Our Team

Drew Silverstein is an entrepreneur and the founder of Common Tide. His desire to commit his career to the financial diversification and peer community that Common Tide provides to founders was rooted in his experiences as a venture capitalist-backed founder, living with the stress of having “all of his eggs in one basket.” 

Drew previously served as the VP of Music at Shutterstock and prior to that was the CEO and co-founder of Amper Music before its acquisition by Shutterstock in November 2020. Founded in 2014, Amper Music pioneered AI Music in the modern era, developing and commercializing groundbreaking technology that empowered anyone to create unique and professional music, instantly. 

Drew is an active startup advisor and is a staunch advocate of mental health resources and support for founders.

Drew is part of the Forbes class of 2018 "30 Under 30" list for Music and actively speaks around the world (TedX, SXSW, Global Leaders Forum) about Generative AI and the implications of advancing technology in creative fields. 

Before Amper Music, Drew was an award-winning composer, producer, and songwriter for film, television, and video games in Los Angeles at Sonic Fuel Studios. Drew graduated from Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music, where he studied Music Composition and Italian, and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Luke Sandler is an investor and advisor for early stage ventures, PE and corporate media clients. He currently runs a number of seed stage venture syndicates, and administers the University Venture Network of alumni syndicates.

Luke was formerly the market lead for McKinsey’s Fast Growth Tech practice serving consumer clients on a variety of growth and operational strategies. As an Engagement Manager he has experience leading digital strategy and transformation projects for consumer finance, media and telecom clients.

Prior to McKinsey, Luke ran the digital media division of a Hollywood literary agency, consulting on digital video content, organization and advertising strategy for publishers and television networks in addition to representing IP for film/TV.

Luke is a Feldberg Fellow of Columbia Business School and a Scholar of Merton College, Oxford.

David Brown is a lifelong entrepreneur, having joined his first startup in 1987. Over the course of several startups, including Pinpoint Technologies, iContact and others, he has developed a skill set in leading and helping companies in the startup and scale-up stages. This led to David co-founding and leading Techstars, a world-renowned technology accelerator and investor.

Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, David joined his first startup while attending McGill University, from whom he has a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. David later moved to Florida to join another startup, where he met his long-time business partner and co-founder across multiple ventures.

After founding his first startup, Pinpoint Technologies, in 1993, David moved to Boulder, Colorado, where he still lives with his wife and two daughters.

David’s experience founding, growing, and selling Pinpoint, along with his other ventures, led to the creation of Techstars as a way to help other entrepreneurs succeed. Techstars, through a team of approximately 300 employees, has funded close to 3000 companies, whose aggregate market cap is approximately $50B. Notable portfolio companies include SendGrid (IPO followed by sale to Twilio for $3B), PillPack (sold to Amazon for $1B), Digital Ocean (IPO), Zipline and others. David stepped down as CEO of Techstars in 2021. He remains on the board of directors.

David is currently a Partner at Zinitus, a venture capital fund committed to contributing to the positive transformation of the food sector.

Taylor Valentine is an experienced business leader, having built his career within the functional areas of operational consulting, digital & social media, corporate innovation, talent development, and early stage business growth.

Massachusetts born and Connecticut bred, Taylor began his career as a management consultant to companies in the manufacturing and utilities industries. His engagements focused on increasing throughput, improving quality, and enhancing workforce effectiveness, and his clients included companies such as Bayer, Hercules, Novell, United Water and Solutia.

Taylor's career pivoted to the world of advertising & marketing in the early 2000's as a result of work with eBay and a number of early e-commerce brands. Through this experience in a growing sector, his journey next took him to Horizon Media (the largest independent media agency globally) where, as a leader in their digital media division, he envisioned, built, and led their social media practice from 2006 to 2014. During this period, Taylor helped bring brands like GEICO, Capital One, WWE, and NBC Sports onto the social media map. Following his role in digital media, Taylor went on to build and lead new business units which fueled Horizon's growth, including Innovation, Learning & Development, and Business Incubation from 2015 to 2023.

Outside of work, Taylor's passion for early stage companies has led him to invest his time and resources into many pre-seed, seed, and Series A companies. In this role, he is a very active mentor and sounding board for founders.

Today, Taylor consults brands, agencies, and martech companies of all sizes, navigating the marketing and advertising landscape. He resides in Maplewood NJ with his wife, daughter, and son.

Chris Deutsch has spent over 25 years starting up, investing in, and working with early-stage, venture-backed startups. He is now a full-time, first-check angel investor and backs founders that are givers, brilliant, gritty, and embody problem-founder-fit.

Chris is the founder of Lofty Ventures, which is the platform he’s built to holistically support 160+ founders at 90+ portfolio companies, 80% are in Chicago and 75% are led by underrepresented founders. Investments range from five to six-figures in mainly pre-seed stage startups. Lofty’s portfolio includes Turbo Appeal (acquired), teaBOT (Y Combinator), Popular Pays (acquired, Y Combinator), Tovala (Y Combinator), Cubii (acquired, #180 on Inc500), 4Degrees (Techstars), Paladin (Techstars), and Gather Voices (LAUNCH).

Chris is also Re-founder & Board Director at Y Combinator-backed teaBOT. Organizations such as Google, HubSpot, Accenture, McKinsey, and 1871 leverage their tea-making robots as the killer amenity to recruit and retain top talent.

Chris was previously VP of Business Development at Loft Development Corporation, his family’s Chicago-based commercial real estate business, which brought the concept of lofts from New York to Chicago in the 1960s. Loft sold its portfolio of six office buildings and two self/wine storage facilities in 2016.

In addition, Chris is an LP in social impact venture fund Impact Engine (IV), and a current or former member or board director of the following civic and/or nonprofit organizations: Outreach With Lacrosse & Schools, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Emerge curatorial group, Chicago Ideas’ Radical Creators, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s MakeWork council, and Social Venture Partners Chicago.

He has been a mentor, judge or speaker at Kellogg School of Management, Pritzker Law School, University of Chicago, Vassar College, Colorado College, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, Impact Engine, Techstars, Women Tech Founders, National Association of Realtors, U.S.-Japan Council, Cradles To Crayons, Embarc Chicago, Future Founders, DePaul University, Loyola University Chicago, and NASA iTech.

Chris received his BA in Economics from Vassar College, where he played varsity lacrosse, basketball, and rugby. He previously coached Chaparral High School’s lacrosse team (Scottsdale, AZ) for six years and helped lead them to five championship appearances and three state titles in 1999, 2002 & 2004.