Catherine Chen

Partner, Finance. Menlo Park.

Catherine joined Lightspeed in 2011, after kickstarting her career in Deloitte’s San Francisco audit practice. The biggest lesson she’s learned from when she began in venture? “Getting the details right is table stakes – never forget to check the 30,000 foot view.” 

Catherine graduated top of her class from USC Leventhal School of Accounting and received the Order of Troy designation from the university. Her tireless work ethic was developed at an early age and inspired by her parents, who were both engineers. “I remember evenings growing up,” she said. “My parents handled dinner and bedtime, then took turns going back to the office to continue writing and editing code through the night. To this day, their work ethic and dedication continues to be the bar for everything I do at Lightspeed.” Her 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Mumma, also played an influential role. “She is the most sarcastic, quick-witted, and passionate educator I’ve ever met.  She took zero BS and pushed for the best out of every student.  Perhaps most importantly, she taught me the power of Post-it Notes, and we still bond over them today.”

At Lightspeed, Catherine brings the utmost care for the team and firm to work every day. She excels in cross-functional collaboration and is always pushing for best-in-class service for our LPs. When she’s not working, she’s likely watching sports. More specifically, she’s a diehard fan of the Warriors, USC football, SF Giants, Gregg Popovich, and Inside the NBA. “The underlying theme of my love of sports is teamwork. The most successful sports teams love playing together, respect one another, work crazy hard, celebrate each other’s wins, and never make it about one individual – all while having fun.” 

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