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.

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 moreThe 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.
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.
Venture Capital Journal
H/L Ventures’ new GP brings platform support to investment committee
Tech:NYC
Inaugural Grid Fellow
Turner MIINT · Wharton Impact
Four-time Semifinals Judge
For Starters
Daily Active Engagement and Platform with Galina Ozgur



Contact Galina Ozgur or H/L Ventures
For media, speaking & partnerships
Start a conversation.
For press, speaking, institutional partnerships, and editorial collaborations.
hello@galinaozgur.comFor founders
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