Vertical LEAP: Preparing the Investing panel

The first panel of the SDForum Vertical Search conference will see four Tier 1 VC firms express their views on the space.
Because we'll have less than one hour for this panel, I thought that I would provide some background on my panelists on this blog. It is therefore my privilege to introduce:

• Theresia Ranzetta, Accel Partners
  Theresia has been with Accel Partners since 1999. She focuses primarily on software investments with specific interest in security, technology-enabled series and consumer oriented technologies. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Aceva Technologie, Andale, CRS Retail Systems, ForeScout, Interlace Systems, Imperva, Jasper Design Automation. She also led Accel's investments in  LetsTalk and PeopleSupport (PSPT) and was part of the team responsible for investing in Walmart.com  (WMT).
  Theresia has worked in the computer and communications industries since the late-1980's as an entrepreneur, consultant and venture investor. Prior to joining Accel Partners, she was founding Vice President of Business Development & Sales at Release Software, a venture-backed company which developed products to enable encryption and payment technologies for the software industry. Theresia was a key member of the senior management team and was instrumental in growing the company from $0 to $15M in revenue. Before that, Theresia worked as a management consultant at Bain & Company and a product manager at Silicon Graphics.
  Theresia holds an Sc.B. in Engineering from Brown University, magna cum laude and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.


• Andreas Stravropoulos, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
  Andreas Stavropoulos is a Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, where he serves on the Boards of Akimbo, AppStream, everdream, H5 Technologies, MeetUp, Mobile 365, Pronto Networks, SilverPop, Technorati and Wavemarket. In addition, he led the firm's investments in Centerpost, ePocrates, 4info, Mimeo and Polaris Wireless. Andreas focuses primarily on software investments (enterprise infrastructure and consumer/internet), wireless networking, and technology-enabled services. Prior to joining DFJ, Mr. Stavropoulos was with McKinsey Company's San Francisco office, where he worked with senior management teams of corporate clients with an emphasis on information technology. Prior to McKinsey, he was a Senior Analyst at Cornerstone Research, a financial and economic consulting firm that helps resolve complex issues arising in high-profile business litigation. Mr. Stavropoulos is a summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College in computer science. He also holds an MS degree in computer science from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar and graduated first in his class.


• Chris Moore, Redpoint Ventures
  Chris Moore is a Principal of Redpoint Ventures focusing on consumer Internet, online marketing and business services opportunities. Prior to joining Redpoint, Chris evaluated Internet opportunities for IVP, a firm he joined in 1999.  He is actively involved in Redpoint's investments in Efficient Frontier, MySpace, Right Media and a few seed stage projects.
  Prior to joining IVP, Chris led business development efforts for wine.com, the online wine retailer, and held various product management positions with Peapod, the pioneering online grocery shopping service provider. Previously, Chris evaluated and executed Internet and media investments for Ameritech. He began his career as a financial analyst in the mergers and acquisitions and leveraged buyout groups of Wasserstein Perella & Co.
  Chris holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.


• Mark Kvamme, Sequoia Capital
  Mark Kvamme focuses on services and software investments. He is currently a Director of Cast Iron Systems, AdBrite, EMN8, Mark Logic, MotoSport.com, LinkedIn, and StrongMail Systems. Previously, he had been a Director of Corvigo (acquired by Tumbleweed Communications) and Allocity (acquired by EMC Corporation).
  Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 1999, Mark was Chairman of USWeb/CKS and Chairman and CEO of CKS Group prior to the merger with USWeb. Earlier in his career Mark was a Director of International Marketing for Wyse Technology, the President and CEO of International Solutions, and was a founding member of Apple France. Mark has a B.A. in French Economics and Literature from the University of California at Berkeley.

These firms also have made a number of investments in Vertical Search companies, which proves their interest in the space, namely: 4Info (DFJ - mobile search), EVDB (DFJ - events), FatLens (Redpoint - shopping), Kayak.com (Sequoia - travel),  Oodle.com (Redpoint - classifieds), Technorati (DFJ - blogs). Not to mention community and social network plays that also include elements of search: Brightcove (Accel - SN + long tail video distribution), LinkedIn (Sequoia - SN + job listings), MySpace (Redpoint - SN + music), The Facebook (Accel - SN + schoolbook).

I have suggested to my panelists that we focus on the questions and issues of entrepreneurs developing or planning a vertical search play. And whilst I am aware of these, since I meet a number of these teams/individuals, I want to engage with the audience as much and quickly as possible. And by audience, I mean conference attendees and others, through the following means:

• On the day of the conference, you can join us on the IRC chart using your favorite chat program: irc://irc.freenode.net/#vertical.
• You can also leave a question in the comments of this post, or in the questions forum. Or you can send me an email at jeff [dot] clavier [at] gmail [dot] com.

I look forward to a great discussion this Tuesday, and hope that some of you will get involved.

Tag: verticalleap