For nearly 20 years I’ve worked in security, networking, media, communications and software industries. I’ve served as both CEO and board member to public and private companies leading all functional areas including strategy, operations, product, sales and marketing efforts. I’ve raised well over $100m in capital across the companies listed below. The goal, of course, is to create significant shareholder value within each company, build great teams, work hard, play hard, etc. The majority of companies I’ve led have experienced a successful IPO or M&A transaction, returning nearly $800m in realized gains. And to be clear, in every case, it was a team effort. Both the successes and the challenges are going to be the subject of this blog, including an investigation of how to align and balance the requirements between board members, shareholders, customers and employees inside high-growth companies.
Currently:
Partner, Silverton Partners
Investor, Board Member: SocialWare, Inc.
Investor, Board Member: SpareFoot, Inc.
Investor, board member uControl
Mentor, Capital Factory
Investor Challenge Gaming
02/06 – 03/09 ON Networks
Founder, CEO, Board member
01/05 – 11/05 3Com (NASD: COMS) and now HP
President, Security Division
01/04 – 01/05 TippingPoint, Inc. (NASD: TPTI)
Chief Executive Officer
• Grew revenue from $5.7M to $33.3M (484%) in one year
• Increased sell-side research coverage to 4 analysts in 6 months – all with buy or strong-buy ratings
• Increased stock price from $19 per share to $47 ahead of the sale of the Company ($430m) to 3Com in Jan 05
08/01 – 01/05 TippingPoint, Inc. (NASDAQ: TPTI)
Board member; Lead special committee raising $24m PIPE in Oct 03
01/03 – 11/03 Motive, Inc. (acquired by Alcatel)
President and Board Member
11/98 –01/03 BroadJump, Inc. (acquired by Motive)
Founder, CEO, Board Member
• Led as CEO from biz plan through acquisition
• Grew revenue to $50 million; $100+ million in bookings annually
• Guided company through challenging “bubble” economics in 2002
03/98 – 11/98 Cisco Systems
Director, Broadband Software Development
10/96 – 3/98 NetSpeed, Inc (Acquired by Cisco Systems)
Manager, Architect
1996 BMC Software
Software Development Manager
1993 Motoroloa
Software Engineer, Engineering Manager
1988 Thomas-Conrad Corp (Acquired by Compaq)
Software Engineer
1986 Dell Computer (PC’s Limited)
Fifth employee at company; Support, SW Development, etc.
EDUCATION
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
Bachelor Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1991
