Eric Darwin
Limited Partner at Firsthand Alliance
Eric Darwin
Limited Partner at Firsthand Alliance
San Juan Capistrano, California
Overview
Work Experience
LP/Member
2022 - Current
VP, Corporate Development and DocuSign Ventures
2020
Head of Corporate Development (M&A & Strategic Investments)
2018 - 2020
Senior Director Corporate Development
2017 - 2018
Director Corporate Development
2014 - 2017
Growth Stage Investor
2014 - 2014
Corporate Development & Salesforce Ventures
2010 - 2014
Early member of the Corporate Development team where I helped build out the M&A and Strategic Investment program. Focused on M&A strategy working closely with Product, Engineering and Sales leadership. Drove the execution of a number of SFDC's acquisitions including Radian6, BuddyMedia, Assistly, DimDim and Model Metrics. Personally worked on 13 completed acquisitions during a ~4 year period when SFDC did ~25 acquisition. In addition, I led evaluation and execution of over 30 strategic investments. In my last year at SFDC I formalized and led the strategic venture program which was subsequently branded as Salesforce Ventures. Select investments include Xactly (IPO, acquired by Vista), ServiceMax (acquired by GE Digital), Assistly (acquired by SFDC), BigMachines (acquired by Oracle), MongoDB (IPO), Apttus (acquired by Thoma Bravo), nCino (IPO), Adaptive Insights (Acquired by Workday). 2 Promotions: Manager to Director Announced deals listed in Projects below.
Investment Banking
2007 - 2010
Initially joined the Internet Coverage team at Lehman Brothers in Menlo Park advising companies on a broad range corporate finance and M&A initiatives. Shortly after the bankruptcy in 2008, my team was hired by the Managing Director we worked for at Lehman to open the West Coast office of Perella Weinberg Partners where we focused on Internet and Software M&A.
Investment Banking (Generalist - Transaction and Valuation)
2006 - 2007
Ocean Lifeguard
2000 - 2006
Associate
2006 - 2006
Public finance and development economics. Advised school districts across Southern California on creating special tax zones for purpose of issuing bonds in partnership with residential home builders and investment banks.