Emily Dinu
Founder & Managing Partner

Emily grew up in a family of artists, though her own creativity found its expression in building businesses rather than with a camera, on a canvas, or with an instrument. She cut her teeth early, having run companies alongside her mother and a circle of legacy entrepreneurs. During a period of rapid technical shifts, she identified a natural arbitrage by providing the technical aptitude that allowed these established founders and companies to adapt and scale. At 19, she founded her second company, an independent operational firm where she filled critical gaps for startups, venture funds, hedge funds, and private equity groups.

This early immersion set the stage for her nearly two-decade career in the venture ecosystem. Having worked inside hundreds of businesses and investment firms, Emily developed a reflexive pattern recognition for which models are built to last and which are destined to fail. This volume of exposure, along with a natural discernment for truth and quality, allows her to identify operational excellence and predict a company’s trajectory years in advance, often after a single conversation with leadership.

Emily spent her first decade in the industry honing her expertise in portfolio operations, diligence, and investor relations. After mastering the operational side of the house, she transitioned into direct investing to provide a more complete perspective on capital deployment. To date, she has facilitated over $500 million in capital flows, including $310 million in fund structuring and $80 million in direct investments.

Her perspective is rooted in the physical world. As Director of Business Operations for MueKo Machinery, she managed the industrial realities of advanced manufacturing through its acquisition by the ASYS Group. She also served as the Chief Operating Executive for BKCM LLC, where she helped launch one of the world’s first crypto hedge funds and a pioneering ETF.

Today, Emily leverages this operational rigor to actively build the infrastructure of the deep-tech ecosystem. As a key leader within Princeton University’s Advancing Photonics Technologies (APT) initiative, she architects the commercialization pipelines that pull raw IP out of the lab. By working directly with researcher-entrepreneurs, she restructures complex scientific spinouts into investable and scalable companies. Combined with her role as a Mentor for the NSF I-Corps, this hands-on approach to ecosystem building grants Numinous Capital proprietary, first-look access to the nation's most critical physical technologies. She holds a BS in Clinical Psychology with a focus on Neuroscience, an education she pursued specifically to apply the study of human systems to business and entrepreneurship. She also holds a Master’s in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Harvard Extension School.

When she isn't working with founders, Emily is usually sailing or horseback riding. She also spends her time working at a sanctuary for senior farm animals.

Lisa Harst
Operating Partner

Lisa Harst is an Operating Partner at Numinous Capital. Based in Washington, D.C., she manages the regulatory and stakeholder complexities that follow technical discoveries from the laboratory to the industrial market. She brings deep policy fluency to sectors like nuclear, defense, and advanced manufacturing, where the regulatory landscape is just as critical as the technology itself.

As the Founder of L. Harst Strategies, Lisa provides the senior operational support founders need before they are ready for a full-time COO. She has guided organizations through mergers and leadership transitions, focusing on the specific inflection points that determine a company’s ability to scale. At Numinous, she provides this same executive capacity to help portfolio teams build their operational discipline and venture-readiness.

Her perspective is informed by eight years in government affairs and on the staff of a Member of Congress. This tenure provided a first-hand understanding of how appropriations and agency rulemaking dictate market growth. She uses this background to help founders build credibility with federal stakeholders and anticipate the policy shifts that affect their capital readiness.

Lisa holds a Master of Public Administration from the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University and a BA in Music from Arkansas Tech University. A classically trained musician, she brings a high level of technical discipline to her work in the capital city. She lives in the D.C. area with her Great Pyrenees, Stella, and her cat, Cleo.

Dean Ahdab
Venture Fellow

Dean serves as Numinous Capital's Venture Fellow, where he works closely with Emily to vet deep-tech investment opportunities and help lead Numinous commercialization audits. His skill set lies at the intersection of deep technical research and the ability to translate that research into commercially viable products.

Dean earned his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering, with a minor in Mathematics, from Johns Hopkins University. He also holds two master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from Princeton University. He is currently completing his PhD in Civil Engineering at Princeton University where his research focuses on the strength of steel plate girders in buildings and bridges. He also spends time serving as a teaching assistant for undergraduate courses.

In addition, Dean has earned licenses and certifications in Sustainability and Business Skills through Princeton University’s GradFUTURES Learning Cohort program and is currently working toward completing a certification in Consulting.

In his free time, Dean enjoys spending time with family and friends, following and investing in financial markets, and doing a variety of physical workouts.