Funding, Exits and IPO's - Silicon Valley's Best Make Their Predictions for 2015

STEVE GOLDBERG
Managing Director, Venrock 

Steve joined Venrock in 2009 after having been CEO of several early stage companies including DataRunway, Vidient, Arcwave and CoWave Networks. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Research and Development at Nokia Internet Communications and Vice President and General Manager of the Wireless Communications Division at Cylink Corporation. Steve also held senior management and engineering positions at Trimble Navigation and Hewlett Packard. At Venrock, Steve focuses on investments in connectivity, M2M/Internet of Things, robotics and embedded systems. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of Asoka, FutureDial, Red Seal, and Quantenna Communications. Previous board seats include Canesta (Acq by Microsoft), Kineto Wireless (Acq by Taqua), Newport Media (Acq by Atmel), and Teranetics (Acq by PLX Technology). Steve received his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Washington University and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara..

MITCHELL KERTZMAN
Managing Director, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

Mitchell Kertzman is a Managing Director at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. He has over 30 years of experience as a CEO of public and private software companies. Most recently, Mitchell was Chairman and CEO of Liberate Technologies, a provider of platform software for the delivery of digital services by cable television companies. Before joining Liberate, he was chairman of the board and CEO of Sybase, Inc. Mitchell was founder and CEO of Powersoft, which merged with Sybase in February 1995.

Sharon invests in Mobile and Internet companies at ScaleVP. She sits on the boards of Actiance, Applause, BeachMint, Everyday Health, PlayPhone, and Reply.com.

Prior to ScaleVP in 2001, Sharon was Vice President, Marketing for Critical Path and Amplitude Software. She spent most of the 1990?s at Adobe Systems, starting as Product Manager for Asian Products and later led marketing for many of Adobe?s applications, and spearheaded numerous cross-product initiatives. Before her technology line experience, Sharon practiced strategy consulting at Bain & Company for nearly five years.

Sharon holds an A.M. and an A.B. in Engineering from Harvard University, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Sharon also serves on the board of directors of the non-profit Myelin Repair Foundation and on Microsoft?s Venture Advisory Committee. Sharon is a 2013 "AlwaysOn Power Players in Digital Media" winner and she was also recognized by the Huffington Post as one of the ?Top 25 Women in Tech to Follow on Twitter?.
 

Richard Waters is the West Coast Editor for the Financial Times. His beat covers the technology industry. Before moving to the West Coast, Mr Waters was based in the FT's New York office for nine years. His roles there included Wall Street reporter, New York bureau chief, and the FT's first information industries editor, overseeing global coverage of technology, telecommunications and media. He previously worked at the FT in London where he held a number of positions, including editor of international capital markets, securities industry correspondent and accountancy and taxation correspondent.

Before working for the FT, Mr Waters worked as a reporter and editor for several financial magazines. He also worked for two years at Lloyd's Bank International and lived in Chile, also working as a teacher. In 2004, he was awarded Corporate Finance Reporter of the Year for his coverage of Google's IPO. He was shortlisted for the Business & Finance Reporter of the Year award at the British Press Awards in 2003 and won the award in 1992 as part of a team covering the BCCI scandal. In 1988, he was named Accountancy Journalist of the Year. He appears regularly on the BBC, CNBC, MSNBC, CNNfn and NPR.

Mr Waters received his Bachelor's degree from St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University.