Amber Atherton
Amber Atherton is a British entrepreneur and investor based in San Francisco. A former founder, whose Y Combinator backed startup was acquired by Discord, she is now a partner at Patron, the early-stage venture capital firm, and the founder of The Atherton Award, which honors young women pursuing entrepreneurship. Her best-selling book ‘The Rise of Virtual Communities’ was published by Apress in 2023.
Early Life & Education
Atherton was born on February 9, 1991, in Hong Kong. She grew up living in Hong Kong, the Caribbean, and the UK, before attending Benenden School. She attended Central Saint Martins/London College of Fashion but dropped out before completing her degree to work on her startup.
Background and Early Career
Atherton began coding as a kid in Hong Kong. Building websites, mini-games and Neopets communities. At 16, she started a popular blog, My Flash Trash, which evolved into an e-commerce startup and one of Europe’s largest online jewelry marketplaces. High profile customers included HRH Princess of Wales, Rihanna and Cara Delevigne.
Frequently profiled in fashion magazines for her sense of style, Atherton found fame in the UK after co-creating and briefly starring in the hit TV show, Made in Chelsea. At 24, she was named by the Evening Standard as one of London’s Most Influential Londoners and joined Forbes’ 30 under 30 list.
After the merger of her first startup, she toyed around with computer vision, creating an app, Rubric, that generated captions for your instagram posts that immediately went viral.
Zyper & Discord Acquisition
In 2017 Atherton founded the community software startup, Zyper, using NLP and Computer Vision to help creators and brands find their top fans, and build private, chat based, fan communities. Atherton moved to Palo Alto to join Y Combinator, raised a seed round led by Forerunner Ventures, and in 2021, exited the company to Discord. At Discord, Atherton was responsible for strategic growth initiatives - launching new verticals orbiting gaming, driving GTM in international markets and spearheading new revenue channels.
Venture Capital Investing
In 2021, Atherton met Jason Yeh and Brian Cho, founders of the early stage venture capital firm Patron, and bonded over a shared vision of the future of consumer technology. After working as a Venture Partner for a year, Atherton joined the Patron team full time in 2023. That same year, Atherton was named by Business Insider as a Rising Star in VC.
The Atherton Award
The Atherton Award is an annual prize that aims to recognize and encourage entrepreneurial spirit in young women. Launched by Atherton in 2021, the award has recognized over 50 winners and donated $20k in prize money to date and is now offered at 35 schools across the UK & US.
Diplomatic Work
Atherton has worked closely with the UK government on the startup ecosystem and tech policy in her role as board member and later board chair of GBx Global, a Bay Area based non-profit serving as a professional network for British Entrepreneurs and Investors.
Personal life
Atherton is married to American venture capitalist Vishal Lugani. They live in San Francisco with their son. Together, they are enthusiastic art collectors, with a collection featuring works by notable artists such as Mat Collishaw, Trevor Paglen, Patricia Iglesias Peco, Paul Laffoley, Kour Pour and Chelsea Ryoko Wong.