Director
Mike Slade
Mike is co-founder of the Seattle based venture capital company, Second Avenue Partners. He is the
former Chairman and CEO of Starwave, Paul Allens multimedia and internet startup, where he was a key figure in
the creation of the consumer internet, launching key sites ESPN.com, NBA.com, NFL.com, ABCNews.com, Mr.
Showbiz and the Go.com network. Prior to Starwave, Mike spent 10 years in executive roles at both Steve Jobs
NeXT Computer, Inc. and Microsoft (where he introduced products, including Microsoft Excel and Microsoft
Works). He has also served as a high-level consultant at Apple Computer and Disney Internet Group. In 2000, he
and two other former Microsoft executives purchased and re-launched the Professional Bowlers Association,
where he currently sits on the board of directors. Mike is a board member of startups Fantasy Moguls, Azaleos,
and GotVoice.
Director
Mariam Naficy
Mariam Naficy is the Founder and CEO of Minted.
Mariam has pioneered new consumer Internet models since 1998, when she co-founded Eve.com, the first online retailer of cosmetics, upon graduating from business school. Eve.com grew to $10 million in annual sales in its first year and was sold successfully to Idealab for a reported $100 million in cash in 2000. The company was then sold to LVMH’s Sephora in late 2000. After Eve.com, Mariam served as the Vice-President and General Manager of E-Commerce for The Body Shop, the international beauty goods retailer.
Minted, Mariam’s newest venture founded in 2007, is a crowd-sourcing design company that holds design competitions to source graphic design and lets its community vote to tell the company what to sell. The designs are then printed on paper in the form of wedding invitations), holiday photo cards and other personalized stationery and photo card products.
Director
Rich Barton
Rich Barton is an entrepreneur and investor with a knack for disrupting and transforming industries. He is currently co-founder and executive chairman of Zillow, Inc., a real estate marketplace he co-founded in 2005 that went public in 2011 (NASDAQ: Z). Prior to Zillow, Rich founded Expedia inside Microsoft in 1994 at the age of 26, pioneering a new model that gave consumers more control over their travel and demonstrated how powerful e-commerce could be. He built the original Expedia team then spun out the company in a successful IPO in 1999, serving as President, Chief Executive Officer and Board Director through the companys acquisition by IAC Corp in 2003. He co-founded Zillow with many of his former Expedia compatriots with the goal to bring the same level of transparency to real estate that they brought to travel a decade earlier. Today, Zillow has expanded beyond its trademark Zestimate to become the largest real estate and home-related marketplace on mobile and the desktop.
Bill Grossman
Bill Gossman has been an active investor and company builder in the venture industry since 1997. He is currently an executive in residence at MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures. In this role he leverages more than 25 years of hands-on experience building and leading high-growth organizations primarily in digital media, social media and mobile. He is a pioneer in behavioral targeting and enabling media delivery to cell phones. He is currently the CEO of Hi5.
Previously he filled executive positions at MDV portfolio companies including CEO of Sabrix (acquired in December 2009 by Thomson Reuters) and CFO of nLight, each of which are now leaders in their respective segments. He also served as a Strategic Advisor to Quake Technologies, which was acquired by AMCC.
Bill co-founded @mobile, a wireless Internet software and services company, where he served as COO and CFO, and later engineered the company’s $400 million merger with Software.com (Openwave Systems).
Tom Seery
Founder & President at RealSelf