Aileen Lee
Founder, Cowboy Ventures
Aileen has many years of experience helping start ups build products customers love, and helping companies scale, both as an investor and operator.
Prior to Cowboy, she joined the venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1999. At KPCB she worked hands-on with a range of consumer, enterprise, media and greentech companies including Bloom Energy, Blue Nile (NILE), Good Technology (acquired by MOT), One Kings Lane, Plum District, Rent the Runway, Shopkick, Tellme (acquired by MSFT), and Trendyol. During that time she was also founding CEO of RMG Networks (RMGN), the leading digital out-of-home media company, backed by KPCB. Aileen has also held operating roles at Gap Inc., The North Face and Odwalla and started her career at Morgan Stanley.
She has degrees from MIT, Harvard Business School, and Millburn High School; and she’s the proud mom of 3 kids plus a dog, chickens and bees, and the wife of a series A stage co-founder/CTO.
Content & Articles by Aileen Lee
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies
In our latest session from the Mucker Growth Series featuring Ethan Smith from Graphite, we explored AEO, a significant new approach for optimizing visibility in AI-driven search, particularly relevant as...
Startup Guide to AI Visibility: Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends
Introduction Today, users aren’t just searching on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems for advice. AI visibility is the new frontier of brand awareness....
Practical Uses of AI & Automation for Startup Operations
In a recent Mucker Growth Series session, we invited Rock Vitale, Founder & CEO of Easie, to share how he’s helped early-stage teams move from manual, fragmented workflows to streamlined,...
2025 New York Tech Week Recap Of Mucker Sessions
Last week during New York Tech Week 2025, we joined more than 1,000 events hosted by founders, investors, and VCs. This post is a full Mucker recap of the three...
How to Build a Customer Support Function for Startups Using AI Tools with Alex Velinov
Delivering high-quality customer support can be one of the most resource-draining parts of a startup. The good news: we’re at a turning point where founders can use AI tools to...
Zero → 100: The Exact Steps We Took to Close Our First 100 Paying Customers
Going from zero customers to 100 in just four months sounds impossible—unless you’re a founder willing to roll up your sleeves and hustle relentlessly. I’m Gaurav Bhattacharya, co-founder of Jeeva.ai,...