Menlo Ventures Hires Naomi Pilosof Ionita as Investing Partner and Chris Penner as Operating Partner

Naomi Pilosof Ionita joins the firm as an investing partner. Naomi was most recently VP of Growth at Invoice2go, and prior to that, a product lead at Evernote, where she also founded the Growth team. During her tenure, Evernote scaled from 10M to 100M users globally. Naomi is a sought-out advisor to companies, and serves as a guest lecturer in tech communities such as 500 Startups and Reforge.

At Menlo, Naomi will focus on consumer and prosumer business models. Drawing on her expertise across both product management and marketing, Naomi will lead investments in companies with high potential to scale using product-driven growth strategies.

"Naomi is a tremendous addition to the firm. She knows how to build products that increase acquisition, engagement and monetization—the metrics all startups are eager to improve. She brings a powerful combination of skills to advise existing portfolio companies and help us identify exciting new ones" said Shawn Carolan, a Menlo partner.

Chris Penner will spearhead business development as the firm's operating partner. In this multifaceted role, Chris serves as a co-director of Menlo FUEL, an in-house arm that provides forward-thinking guidance and resources in the areas of sales, business development, marketing and talent.

According to the firm's partner, Matt Murphy, "Menlo's go-to-market (GTM) services focus on growth strategies that can have a huge impact on amplifying early product-market fit, which is now more important than ever given that the opportunity for companies to scale quickly has never been greater. Chris has an incredible track record of working with companies to achieve this goal."

In addition to working with Menlo's portfolio companies on their GTM strategies, Chris will further build out the firm's ecosystem of advisors, industry leaders, CIOs and other functional heads—including, Menlo's Enterprise Briefing Center, with a focus on driving potential prospects and customers to portfolio companies. He was previously the senior vice president of global partner sales and alliances at Box, a cloud content management company that connects people, information and applications at 71,000 businesses globally. During his tenure at Box, the company increased sales from $25 million to more than $500 million, and went public in 2015.

"Chris is extremely smart in helping companies craft impactful partnerships and channel programs," said Matt Murphy. "Engineering for success is the hardest part. Chris has seen many playbooks for success, and will be an asset to Menlo portfolio companies."

Accelerating growth and revenue without sacrificing customer satisfaction is a formula for success. "I seldom hear startups complaining about too much growth. Helping our portfolio companies design, hire and build momentum are imperatives for us at Menlo, and these two new partners will be valuable additions both in finding companies ready to scale and assisting entrepreneurs in achieving their full potential," added Shawn Carolan. "We're grateful to have such talented colleagues join the team."

About Menlo Ventures

Menlo Ventures provides capital for multi-stage consumer, enterprise and life sciences technology companies. Since 1976, the firm's market-driven analysis has led to the identification of opportunities and successful investments in innovative markets. Notable areas of investment include Marketplaces (Uber, Rover.com, Breather, RealtyShares, Getaround); Consumer Services (Machine Zone, Tumblr, Betterment, Poshmark, Roku, Siri); Smart Cloud Infrastructure (Dropcam, 3Par, Avi Networks, Avere Systems, eero); SaaS (Carbonite, Signifyd, Clarifai, Overops, Usermind), Fintech (Betterment, Bluevine, RealtyShares); Cybersecurity (Cavium, IronPort, BitSight, vArmour, Dedrone); and Life Sciences Technology (Synthego, Cofactor Genomics, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, 3T Biosciences). Menlo's portfolio includes more than 70 public companies, and more than 100 mergers and acquisitions, with $5 billion under management. The firm is currently investing in Menlo Ventures XIV, a $450 million early-stage fund, as well as its $250 million Menlo Special Opportunity Fund, which targets early-growth investments. For more information, visit www.menlovc.com.

Contact; Jennifer Jones [email protected] 650-465-5831

SOURCE Menlo Ventures

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