Cyan Banister

Cyan Banister
Born	Cyan Callihan 1977
Birthplace	Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Entrepreneur, investor
Known for	Angel investing, co-founding Zivity, partner at Founders Fund, co-founder of Long Journey Ventures
Spouse(s)	Scott Banister

Cyan Banister (née Callihan; born 1977) is an American angel investor, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. She rose from a childhood marked by poverty and homelessness to become one of Silicon Valley's most prominent early-stage investors, with a portfolio that includes stakes in companies such as Uber, SpaceX, Niantic, Postmates, DeepMind, Carta, Thumbtack, Flexport, and Affirm. In 2016, Banister became the first female investing partner at Founders Fund, the venture capital firm founded by Peter Thiel, where she led seed and early-stage investments. Prior to her career in venture capital, Banister co-founded Zivity, an adult-themed social networking site, and was an outspoken advocate for treating adult-oriented startups with the same respect accorded to other technology companies. In 2025, she co-founded Long Journey Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund, alongside Arielle Zuckerberg, raising $181.8 million to invest in founders the firm describes as "magical weirdos."

Early Life

Cyan Banister was born Cyan Callihan in 1977 in Tucson, Arizona. She grew up in circumstances of significant economic hardship. By the age of 15, Banister was homeless, an experience she has spoken about publicly on multiple occasions, including at technology conferences. The challenges she faced during her youth shaped her unconventional approach to entrepreneurship and investing.

Banister dropped out of high school as a teenager in order to work full time. Without a traditional educational background, she entered the workforce at a young age and began teaching herself the skills that would later underpin her career in the technology industry. Her trajectory from homelessness and poverty to the upper echelons of Silicon Valley investing has been a recurring topic in media profiles and in Banister's own public speaking engagements. At the 2018 TechCrunch Disrupt conference, she shared details of her journey, describing the experience of being a homeless teenager and the path that eventually led her to venture capital.

Banister has identified as gender fluid, a subject explored in a 2016 profile by Wired magazine titled "The Venture Capitalist Who Is Both a Man and a Woman." In the article, Banister discussed the intersection of gender identity and the male-dominated venture capital industry.

Career

Early Entrepreneurship and Zivity

Before establishing herself as an investor, Banister pursued entrepreneurship. She co-founded Zivity, an adult-themed social networking site, alongside her husband Scott Banister. The platform launched in 2007 after raising $1 million in funding prior to its public debut. Zivity operated as a platform where photographers and models could share and monetize adult content through a community-driven voting and payment system.

In a 2013 interview with Forbes, Banister argued that adult-oriented technology startups deserved the same level of respect and investment consideration as companies in other sectors. She noted that the adult content industry was a significant driver of technology adoption and innovation, and that founders in the space faced disproportionate stigma from investors and the broader technology community. The New York Times covered Zivity's development, documenting Banister's involvement with the platform.

Angel Investing

Banister built a significant reputation as an angel investor over more than a decade, making early-stage bets on companies that went on to achieve substantial valuations. Her angel investment portfolio included Uber, SpaceX, Niantic (the company behind Pokémon Go), Postmates, DeepMind (later acquired by Google), Carta, Thumbtack, Flexport, and Affirm.

In a 2017 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Banister discussed her investment philosophy, reflecting on both her most successful and least successful investments. Her early investment in Uber, made years before the ride-hailing company became a household name, became one of the most frequently cited examples of her investing acumen.

Together with her husband Scott Banister, Cyan won the Angel Investor of the Year award at the Crunchies, the annual awards ceremony organized by TechCrunch. The award recognized the couple's combined track record of identifying and supporting early-stage companies that went on to achieve outsized growth.

Banister's approach to investing was informed by her own background as an entrepreneur and by her experience of economic hardship. In her 2018 Business Insider interview, she discussed the qualities she looked for in founders, drawing on lessons from her own unconventional path through high school dropout to technology executive.

Founders Fund

In March 2016, Banister joined Founders Fund, the venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, as an investing partner. The appointment was notable because Banister became the first woman to hold an investing partner role at the firm in its eleven-year history. At Founders Fund, Banister focused on seed and early-stage investments, a continuation of the investment strategy that had defined her angel investing career.

Her role at Founders Fund was covered by multiple news outlets. Bloomberg News reported on her hiring, noting the significance of the appointment in the context of the venture capital industry's ongoing discussions about gender diversity. TechCrunch described Banister as "a renowned angel investor and startup founder" at the time of her appointment. A 2016 TechCrunch article on the increasing presence of women in venture capital highlighted Banister's move to Founders Fund as one of several developments in the sector.

While at Founders Fund, Banister was involved in several notable investments. In 2018, Variety reported that Founders Fund had participated in a $15 million funding round for HQ Trivia, the live trivia game application. A 2018 Fortune profile explored Banister's relationship with Elon Musk and the broader Founders Fund investment ecosystem, including the firm's investment in SpaceX.

In April 2016, shortly after joining Founders Fund, TechCrunch reported that Banister was also involved with a new startup that was seeking seed funding, indicating that she continued to pursue entrepreneurial activities alongside her venture capital role.

Bloomberg Law described Banister as "a venture world fixture known for more than a decade of seed investing" in its coverage of her post-Founders Fund activities.

Long Journey Ventures

In 2025, Banister co-founded Long Journey Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund, alongside Arielle Zuckerberg. The firm announced that it had raised $181,818,181.80 — a figure chosen for its mathematical palindrome quality — to back early-stage founders.

The firm's stated investment philosophy centers on backing founders it describes as "magical weirdos" — entrepreneurs with ideas that may initially appear unconventional or even absurd but that the partners believe will eventually become mainstream. In an interview with Bloomberg, Banister and Zuckerberg elaborated on this approach, explaining that Long Journey Ventures specifically seeks out founders whose ideas seem absurd in the present tense but have potential for wide adoption.

The physical office of Long Journey Ventures was described by Yahoo Finance as departing from the typical aesthetic of Silicon Valley venture capital firms, standing in contrast to the "sleek glass minimalism and simple sneakers" associated with the corporate landscape of the technology industry.

The fund's launch attracted coverage from multiple outlets, including Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg Law, and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, reflecting the prominence of both partners and the unconventional branding of the firm.

Personal Life

Banister is married to Scott Banister, an entrepreneur and angel investor who is known as an early advisor to PayPal and the founder of IronPort. The couple have invested together extensively, and their shared angel investing track record was recognized with the Angel Investor of the Year award at the Crunchies.

The Banisters have been involved in First Amendment advocacy. In 2015, The Washington Post reported on the Scott & Cyan Banister First Amendment Clinic, an initiative associated with their philanthropic efforts focused on free speech issues.

Banister has publicly discussed her gender identity. In a 2016 Wired profile, she spoke about identifying as gender fluid, exploring the experience of navigating the venture capital industry while holding a non-binary gender identity.

Her personal story of overcoming homelessness as a teenager has been a recurring element of her public narrative. At TechCrunch Disrupt in 2018, she shared details of her early life experiences, framing them as formative in her approach to risk, resilience, and entrepreneurship.

Recognition

Banister has received recognition from multiple technology and business publications for her investing career.

She and her husband Scott Banister received the Angel Investor of the Year award at the Crunchies, the annual awards ceremony hosted by TechCrunch that recognizes individuals and companies in the technology industry.

In May 2025, Business Insider named Banister to its "Seed 40" list, which highlights the top women early-stage investors. The list recognizes women investors who provide support to early-stage startups.

Her appointment as the first female investing partner at Founders Fund in 2016 was itself a widely covered milestone, noted by Bloomberg, TechCrunch, and other outlets as a significant moment for gender representation in venture capital.

Banister has been profiled in Forbes, Wired, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, and Bloomberg, among other publications, reflecting her status as a prominent figure in the technology investment community.

Legacy

Banister's career trajectory — from homeless teenager and high school dropout to venture capital partner and fund co-founder — has made her a frequently cited figure in discussions about nontraditional paths to success in the technology industry. Her story has been held up in media profiles as an example of how the Silicon Valley ecosystem can, in certain cases, reward unconventional backgrounds and risk tolerance over formal credentials.

Her role as the first female investing partner at Founders Fund placed her at the intersection of ongoing debates about gender diversity in venture capital. At the time of her appointment in 2016, the venture capital industry faced sustained scrutiny over the underrepresentation of women in investing roles, and Banister's hiring was covered as part of a broader trend of firms beginning to address these imbalances.

As a co-founder of Long Journey Ventures, Banister has contributed to a venture capital model that explicitly values eccentricity and unconventional thinking in founders. The firm's stated mission to back "magical weirdos" represents an investment thesis that prizes nonconformity, positioning Long Journey Ventures as a distinctive presence in the early-stage venture capital landscape.

Banister's early investments in companies such as Uber, SpaceX, and DeepMind — each of which grew into organizations with transformative impact on their respective industries — represent a track record that has established her as one of the most successful angel investors of her generation. Her willingness to invest in companies operating in unconventional or stigmatized sectors, as demonstrated by her co-founding of Zivity and her public advocacy for adult-oriented startups, further distinguishes her investment approach.