Lauren is Head of Investor Relations at NFX. Prior to joining NFX, she was Head of Capital Formation at Contrary Capital, an early-stage venture firm based in San Francisco. She was also part of the founding team of Allocate, a venture-backed company based in Palo Alto building an operating system for private market investing. At Allocate, she was responsible for capital formation and investor relations. Earlier in her career, Lauren held senior Investor Relations roles at CircleUp, a consumer venture firm in SF, and SVB Capital, Silicon Valley Bank's former venture fund of funds and direct investment practice. Lauren is originally from Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with a B.A. in Political Science.