Investors
AdNectar is a nimble company with big ambitions. Our investors and advisors reflect this, representing some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.
Larry Braitman
Larry is an online advertising pioneer. He co-founded Flycast Networks in 1996, where he played key roles in developing a unique business model (first auction-based pricing for display advertising; first direct response advertising network), product marketing, business development, financing ($30+ million in angel, venture, and strategic investment), and evangelical sales. In 2005, Larry served as co-founder and CEO of Adify Corporation. In that role, he lead the company through two financing rounds raising $28 million, co-created the “white label” vertical advertising model, and participated in launching the first 100 networks including Forbes.com, Martha Stewart, ABC / Disney, The Guardian (UK), IDG Tech, and NBC. Today, Larry invests in game-changing online advertising, media, and e-commerce companies disrupting large, established markets, or capturing emerging market opportunities.
Tom Cole
Tom Cole is the CEO of Beau-coup.com, the leading online retailer of favors, gifts, and party supplies for weddings and other celebrations of life events. Most recently, he was a General Partner at Trinity Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm where he spent a decade investing in leading-edge technology and new media companies. While at Trinity, Tom worked on the boards of Speedera Networks (acquired by Akamai in 2005) and Photobucket (acquired by Fox Interactive in 2007). He also led Trinity’s investments in Sygate (acquired by Symantec in 2005) and Invio Software (acquired by VERITAS in 2004). Prior to joining Trinity in 1998, Tom held numerous design and development roles at both startups and larger companies including Approach Software and Oracle Corporation. Tom also served as a technology consultant to financial institutions including Wells Fargo. Tom graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.S. with distinction in Computer Science summa cum laude from Yale University, where he earned the Chittenden Prize honoring the top student in math and science. He also holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller scholar. Tom is Chairman of the Glow Foundation, a non-profit working to help Bay Area high school students in need get to college by providing financial literacy training and funding. He also serves on the Corporate Advisory Council of Youth and Family Enrichment Services, a non-profit organization solving families in San Mateo County, and works with the admissions committees of Yale College and the Stanford GSB.
Kevin Hartz
Kevin is the Co-Founder & CEO of Eventbrite. Previously he was the Co-Founder and CEO of Xoom Corporation, an international money transfer company providing services to over 40 countries worldwide. Kevin holds a BA and BS from Stanford University, as well as an MA from Oxford University (University College). He has been an active early stage investor and advisor to startups including PayPal (NASDAQ: EBAY), Flixster, Trulia, TokBox, Geni, Tripit, iControl, Three Rings, Friendster, Yammer, Milo, dotBlu and AdNectar. Kevin currently serves on the Board of Directors of Xoom, dotBlu, Flexilis and TokBox (observer). You can view his full portfolio atwww.kevinhartz.com. In his spare time, Kevin advises university students on entrepreneurship through Youniversity Ventures.
Brian O’Kelley
Brian O’Kelley is best known for creating the first successful online ad exchange as CTO of Right Media (acquired by Yahoo for $850MM in July 2007). Brian’s entrepreneurial career began in high school selling computers out of a friend’s garage. At Princeton, he started a web design firm, building an open-source e-commerce engine used by more than 100 companies. After graduating in 1999, Brian was CEO of Netamorphosis, an early social networking and e-commerce site for events and venues, and spent time at LogicSpan, Cetova, Poindexter Systems before joining Right Media in 2003.
Jon Perlow
Jon Perlow joined Google in 2004 and is a Senior Staff Engineer and tech lead of the Gmail frontend team. He specializes in building highly scalable and fast web applications. He was the tech lead Gmail Chat and the Gmail frontend rearchticture that launched in 2007. Before joining Google, he was a senior development lead at Microsoft working on Office and then Windows. Jon graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1998 with a BSE in Electical Engineering.
Russell Siegelman
Russell Siegelman has spent over 20 years in technology and investing. Currently he is splitting his time between angel investing, non-profit boards and teaching. He has made personal investments in SnapVine (sold), Yardbarker, idapted, PixelPipe, Triggit, and AdNectar. In the non-profit area, he is the Chairman of the Board of Sustainable Conservation, a Trustee at The Nueva School, and a Director of the Positive Coaching Alliance. Russell is an instructor in the Stanford Graduate School of Business course “Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities”. Starting in 1996, Russell spent eleven years as a Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where he invested in consumer and technology related technologies and markets, including software, electronic commerce, Web services, semiconductors, mobile systems, media and telecommunications. He currently serves on the boards of several KPCB companies, including Friendster, Lilliputian Systems, Pixtronix, and RazorGator. Russell also leads KPCB’s investments in WildBlue Communications and SS8. Russell joined KPCB after seven years at Microsoft. At Microsoft he helped launch several networking and Windows products. Later he worked directly for Bill Gates, resulting in the formation the Microsoft Network (MSN), Microsoft’s online service. Russell became the first employee of this division and its General Manager and then Vice. Under his direction, MSN was developed and launched and reached over one million paying members. Russell was also responsible for the formation of the Slate project, Microsoft’s World Wide Web political and arts commentary. He recruited the editor, Michael Kinsley, and was the business manager in charge of Slate until he left Microsoft in July 1996. Before Microsoft, Russell was a software engineer who wrote artificial intelligence applications for the financial services industry at Applied Expert Systems, a Cambridge, Massachusetts startup, and was also an engineering consultant. He earned his BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Physics in 1984 and an MBA from Harvard University where he was a Baker Scholar in 1989.
David Shen
David Shen is the President of David Shen Ventures, LLC. He advises and invests in early stage internet startups, helping them in the areas of user experience, product development and strategy, and online advertising. Prior to David Shen Ventures, LLC, David was the Vice President of the User Experience and Design Team at Yahoo! for almost 8 years and has been involved in almost every product and service Yahoo! has built in the U.S. and internationally. David was also involved in the online advertising revolution at Yahoo!, where he helped manage, evangelize (both internally and externally), research and implement many new forms of interactive advertising and advancing creativity and quality in online ad campaigns. He also led the Rich Media Task Force at the Internet Advertising Bureau for 2 years to gain industry and agency acceptance of new interactive ad formats and methods. In addition to advising early stage internet startups as David Shen Ventures, LLC, David is also Venture Advisor at betaworks, a new business acceleration platform based in New York City. David also serves on the board of directors for Lefora, a platform for next generation message boards. David attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he received his BS in Computer Engineering. He then went on to get his Master’s degree in Computer Science at Stanford University.
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