Board of Directors

John Balen, General Partner, Canaan Partners

John Balen understands entrepreneurs. Since joining Canaan in 1995, John has worked with some of the smartest people in the technology industry to build high-performance companies such as Commerce One, which brought B2B ecommerce to the masses, eStamp, the pioneer of Internet postage, Intraware the leading provider of electronic license delivery and management, and Rightpoint, a real-time customer analytics software provider, acquired by Epiphany.

At Canaan, John focuses on investments in communications & mobility, and next-generation enterprise technology companies that are disrupting the balance of traditional markets. His portfolio includes ID Analytics, which offers the nation’s only real-time fraud prevention system for enterprises. He also invests in digital media companies that empower the consumer through web-based services, such as Blurb.com, a revolutionary company changing the face of publishing by letting anyone easily create and sell bookstore-quality books.

Before joining Canaan Partners, John held a variety of operational and financial roles, where he learned both how to build companies from the ground up and how to fund them. He served as a Managing Director of Horsley Bridge Partners, a multi-billion dollar private equity firm in San Francisco. During his nine-year tenure at Horsley Bridge, John was responsible for a wide spectrum of investments in technology companies, as well as many venture capital and buyout partnerships. Earlier in his career, John was a sales applications engineer at fiber communications startup Codenoll Technology Corp. and an engineer at Digital Equipment Corp.

John currently serves on the boards of innovative digital media firms Blurb and Cardlytics and enterprise technology firms Echopass, ezRez, ID Analytics and SOASTA.

John received a BS in electrical engineering and an MBA from Cornell University. A firm believer in the value of education, John is the Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, and as a board member serves on the Executive Committee of his children’s school.  John frequently donates time and money to educational causes.

Clint Chao, General Partner, Formative Ventures

Clint Chao is a founding general partner at Formative Ventures. Clint invests in emerging technologies start-ups in areas such as communications, wireless, and next-generation Internet solutions. Clint is an experienced technology executive who brings more than 20 years of start-up operating experience including marketing, sales and business development to Formative Ventures. His investments and board leadership include Silicon Clocks, Smalltown, Mashery, Marketocracy and Zyray Wireless (acquired by Broadcom in 2004).

Prior to co-founding Formative Ventures, Clint served as vice president of marketing, sales, and business development at SkyStream Networks (acquired by Tandberg TV), a leading provider of video routing equipment. Under his leadership, SkyStream formed partnerships with industry leaders such as AOL Time Warner, HP, Microsoft, RealNetworks, Lucent Technologies, Mitsubishi, and Philips.

Prior to joining SkyStream, Clint served as senior director of marketing at C-Cube Microsystems where he was responsible for marketing for the PC Division, a group he co-founded and grew to run rates exceeding $50M in sales annually. Clint began his tenure at C-Cube as the first salesperson for the company, where he created the company’s sales representation network around the country.

Before joining C-Cube in 1990, Clint held numerous sales and sales management positions at Motorola Semiconductor, where he was recognized as one of the company’s top salespeople.

Clint earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California at Berkeley.

Ken Gardner, Founder and Executive Chairman, SOASTA

Ken Gardner, founder and executive chairman for SOASTA, is an industry veteran with more than 30 years in the enterprise software industry. Ken is a six-time entrepreneur having previously been the founder and CEO of Istante (acquired by Oracle in December 2004); Sagent Technology (IPO in April 1999); ReportSmith (acquired by Borland in March 1994); and ViewPoint Systems (acquired by Knowledgeware in June 1992).

His first startup, in 1985, was Tesseract Corporation where he was senior vice president of Technology. From 1978 to 1985, he worked in R&D at Tymshare, Inc. Ken’s extensive experience in creating winning enterprise software products has resulted in numerous industry awards including:

* InfoWorld “Technology of the Year” – 2004 Istante
* PC Week Labs “Analyst Choice” – 1997 Sagent Technology
* “Best of Comdex” Finalist – 1992 ReportSmith

Ken sits on the board of directors for Everdream Corporation and Accept Software, Inc. Ken is a 1972 graduate of the University of Louisville and holds a BSC degree in Finance. In 2000, he was named an alumni fellow by the University of Louisville, College of Business.

Tom Lounibos, President and CEO, SOASTA

Tom Lounibos oversees SOASTA’s operations, sales and marketing arms and is responsible for the company’s go-to-market strategy. Tom brings more than 20 years of experience in helping grow early-stage companies into market leaders. During his career, Tom has successfully built strategic sales and product organizations, turned them into profitable companies, and expanded them to global markets. He most recently served as president and chief executive officer of Kenamea. Prior to Kenamea, Tom was president and chief executive officer of Dorado Corporation, a financial services software provider. At Dorado, Tom raised $45 million in private equity funding. Prior to Dorado, Tom served as executive vice president of sales for Sagent Technology through its 1999 IPO, where he was responsible for growing Sagent into a leading provider of business intelligence solutions. Tom also served as entrepreneur-in-residence at Crosspoint Venture Partners and held executive positions at Digitalk Corporation, Knowledgeware, and Encore Financial Services.

Blake Modersitzki, Managing Director, UV Partners

Blake Modersitzki joined UV Partners in 2002 after 13 years as an executive with Novell and WordPerfect Corporation. Blake has deep industry operating experience as well as a long, successful investment track record.

Prior to joining UV Partners, Blake was Managing Director for Novell Ventures and Vice President of Strategic Business Development. He directed Novell’s venture strategy including both its direct investments in companies and indirect investments in venture capital funds. Prior to managing Novell’s venture capital organization, Blake held a number of sales, marketing, product management, global channel sales development and business development positions within Novell and Word Perfect.

Blake’s current investments and board affiliations are M-Factor, Fusion-io, Soasta and Infopia. Blake previously served on the boards of Riverbed Technology (IPO), Red Hat Software (IPO), Confluent Software (acquired by Oblix/Oracle), Bowstreet (acquired by IBM), Business Layers (acquired by Netegrity), Caldera Systems (IPO), Digital Cement (acquired by Pitney Bowes), enCommerce (acquired by Entrust), GlobalCast (acquired by Talarian), Indus River Networks (acquired by Enterasys), NetPro (acquired by Quest Software), Netfish Technologies (acquired by IONA), NetObjects (IPO), Orbital Software (IPO), TurboLinux (IPO), and WR Hambrecht & Co.

During his time as the Managing Director of Novell Ventures, Blake led Novell’s investment into the following venture capital firms: Accel Partners, Accel Partners Europe, Advent International, Battery Ventures, Broadview Capital Partners, Canaan Partners, Flagship Venture (f.k.a OneLiberty Venture Partners), Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lightspeed Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Oak Investment Partners, Patricof & Co., Pitango and Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV). Blake currently serves on the advisory boards of Cross Creek Partners and Cougar Capital. Blake has a Bachelors degree in Economics from Brigham Young University.

Jeff Webber, The Entrepreneurs’ Fund

Jeffrey T. Webber is a managing director of BW Management, LLC, BW Management II, LLC and Wildcat Management, LLC, general partners operating four private equity venture funds: The Entrepreneurs’ Fund, LP (1997: $16 million, 5.4x return on invested capital, 200 percent IRR), The Entrepreneurs’ Fund II, LP (1999: $34.2 million, 77 percent invested, mid-course with 22 active investments) and The Entrepreneurs’ Growth Fund, LP (2000, $71.3 million, 63 percent invested, mid-course with 20 active investments). The Entrepreneurs’ Fund III, LP is currently in formation (2006: $300 million).

From 1990 to 2003, Mr. Webber was the founding partner of R.B. Webber & Company, Inc., a strategic consulting firm to high technology companies. From 1980 to 1987, Mr. Webber founded and served as president of New Venture Consultants, Inc., an advisory firm to start up ventures. From 1977 to 1980, he was a member of the strategic planning team at McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles. Mr. Webber currently serves as a member of the board of directors at Accept Software, Inc., BorderWare Technologies, Inc., LignUp Corporation, SOASTA, TECHTRIBEnetworks, Inc. and Webify Solutions, Inc. He is chairman of the board at Vizible Corporation and a member of the advisory board at Medstory, Inc. Before that, he served on six public company boards-Aurum Software, Inc., AvantGo, Inc., Commerce One Inc., Persistence Software Inc., Sagent Technology and Sybase Inc., as well as numerous private company boards. Mr. Webber holds a BA from Yale University.