I get a tremendous amount of joy from building teams, seeing people learn new skills, hearing from delighted customers, and helping companies grow by creating new products and services. I have spent 25 years in technology at companies in just about every stage — from de novo start-up to growth stage venture to a private-equity buy-out to publicly traded. I’ve held roles including founder (once), CEO (three times), and senior leader in general management, product, innovation, business and corporate development, sales, and strategy. There’s nothing quite as energizing (and fun!) as generating growth at impactful companies.
As a Board Partner at First Round, I bring that broad experience to entrepreneurs to help them tackle their thorniest challenges and run fast after opportunities. There is no magic growth bullet and company-altering decisions are made with incomplete information, so the goal is to make the best decision we can in the shortest amount of time possible to start testing the outcome in the real world. Admittedly, it’s messy — and a beginner’s mindset is needed to accept that trying new stuff requires making mistakes and learning from those mistakes along the way.
Early in my career, I spent over a dozen years helping Intuit grow first its consumer and then its small business divisions. I joined in 1996 when they acquired InsureMarket, an online insurance marketplace that I co-founded. We renamed it “Quicken Insurance” and integrated it into the newly created Quicken.com. I also led the consumer ad sales, financial institution, and business development teams. In 2001, I shifted focus to small business, leading inorganic (driving acquisitions of a merchant processor, a website builder, and a POS team) and organic growth (guiding teams that delivered industry-specific versions of QuickBooks and QuickBooks Customer Manager). The Intuit experience left an indelible mark, as it gave me the chance to study under many world-class leaders, pulling pages from each of their leadership playbooks to integrate into my own toolkit.
I joined First Round-backed Outright as CEO in 2011. One year later, after focusing on a clear customer segment and driving significant growth, GoDaddy acquired the company as its first California office and we set out to build a product organization from scratch. Starting as the leader of one of the product divisions, I later became the Chief Product Officer and pulled organic and inorganic levers to expand our offerings. During my time at GoDaddy, the company grew from 10 million to 18 million total subscribers while also growing from 2 million to 8 million international subs; from $1B to over $3B in revenue; from a private to a public company; and from domain-centric to a full line of products and services for entrepreneurs. I was able to bring my years of experience to build out the organization and create a learning and customer-centric environment.
I left GoDaddy to take up an entirely different type of venture, teaming up with the founders of the Oakland Roots SC, a community-focused, purpose-driven pro soccer team in Oakland. I became a seed investor and Chair of the organization where my role is to raise capital, advise the leadership team, and cheer like crazy during games. The women’s team, the Oakland Soul SC, launched in 2023. We are pushing to become an anchor institution that unites the Town while challenging old norms in sport and society with a focus on racial and gender equity.
In addition to the Chair role for the Oakland Roots / Soul, I enjoy serving on other boards spanning private, non-profit, and public companies. I am currently on the board of public companies SEMRush (SEMR) and Xero (XRO.AX) and have been the Chair of the Bay Area Glass Institute, a non-profit glass studio, for over 20 years.
I earned an M.B.A. from Stanford and was recognized as an Arjay Miller Scholar. I attended the University of North Carolina (Go Heels!), where I received a B.A. in physics, was a Morehead-Cain Scholar, and co-captain of the fencing team.
I love spending time at many sports and arts events with my wife Allison and our son, Jackson, when he’s home from college. And I still play soccer in local leagues (although I get slower and injure more easily with each passing year).