Ryan Stern - MUFG Innovation Partners
"The CVC role is often subtractive, removing what does not matter so what does can thrive."
Connect with Ryan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rystern/
VC Uncovered's View
Ryan Stern navigates the currents of venture capital much like he surfs the swells, reading the conditions, respecting the larger forces at play, and knowing exactly when to commit. It’s an approach defined by rhythm and humility, recognizing that preparation only takes you so far.
Ryan, an investor at MUFG Innovation Partners (MUIP), the Corporate Venture Capital arm of the global financial giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, embodies the new wave of investors we spotlight at VC Uncovered. He champions innovation within a massive, established structure by looking far beyond the obvious metrics. While traditional VCs, particularly in finance, might focus purely on the data, Ryan operates from a core understanding of human psychology: every decision is ultimately driven by emotion.
In an AI-driven world where analysis is table stakes, he uses intuition, layered with rigorous fundamentals learned from his time in banking and corporate development at Mastercard, as his edge. He understands that the intellect often rationalizes what the gut already knows.
Ryan actively seeks out founders who are resourceful and scrappy, those who have faced rejection and found creative paths forward because the front doors weren’t open. He prioritizes resilience over pedigree. It aligns perfectly with our belief that the future of venture isn’t just about writing checks, it’s about recognizing the messy, human layer where the richest signals live, and actively rolling up your sleeves to help founders cut through the noise.Meet Ryan Stern
Q: You can be anywhere. Eating, drinking, and reading your favorite thing. What is it?
A: I’m somewhere coastal and rugged! Popoyo, Nicaragua, comes to mind, eating Mahi Mahi tacos, drinking a Tona beer, and reading Endurance by Alfred Lansing.
Key Quotes
"Once you see what world-class looks like, you can’t unsee it."
"Every decision we make is ultimately an emotional one."
"If you don’t hear ‘no’ often, you’re not thinking big enough."
"In an AI-driven world, analysis alone is table stakes."
"The CVC role is often subtractive, removing what does not matter so what does can thrive."
Original Responses (Lightly Edited for Clarity and Flow)
Background and Personal Journey
Experiences Shaping My Investment Approach
My entire career has been shaped by a simple pattern: I follow what excites me, then seek out what excellence looks like in that space. Once you see world-class in action, you can’t unsee it. That perspective becomes an asset you carry forever. It becomes the benchmark you naturally measure against, changing how you filter opportunities and move through the world.
I started in investment banking because, based on my interests in finance, it felt like the highest bar to clear. There I saw high standards across financial analysis, modeling, and advisory work at the macro level, and I learned the micro skills of attention to detail, stamina, and problem-solving under pressure. The late nights were grueling, but they built a professional foundation that still serves me today.
At Mastercard, I joined the corporate development team and saw firsthand what it means for a half-trillion-dollar market cap company to take acquisitions and investments seriously. During my tenure, the group executed 56+ deals, deploying more than $1.5B of capital. I contributed across all our activity from a $150k seed investment to a $3.2B acquisition, the largest in company history. Those deals gave me a front-row seat to executive negotiations, complex deal dynamics, and the art of balancing vision with execution.
One of my most formative roles was running the U.S. portion of Mastercard’s accelerator, Start Path. With thousands of applicants and a highly competitive acceptance rate, I worked with hundreds of founders up close. From screening applications and leading diligence calls to rolling up my sleeves with entrepreneurs on partnerships and strategy, I received a master class in what top-tier founders look like and how they behave.
Across all these experiences, I walked away with lived examples of best-in-class. I’ve been in the rooms, sat in the negotiations, and worked side by side founders pulling the world toward their unique vision. Those experiences permanently raised my baseline.
Moment Inspiring Venture Capital Career
I opened my first brokerage account in high school after an overdose of reading Wall Street classics including Liar’s Poker and A Random Walk Down Wall Street. I was infatuated with the idea that I could take a different view on a stock and make money. That concept was exhilarating.
I spent the next four years in college chasing that feeling. One professor who advised the student fund always asked during investment committee: “What do you know that the market doesn’t?” That simple question fueled late-night research and creative sleuthing. Did you call suppliers to confirm chip demand before the Street caught on? Did you dig into developer communities to see which products were resonating before they showed up in the numbers? Each question was an invitation to be resourceful, think outside the box, and go the extra mile to win conviction for your stock pick, and it lit me up.
Along the way, a student-led startup tapped me for finance expertise. I joined as a strategic advisor, helping them prepare for and pitch in a startup competition. The judges were all venture capitalists. I remember listening to the pitches before ours, asking myself questions about markets, business models, and differentiation, the same questions the VCs later posed to the founders. In that moment, I realized I was on the wrong side of the table.
Influences on My Worldview
I’ve been an athlete for as long as I can remember. Since fourth grade, I’ve been a competitive swimmer, and that mindset has carried over into running, hiking, skiing, and surfing. I don’t drink coffee; my energy comes from moving my body.
Surfing, in particular, has become a passion. For me, surfing is analogous to early-stage investing. From spotting the right wave to catching it, riding it, and eventually kicking out, I could write a book on the parallels to the investor’s playbook: finding, winning, supporting, and exiting a company. Both require reading conditions, whether forecasts of swell, wind, and tide or the fundamentals of a team or market. Both demand positioning, competing with others in the lineup, and knowing when to commit.
Once on the wave, a surfer has to listen to its rhythm, adjusting direction to stay in the pocket and harness its power. Likewise, investors need to stay in rhythm with companies, reading shifts and adjusting to meet founders where they are, supporting them through experiments and pivots.
But the most important lesson both surfing and investing have taught me is that preparation only takes you so far. The ocean decides whether the wave comes your way, just as broader forces can override even the best team or product-market fit. You can be in the best shape of your life, perfectly placed, with everything in your favor, and still, something bigger than you decides the wave you get. That humility shapes my approach to investing and keeps me grounded in the long game.
Philosophy and Insights
Unconventional Belief
I believe every decision we make is ultimately an emotional one. From choosing where to eat to deciding on a new job opportunity, we are driven by a desire to feel or to avoid feeling certain emotions. In practice, the intellect is not the decision-maker. It is the interpreter, rationalizing how we feel after the choice is made.
That’s why when I meet founders, I step beyond the deck or numbers. I pay close attention and listen to my body. What is my gut telling me about this person or team? Where did that reaction come from? What experiment can I run to validate or disprove that instinct?
If you stopped reading there, you might assume my approach to venture is driven by intuition alone. Rational, intellectually grounded analysis matters too. It is how I communicate my instincts back to colleagues and partners. The difference is that in an AI-driven world, analysis alone is table stakes. Spreadsheets and metrics are not enough to separate winners from the rest.
The real questions lie in understanding how a founder thinks, the experiments they ran to reach high conviction views, and how they react, adjust, and learn through setbacks. That human layer is messy, but it is also where the richest signals live.
Values When Working with Founders
One item left out of my career story is how many no’s I’ve encountered along the way. From breaking into investment banking from a non-target school to entering venture capital, these were intentional goals I’ve built toward over the last decade with grit, focus, and determination. The front doors weren’t open, so I had to find more creative paths.
This shapes what I prioritize in the entrepreneurs I work with. I resonate most with founders who are resourceful and scrappy, finding creative solutions to problems, often after facing many no’s themselves. These entrepreneurs can drive product wedges into unexpected markets and navigate complex, multi-stakeholder environments typical in financial ecosystems, crafting win-win business models. I care less about school pedigree or traditional metrics of success, which often reward staying within lanes rather than venturing beyond them. If you don’t hear no often, you’re probably not thinking big enough.
The Perfect Founder Pitch
Call it cliché, but there is no perfect pitch.
Most founders walk in ready to impress. They lead with market size, revenue projections, and competitive analysis, hoping our fund will nod and fund. The problem with that approach is that it frames the conversation as right or wrong, and there’s no way to influence that outcome if you haven’t shown how you think and adapt.
The founders I remember take me on a learning journey. They start with experiments rather than assumptions. They show how they tested ideas, then share the surprises and insights that challenged expectations and reshaped their thinking or approach to solving the problem. It’s not a slide-driven data dump; it’s a story of discovery and evolution of thought which demonstrates thoughtfulness, adaptability, and deep market understanding.
The best founders also lead with curiosity. They ask, “What do you need to see to have conviction about backing this?” or “How can I meet your investment criteria?”
Finally, a funding conversation is about the future so this is where the main discourse should be. Walk investors through what you’re proving next, how you’ll test it, and where uncertainty lies. Treat them as co-pilots, joining you on the journey rather than observing from the sidelines.
Measuring Success Beyond Returns
For me, success is about the impact I have on founders. If I can help a team see their business differently, reframe a challenge, or uncover a new opportunity, that’s a real win. The relationships I’ve built within the ecosystem serve as a strong indicator of how I’m stacking up against this personal mission.
At MUFG Innovation Partners, success goes beyond financial return. We measure it by how our activities help MUFG raise its innovation quotient, advance our digital transformation journey, and bring fresh ideas into the organization. The U.S. is a critical hub for innovation and a driving reason the fund was founded in 2019: to channel both East and West Coast innovation back to Japan.
Trends and Future Vision
Exciting Trends and Technologies
When I look at emerging trends in financial services, I see clear waves of innovation. The first generation of fintech unbundled the bank with wedge products or tools that solved one narrow problem better than banks could.
The second generation was about embedded fintech, integrating financial services into broader ecosystems. These companies weren’t trying to replace banks, they embedded finance into everyday platforms, unlocking entirely new experiences.
Now we’re entering the third generation, defined by AI-native and AI-powered innovation, both new AI-first platforms and AI-enhanced existing systems. We’re still in the early days of adoption. Most of the financial services industry has yet to truly integrate AI into core workflows. These aren’t incremental improvements; they’re reimagining end-to-end processes and a step function for productivity.
Looking ahead, the fourth wave is about composability. As AI matures, financial infrastructure will be modular and AI-first. Fintechs will deliver capabilities that can be plugged in, stacked, and customized instantly, creating entirely new consumer and business products and experiences previously impossible.
The opportunity is enormous. Even today, fintech penetration represents less than 2 percent of the global financial services revenue pool. I felt the first shift back in 2014, and I feel the same way now with AI. Remember, today is the worst this technology will ever be.
Misconception About VCs (Corporate VCs)
A common misconception about corporate venture capital is that investors provide funding and wait for results. In reality, the role is far more active. Corporate VCs help founders question their own narratives and assumptions, and then support them as they, in turn, challenge the assumptions of the divisions or business units they work with.
Equally important is helping innovators steward their time and focus. The CVC role is often subtractive, removing what does not matter so that what does can thrive. By clarifying objectives, filtering noise, and shaping entrepreneurs’ attention toward the highest-value initiatives, corporate VCs guide innovators to concentrate on what truly matters when working with enterprises.
Finally, corporate innovation unfolds in complex environments. Seeds planted today may not bear visible results for months or years. Recognizing this reality highlights the need for patience, persistence, and cultivating the conditions for ideas to grow.
Challenges for Early-Stage Founders
I think the single biggest challenge early-stage founders face today is cutting through the noise. There’s just so much information, advice, capital, and pressure out there that it can be overwhelming to know which signals matter. In that kind of environment, the founder’s ability to filter becomes a superpower.
For me, part of my role as an investor is holding up that mirror. I’m never going to know a founder’s business better than they do, but I can help them sort through the noise, reflect back what I see, and create the space for clarity.
More broadly, I think VCs can support founders by building trust, simplifying complexity, and being intentional about which signals we amplify. At the end of the day, self-awareness and discernment are the antidotes to noise, and if we can help founders cultivate those, we’re doing our job well.