recommendation; or any offer, solicitation, or invitation to buy, sell, or hold any security or financial instrument. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to accuracy, completeness, or timeliness, and no person should act or refrain from acting in reliance upon the content. Views are subject to change without notice, and no duty to update is undertaken.

Context
Decisions
Timing
Relationships
Chance
Change

Selected experience

Building across venture and company creation.

2020—Now

H/L Ventures

General Partner

Investing in and building alongside early-stage companies.

2018—2020

500 Startups

Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Working with founders as they built and scaled their companies.

2016—2018

Grand Central Tech

General Manager

Built and scaled its residency program for early-stage companies.

2012—2015

Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator

First Employee

Helped build one of New York’s early startup accelerators.

About

A perspective shaped from every side of the table.

Galina Ozgur is a General Partner at H/L Ventures, where she invests in and co-builds early-stage companies. For more than a decade, her career has spanned venture investing, VC platform and portfolio growth, company creation, and the development of New York’s innovation ecosystem.

She has worked closely with founders from company inception through growth, with experience across strategy, go-to-market, financing, leadership, organizational design, and key partnerships. Her perspective comes from sustained proximity to the work of building companies—and to the consequential decisions that shape whether they endure.

Galina has also applied this company-building perspective in corporate and institutional settings. In collaboration with corporate and institutional leadership teams, she has contributed to executive-level work around new-business creation, opportunity evaluation, operating models, and strategic partnerships. She brings the context of an investor and company builder to conversations about how new ventures should be structured, what relationships they require, and how institutional ambition can translate into durable execution.

Galina began her venture career as the first employee at Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator and later became General Manager of Grand Central Tech, where she built and scaled its residency program for early-stage companies. Across these roles, she developed trusted relationships with founders, investors, operators, corporate leaders, and institutions throughout the venture ecosystem.

Her broader experience includes serving as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at 500 Startups and a Venture Scout at Aera VC. She was named one of Venture Capital Journal’s 40 Under 40 Rising Stars and selected for the inaugural cohort of Tech:NYC’s Grid Fellowship, a civic leadership program for senior technology leaders committed to New York City.

Selected recognition & conversations

In public.

Contact Galina Ozgur or H/L Ventures

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Start a conversation.

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hello@galinaozgur.com