Since 2006, Alex has been a Managing Partner at North Venture Partners (North) along with Co-founder David Brody.
While at North, Brody and Bernstein have spent over 14 years helping both corporations and start ups innovate and launch new products and brands. North has worked with corporate clients like Virgin, SanDisk, Sony, Reef, EA, Oracle, Peet’s Coffee and Tea, Miller-Coors, Experian, Zynga, and Relativity Media.
North has also helped to incubate and invest in dozens of new ventures like North Social, Dwell, Inoak, Peer5, NonStop Riot, Athleticode, Exiles, Clef, and MadeID.
In 2010 North created a social media marketing software product which was developed and launched into a separate business called North Social. North Social quickly grew to over 25,000 paying customers which ultimately resulted in the sale of the business to Cision, Inc. in February of 2011.
Prior to co-founding North Venture Partners in 2006, Alex was a Senior Vice President at Virgin Entertainment Group. Before joining Richard Branson’s global Virgin empire, he co-founded and served as the Executive Vice President of a digital media distribution platform called Echo. Echo was a digital media retail and subscription service (prior to iTunes) created through a joint venture with leading media retailers like Best Buy, Virgin, Borders, and Tower Records.
Prior to spending the past 20 years working in various executive roles in the technology sector, Bernstein spent four years as a professional football player in the National Football League playing center and guard for the Baltimore Ravens, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, and Atlanta Falcons.
Alex has received honors and awards for both entrepreneurship and community leadership from the Mayor of Oakland, and the Oakland Digital Arts and Literacy Center in Oakland, CA. Alex has been interviewed and featured in Inc. Magazine, TechCrunch, Sports Illustrated, Vice, and Forbes Magazine; frequently referred to as one of the most successful professional athletes turned entrepreneur.
Alex graduated from The Blake School in Minneapolis and then from Amherst College with a BA in Political Science with concentrations in Economics and English. In 2009 Alex completed the NFL Business Management & Entrepreneurial program at Harvard Business School.
He has served as a Vice President of the NFL Retired Players Association of Northern California, and is currently the owner and developer of INOAK, a commercial and residential real estate development in Oakland, CA.
Alex currently lives in Hingham, MA with his wife of 20 years, and their two children.
