Michael Casella

Managing Director, Partnership Capital Ventures

Michael Casella is the founder and managing director of Partnership Capital Ventures, focused on early-stage startups investments and actively guiding and mentoring founders. Michael was a member of the early founding team and SVP of Operations at Green Dot Corporation, a Sequoia-backed company.  At Green Dot, Michael had the unique advantage of actively contributing to the company’s growth from private company to public company (Startup -> Seed -> Series priced rounds -> pre-IPO -> IPO -> Post-IPO) where it achieved a $4B+ valuation (NYSE: GDOT).  Each of these phases required a unique set of experience and skill sets, including diversifying revenue by pivoting into new channels, introducing new product offerings, and via multiple acquisitions, all while consistently re-engineering processes, improving the customer experience  and expanding gross margin which makes his viewpoints uniquely helpful to founders. Michael is a solutions-focused founder and senior executive with more than 22 years of success across the management consulting, retail, e-commerce, financial services, and technology industries. (B2C, B2B and B2B2C)   He also serves on the Board of Directors for PetMio, Qoins Technologies and Waverly Labs. Michael earned a B.A. in International Business from U.C. Berkeley.  He also holds a Certification in High-Performance Coaching from the High-Performance Institute.   Michael has a passion for contributing to and helping others by sharing his time, knowledge and resources, both professionally and privately.

Articles by Michael Casella

How Shaun Merritt Vibe-Coded Karrot.ai As A Solo Builder

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Shaun Merritt, cofounder and CTO of Karrot.ai, a LinkedIn ABM tool. Shaun was kind enough to share a comprehensive breakdown of how...

7 Steps to Build a Product That Sells Itself

Learn the 7 steps to product-led growth (PLG) to build a product that sells itself. Drive activation, boost conversions, and scale efficiently with Wes Bush from ProductLed....
Balancing self-care and startup pressure as a founder

The Founder’s Mental Health Playbook: What I Learned After Nearly Burning Out

A hard-won guide to staying mentally healthy while building a startup I founded Stitcher, the podcast platform, in 2007 and ran it for seven years until we sold in 2014....

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

In our latest session from the Mucker Growth Series featuring Ethan Smith from Graphite, we explored AEO, a significant new approach for optimizing visibility in AI-driven search, particularly relevant as...

Startup Guide to AI Visibility Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Startup Guide to AI Visibility: Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Introduction Today, users aren’t just searching on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems for advice. AI visibility is the new frontier of brand awareness....

Practical Uses of AI Automation for Startup Operations

Practical Uses of AI & Automation for Startup Operations

In a recent Mucker Growth Series session, we invited Rock Vitale, Founder & CEO of Easie, to share how he’s helped early-stage teams move from manual, fragmented workflows to streamlined,...

Scroll to Top