David William Baum, Managing Director | Waltham
dwbaum@stage1ventures.com
David Baum is an experienced general partner with 25 years in the information technology industry, including fifteen years in technology finance and ten years in entrepreneurial operating management roles.
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As an operating entrepreneur, David founded two companies including Pensoft Corporation, a venture-backed (Mohr, Davidow Ventures, IVP, and Bay Partners) mobile communications company that was sold to AT&T in 1994. David has also spent time at larger organizations including IBM and Genentech.
David was a key principal that raised, launched, staffed, and managed Prism Venture Partners, a leading early stage venture capital fund. Founded in 1996, Prism has provided start-up equity to more than eighty-five companies, which have completed five public offerings and thirty strategic mergers and acquisitions. During his tenure at Prism, the firm grew from zero to over $1.25B under management. Previous investments include Softricity (sold to Microsoft), Network24 Communications (sold to Akamai), DotBank (sold to Yahoo), Altaworks (sold to Opnet), Integral Access (sold to Telco Systems), Syncra Systems (sold to Retek), Salesnet (sold to RightNow) and Bitfone (sold to HP).
In January of 2006, David launched Stage 1 Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm. Investments include Carbonite (IPO 2011 NASDAQ:CARB), e-Centives (sold to Catalina) , Skyhook Wireless (sold to TruePosition) , Splunk (NASDAQ:SPLK), AdelaVoice, Instream, OwnerIQ, Veloxum, Paydiant, FlashNotes, XPeerient (sold to Net-Net), Delfigo Security, Wing Power Energy, Greater Good, Phantom Alert, TimeTrade, Zapoint, OnePin, Myxer, Cuesol (sold to Catalina Marketing), Xpeerient (sold to NET(net)), Magnify Media, go2 (merged with 80108), FrameMedia (sold to Scala!), Auspice (sold to Arris), WorldWinner (sold to Liberty Media), Banshee Wines, Newburyport Brewing, PureCars, OpenBay, deepDB, Marxent Labs, Autonet Mobile, Carvoyant, Parelastic, Dashbell, Vivox, Promoboxx, Ditto, Mobee, Sitewit, Coherent Path, ConnectTowers, Prime Student Loan, Glanola, Narvii, Nexercise, Donde Esta, and Zink.
As a fourteen-year member of Common Angels, David is an active angel investor (30 angel investments) and a strong supporter of entrepreneurs across the country. David is a mentor at the Harvard Innovation Lab.
In June of 2010, David launched S1 Capital Partners, a later stage secondary/growth equity investment vehicle with Rod Randall. S1 Capital made its first investment into YMAX, Corp, a leading CLEC/VOIP provider in North America and creators of the MagicJack-branded consumer service offering. YMAX went public (NASDAQ:CALL) later in 2010 by purchasing VocalTec, a leading softswitch provider.
David holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School with second year honors and BS in Computer Science from Drexel University where he graduated first in his science class.
David’s investment areas of focus are: mobile applications and systems, consumer and business cloud-based applications, the Internet of Things, commercial drones, alternative energy, content and gaming, IPTV, virtualization, e-commerce, location based services, security, the connected car, big data, and data communications equipment.
Jonathan Gordon, Managing Director | Waltham
jgordon@stage1ventures.com
Jonathan Gordon has been a successful executive, entrepreneur and investor for over 30 years. He has been at the forefront of many historic market and technology changes in the high tech global economy.
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Mr. Gordon is the founder of Ametron Technologies, Inc., a consulting and licensing firm that helps entrepreneurs and technologists with business development and monetizing their Intellectual Property and inventions. Recent clients have included Picassa/Lifescape (sold to Google), a photo management tool; Corestreet, a provider of security software; Liquid Machines,a provider of enterprise rights management technology and solutions and Bitzmart/ Stealth Media Labs, a technology used to embed information into digital audio and video streams with playback through Windows Media Player 9 Series.
Before Ametron, Mr. Gordon was CEO of mGen, Inc., an e-learning enterprise software company, which was focused on 1st Responder market opportunities within DOD and other government agencies, such as the Navy/Marine Intranet, US Dept. of Agriculture and the US Army.
Prior to that, he was CEO and founder of EndPoints, Inc.(sold to Flextronics and Archi-tech, Taiwan), a fabless semiconductor company, whose imaging chips powered high volume, low cost consumer digital cameras. Preceding EndPoints, Mr. Gordon was President of DiagSoft (sold to Sykes Enterprises), a PC hardware diagnostic and manufacturing test company.
Subsequent to EndPoints, Mr. Gordon was the founder of Phoenix Publishing (sold to Softbank). Mr. Gordon was also President of Paterson Labs, which he sold to Phoenix Technologies Inc. for Paterson’s founder, Tim Paterson (the author of the MS-DOS operating system).
Mr. Gordon has built international sales and marketing organizations for several notable companies like Phoenix Technologies, who he assisted in their IPO as their first VP of Sales. Additionally, he was VP of Sales of Graphic Software Systems, an early PC software pioneer who had graphic software on the original IBM XT and AT.
Jonathan’s early sales and marketing career included Physical Data Inc. (sold to Honeywell), a start up instrumentation company, who made digital waveform recorders for use in fusion reactor and munitions testing. He also was a sales engineer with Tektronix and helped introduce the first low cost graphic terminals for mini and mainframe computing.
Mr. Gordon attended the University of Wisconsin and Penn Morton College.
Rod Randall, Special Strategic Advisor | Waltham
rrandall@stage1ventures.com
Mr. Randall has spent over 24 years in the networking industry as an entrepreneur, senior executive and venture capitalist. Prior to forming Vesbridge Partners, Mr. Randall was a General Partner with St. Paul Venture Capital (SPVC) since 2000, where he led the mobile investment practice.
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Some of Mr. Randall’s representative investments include Dynamicsoft (acquired by Cisco), Bitfone (acquired by Hewlett Packard), FusionOne and Visage Mobile. Before becoming a venture capitalist, Mr. Randall had been Chief Marketing Officer at Lucent’s Service Provider Group, which he joined in 1999 upon the acquisition of Ascend by Lucent for $24 billion. At the time of acquisition, Mr. Randall was the Vice President of Worldwide Marketing helping re-position Ascend. Prior to Ascend, Mr. Randall held the position as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and General Manager at Stratus Computer and Vice President of Strategic Market Development at Madge Networks.
Prior to Madge Networks, Mr. Randall co-founded Teleos Communications in 1987. During the nearly 10 years Mr. Randall spent building Teleos, he held several roles including CTO, Vice President of Business Development, and Vice President of WAN Access Technology. Mr. Randall helped guide Teleos until its acquisition in 1996 by Madge Networks. Mr. Randall began his career in technology at AT&T Bell Labs in 1981 as a Member of Technical Staff and later as MTS Supervisor. Mr. Randall holds several US Patents.
Les Yetton, Operating Partner
lyetton@stage1ventures.com
Mr. Yetton is an CEO and startup executive with domain expertise in SaaS, Big Data and Analytics. Currently incubating a new cloud AI project
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A 20+ year veteran of the Boston technology scenes, Les Yetton is currently co-founder at Chaossearch.io. Prior to that he was CEO of Deepis.com, currently available as an open source toolkit under Deepis.org, was SVP/GM of LogMeIn’s IoT business, Xively, CMO at DynamicOps, and VP Sales and BD at Softricity, acquired by Microsoft.
Mr. Yetton is an advisor and angel investor to multiple companies including Newburyport Brewing company, Banshee Wines, Viral Gains, Novo Sano, Acreage Holdings and Bombshell Wax.
Michael Frank, Operating Partner
mfrank@stage1ventures.com
Michael Frank is a seasoned, results-driven technology company executive with 40 years of experience in operating, investment and advisory roles. He enjoys working with entrepreneurs to help startup and early stage companies in business strategy, business/corporate development, fundraising, management mentoring and board structuring.
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His experience and network of senior technology professionals can help accelerate a company’s path to revenue. Mr. Frank focuses on software, communications and Internet infrastructure markets. His particular interests include cloud computing, digital media, e-commerce, enterprise computing, Internet infrastructure and mobile/wireless technologies.
Michael has invested in and worked with over 100 technology companies. Michael’s operating background includes Tencor Instruments (now KLA-Tencor) as an Engineering Manager; Apollo Computer (now Hewlett Packard) as a Marketing Manager; Fluent (now Novell) as Co-Founder & Vice President of Marketing & Business Development.
Michael’s venture capital career includes 6 years at Advanced Technology Ventures as a General Partner in ATV IV, ATV V, ATV VI, ATV VII, during his tenure ATV had $1.5B under management.
Michael has an MS in Mechanical Engineering a BA in Psychology, and an MBA from Stanford University.
Stephen Lyle, M.D., Ph.D., Operating Partner
slyle@stage1ventures.com
Dr. Lyle is a physician-scientist with expertise in the pathologic evaluation of tissues and biologic samples. In addition to his seminal work characterizing the molecular and biologic properties of adult stem cells, he has made significant contributions in translational cancer research and the commercialization of new diagnostics.
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Dr. Lyle is the Director of KEW Group’s Molecular Diagnostics Lab and is the former Lab Director of Predictive Biosciences, and former Medical Director of Catalyst Oncology, Inc. He has served as a consultant for a number of biotech companies including Pavonis/Beauty Medicines, Switch Biotech AG, Andorra, Inc./Living Proof, Dyax Corp., Diagnocure, Inc., Arresto Biosciences, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals and Bioserve.
Dr. Lyle holds an appointment as Associate Professor of Cancer Biology and Pathology, UMass Medical School and is the Co-Director of the UMass Cancer Center Tissue Bank. He has held NIH and private foundation grants to study adult stem cell biology, cancer stem cells and skin biology. He has received a multiple awards, grants and fellowships from The National Institutes of Health, William Keck Foundation, The Ellison Foundation, Society of Investigative Dermatology, Dermatology Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Trust, and The March of Dimes. He is a member of The American Association for Cancer Research, The Society of Investigative Dermatology and is a Fellow of the College of American Pathologists. He is an author on over 75 research publications, book chapters and reviews.
Prior to his clinical fellowship training in the Harvard Combined Dermatopathology Program, he was a resident and surgical pathology fellow at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received the prestigious HT Enterline Fellowship Award. While at the University of Pennsylvania, he also completed a research post-doctoral fellowship in the lab of George Cotsarelis, M.D. in the Department of Dermatology. During this time Dr. Lyle made the breakthrough discovery of the location and characteristics of adult epithelial stem cells in human skin that launched his research career.
Dr. Lyle is a graduate of The Pritzker School of Medicine/University of Chicago where he completed his M.D. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He also graduated with honors from the University of Chicago in the combined B.A. / M.S. program in Biochemistry.
Eric Giler, Operating Partner
egiler@stage1ventures.com
Eric Giler is currently Chairman of Endeveo, Inc., an early stage technology company in Boston, Massachusetts. He is an adjunct professor at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts and is also Chairman and CEO of Speedy Packets, a software company based in Boston.
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He was previously CEO and a board member of WiTricity Corporation from 2008 to 2016. WiTricity Corporation was founded in 2007 to commercialize a new technology for wireless electricity invented and patented two years earlier by a team of physicists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Previously, he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Groove Mobile, a provider of mobile music commerce platforms, from 2006 until its acquisition by LiveWire Mobile in 2008. Eric was the founder and served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Brooktrout Inc., a provider of telecom software and hardware platforms, from 1984 until its acquisition by EAS Group, Inc. in 2005. Under Eric’s leadership, Brooktrout grew to over $150M in annual revenue, and had a successful IPO in 1992.
Eric is a trustee of Carnegie Mellon University and a corporation member of Mass General Brigham. He is a board member of Streann Media in Miami, FL as well as an advisor to multiple technology companies. He is the author of over 30 patents. Eric holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.
Mr. Pianelli is the Founder and Managing Partner at Pegasus Consulting Group, Inc., a business strategy firm that specializes in commercialization, business development, channel development and M&A for technology, media and wireless telecom companies. He has over 25 years of experience in finance, corporate development, business formation, as well as senior level operating roles in the following sectors: wireless, publishing, digital media, Internet and consumer retail. He has worked on a global basis with C-level executives of large and small enterprises developing strategic growth plans and launching new business ventures.
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Prior to Pegasus, Mr. Pianelli was the Vice President of Wireless Innovation at Radio Shack Corp. where he was responsible for the development of new business ventures and product innovation. At Radio Shack he also held Director and Sr. Director Strategic Development roles that focused on creating a technology innovation sourcing strategy in collaboration with venture capital firms and Corporate R&D groups.
His prior experiences include: Special Limited Partner of TechStar, (tech-transfer and the commercialization of University research and innovations), Senior Vice President Curtco-Freedom Group, (B to B tech publisher/digital media), Co-Founder and Vice President Business Development, Communication Expo. During this time period, Mr. Pianelli led business formation, strategic growth efforts, launched several successful initiatives to raise capital funding and implemented successful exit strategies for shareholders.
Mr. Pianelli spent the first 10 years of his career as a financial analyst for Scandinavian Airline Systems (SAS) and Senior Broker and Director for public and private investment firms (Moseley/Gruntal, MHF investments ) with a focus on technology, media and wireless telecom industry investments. During his tenure at the investment firms he identified and led investments into companies at the forefront of the global build out of the cellular industry and the transition from analog to digital technologies which created a $1 trillion market today.
Mr. Pianelli holds a BA in Economics from the City University of New York.
Kevin A. Werner, Operating Partner | San Diego
kwerner@stage1ventures.com
Mr. Werner has 25+ years of experience in evaluating business objectives and structuring, negotiating and closing complex strategic transactions. From 2007 – 2011, Kevin served as SVP of Corporate Development & Strategy for VeriSign, Inc., during which time he sold 15+ non-strategic business units and generated more than $2B cash proceeds.
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From 2004 – 2007, Kevin served as SVP, Strategic Development Activities at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) where he was responsible for acquisitions, strategic investments, divestitures, and joint ventures.
From 2000-2004, Kevin was President and Managing Director of SAIC Venture Capital Corporation, where he managed a $1.3 billion corporate VC fund with a portfolio of over 60 investments in early stage technology companies
Kevin joined SAIC as Associate General Counsel in 1995. Prior to SAIC, Kevin spent 10 years at the San Diego law firm Seltzer Caplan McMahon & Vitek, becoming a partner in 1990.
Kevin received a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1985 and a B.A in Political Science from The George Washington University in 1982.
Gary Shih, Operating Partner | Taiwan
gshih@stage1ventures.com
Mr. Shih is a veteran with 30 years in the information technology industry, including six years in engineering and twenty-four years in sales marketing as well as extensive entrepreneurial operating roles.
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As an entrepreneur, Gary co-founded and manages Regulus Technologies, a privately held leading technology representation and component distribution company. During twenty-one years of operations, Regulus has launched several vendors to the top of Taiwan & Great China ODM market, including SystemSoft a leading Power-Managment BIOS ( Basic Input / Output System ) for laptop computers, Vadem a PCMCIA controller, NeoMagic an embedded memory notebook PC graphic controller, ENE a notebook PC KBC system controller, Intersil Techwell an automotive display controller, and TrueSense Imaging ( ex-Kodak ISS ) a CCD image sensors for medical/industrial/surveillance/ITS.
Gary has built operations to coordinate business among vendors, ODMs and branded customers. Gary has built long-term relationship through add-on services that tie Regulus closely with ODMs in Taiwan and Great China areas.
Earlier in his career, Gary worked in large organization like Philips, where he started in marketing semiconductor component products. Gary also worked in engineering functions in Computer Department of Hoffmann-La-Roche in Nutley New Jersey, on Bio-medical data acquisition & analysis system, and Pan-Asia Computer Corp on personal computers.
Gary holds an MSEE from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Bill O’Connell, Operating Partner | Taiwan
boconnell@stage1ventures.com
Mr. O’Connell is an information technology veteran with over 30 years of experience in the sale and licensing of many critical components in the IT market. Bill’s primary focus over the last 20 years has been licensing key technologies and intellectual property to key Taiwan and China based OEMs/ODMs. Bill has extensive knowledge of the Far East and currently resides in Taiwan.
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Bill started his career in 1980 selling Datapoint hardware to Fortune 100 companies in the USA. He later worked as a licensing executive at Digital Research, the creators of CPM. He continued his career at Graphic Software Systems prior to becoming a key licensing director at Phoenix Technologies, the creator of the IBM PC compatible BIOS. After 4 years at Phoenix, Bill and 5 other entrepreneurs founded SystemSoft Corporation, a direct competitor to Phoenix Technologies. As Vice President of Sales at SystemSoft in 1989, Bill recognized the importance of the Taiwan manufacturing base and focused on this market for over 50% of SystemSoft’s overall revenue. In 1994, Bill played a key role in SystemSoft going public on the NASDAQ.
For the last 7 years Bill has headed his own company, O’Connell Consulting, with a singular focus on licensing key technologies and intellectual property to the Taiwan/China base. His over 20+ years of experience in the region enables Bill to deal at the highest level of most of the key corporations in the APAC region.
Bill graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Boston College.
David H Buckley, Operating Partner
dbuckley@stage1ventures.com
Mr. Buckley is an experienced operator and investor with a strong knowledge of the graphic arts industry, niche equipment manufacturing and distress / turnaround management. An entrepreneur with a strong balance sheet driven style, he is also a savvy private equity investor and well connected in both Europe and the US.
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Educated in the UK, Ireland and the USA, David has had over 25 years of experience around the world in both the private and public sectors of industry.
David began his career in Dublin, Ireland with the Jefferson Smurfit Group plc – the world’s largest paper based packaging group. During his 12 year tenure, he worked in all segments of the industry ranging from corrugated containers and folding cartons to point of sale display. Beginning as a PA to a senior company executive, he worked his way up to become General Manager – Smurfit Display. During this time, David was also a co-founder and director of UK based; Qualtech Holdings Ltd, a privately held graphic arts company which supplied the industry with flexographic printing plates and specialty products. Qualtech was sold to USA based Pamarco Technologies, Inc. in 1995.
In 1997, David moved to the US to join Pamarco where he became VP of Operations of Georgia based Diamond Holding Corporation – the lithographic offset arm of the group. Diamond manufactured rubber elastomers and printing rollers at seven strategically located plants across the country. In addition, it owned the rights to a two color printing press. While at Diamond, David became particularly interested in niche equipment manufacturing following his successful development of a press division.
In 2000, David established Riverton Investments Ltd., and acquired Massachusetts based Data Technology, Inc. along with a small group of investors, which included the exclusive NYC boutique finance house; Allen & Company. Data Technology was an antiquated manufacturer of CAD/CAM cutting equipment for the packaging industry. Over the next three years, David aggressively reorganized the company; streamlining the overhead structure and re-engineering a complete new range of products – pioneering a digital cutting line for short run production. In addition, he also established several international strategic alliances to complete the product offering and rebrand the company. In 2007, David sold Data Technology to Connecticut based Gerber Scientific, Inc. (NYSE: GRB) after which he spent the next two years integrating his company within Gerber to become Gerber Innovations – its packaging division.
At the end of 2008, David left Gerber to concentrate his attention on advisory work – focusing on distress / turnaround management, subsidiary development, and angel investment. His clients include; Applied Silicate Technologies Ltd., Mosstype Corporation and Eagle Solutions. In addition, David is an active investor and Senior Advisor to several other companies such as Bolwyn Corporation (The Port Tavern), Phider Corporation (Grumpy Doyle’s), Gernne Corporation (Waterside Tap & Grille), Prince Place LLC, the Newburyport Brewing Company and Seat Pets LLC.
David is a graduate of Babson College, Wellesley, MA where he holds a degree in Management majoring in Entrepreneurial Studies. He is an active member of his community in Newburyport, MA and sits on the board of the River Valley Charter School Foundation and the Old South Church.
David is also a founding member of the Irish Chamber of Commerce USA (ICCUSA) and a member of the K Club. He is married with three children.
Ralph A. Rodriguez, Operating Partner
rrodriguez@stage1ventures.com
Ralph Rodriguez brings over 25 years of experience spanning executive management, IT, research and entrepreneurship in a variety of executive roles. As an entrepreneur, Rodriguez has founded cloud security companies such as Confirm.io, Delfigo Security, Invenio, and Blue Hill Research. He has held executive positions as SVP and Research Director at Aberdeen Group (NYSE:HHS), CTO of Brooks Automation’s Enterprise Software Division (NASDAQ:BRKS), acquired by Applied Materials in 2007, EVP-CIO of Excelon Corporation (NASDAQ:EXLN) acquired by Progress Software in 2003 and C-bridge Internet Solutions (NASDAQ:CBIS) acquired by Object Design in 2001.
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Rodriguez is a retired Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where for 20 years he pioneered research on artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, mobile, neural science, and security technologies at the MIT Media Lab and Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) department. Rodriguez is a graduate of the management program GPMD-MBA at IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain. He has a BS in Computer Science and Technology from the US Army Institute (SOCAD) and was honors graduate of several technical, operational, and communications schools in the United States Army, where he was a member of the XVIII Airborne Corps. Rodriguez is a veteran of the Persian Gulf War in 1990.
As an author Rodriguez co-wrote Windows NT Security – Step by Step and Computer Incident Handling – Step by Step, both published by the SANS Institute. Most recently Rodriguez collaborated with famed attorney and author Andy Updegrove to be the technical ghost writer of two cyber-thriller novels called The Doodlebug War and The Lafayette Campaign.
Rodriguez sits on the Board of Directors at the Academy of Applied Science, Technology Expense Management Industry Association (TEMIA) and New Technologies and Associates, Inc. Previously he served on the Board of Veramark Technologies, Inc. (OTC:VERA). In 2005, he was inducted as a Member National (MN) in The Explorers Club in New York City.
Rodriguez holds United States patents 8,407,774, 8,850,541, 8,583,574, 8,914,862, 9,032,491, and 9,519,763. United States patents applications 20040254988, 20150179079, 62/276,557, 62/316,044, 62/368,465, 62/409,148, 62/451,456 and Europe WO 2004112334 A1 covering technologies such as cloud, mobile, security, neural science, and artificial intelligence.
Early stage venture capital is hard work – It takes more than just a group of managing partners to make a firm successful and to give it a global reach. The Managing Partners at Stage 1 Ventures have tapped their vast database of contacts to establish an active Advisory Board that provides leverage in many areas, including deal flow, due diligence, business development, industry trends, sales & marketing, international distribution, later stage fund raising, recruiting, banking, corporate operations & governance, intellectual property, research and development, education and legal.
Stage 1 Ventures is honored to have the following industry leaders / luminaries as Advisory Board members.