Chris Tsakalakis
Venture Partner at Serac Ventures
Chris Tsakalakis
Venture Partner at Serac Ventures
San Francisco, California
Overview
Work Experience
Managing Partner
2022 - Current
Providing consulting and advisory services to drive profitable growth for technology companies. Recent projects included US market entry strategy for solar business and identifying strategic partners for online car auction company.
Venture Partner
2023
Venture partner at first time venture capital fund. Providing due diligence for potential investments and strategic advice to portfolio companies
Member Board of Directors
2021
findhelp is America’s leading social care network, which features more than 500 thousand distinct program locations that provide help to millions of people across the country. As a member of the board of directors, I provide advice to the CEO and governance for this company as it rapidly scales and grows.
Chief Executive Officer
2021 - 2022
CEO of Kiva, an international nonprofit with a mission to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive. As CEO, I added to the diversity of the leadership team by hiring a new chief marketing officer (CMO), chief people officer (CPO) and chief financial officer (CFO). Focused the organization on increasing the amount of microloans funded by setting that as a clear goal and shutting down a division that did not further that goal.
Chief Executive Officer
2018 - 2019
Second CEO of Vivino, the world's largest online wine marketplace and most downloaded wine app. Established company vision and values. Led a team in accelerating sales that grew 2.3x in 2019 vs. 2017. Turned around unit economics from negative to positive. Raised $9 million in new funding. Built out leadership team with the hiring of Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer. Launched wine sales in 5 new countries.
Entrepreneur in Residence
2016 - 2017
Entrepreneur in Residence at leading venture capital firm, Benchmark Capital. Sought opportunities to start, invest in or lead high growth, technology driven companies in the ecommerce, marketplaces, health, fitness and nutrition spaces.
President
2007 - 2014
Led the acquisition of StubHub by eBay and responsible for leading and growing the company. Over 8 years, grew value of tickets sold from $400 million to $3.2 billion and increased operating profit 15 times. Over the same time period, expanded StubHub outside the United States and doubled customer satisfaction and employee engagement.
Vice President
2006 - 2014
Over a nearly 12 year career at eBay, I held various roles of increasing responsibility including: • Vice President of Advanced Solutions (Stores, ProStores, Seller Marketing, Shipping, Trading Platforms and eBay's Developer Program) from March 2006 to February 2007 • Leading the acquisition of StubHub from October 2006 to February 2007. • Running the combined eBay Tickets / StubHub business, responsible for full P&L, from February 2007 to November 2014
Senior Director
2003 - 2006
• Senior Director of eBay Stores from April 2003 to January 2005 • Senior Director of Stores (eBay Stores + ProStores) from January to August of 2005 • Senior Director of Stores and Platforms from August 2005 to March 2006 Managed at team that grew from 4 to over 30 people. Made dramatic improvements to the eBay Stores offering and rapidly increased the number of subscribers from 50 to over 300 thousand. Increased revenue from $8 to $200 million in 3 years. Acquired Kurant and rebranded that to be ProStores, an online ecommerce platform for small businesses. Took on responsibilities for the eBay developer program and private marketplaces in August of 2005.
CEO, Founder
1998 - 2003
Founded and managed a consulting firm focused on high technology startups. Clients include companies in the software, Internet, e-commerce, wireless and telephony industries. Managed profit and loss and operations. Concluded 17 contracts with 14 clients in a 28 month time period. Developed company, marketing and product strategies, business plans, financial projections and competitive analyses.
Director, Market Development
1999 - 2000
Responsible for product management and business development for a leading, business-to-business e-commerce application service provider (ASP).