Kristen Hamilton

Staircase Ventures Advisor and
Co-Founder/Former CEO, Koru

Kristen is a serial successful tech founder, including one exit on NASDAQ. She co-founded and was CEO of Koru until its acquisition.

Kristen co-founded predictive hiring software leader Koru and was CEO until it was acquired by Capfinity. Koru was funded by Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Maveron, and First Round. Kristen also co-founded and was COO of e-commerce pioneer Onvia, which she helped grow to 500 employees and took public on the NASDAQ.

Kristen served as SVP Strategic Partnerships at Guild Education, a leader in the enterprise education space. She was also Global Director at Microsoft for the company’s Educator strategy and marketing where she developed and executed global partnerships.

Kristen is dedicated to helping founders and CEOs build best-in-class companies and to provide equal access to opportunity regardless of race, gender, or background. Kristen lives in Seattle with two teenage daughters. She is passionate about skiing, biking, rowing, and spending time in the mountains.