Emir Talu

As a first-generation American born in Los Angeles, Emir Talu grew up in Istanbul, Turkey. After launching his first company Oprena, an interactive media studio at 24 years old, Emir joined Reshape Ventures in NYC as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. His time in Reshape landed him a Founding Team role at Blank Street, a small-format coffee chain with 40+ locations backed by VC’s such as Base10, General Catalyst, Left Lane Capital and more. During his time at Blank Street, Emir focused on analyzing the shifting consumer trends and how to position the brand’s products and services based on the next generation’s needs. Given his passion for empowering the next generation, Emir co-founded Pentas Ventures— an early stage venture capital fund based in NYC that invests in consumer tech products and platforms built for Gen-Z. Since its launch in July 2021, Pentas Ventures invested in 20+ companies alongside VC’s such as Sequoia, First Round Capital, Greycroft, GV, Forerunner and more. Besides Venture Capital, Emir is a big fan of music and co-founded the music business podcast ‘Came a Long Way’ which hosted label execs from Def Jam, Atlantic Records, Roc Nation, Epic Records, Warner Records, Columbia Records to name a few.