Brian Garrett

Co-Founder and Managing Director, Crosscut Ventures

Brian Garrett is the CEO and co-founder of Crosscut Ventures. Most recently, he was the co-founder and CEO of StyleSaint. Brian is very active in the Los Angeles start-up community and currently works actively with the following companies: GumGum, Verve Wireless, Pulpo Media, Shoedazzle, Circle Street, Postcard on the Run, MyGlam and GraphEffect. Prior to co-founding Crosscut, Mr. Garrett was a Partner at Palomar Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Santa Monica, California. Mr. Garrett joined Palomar in 2001 and played an active role in managing and investing two funds over 6 years totaling more than $400 million. While at Palomar, he was the sponsor of and/or an active board member in nine Palomar portfolio companies, including successes such as Entone (a video on demand company that sold to Harmonic), Lombardi (business process management software that sold to IBM) and Datallegro (data warehouse appliance company sold to Microsoft in 2008). Prior to Palomar, Mr. Garrett was the Director of Business Development at Niku Corporation. Prior to Niku, Mr. Garrett worked at a boutique strategy consulting firm called R.B. Webber & Company. Mr. Garrett worked with numerous early-stage technology companies including CommerceOne, Inktomi, Sagent, Aurum and Broadbase. Mr. Garrett received his MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and he graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering.

Articles by Brian Garrett

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,...

New York Tech Week Mucker Sessions Recap

2025 New York Tech Week Recap Of Mucker Sessions

Last week during New York Tech Week 2025, we joined more than 1,000 events hosted by founders, investors, and VCs. This post is a full Mucker recap of the three...

Build a Customer Support Function for Startups Using AI Alex Velinov

How to Build a Customer Support Function for Startups Using AI Tools with Alex Velinov

Delivering high-quality customer support can be one of the most resource-draining parts of a startup. The good news: we’re at a turning point where founders can use AI tools to...

Zero → 100: The Exact Steps We Took to Close Our First 100 Paying Customers

Zero → 100: The Exact Steps We Took to Close Our First 100 Paying Customers

Going from zero customers to 100 in just four months sounds impossible—unless you’re a founder willing to roll up your sleeves and hustle relentlessly. I’m Gaurav Bhattacharya, co-founder of Jeeva.ai,...

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