Dalton Wright

Kickstart Seed Fund

Dalton Wright is a partner at Kickstart Seed Fund in Salt Lake City, Utah and is currently working to deploy Kickstart Fund III, a $35M seed-stage fund closed in 2014. Kickstart has made over 40 investments since its inception in 2008 with portfolio companies spanning diverse sectors such as SaaS, mobile, cloud, e-commerce, clean tech, and life sciences. Dalton currently sits on the boards of directors for WAVE (clean tech), DropShip (e-commerce), Artemis (health analytics), VidAngel (web filter), and Juxta Labs (mobile social gaming).

Previously, Dalton was a member of the founding team that launched a $70M first-time fund, Alta Ventures Mexico (vintage 2011). He spent nearly three years in Monterrey, Mexico helping raise the fund, train members of the investment team, and close the fund's first investments, including an early hit in Rhomobile (acquired by Motorola for ~2000% deal IRR). During his time in Mexico, Dalton fueled his passion for emerging innovation ecosystems and a love of other cultures.

Dalton has twice attempted to launch a startup (a media tech company in 2004 and a clinical analytics company in 2013) with limited success but many lessons learned. These experiences have deepened his respect and appreciation for entrepreneurs.

Education, Personal, and Fellowship

Dalton earned an MBA from the Wharton Business School and an MA in international studies from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. As a graduate student, Dalton played a key role in winning a $7M grant to build a national clinical data network for children's hospitals, led by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He earned a BA in finance, summa cum laude, from the University of Utah and was the graduation speaker at the Eccles School of Business convocation.

Dalton is a member of Class 19 and performed his fellowship at Kickstart Seed Fund. His mentor was Founder and Managing Partner Gavin Christensen.