Michael Aronson

Michael Aronson has spent more than 30 years working with technology companies as an operator, angel investor, and venture capitalist. He studied entrepreneurial management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Before moving into full-time investing, he was an entrepreneur and angel investor: he was co-founder, CFO, EVP, and a board member of SMG, Inc., a ~$28M simulation-software company that was named three times to the "Inc. 500" list of fastest-growing companies. He has been described as a founding shareholder and/or co-founder of five software companies, two of which were acquired by public entities.

Aronson became a full-time venture capitalist as co-founder and Managing Director of MentorTech Ventures, an early-stage fund similarly dedicated to investing in the University of Pennsylvania ecosystem. Through MentorTech and his angel activity he built a long track record of board service and exits across consumer internet, e-commerce, and enterprise software.

In 2016 he co-founded Red & Blue Ventures alongside fellow Managing Director Brett Topche (also a Wharton graduate). Red & Blue is a Philadelphia-based, privately owned seed and early-stage fund that continues the Penn-ecosystem investment strategy — backing hardware, software, e-commerce, and technology-enabled-services companies whose key founders or managers are Penn students, faculty, or alumni, or that are built on Penn intellectual property. Public profiles list the firm around a ~$9.5M fund size with roughly 11 investments on record at the time of those listings. Aronson brings particular depth in company formation, software development, capital raising, and executive compensation.

• Invests in seed and early-stage technology companies, typically writing checks from ~$100K up to ~$10M, with a ~$1M sweet spot.
• Core filter is the Penn ecosystem: in the firm's words, "Red+Blue Ventures is a privately owned and operated, seed and early-stage venture capital fund that invests in companies from the Penn ecosystem," typically with "key founders or managers who are students, faculty members, or alumni of the university."
• Sector-agnostic within tech but broad across "hardware, software, ecommerce and technology-enabled services companies that sell to either businesses or consumers."
• Practical focus areas across his career include consumer internet / e-commerce, digital media, healthcare/health-tech, and emerging hardware & robotics.
• Values founders he can support operationally — his background in company formation, finance, capital raising, and exits signals a hands-on, board-level partner rather than a passive check.