Ann Winblad Managing Director Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, a venture capital firm she co-founded in 1989. She is a well-known and respected software industry entrepreneur and technology leader. Her background and years of experience in the software industry have been chronicled in many national and international business publications. Hummer Winblad Venture Partners was the first venture firm focused exclusively on software. In her 30-year career as a venture capitalist, Ann’s firm has launched over 160 enterprise software companies and led investments that pioneered successful companies across the enterprise software sector: Business Intelligence, Analytics, Software Development, Integration, Data Center Optimization, Cloud Computing and Security.
Podcasts
Ben Narasin Venture Partner New Enterprise Associates (NEA) on Covid-19 crisis for startups
Ben Narasin is a prolific entrepreneur and early-stage investor with three decades of company-building expertise. His portfolio comprises of key early successes in fintech, digital marketplaces, mobile and connected devices. His seed investments include Dropcam, Lending Club, TellApart, Kabbage and Zenefits. Before NEA, Narasin most recently served as a General Partner at Canvas Ventures, and was previously with TriplePoint Capital, where he oversaw the firm’s seed funding investment activities. He founded several consumer companies before launching his investing career, including Fashionmall.com which led to a successful IPO. He holds a B.A. in Entrepreneurial Studies from Babson College.
Elizabeth Yin CoFounder/General Partner Hustle Fund on Covid-19 crisis for startups
Elizabeth Yin CoFounder/General Partner Hustle Fund which is a pre-seed fund for software entrepreneurs. Previously, Elizabeth was a partner at 500 Startups where she invested in seed stage companies and ran the Mountain View accelerator. In a prior life, Elizabeth co-founded and ran an adtech company called LaunchBit (acq 2014). Elizabeth has a BSEE from Stanford and an MBA from MIT Sloan.
Leyla Seka Partner Operative Collective on Covid-19 crisis for startups
Leyla Seka Partner Operative Collective Leyla is a veteran enterprise executive, nationally recognized advocate for gender equality, and reluctant venture capitalist. For more than 11 years, Leyla’s work at Salesforce defined an industry. In multiple senior management roles she built and scaled iconic products including the AppExchange, Desk.com, and Salesforce Mobile. Leyla also pioneered Salesforce’s equal pay initiative, which led to raises for more than 10% of the women at the company. She is also a board director of Girls Who Code and Proofpoint. Today, Leyla is investing in the next generation of enterprise technology as a partner at Operator Collective, a new VC fund and community designed to open the venture ecosystem to the people it needs most: tech leaders from diverse backgrounds with deep, present-day experience. Its limited partners include 100+ ultra-talented operators with decades of experience building, growing, and running the world’s most admired companies — from Zoom, Stripe, and PagerDuty to Salesforce, Slack, and beyond. Operator Collective launched its debut $45M+ fund on December 11, 2019.