SVASE VC Breakfast Club with Dana Stalder, General Partner, Matrix Partners focus: Enterprise Software & Consumer Internet October 5, 2011

SVASE VC Breakfast Club with Dana Stalder, General Partner, Matrix Partners focus: Enterprise Software & Consumer Internet

Start: 10/05/2011 - 8:00 am
End: 10/05/2011- 9:30 am

Contact Info: Jai Kumar Email: [email protected]

Location: Kilpatrick Townsend Cell: 408-406-4693
1080 Marsh Road
Menlo Park, CA 94025

URL:-www.svase.org/events/vc-breakfast-club-dana-stalder-general-partner-matrix-partners-focus-enterprise-software-cons

Matrix Partners, www.matrixpartners.comMatrix Partners began in Boston in 1977 as Hellman Ferri Investment Associates, one of the first firms on the East coast to have a startup technology focus. The firm was a founding investor in Apollo Computer, Stratus Computer and Continental Cable (now Comcast), and an early investor in Apple Computer. In 1982, Paul Ferri re-established the firm as Matrix Partners and opened a Silicon Valley office. As one of the few firms to maintain a bi-coastal presence, we have enjoyed the privilege of seeing a high percentage of the leading ideas that have come out of the two primary hubs of American innovation. We are very selective in the investments we make. We make few new investments per year and have a very high quality bar. We seek to invest only in outstanding individuals and companies we believe have the potential to become industry leaders. We aim to maintain life-long relationships with entrepreneurs. We aim to earn the trust of our entrepreneurs by working hard, being straightforward, and supporting them throughout their careers. In our view, the most important measure of whether we have done a good job on your behalf is whether you choose to partner with us in your future ventures. We are long-term in our orientation. We recognize that building companies takes time, especially in the current environment. It often takes more than seven years for a start-up to reach a liquidity event. We are well capitalized and patient, and we have stood by some of our entrepreneurs for more than a decade -- long after other investors walked away. Dana Stalder, General Partner, Matrix PartnersDana Stalder knows what it takes to turn a scrappy start-up into a strong, independent company. Dana has managed nimble ventures as well as 2,500-person teams. He has sat on both sides of the table in acquisition talks and sold to consumers, small businesses and Fortune 500 companies alike. His experience cuts across multiple disciplines including sales, marketing, finance, technology and product management at companies such as eBay, Netscape and PayPal.

“My goal each day is to help entrepreneurs get where they want to go. I have been in their shoes, struggling to launch new businesses, and I have scaled high-growth public companies,” he says. “I am passionate about identifying and developing future leaders and enabling them to use their individual talents to make a lasting impact.”

Dana was born and raised in Silicon Valley, and studied business and economics at Santa Clara University. After college he worked at Ernst & Young advising technology companies such as Quantum, Sun Microsystems, Remedy, Netscape, and Intuit.

In 1994 he left to help build Netscape, then a nascent, few-month-old, pre-revenue company boldly defining the ways in which consumers and enterprises were going to use the Internet. In his four-year tenure, Dana held several executive positions in finance, sales and operations.

Dana left Netscape after its sale to AOL in 1998 and became a member of the founding executive team of Respond.com, an early pioneer in online lead generation. There, he served as the company’s Vice President of Business Development and CFO.

Dana joined eBay in 2001. As Vice President of Internet Marketing, Dana managed the company’s global customer acquisition strategy and a multi-hundred million-dollar Internet marketing budget, where his responsibilities included running eBay’s search engine marketing and search engine optimization initiatives. Dana was also responsible for eBay’s Strategic Partnership Group, which generated more than several hundred million in revenue from third party partnerships and media sales.

In 2004 Dana joined PayPal, where he managed all business operations, including product, sales, marketing and, eventually, technology. Dana started PayPal’s international business from scratch, and led PayPal’s expansion beyond the eBay platform onto other online retail sites. He also initiated a number of other startup projects, including PayPal Mobile and the PayPal Developer Platform.

Dana left PayPal in 2008 to join Matrix Partners, where he invests in software and Internet businesses that target consumers as well as corporations. He is a board member at GOGII, a mobile communications company that is taking text messaging to the next level with their award wining Text+ application; iRise, an enterprise software company that is reinventing how software applications are designed with its innovative prototyping tools; Minute Key, who is building the next generation of self service retail kiosks; Polyvore, the web’s largest fashion community, where members can discover or start fashion trends; QuinStreet (QNST), the leading online lead generation and performance marketing company; and Zendesk, a help desk software-as-a-service company. Dana also invested Zong, the leading mobile payment service used by online gaming and social networking websites (acquired by PayPal in 2011).

Outside of the office Dana loves to ski the bumps on Granite Chief in Squaw Valley, is an avid wake boarder and enjoys coaching youth sports.

When: Wednesday, October 5
8 – 9:30 AM
Location: Kilpatrick Townsend, 1080 Marsh Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025

Pre-Registered Rates:
Members - $25; Affiliates who advertise this event - $39; General Public - $49.

This event is intended for entrepreneurs seeking feedback on their startup ideas and funding strategies. Please do not register if you do not fit this profile.

This event is co-sponsored by Kilpatrick Townsend, www.kilpatricktownsend.com.

Official Website: http://www.svase.org/events/vc-breakfast-club-dana-stalder-general-partner-matrix-partners-focus-enterprise-software-cons