Adam Zuckerman

Adam Zuckerman is an attorney, MBA, and self-described "intrapreneur and futurist" who spent the core of his corporate career at Discovery, Inc. (Discovery Communications) in Silver Spring, Maryland. As Director of Ventures & Innovation, he acted as the company's global intrapreneur — identifying emerging technologies for adoption, serving as the primary point of contact for startups, and making strategic investments on Discovery's behalf. He created and ran Discovery's Consumer Experience Lab (focused on emerging devices), led the company's first Alexa and Google Assistant voice skills around 2015, and drove enterprise shifts to cloud platforms such as Box and DocuSign. His bio credits him with strategic startup investments that returned more than 1,500% (unexited) within three years.

He earned three degrees from Washington University in St. Louis: a BA in Political Science, a JD (School of Law), and an MBA (Olin Business School). Beyond Discovery, he founded Fosterly, an organization that connects entrepreneurs and innovators in the Washington, DC region to events and resources. He has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland teaching innovation strategy, and has appeared roughly two dozen times as a guest business-and-technology analyst on CNBC. He is a 2018 Zhi-Xing Eisenhower Fellow (studying blockchain, AI, and the future of work in China), a J.T. Tai Fellow, and a multiple-time Washingtonian "Tech Titan" and "40 Under 40" honoree.

After Discovery, Zuckerman moved into clean energy, leading international/business development at the Energy Impact Center, a Washington, DC research institute focused on deep decarbonization and reducing the cost of nuclear energy. In October 2023 he founded Buried In Work, a company that simplifies estate planning, probate, and end-of-life logistics. He started it after losing his father and serving as executor of the estate — an experience that exposed how long (an average of ~570 hours) it takes to settle an estate in the U.S. Buried In Work has grown into a large resource library of information hubs, articles, checklists, templates, directories, and a podcast.

Across these roles, Zuckerman positions himself as a subject-matter expert on future-facing technology and the "fourth industrial revolution," operating at the intersection of large enterprises and startups. His angel investing and startup advisory work have run alongside these primary jobs rather than as a standalone fund.

• Invests as an individual angel and startup advisor, primarily at the seed / early stage, rather than through a formal fund.
• Drawn to future-facing and emerging technology — voice/connected devices, AI, blockchain, and new consumer/media experiences — reflecting his Discovery Consumer Experience Lab mandate of finding "what's next."
• Values founders building at the intersection of enterprise needs and startup innovation, consistent with his "intrapreneur" track record of bringing startup tech into a large media company.
• Strong Washington, DC / Mid-Atlantic orientation through Fosterly, where his stated mission is connecting local entrepreneurs to resources, events, and each other.
• Brings a legal + business operator lens (JD/MBA) and hands-on experience helping startups navigate enterprise partnerships and procurement.