Lance Cottrell Lance Cottrell is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, advisor, and mentor with extensive expertise in Internet privacy, anonymity, and security. He founded Anonymizer Inc. in 1995, a pioneering internet privacy company, and successfully exited the business in 2008. Cottrell is recognized internationally as an expert in cryptography and online security and is the principal author of multiple patents in Internet privacy and security technologies.
He has a strong academic background with a BS in Physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MS in Physics (Astrophysics) from the University of California, San Diego. After Anonymizer, he focused on advising startups, angel investing, and mentoring entrepreneurs through his platform FeelTheBoot.com and as a Global Entrepreneur in Residence at the Founder Institute. He also serves as president and board chair of North Bay Angels and holds various advisory roles in tech companies.
Lance Cottrell’s career highlights include creating original anonymity tools like Mixmaster, leading strategic security research at companies such as Ntrepid and Obscura Security, and investing in early-stage companies across hardware, security, IoT, energy, climate tech, and SaaS domains. He is also a frequent speaker at security conferences and remains deeply involved in advancing privacy and security technologies.