
Biography
Peter Mellen is an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor who founded Netcito in 2011 as a way of enabling entrepreneurs to realize their collective potential for connection, inspiration, and impact. In addition to leading Netcito, he serves in a variety of other roles that include advising and investing in startups, leading entrepreneurship initiatives at Georgetown University, and managing a family-owned portfolio of commercial real estate.
As an advisor and investor, Peter works with entrepreneurs to identify and successfully navigate the path from conception to growth and scale. He has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and served in formal advisory roles for companies that include Hinge Dating (sold to Match Group), Haiku Learning Systems (sold to PowerSchool), CoreMetrics (sold to IBM), Soapbox Soaps, Vegetable & Butcher, and Osiris Media. His startup investments include Latch, Everlywell, Urbanstems, and many others. He participates in angel investor networks that include NextGen Venture Partners, Halcyon Angels, and the Georgetown Angel Investor Network (GAIN).
From 2010 to 2020, Peter served on the Board of Directors for the Tides Network, a nonprofit that advances progressive causes and policy initiatives in areas such as racial justice, the environment, health care, immigrant rights, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights and human rights. He helped Tides successfully transition through two new CEOs as well as grow their annual philanthropic contributions from $150 million to over $1 billion. Prior to Tides he served as the Chairman of the Washington DC Local Advisory Board for BUILD, a program that provides entrepreneurship education for high school students in under‐resourced communities.
He officially started his entrepreneurial career in 1991 with the launch of Team/Vision Consulting, a consulting firm that provided technical support services to small and medium sized businesses. He went on to co-found his first startup in 1998 while earning his MBA at Georgetown University. That company, Headlight, was an online learning pioneer that went on to raise over $15 million of venture capital from Silicon Valley investors that included Draper Fisher Jurvetson and the Band of Angels. Headlight did not survive the 2001 dot com crash and from 2002-2007, Peter led online learning initiatives in intrapreneurial roles at Pearson Education and AOL.
Peter earned a BA and MBA from Georgetown University where he is involved in a range of entrepreneurship initiatives as an alumni leader, along with a Master’s Degree in Real Estate Development from University of Maryland. In 2018 he founded the Georgetown Angel Investor Network (GAIN), which in two years has grown to 50 members and invested over $2.5 million in 10 companies. In 2012, he co-founded the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Alliance, establishing an annual alumni pitch competition and launching an awards program that celebrates prominent alumni including Ted Leonsis (AOL, Monumental Sports), Randy Goldberg (Bombas), and Doug Bouton (Halo Top). Finally he serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Georgetown, providing mentorship to students and advising on program design and execution.
Peter was born in Toronto where, in seventh grade, he became fascinated with personal computers as they first became available to the mass market. He moved to the United States at the age of 12 when his parents joined a spiritual community, the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. These experiences fueled lifelong interests in technology, entrepreneurship, and mindfulness. Today Peter lives in Washington DC with his wife and two children where he is a father, yogi, meditator, and mountain biker.