Experience

Serve Robotics

• United States
• Technology, Information and Internet
• 1 - 100 Employee

• President, COO, and Board Member

  • Mar 2021 - Present

  Redwood City, California, United States Serve Robotics is shaping the future of sustainable, self-driving delivery. Serve designs, develops and operates zero-emission autonomous robots that serve people in public spaces, starting with food delivery. Founded in 2017 as the robotics division of Postmates, Serve set out to build a robotic delivery experience that delights customers, improves reliability for merchants and reduces vehicle emissions to zero. Spun off as an independent company in February 2021, Serve is backed by Uber… Show more Serve Robotics is shaping the future of sustainable, self-driving delivery. Serve designs, develops and operates zero-emission autonomous robots that serve people in public spaces, starting with food delivery. Founded in 2017 as the robotics division of Postmates, Serve set out to build a robotic delivery experience that delights customers, improves reliability for merchants and reduces vehicle emissions to zero. Spun off as an independent company in February 2021, Serve is backed by Uber, Nvidia, 7-Eleven and Delivery Hero’s corporate venture units and other world-class investors. Serve has several established commercial partnerships and continues to expand its partners platform. Helped spinoff Serve from Uber in February 2021 and joined as senior executive to lead strategy, business development, operations (including field operations, remote operations (US and Mexico)), and business enablement functions (finance, analytics, accounting, legal, and HR). Recruited top talent to build out executive team. Show less



Exit Path: How to Win the Startup End Game

• United States
• Business Consulting and Services

• Author

  • Jan 2018 - Present

  United States Distilled the lessons learned on how to effectively sell a startup to strategic acquirers seating in almost every seat around the table in Silicon Valley since late 90's in this critically-acclaimed and bestselling book, published by McGraw Hill in August 2022.



Pear VC

• United States
• Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Operating Advisor

  • Feb 2014 - Present

  Palo Alto, CA Pear VC is an early-stage fund investing in passionate, mission-driven founders. Joined the fund asan advisor and mentor to the portfolio from inception. Selectively work with founding teams on M&Astrategy, business planning, new business development, competitive positioning, financial analysis, product marketing and international expansion. Portfolio companies include: Guardant Health (public);DoorDash (public); Branch; Solvvy (sold to Zoom); Gusto; Affinity, JetInsight; Instaread; Aurora… Show more Pear VC is an early-stage fund investing in passionate, mission-driven founders. Joined the fund asan advisor and mentor to the portfolio from inception. Selectively work with founding teams on M&Astrategy, business planning, new business development, competitive positioning, financial analysis, product marketing and international expansion. Portfolio companies include: Guardant Health (public);DoorDash (public); Branch; Solvvy (sold to Zoom); Gusto; Affinity, JetInsight; Instaread; Aurora Solar;BetterWorks; Memebox; EagerPanda; Sensor Tower; Paid; Revfluence; Wevorce; Nova; True & Co; Thinknum; Heap; One Concern; ClearBrain (sold to Amplitude); Boxbot; BioAge; Polarr and many others. Show less



Various Startups

• Board Member / Advisor / Investor

  • Jan 2009 - Present

  San Francisco Bay Area Selectively work with founding teams, accelerators and investors on strategic transactions, competitive positioning, operations, product marketing and international expansion. Representative current and past engagements include: * Founding Board member at Slyce.ai (Lox) (acquired by Postmates/Uber) * Investor in ClearBrain (acquired by Amplitude) * Advisor to Wedding Party (acquired by Instacart) * Advisor to GraphDive (acquired by Sociable Labs) * Advisor to Powr (acquired… Show more Selectively work with founding teams, accelerators and investors on strategic transactions, competitive positioning, operations, product marketing and international expansion. Representative current and past engagements include: * Founding Board member at Slyce.ai (Lox) (acquired by Postmates/Uber) * Investor in ClearBrain (acquired by Amplitude) * Advisor to Wedding Party (acquired by Instacart) * Advisor to GraphDive (acquired by Sociable Labs) * Advisor to Powr (acquired by Pluribus Technologies) * Investor in Bina Technologies (acquired by Roche) * Investor in Solvvy (acquired by Zoom), TrueBill (acquired by Rocket Companies), Ladder, Alcove, BioAge * Board member and Advisor at Polarr * Advisor to Intellipse Show less



GoDaddy

• United States
• Technology, Information and Internet
• 700 & Above Employee

• VP Corporate Development

  • May 2014 - Mar 2021

  Sunnyvale, CA Provided strategic leadership and championed cross-functional initiatives in support of our mission to radically shift the global economy towards small businesses and independent ventures * Drove M&A and build-buy-partner strategy in close collaboration with General Managers and Product Management teams in Communications, Domains (Registrar and Registry), Business Applications (Productivity), Hosting, and Presence & Commerce (Professional Web Services) business units at GoDaddy *… Show more Provided strategic leadership and championed cross-functional initiatives in support of our mission to radically shift the global economy towards small businesses and independent ventures * Drove M&A and build-buy-partner strategy in close collaboration with General Managers and Product Management teams in Communications, Domains (Registrar and Registry), Business Applications (Productivity), Hosting, and Presence & Commerce (Professional Web Services) business units at GoDaddy * Built the business case, cultivated cross-functional alignment, negotiated, and oversaw some of our largest strategic partnerships (e.g., Google, Microsoft, Open-Xchange, Yelp) * Advocated and led high-impact acquisitions to generate inorganic growth and/or enter new businesses, including the acquisition of Main Street Hub (a social marketing services platform for small businesses), Freedom Voice (a VoIP telephony company), Neustar (our entry into the registry business) followed by MMX, .CLUB, and .DESIGN registries, Nodejitsu (open source software and talent), Apptix (Hosted Exchange email), and Cognate (trademark registration on blockchain) among others * Orchestrated a senior leadership war game following our IPO to align on response strategy against a new competitive threat with existential implications for the company Show less



UpCounsel

• United States
• Legal Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Founding COO, Advisor

  • Feb 2013 - Feb 2015

  san francisco, ca UpCounsel was the pioneering online legal marketplace focused on SMBs. Joined UpCounsel as the founding operating executive and recruited a world-class syndicate of angel investors, advisors and employees with requisite expertise to help us transform the legal industry and created the playbook for our go-to-market strategy.



Webs

• United States
• Technology, Information and Internet
• 200 - 300 Employee

• VP Strategy & Corporate Development

  • Dec 2009 - Mar 2012

  Sunnyvale, CA Webs (http://webs.com) is a leading website creation tool used by over 40 million users worldwide on a freemium business model. I was recruited by the Board and CEO to explore breakout and strategic possibilities. During my 2-year tenure, I championed the turn around of the company from a generic website builder to an online marketing solution across web, mobile and social platforms focused on small businesses. My responsibilities and achievements included: * Defining and building… Show more Webs (http://webs.com) is a leading website creation tool used by over 40 million users worldwide on a freemium business model. I was recruited by the Board and CEO to explore breakout and strategic possibilities. During my 2-year tenure, I championed the turn around of the company from a generic website builder to an online marketing solution across web, mobile and social platforms focused on small businesses. My responsibilities and achievements included: * Defining and building cross-departmental consensus around a winning breakout strategy focusing on small business virtual front door solutions, resulting in exponentially growing revenues and company valuation from less than $30 million to $117.5 million in 2 years * Managing our developer community and integrating an ecosystem of over 20 small business applications into Webs App Store to fill competitive gaps in product offering while maintaining internal organizational support from engineering, product and customer service teams * Sourcing, negotiating and integrating 2 critical international acquisitions: VisitorContact (which we rebuilt and relaunched as the first microbusiness CRM tool branded ContactMe) and Pagemodo (which we rebuilt and relaunched to become the leading Facebook Page creation tool with exponential user and revenue growth throughout 2011) * Championing strategic business development and co-marketing initiatives with HP Logoworks, eNom/Demand Media, Register.com (now Web.com), Network Solutions (now Web.com), Constant Contact, MailChimp, RingCentral, CafePress, Ziplocal, ImmersiFind, Duda Mobile, Zumba, Wibiya, Google and Facebook * Running the competitive M&A auction process involving 3 public suitors culminating in the sale of the company to Vistaprint in 2011 at $117.5 million valuation, spearheading all communications, negotiations and diligence efforts (without any banker involvement) Show less



jaxtr

• United States
• Technology, Information and Internet
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Co-Founder, COO, and Board Member

  • Sep 2005 - Jun 2009

  Menlo Park, CA Co-Founded Jaxtr, a pioneer in VOIP mobile technology and the fastest growing social communications startup among its peers. Jaxtr raised $20 million in venture and debt financing, grew to over 50 employees in Silicon Valley and won numerous industry awards for innovation, design and user growth. Due to economic conditions, Jaxtr was sold in a private transaction in 2009. My responsibilities included: * Leading the vision, specification and implementation of most of the core product… Show more Co-Founded Jaxtr, a pioneer in VOIP mobile technology and the fastest growing social communications startup among its peers. Jaxtr raised $20 million in venture and debt financing, grew to over 50 employees in Silicon Valley and won numerous industry awards for innovation, design and user growth. Due to economic conditions, Jaxtr was sold in a private transaction in 2009. My responsibilities included: * Leading the vision, specification and implementation of most of the core product features, including a viral user acquisition engine which grew the service to over 10 million registered users worldwide within the first year of launch, working closely with Product, Engineering, Operations and Support teams * Developing expertise in voice-over-IP (VOIP), SIP, and scalable web technologies and applications, co-authoring an issued patent in those areas * Putting together an ecosystem of back-end VOIP partnerships to drive down the costs of connecting VOIP and traditional PSTN networks in completely novel ways * Leading the sale of the company to Sabse Technologies in 2009 with the mission to build a global cloud telephony platform Show less



O'Melveny & Myers LLP

• United States
• Law Practice
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Corporate Transactions Attorney

  • Jun 2004 - Sep 2005

  O'Melveny & Myers is a leading global corporate law firm. I was recruited to help expand the Silicon Valley presence of the firm based on my strong network in the entrepreneur community. While evangelizing for OMM in Silicon Valley, my legal practice focused on representing emerging growth companies, venture capital firms and private equity investors in the areas of corporate finance, securities, M&A and general corporate and business law. A significant part of my practice involved… Show more O'Melveny & Myers is a leading global corporate law firm. I was recruited to help expand the Silicon Valley presence of the firm based on my strong network in the entrepreneur community. While evangelizing for OMM in Silicon Valley, my legal practice focused on representing emerging growth companies, venture capital firms and private equity investors in the areas of corporate finance, securities, M&A and general corporate and business law. A significant part of my practice involved international transactions, including working on several cross-border venture capital and private equity transactions in China and spending a summer in Shanghai and Beijing. Show less



Amidzad Ventures

• Venture Partner

  • Dec 2003 - Jun 2004

  When I joined, Amidzad was a relatively unknown, small family fund focused on seed and early-stage investments. I joined Amidzad to help create a winning investment strategy and provide it with a roadmap to compete with top-tier investors in Silicon Valley. During my tenure, I helped source, negotiate and close on a number of successful investments while introducing a series of structural changes that transformed the operations of the fund. Subsequently, Amidzad went on to become a seed… Show more When I joined, Amidzad was a relatively unknown, small family fund focused on seed and early-stage investments. I joined Amidzad to help create a winning investment strategy and provide it with a roadmap to compete with top-tier investors in Silicon Valley. During my tenure, I helped source, negotiate and close on a number of successful investments while introducing a series of structural changes that transformed the operations of the fund. Subsequently, Amidzad went on to become a seed investor in some of the most successful startups in Silicon Valley, including Dropbox, Zoosk, Path, Lending Club, Powerset, bix, Vudu and SoundHound among many others. Show less



Earlybird Venture Capital

• Germany
• Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Principal

  • May 2000 - Dec 2003

  Earlybird is an international venture capital firm with $300 million under management headquartered in Germany. I assisted Earlybird start their U.S. operations and open their Palo Alto office in 2000 as their first employee. I was involved in investment and support of both European and U.S. based technology and life science startups.



Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

• United States
• Law Practice
• 700 & Above Employee

• Associate

  • Aug 1999 - Apr 2000

  As a corporate and securities attorney at WSGR in Palo Alto, I represented venture backed companies from formation to IPO and participated in the due diligence activities of several public-private mergers valued at over $100 million each.