Steve Payne Bio

Steve Payne co-founded Architect Partners with Eric Risley who he’s known for twenty years. He is a Silicon Valley veteran with decades of experience connecting innovative startups with large global tech players for venture capital investments, strategic partnerships, and acquisitions. Steve was once a senior operating executive, a venture investor, and has long been a dealmaker in Silicon Valley. Recently, he was Managing Partner of the Ignite Group, a trans-Pacific venture capital partnership with funds in Silicon Valley and Tokyo. Before that, he headed New Products at Sega and was EVP of Product Development and Marketing at SegaSoft. Two bubbles ago, Steve left management consulting to head product marketing for a Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital startup. What ties his background together is a strong understanding of technology and a senior strategic perspective. He can connect young, fast-growing companies with world-class partners for business development, investment, or M&A. Along the way, he’s built a broad network of relationships in the US venture ecosystem as well as in Asia and Europe and has completed more than a hundred venture financings and acquisitions. In his spare time, Steve mentors startup CEOs and works with several accelerators to try to give back to tech and social entrepreneurs. He’s been a CEO mentor and/or business plan judge for the Cleantech Open, Draper University, K Global, One Harvard New Venture Competition, Global Social Ventures Competition, Oberlin LaunchU, along with others. Steve holds an engineering degree from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA from Harvard. He has been a Director of two dozen private and non-profit boards.