Brian Balfour
Venture Partner at Long Journey Ventures
San Francisco, California
Overview
Work Experience
Founder/CEO
2016 - Current
Started Reforge to provide professional ed programs to experienced practitioners. https://reforge.com
Venture Partner
2020
Long Journey Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm focused on early and new investments.
Growth Advisor/Investor
2012
I am currently an advisor and/or investor to Pipefy, Loom, Wonder School, Gametime, HelpScout, Shareaholic and more. Former companies include Grabcad (Acquired by Stratasys), Namo Media (Acquired by Twitter).
Guest Lecturer
2016 - 2018
Guest lecturer on Growth for Mark Roberge and Frank Cespedes entrepreneurship class at Harvard Business School.
VP Growth, Sales Product Division
2014 - 2016
Led the growth team on new products within Hubspot, specifically Sidekick (now HubSpot Sales). We blend consumer marketing tactics, engineering, product, and data to drive rapid growth of engaged users. We are always looking for engineers, designers, and technical marketers to join the growth team. Please reach out if you are interested.
HubSpot develops cloud-based, inbound marketing software that allows businesses to transform the way that they market online.
Raised $100,500,000.00 from Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital, CRV, Cross Creek and Altimeter Capital.
EIR
2012 - 2013
Trinity Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm.
Co-Founder, CMO
2011 - 2012
* Lead user acquisition, customer development, and product teams * Established company's initial direct to consumer marketing strategy including targeted online and offline campaigns * Established and executed ongoing customer development efforts * Raised approx $10M in VC funding
Founder, VP of Growth
2007 - 2011
***Acquired by Tapjoy*** Viximo is one of the largest social game distribution companies working with premium social game developers and international social networks. I co-founded Viximo with Sean Lindsay in Fall of 2007. During my time at Viximo I held multiple executive roles taking on new challenges as the company grew. * Raised over $10M in funding from North Bridge Venture Partners and Sigma Partners * Steered company through pivot to successful product/market fit * Established Viximo's social gaming distribution business signing deals with major distribution sites including IMVU, Tuenti, VZnet, Bebo, MyYearBook, and major social game developers including LOLapps, Casual Collective, Game Insight, Playrix, and more. * Developed Viximo's initial direct to consumer strategy on platforms such as VZnet, growing to over 100K DAU's in under 2 months * Directed company's B2B marketing strategy
Viximo is a social application and gaming platform for social networks and game developers to market their products.
Raised $5,000,000.00 from North Bridge Venture Partners & Growth Equity and Sigma Partners.
Product Manager
2006 - 2007
Managed the development and implementation of social features into Zoominfo.com
ZoomInfo provides B2B contact and company information to accelerate the growth of sales and marketing teams.
Raised $8,554,217.00 from The Carlyle Group and TA Associates.
Founder, President
2004 - 2006
***Acquired By Multiple Parties*** * Founded an event entertainment company at the age of 20 * Bootstrapped to profitability in first year * Signed clients such as General Motors, Toyota, CDW Inc, Major League Baseball, National Football League, Chicago Bulls, and more
Education
B.A.
2001 - 2005