Eric O’Brien, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Eric is a Managing Director at Lightspeed, where he leads investments in enterprise software, digital media, datacenter infrastructure and semiconductors and also helps oversee Lightspeed's investment efforts in China. Previously, he worked in product management at Ciena (formerly Lightera Networks). Prior to Ciena, Eric worked at InterWest Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm where he focused on communications and software investments, and at Morgan Stanley in the telecom mergers and acquisitions group. Eric holds a BA in Economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University. Currently, Eric is also Vice Chairman of Partners in School Innovation, an educational nonprofit working to improve student learning in low-income Bay Area public schools.
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Greg Richards, Keystone Strategy
Greg has eighteen years of strategy, marketing, engineering, economics and expert support experience for companies including Keystone Strategy, IDEO, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft and Edge Innovations. As a co-founder of Keystone Strategy, Greg has led over one hundred engagements with Fortune 500 companies in areas ranging from software strategy to semiconductor process innovation, and from search advertising strategy to venture capital and start-up incubation. Prior to co-founding Keystone, Greg was with Model N, a J2EE enterprise software company, where he led the product marketing and management teams building enterprise contract management and pricing applications. Model N software powers the contract and pricing processes of Fortune 500 firms including J&J, Guidant, Owens Illinois, and CR Bard. Before Model N, Greg co-founded Dynamic Transactions, Inc., an Internet payment software technology provider for banks and bank service providers which was later sold to E-Time Capital, a supply chain management company. Greg holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, an M.S. in engineering from Stanford University, and a B.S. in engineering from Texas A&M University.
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Max Simkoff, Evolv
Max co-founded Evolv in 2006, to change the way hourly employers and employees got “matched” through predictive science. Prior to Evolv, Max was the Director of Corporate Development for RCS, a hospital payment technology company backed by Austin Ventures and InvestRx. At RCS, Max oversaw the evaluation and negotiation of strategic acquisitions and joint venture programs while also managing the design and implementation of the company’s talent acquisition program. Before joining RCS, Max was a co-founder of InvestRx, a San Francisco-based private equity fund targeting middle-market healthcare services and technology companies. Max has a BA in History from Northwestern University.
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John Vrionis, Lightspeed Venture Partners
John joined Lightspeed in 2006 and focuses primarily on information technology infrastructure, with a particular investment interest in datacenter technologies, enterprise software and communications systems. Previously, John worked in product management and marketing with Determina (acquired by VMware), an intrusion prevention security company. Prior to Determina, John was Director of Strategic Initiatives and an initial member of the management team at Freedom Financial Network. John started his career in venture capital in 1999, working as an Associate at ABN Amro Ventures where he supported numerous investments in information technology and communications systems companies over a four year period. John holds an MBA from Stanford University, an MS in Computer Science from the University of Chicago and a BA from Harvard University.
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David Weiden, Khosla Ventures
Recognized by Forbes as one of the top investors under 40, David’s investment focus includes Internet software, digital media, services and communications. A number of David's investments have been significant acquisitions or had IPOs including LogMeIn (LOGM), Good Technology (MOT) and Tellme (MSFT). Prior to Khosla, David was SVP Marketing & Business Development at Tellme Networks, where he helped grow the company to profitability and beyond $100M in revenue before the company was acquired by Microsoft. Before Tellme, David was with Netscape where he led the Directory & Security division and later led AOL's Communications, Community & Instant Messaging product divisions as they surpassed 50MM users worldwide. David has also held positions with Morgan Stanley and McCaw Cellular (now AT&T). David graduated from Harvard magna cum laude with highest honors in the special major Organizational Behavior and Economics and has completed additional coursework at MIT and NYU in engineering.
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