Aaron Perman

Aaron Perman is a General Partner at S3 Ventures, the largest venture capital firm born in Texas, which manages over $1 billion in assets from a single limited partner -- a highly philanthropic family with a multibillion-dollar foundation. Perman joined S3 Ventures in 2013 and was promoted to General Partner in December 2025, alongside the announcement of the firm's $250 million Fund VIII. Over more than a decade at the firm, he has built a portfolio spanning business technology, healthcare technology, and digital experience companies, with initial checks ranging from $500,000 to $15 million and the capacity to invest over $25 million throughout the life of a company.

Before joining S3 Ventures, Perman invested in small-cap publicly traded companies at Western Standard, a long/short equity hedge fund (2011-2013). Earlier in his career, he spent time in the corporate strategy group at Southern California Edison and founded Speedy Computers LLC (2005-2012), a successful small business liquidating computer hardware. In 2018, he served as CEO of Qualia Media, a marketing technology platform specializing in device graph and identity data, and led the company through its acquisition by IDify (an ALC company). Qualia processed more than 100 billion data points per month, and the acquisition combined IDify's deterministic identity data with Qualia's device graph to provide marketers with more accurate identity solutions.

Perman holds a BS in International Business from the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, with additional studies at The Australian National University. He is actively involved in the Austin tech ecosystem, serving as a mentor for the DivInc Accelerator and leading the Emerging Venture Capitalist Association's Austin chapter. He was named a speaker at TechCon Southwest 2026, held in February at the Bullock Museum in Austin, and served on the judging panel for the event's Startup Innovation Showcase.

Perman invests in high-impact Seed, Series A, and Series B stage companies across business technology, digital experience, and healthcare technology. His thesis reflects S3 Ventures' broader conviction that Texas and the broader U.S. offer a compelling environment for building venture-scale companies -- he has noted that the ratio of engineering talent and GDP to venture capital dollars in Texas has historically been underserved relative to California, creating opportunity as talent continues to flock to the state while costs remain lower than the coasts. He emphasizes scalability and repeatability in the businesses he backs, looking for platform companies where customers use the product for similar use cases with a repeatable sales cycle, distinguishing true product businesses from services businesses. S3 Ventures leads roughly half of its Fund VIII investments in Texas-based companies, with the remainder allocated to founders nationwide. Perman has noted that most venture investors make their returns through the company's success rather than through heavy-handed structuring, and he advises founders to expect selling between 10% and 25% of the company in each round of venture capital.

| Company | Category | Status | |---------|----------|--------| | CereTax | Indirect Tax Automation | Private (Board Member) | | Hydrolix | Data Platform / Observability | Private (Board Member) | | Plural | Enterprise Software | Private (Board Member) | | Riscosity | Data Security / Compliance | Private (Board Member) | | Stellar | Enterprise Technology | Private (Board Member) | | Sudozi | Spend Management / Procurement | Private (Board Observer) | | Buildforce | Construction Tech / Workforce | Private (Board Observer) | | HYAS | Cybersecurity / Threat Intel | Private (Board Observer) | | Liquibase | Developer Tools / Database DevOps | Private | | Nexus | Media / Marketing | Private | | Upkey | EdTech / Career Platform | Private | | Levelset | Construction Payments / Lien Rights | Acquired by Procore | | Liveoak Technologies | Remote Online Notarization | Acquired by DocuSign | | Tango Health | Benefits Decision Support | Acquired by Benefitfocus (Board Member) | | Invodo | Video Commerce / Product Video | Acquired by CoCreativ (Board Member) | | Qualia Media | MarTech / Device Graph | Acquired by IDify (CEO) |