Gokul Rajaram
VCFounding Partner, Marathon Management Partners
Operator-investor; AdSense godfather turned venture partner
Background
Gokul Rajaram studied computer science at IIT Kanpur (President's Gold Medal), then earned degrees from UT Austin and MIT Sloan. He joined Google in 2003 and is credited as one of the architects of AdSense, scaling it to over $1 billion in revenue. His startup Chai Labs was acquired by Facebook in 2010, where he led ads product and helped scale revenue from $750 million to $6.5 billion. He subsequently led product and engineering at Square and DoorDash, helping both companies through their IPOs. A prolific angel investor with over 300 startup investments, he co-founded Marathon Management Partners in 2025 alongside Michael Gilroy, targeting a $400 million debut fund focused on early and growth-stage enterprise software and fintech. He also serves on the boards of Pinterest, Coinbase, and The Trade Desk.
Investment Thesis
Backs founders obsessed with their problem who understand their customers better than anyone else; focuses on enterprise software, fintech, and AI-enabled products.
Investment Focus
Stages
Typical check: $25K–$500K typical angel
Sectors
Based in: United States (North America)