Danforth S. Dougherty
EXPERIENCE
JANE CAPITAL PARTNERS, LLC San Francisco, CA
Operating Partner 2024 - Current
Advising seed stage start-ups on capital raises – building detailed operating and valuation models, determining deal structure and fundraising strategy, creating investor materials, and serving as the primary contact for investor discussions Closed successful pre-seed capital raise for Guardian Aerospace Inc., a Palto-Alto-based defense technology firm in July 2025. Leading $10M seed stage fundraising round
Accepted offer to serve as Guardian’s fractional strategy lead and board member. Led recruitment of advisory board SHIFT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Director | Partnerships & Business Development 2019 – 2023 Built partnerships function for Goldman, DFJ, and Highland Capital backed online auto marketplace through its $500M+ SPAC IPO and public listing
Grew annual partnership revenue from $3M to $83M in 4 years through the launch of new partnerships, leading cross- functional teams across product, engineering, finance, legal and operations Sourced, negotiated, designed, and operationalized supply partnership with Tesla across nine delivery facilities. Program made up 15% of Shift’s vehicle ecommerce revenue ($4M in revenue per month) Managed onboarding and execution of complex financial partners (JP Morgan, Bank of America, US Bank, TD Bank).
Ensured consistent data flows, operational accuracy, and SLA adherence - increasing profit per vehicle by 33% Led the integration of Plaid automated income verification platform into Shift lending flows, cutting loan processing time by 20% and generating over $5M per year in annual savings Served as interim Head of Corporate Operations during the COVID-19 pandemic and led a 15-person cross-functional team to successfully enable Shift to continue operating during the pandemic GOLDMAN SACHS & CO. New York, NY
Vice President | Executive Office 2010 – 2019
Evaluated, managed, and led business selection discussions with Goldman’s Management Committee to maximize outcomes across Goldman’s $33B global businesses
Led engineering and product development team to design and launch internal business selection platform that delivered a 33% reduction in business section review timeline by automating the identification of competing business opportunities, aggregation of global principal position information, and enabling real time feedback from divisional leaders Associate | Securities Division 2007 – 2010
Analyzed valuation, trading analytics, market quality, and industry peer benchmarks to pitch executive teams of NYSE listings. Secured $30B+ in mandates, including HCA Healthcare ($15B) and Nielson ($5B)
EDUCATION
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS Austin, TX
Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Economics and Government, Phi Beta Kappa 2003 – 2007
ADDITIONAL
Certifications: Project Management Professional (PMP), Six Sigma Black Belt Professional Skills: Financial Modeling, Advanced SQL, Asana, Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, Tableau, Python Personal Interests: Running, trekking, climate change, housing advocacy, and reading historical non-fiction