Darren Bechtel

Darren Bechtel is the founder and Managing Director of Brick & Mortar Ventures, a seed- and early-stage venture capital fund focused on emerging technologies for the verticals of architecture, engineering, construction, and facilities management. From helping move the industry away from paper and into the cloud, to partnering with NASA to 3D print concrete habitats on the moon and Mars, Darren and Brick & Mortar Ventures are trying to enable entrepreneurs and innovators to disrupt the way we design, construct, and maintain the built world.

Through Brick & Mortar Ventures, Darren serves as a technology innovation advisor to industry leading corporations including the Bechtel Group, Autodesk, Caterpillar, Cemex, and United Rentals.

Darren Bechtel brings over 7 years of engineering, product and architectural design, and construction management professional experience to the Brick & Mortar team, as well as over 8 years of venture investing as the founder and managing director of South Park Ventures with early stage investments included companies like PlanGrid, Identified, Cabify, Clutter, Womply, Weddington Way, and Aloha.

Darren is a Stanford-trained engineer and MBA who remains closely connected to the young Stanford entrepreneurial community as the founder and developer of Soma CoLab, a San Francisco-based co-working and incubator space for Stanford alumni.

Prior to founding Brick & Mortar Ventures and Soma CoLab, Darren served as CEO of Encapsule Medical, a privately-held medical device company developing minimally invasive breast biopsy and tumor removal technologies. Encapsule was formed in May 2010, following the successful acquisition of the product portfolio of Rubicor Medical, Inc. As a former Rubicor engineer, Darren designed and developed what is now Encapsule's flagship breast biopsy device.