Dillon Woodward Junior Partner / Marketing Director
Dillon Woodward is a seasoned startup veteran with a wealth of experience in marketing, partnerships, and strategic business development. As a Junior Partner and our Marketing & Go-To-Market Strategist, she plays a pivotal role in shaping our investment strategies and driving the success of our portfolio companies.
Prior to joining Anthem, Dillon spent four impactful years at Uber, where she was a driving force behind the launch of Uber Eats across the U.S. and Canada. She expertly managed restaurant and brand partnerships, securing high-profile sponsorships with marquee names and events such as McDonald’s, SXSW, and the Chicago Bulls. Her efforts were instrumental in establishing Uber Eats as a leading food delivery platform.
At Anthem, Dillon is at the forefront of sourcing new investment opportunities in sectors like fintech, biotech, interactive entertainment, and general technology. She works closely with founders and executive teams, bringing her extensive expertise to bear on strengthening marketing strategies, refining fundraising materials, and developing robust brand frameworks. Her strategic insights and hands-on support have been key to the growth and success of our 25+ portfolio companies. Dillon graduated from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.
Sudhin Shahani Entrepreneur in Residence / CEO Surfair
Sudhin is the CEO of Anthem portfolio company Surfair. In addition to Surfair, he is an entrepreneur who has founded 3 companies in the music, entertainment and education field (Musicane, RTG Animate, Wizardflex films). In 2006 Businessweek magazine voted him one of the Top 25 under 25 Young Entrepreneurs in the US.
Claudia L. LLanos Partner / CFO
Claudia joined Anthem in 2001 and through October 2019 managed all accounting, cash management, human resources, investor relations, financial reporting, legal agreements and governmental compliance functions of all Anthem entities. As a member of our investment committee, she also managed our deal flow and company pitches for the rest of the committee; and worked independently with several portfolio companies to develop accounting functions and by providing interim management and CFO services. She is passionate about organization, efficiency and proven systems that help a company grow and easily scale. As a previous auditor at Ernst & Young LLP, she gained valuable experience in liaising with investors and portfolio companies in compliance with several reporting requirements for our various funds and adequately preparing our entrepreneurs and their finance teams for financial audits and IPO process. Although she is no longer an active fund manager of our team, she remains an Anthem VP general partner and venture investor and consults with us as needed.
Claudia lives in Pasadena, CA. She is fluent in English, Spanish and French and enjoys doing yoga and traveling to explore new places. She is an avid supporter of the protection of animals and our environment.
Doug Sills Partner
Doug is a Partner with Anthem Venture Partners. Prior to Anthem, Doug worked in IT pharmacy operations for CVS Health.
Before joining CVS, Doug specialized in corporate restructuring consulting for MDT Holdings. In addition to his background in restructuring, Doug has experience sourcing debt capital for middle market companies through his work at a Chicago-based boutique financial advisory services firm. Doug also has experience in early stage venture capital through his work as an Associate with Moonshots Capital.
Doug’s experience also includes working in several technology-services startups. Doug began his career in finance and operations at Cloud Silver Lining (acquired by MDT Holdings in 2013) – a startup specializing in migrating enterprise databases to the cloud. Doug graduated from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
Bill Woodward Founding Partner
Bill Woodward is a serial entrepreneur, technology executive, and prolific venture capitalist with over 35 years of investing and operating experience. Bill is well known in the Southern California technology community for his deep involvement and influence with many successful technology ventures.
Bill currently serves as the Managing General Partner of Anthem Venture Partners, a Venture Capital firm that he solely founded in 1999 where he raised their initial $120M fund. During his time at Anthem Bill has raised multiple institutional funds including a $100M strategic fund in 2007, a multi-tranche dedicated fintech fund in 2018 which has drawn roughly $30M to date, and has completed over 50 investments across all funds. Through Anthem Bill has made significant early-stage direct investments in privately held companies that have achieved significant enterprise values such as: Scopely, VideoAmp, Surfair, Jiko, DailyPay and Indie Semiconductor. Bill has served on the board of directors or as an advisor to a number of other high-profile technology companies which became public companies or were acquired by strategic buyers, including: TrueCar, InterMix “MySpace”, Cognet Microsystems, Android (acquired by Google), Advanced Cell Technologies, Celenex, Launch Music and NevenVision. Prior to Anthem Bill was a part of Avalon, a $100M Venture Capital fund where he served as a General Partner managing the West Coast in the late 1990’s.
In addition to his success as an investor, Bill is a prolific technology entrepreneur. In 2017 Mr. Woodward created Celenex, a gene-therapy company with a mission to cure neurodegenerative disorders in pediatrics. Celenex was shortly thereafter acquired by Amicus Therapeutics in 2018 for $452M. In addition to Celenex, Bill recently founded ImmunoVec Inc, another very promising, venture-backed gene-therapy company with a focus on curing rare pediatric genetic disorders of the immune system. One key focus for Bill at this stage in his career is to leverage his entrepreneurial prowess to launch businesses that advance life-saving treatments for those in need. Prior to Celenex and ImmunoVec, Bill was also a cofounder Cognet Microsystems, a company building fiberoptic networks based on technology from the University of California Los Angeles, which sold to Intel for $330M in 2001. Mr. Woodward also cofounded NevenVision in 2003 which was acquired by Google in 2006.
In 1994 Bill founded Pulse Entertainment, a maker of 3D games and character authoring software. Bill served as the CEO and Chairman of the board through 1998, the company was later acquired in 2009. In addition to Pulse Entertainment, Bill cofounded Launch Media Inc, which went public in 1999 and was later acquired by Yahoo in 2001 and became Yahoo Music. In the early 1990’s Bill was heavily recruited to take on numerous engagements with Apple Computers, Universal Studios Inc, and Time Warner, where he consulted with all of them.
Bill began his career in technology as the sole founder of Paracomp, a San Francisco based software publisher that was known for developing early desktop multimedia software applications, which he created in 1986. In 1991 Paracomp merged with Macromind to form MacroMedia. Bill served as the Chairman of the board and ran business development for the company. MacroMedia debuted on the NASDAQ in 1993, which occurred in conjunction with their acquisition of Authorware. The combined company was later acquired by Adobe for $3.4B in 2005, reaping substantial returns for its investment.
In addition to his success both an institutional venture capital investor and technology entrepreneur, Bill is an active angel investor and has invested in several notable technology companies including: VideoAmp, Fab Fit Fun, Bird, indie Semiconductor, SurfAir, Q-Simulate, ImmunoVec, Karma Bio, Matic, Darvis, Wave Financial, Opal Health, Landline and Helicity Space. Bill has proven to be invaluable for the companies he advises given his deep understanding of the entrepreneurial process. Many founders frequently solicit his advice as he is well known for his great business instincts. Bill was inducted into the Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA) Hall of Fame in 2013. He is one of 12 members to be ever inducted into the LAVA Half of Fame.
