Fund Managers

Dylan Hixon (Left) | Frank H. Foster  (Right)

Hunter Turpin | Eliza Foster  (pictured below)

Frank H. Foster

Frank has served as the Managing General Partner of the Gideon Hixon Fund since 2004 and a General Partner since 1990. He is the Chairman Emeritus of Hixon Properties, Inc, having served as Chairman from 2013-2022.

He is also a Managing Director of DFJ Frontier, a Draper Fisher Jurvetson affiliated venture capital fund with $80M under management focused on seed and early-stage technology companies. Previously, he was a General Partner of Allen & Buckeridge , an Australian venture capital firm with A$250 million under management. Frank also serves as a Venture Advisor to Touchdown Ventures, the leading manager of corporate Venture Capital Programs

Frank also has extensive operational experience through his roles at Prolacta Bioscience, Virtual Music Entertainment (acquired by NAMCO), Contexture Systems and Prophecy Development Corp. Frank was the CEO and Executive Chairman of Prolacta Bioscience, leading the company through its successful turnaround and funding. He was the lead investor and board observer for the St Archer Brewing Company which was sold to MillerCoors and he was an executive director for YellowPages.com where he led the company through its successful sale to SBC Communications (NYSE: SBC) and Bell South (NYSE: BLS). He was also a director of Cogent Data Technologies through its sale to Adaptec Inc (NASDAQ: ADPT).

Frank serves on the boards of Elteve, CHSZ/Shotzoom, Good Dye Young, Our-Science, Hixon Properties, and is an advisor to the board of Prolacta Bioscience. He is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the Cancer Foundation of Santa Barbara and serves on the investment committee. Recently he has endowed the Legacy Center at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School which will offer the first accredited Masters degree in Family Enterprise.

Frank received his MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA cum laude from Harvard University. He regularly presents and teaches classes in entrepreneurship, venture capital and family business at UCSB, Cal Poly, Stanford GSB, and Portland State University.

Dylan Hixon

Dylan oversees a pool of diversified public and private investments at Arden Road, including a portfolio of direct technology Venture Capital investments. He also serves on the Boards of several private companies in industries ranging from Software to Agriculture. Previously, Dylan worked for many years as an engineer, and he is the author of several technical papers and four US patents.

Dylan holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Yale University, and a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He is Trustee, chair of the Investment Committee, and member of the Executive Committee of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, and Trustee and Treasurer of The Calhoun School in New York City. He also serves on the advisory boards of the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Caltech’s Resnick Sustainability Institute, as well as the Board of the Regional Plan Association (RPA) of New York City, the oldest independant planning organization in the US. Dylan lives in New York City with his wife and two sons. Dylan currently serves on the board of Hixon Properties Incorporated.

Hunter Turpin

Hunter has served as Senior Associate and Director of Education for the Gideon Hixon Fund since 2019, bringing over a decade of experience at the intersection of venture capital and real estate to the fund. Hunter launched his career as an Associate with the Gideon Hixon Fund shortly after completing his undergraduate education. From there, Hunter went south to LA to cut his operational teeth — first in the world of action sports and entertainment at Dyrdek Enterprises, followed by a Senior Project Management role in the music industry at The Agency Group (now UTA Music), where he helped launch the Business Development and Brand Integration division.

Throughout his time in Los Angeles, Hunter remained actively involved in venture investing, both as an Advisory Partner with the Gideon Hixon Fund and as a private investor, supporting companies such as St Archer Brewing Company, Sonder Corp, Premiere Healthcare Group, Madre Mezcal and SpaceX. 

On the real estate side, Hunter currently serves as Shareholder Communication Officer for Hixon Properties Incorporated, a privately-held real estate investment and development firm in San Antonio TX, in addition to managing commercial real estate investments in his hometown of Santa Barbara, CA.

Hunter holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder and an MBA from Pepperdine’s Graziadio Business School, where he graduated top of his class in 2019 as the George Award recipient for Outstanding Full-Time MBA Student. In addition to a lifelong passion for creative expression and various artistic pursuits, Hunter is an avid surfer and snowboarder who spends his free time traveling the globe chasing waves and fresh powder.

Eliza Foster

Eliza works at the Gideon Hixon Fund as a junior associate managing day to day operations and overseeing deal management. Eliza graduated from The University of Denver with a double major in Gender and Women’s Studies and Psychology and a minor in Marketing. She is also the founder of Our-Science, Inc. which finds innovative science-based technologies and adapts them to fit the needs of Gen Z consumers with a current focus on creating products within the Skincare/cosmetic industry.