Michael A. Braun
Chief Executive Officer
Mike joined Intacct as CEO in 2007. He has over 35 years experience in the information technology industry and has been CEO of three Silicon Valley companies and General Manager of four major businesses at IBM.
Most of his experience has been working in businesses based on advanced technology in the early stage of market adoption or helping businesses grow around a new vision. As CEO of Neuron Data, he transformed it into Blaze Software which went public in 2000 and is now part of Fair Issac Corporation. In the mid 1990's, he led Kaleida Labs, the pioneering multimedia joint venture of Apple and IBM, and most recently co-founded The Interim CEO Network, Silicon Valley's #1 source for interim leadership. His IBM career spanned 23 years, customers of all sizes, and products as diverse as software, servers of all sizes, PC's and even typewriters.
Habitually "on the edge" of new trends like on demand application solutions, Mike also was a founder and VP of IBM's Multimedia Division in 1990 and started its Fireworks Partners venture fund in 1992. He formed the Interactive Multimedia Association in 1991 and served as its chairman until merging with the Software Publishers Association in 1996. He helped launch SNA in 1977 and the original IBM PC in 1981. He has also been a guest lecturer in the entrepreneurship programs at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and Santa Clara University.
He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Callidus Software (NASDAQ: CALD), and is on the board of Captara Corporation, Boardwalktech and TheatreWorks. He has a BA in Psychology from the University of Rochester and also an MBA from its Simon School.
Byron Deeter
Director
Byron Deeter is a Partner in BVP's Menlo Park office after having previously been a successful entrepreneur, investor, and consultant. At Bessemer, he focuses on investments in the software, Software as a Service (SaaS), Internet, and gaming sectors.
Most recently, Byron was an executive at IBM, as a result of its 2004 acquisition of Trigo Technologies, the product information management company that he co-founded. At Trigo, Byron served as founding President & CEO, then became Vice President of Business Development as the company grew to profitability, 150 employees, and a $40+ million run-rate. BVP worked closely with Byron and the executive team after Trigo's founding in 1999, and invested in all institutional financing rounds.
Prior to Trigo, Byron worked in private equity with TA Associates where he focused on technology investing with investments in companies such as Kintana (acquired by Mercury Interactive). He came to TA from McKinsey & Company, where he was involved with Fortune 500 clients in the media and technology markets, and was active in McKinsey's Innovation and Technology Management practice.
Byron holds a degree with honors from UC Berkeley in political economy. He was named a California Emerging Leader Scholar and an Alumni Scholar, and was a varsity member of Cal's national championship rugby team.
John Dillon
Director
John Dillon joined Navis as Chief Executive Officer in April 2002.
Prior to Navis, Mr. Dillon was the CEO for salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) , the leading supplier of online CRM. Previously, Mr. Dillon was CEO for Hyperion Solutions (NYSE: HYSL) , a leading vendor of enterprise software for business reporting, analysis and planning. Mr. Dillon's professional history also includes management positions in sales and engineering for Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) and EDS (NYSE: EDS).
Mr. Dillon holds a BS in Engineering from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and an MBA from Golden Gate University. He served on active duty in the United States Navy as an officer in the nuclear submarine service.
Brian Jacobs
Director
Brian Jacobs is a Founder and General Partner of Emergence. He has over 18 years of venture capital experience, a deep national network and broad experience helping both consumer and business-oriented startups achieve their business goals. Prior to founding Emergence, Brian was an early General Partner at St. Paul Venture Capital. During his 10 years at St. Paul, Mr. Jacobs helped to grow the firm to one of the 15 largest venture investors in the country and led the Silicon Valley investing activities. His prior venture capital experience was with Security Pacific Venture Capital. Mr. Jacobs also worked for the Raychem Corporation, where he developed and marketed advanced software and electronic components. In addition, he has engineering and new product experience with RCA, Westinghouse, and Polaroid; and he holds several patents.
In January 2006, he was named to the Forbes' Midas List of the top venture capital investors. He is an experienced board member who has served on dozens of public and private boards. He currently serves on the boards of Visage Mobile, Krugle, Intacct and DVDPlay.
Mr. Jacobs has a strong reputation for helping entrepreneurs build innovative technology-enabled service companies. Mr. Jacobs has been an active investor in WebTV (Microsoft), HireRight, BigFix and NextCard (NXCD). In addition, Mr. Jacobs has invested in a broad variety of technology companies, such as nQuire Software (Siebel Systems), Microchip Technologies (MCHP), NetPerceptions (NETP), Cloudscape (Informix) and Lexar Media (LEXR), where he led the initial venture capital round and lead the board through its billion dollar sale to Micron Technology.
Mr. Jacobs has a MS and BS in mechanical engineering from M.I.T. and an MBA from Stanford. He is happily married with two children. He enjoys international travel and scuba diving.
Greg Sands
Director
Greg Sands is Managing Director of Sutter Hill Ventures. Greg focuses on software, internet services, and advertising, marketing and media technologies and services across channels. He looks for important business functions the internet can revolutionize or replace, complex and scalable software, and high margin, defensible business models.
Greg Sands joined Sutter Hill Ventures in 1998 from Netscape Communications. As the company's original product manager, he co-authored the company's original business plan and launched and shipped its initial products, working closely with both engineering and sales. He then created and led the SuiteSpot business unit, growing it from $0 to $150M. He also worked previously at Cisco Systems, where he was the architect of a global channel management plan, and at Corporate Decisions (now Mercer Management Consulting), where he consulted to start-ups and Fortune 500 companies on product development and marketing strategies.
Greg serves as a director for AllBusiness.com, ChoiceStream, Merced Systems, Nexxo Financial, QuinStreet, Return Path, and Valista. Greg is
also a board observer at Feedburner and SeeSaw Networks.
Greg is a trustee of the Stanford University DAPER Fund. He also co-founded, and is a director of the non-profit Start Up, a microenterprise program for entrepreneurs and small business owners in underprivileged communities. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees for the Stanford Business School Trust.
He earned an AB in government from Harvard College in 1989 and received an MBA at Stanford in 1994.
Bob Spinner
Director
Bob Spinner is Managing Director of Sigma Partners. Bob joined Sigma in 2003 as Venture Partner and in 2006 became Managing Director. He brings to the firm two decades of high-technology business operational experience. Throughout his career, Bob has served in various operational capacities, including CEO, worldwide sales, technical sales support, software programming, database design, and private and public fundraising. While at Sigma, Bob has helped a number of the firm's portfolio companies expand operations, build management teams and increase revenues. Bob's technology focus areas include enterprise applications software, e-commerce, and software as a service.
Prior to joining Sigma, Bob was President and CEO of Extensity. During his tenure, Extensity grew from $1 million to $25 million while raising money through private funding and an Initial Public Offering. In March of 2003, Extensity was sold to GEAC. Prior to Extensity, Bob was Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and International Operations at Clarify, a leading provider of integrated CRM solutions. During his tenure at Clarify, he grew the company from $5 million to $140 million in revenue while managing a worldwide organization of 260 professionals. Prior to Clarify, Bob served in expanding roles at Sybase including working as the director of one of Sybase's most successful regions. Bob has also held technical roles at ADR and Chevron, including sales engineer, programmer and database administrator.
Bob received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis, MO.
