Dylan Hixon

Dylan Hixon is President of Arden Road Investments, a New York City–based family office through which he directly manages a captive deep-tech venture capital portfolio. He is a sixth-generation member of the Hixon family, whose enterprises trace back to 1850, and he also serves as a fund manager/General Partner of the Gideon Hixon Fund, the family's venture vehicle. Alongside his investing, Hixon chairs Hixon Properties Inc., a real-estate development and acquisition firm reported to hold roughly $500 million in assets, with activity concentrated in Texas markets and historic ties to the family's hometown of Santa Barbara, California.

Trained as an engineer, Hixon holds a Bachelor's degree from Yale University and a Master's degree in Mechanical (and Aerospace) Engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He worked for years as a mechanical engineer, has authored several technical papers, and holds four U.S. patents — a technical grounding that shapes his preference for hardware and deep-tech companies.

In April 2025, Hixon was appointed a non-executive director on the board of Energy Vault Holdings (NYSE: NRGV), an energy-storage company in which he was already an investor, having been publicly described as a "leading technology investor" and long-time SpaceX backer. He is also active in civic and academic governance: he is a Trustee of Harvey Mudd College and sits on advisory boards for the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science, the Yale School of the Environment, and the Regional Plan Association (RPA) of New York, and he serves on the board of the Planetary Sunshade Foundation. He resides in New York City with his wife and two sons.

• Invests through Arden Road Investments (family office) and the Gideon Hixon Fund, emphasizing a relationship-driven approach: "invest in companies we know and like, along with partners we respect and trust."
• Core conviction that we are entering a "hardware revolution" that will reshape the physical world the way the internet transformed the information age — hence a concentration in deep tech and hard science.
• Backs "passionate individuals with transformative ideas," treating investments as long-term partnerships rather than purely metrics-driven bets; the family motto is that "the best success is a shared one."
• Willing to hold and add to positions over very long horizons — he has been a SpaceX investor for nearly 20 years, with SpaceX at one point comprising roughly 20% of the portfolio, and has said he intends to keep investing even after an IPO.
• Sector breadth spans space/aerospace, energy storage, AR/optics and AI, plus the Gideon Hixon Fund's stated interests in proptech, fintech, mobility & hospitality, and food & agriculture (ingredient technologies and innovative food brands).