David Seldin

David Seldin is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Anzu Partners, the venture firm he launched in 2014–2015 alongside David Michael and Whitney Haring-Smith. He describes himself as a professional investor and advisor with more than thirty-five years of transactional and management experience. He began his career at The Boston Consulting Group, working as a Consultant and then Manager in the firm's Chicago office. He holds a BS in Economics, awarded summa cum laude, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Before venture investing, Seldin had an unusually varied executive career. He led the effort to win an NFL expansion franchise for Jacksonville, Florida, and then served as President of the Jacksonville Jaguars through the team's four-year start-up period, culminating in the Jaguars reaching the AFC Championship Game in the 1996 season (January 1997). From 1997 through 2014 he was President of Catalyst, Inc., a boutique advisory and investment firm serving privately held businesses and ultra-high-net-worth families, where he says he managed more than 100 material transactions with total values exceeding $10 billion and more than 30 financing transactions with proceeds exceeding $3 billion.

At Anzu, Seldin developed the firm's signature model of deep, hands-on engagement with a concentrated portfolio of deep-tech companies. Anzu now manages roughly $1 billion across multiple venture funds, a revenue-based mezzanine fund, and a SPAC vehicle, backed by hundreds of fund investors. One of Seldin's flagship deals was co-leading Anzu's acquisition of Axsun Technologies from Royal Philips in October 2015 and then leading the sale of Axsun to Excelitas Technologies in 2019, which he reports produced a net 8.3x return to investors.

Seldin sits on the boards of numerous Anzu portfolio companies and remains active in civic and philanthropic roles, including serving as a Trustee of ZooTampa at Lowry Park.

• Invests in breakthrough industrial and life-sciences technologies — the firm's tagline — spanning advanced manufacturing, materials science, clean/energy tech, semiconductors, and life-science instrumentation.
• Backs companies from pre-revenue through post-commercialization, typically entering at seed and Series A, and continuing to support them across later rounds.
• Practices concentrated, high-conviction investing with a small portfolio (~35–46 companies) and deep operational engagement — Anzu partners frequently take board seats and work closely with founders on commercialization, not just capital.
• Favors hard-science / deep-tech companies with defensible IP solving physical-world problems (materials, magnets, batteries, manufacturing processes, sensing, diagnostics) rather than pure software.
• Values companies positioned to win non-dilutive government funding and grants — Anzu's portfolio has attracted well over $100M in government funding (e.g., EnCharge AI, Niron Magnetics, 6K, South 8 Technologies).