Semyon Dukach

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Semyon Dukach (born 25 October 1968) is an American entrepreneur, former professional blackjack player, and venture capitalist. He founded One Way Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital fund that backs immigrant entrepreneurs.

Early life and education
- Born in Moscow, Dukach moved to the United States in 1979 at age 11.
- He earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Columbia University in 1990 and a Master of Science in Computer Science from MIT in 1993.

Blackjack career
- While at MIT, he joined the MIT Blackjack Team, a group famous for card counting.
- He worked with Strategic Investments (SI) starting in 1992; after SI dissolved, he helped form a new independent team called the Amphibians around 1995.
- Dukach later stepped away from professional blackjack, with limited involvement in the activity afterward. His experiences with the MIT team were chronicled in books such as Busting Vegas.

Angel investing and Techstars
- Dukach is an angel investor.
- In 2014, he became the managing director of Techstars Boston, running the program for three years.
- He left Techstars in 2017 to start One Way Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on supporting immigrant founders.

Venture capital
- In 2017, he co-founded One Way Ventures and serves as a managing partner.
- The firm is based in Boston and focuses on early-stage investments (pre-seed to Series A) that include at least one immigrant founder on the team.
- Notable investments include Brex, LovePop, and Chipper Cash.

Other ventures
- Dukach has pursued various ventures beyond blackjack and venture investing, including:
- Writing about virtual reality for IBM Research in 1988 and an early e-commerce paper in 1992.
- Founding Fast Engines in 1997 (sold to Adero in 2000) and co-founding Vert in 1998.
- Serving as lead investor and interim CEO of AccuRev in 2001.
- Chairing SMTP, Inc. and involvement with PDFfiller, among other roles.
- Serving as a director at Terrafugia and founding the Troublemaker Award to recognize creative, world-improving mischief.
- Directing TechStars Boston from 2014 to 2017 and co-founding CashForRefugees in 2022 to provide cash grants to Ukrainian war refugees.