Rami Branitzky
Partner at Sapphire Ventures
Rami Branitzky
Partner at Sapphire Ventures
San Francisco Bay Area
Overview
Work Experience
Partner
2013 - Current
"There are investors and then there are builders. Special thanks to Rami and Sapphire Ventures who help us build at Nutanix." - Sudheesh Nair, Former President, Nutanix
Board Member
2009 - 2016
Was very proud to be on the board of Silicon Valley's leading thought leadership organization. This is our focus: to cultivate a one-stop-shop of world-class people that ignites the kinds of conversations that lead to new ideas, enlivened dreams and personal motivation. Over the past two-and-a-half decades, the Churchill Club has hosted industry and government leaders and luminaries such as Marc Andreessen, Steve Ballmer, Craig Barrett, Ursula Burns, John Chambers, and many others.
CEO
2012 - 2013
CEO of an early stage machine learning start up, founded on the principles described in co-founder Jeff Hawkins' book "On Intelligence." Took the company out of stealth mode and received industry wide recognition, by applying the domain agnostic technology to high value problems such as the Smart Grid. Re-branded and re-launched the company. Won Grok's first marquee customers including industry leaders such as EnerNOC and built meaningful relationships with industry giants such as Siemens, Schneider Electric, and Oracle. Successfully completed a financing round and attracted the company's first outside investor. Under my leadership the company won the prestigious "Cool Vendor in Analytics for 2013" award by Gartner.
Managing Director - North America
2007 - 2011
SAP Labs in North America is SAP’s most strategic center outside of Europe, with 4,000 employees in the U.S. and Canada, encompassing R&D, Partner Ecosystem, and Solution Management. As Managing Director, responsibilities included ; 1) work with the local field organization to promote SAP’s innovation to local customers and partners 2) overseeing the operations of SAP Labs organization across 25 sites in North America, (key sites are in Palo Alto, Cambridge, Montreal and Vancouver); 3) management and oversight of all relevant corporate functions, including human resources, finance, IT, security, facilities, branding, and employee communications • Under my leadership, SAP Labs has been named among the 10 “Top Places to Work” by the Bay Area News Group (first time ever)
Senior Vice President, Global Business Development and Partner Programs
2002 - 2007
Responsible for SAP’s global relationships with Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and major tech vendors, actively managing and overseeing business development and alliances activities, partner programs, and partner marketing. Built and managed a team 5 Vice Presidents located in North America, EMEA and APJ, managing a global organization of 100 FTEs in total. (70 direct report + 30 matrixed worldwide). Key Achievements: • Defined and executed all partnering activities in SAP’s 25 vertical industries (e.g. Oil and Gas, Telco, Banking, etc.) and SAP’s array of horizontal solutions (e.g. ERP, CRM, SCM) to identify recruit and execute all strategic ISV partnerships in these areas. • Introduced partner products to SAP’s Sales Organization, with a quota responsibility of $200MM, driven by SAP reseller and Endorsed Business Solution (EBS) programs (140% YOY growth). • Oversaw technology adoption initiatives to enable partners to increase utilization of enterprise SOA architecture. • Played a key role in establishing SAP as a premier technology platform provider. In conjunction with the launch of SAP NetWeaver platform, strengthened SAP’s position against key competitors e.g. Oracle and Microsoft. o Launched and co-managed the “SAP NetWeaver Fund,” a $125M corporate fund aimed at facilitating co-innovation between SAP and ISVs who complement SAP in key areas. Held a Board seat at three portfolio companies. o Designed, launched and managed the SAP “Powered By NetWeaver” program that provided the marketing and technology thrust behind SAP’s successful community launch of SAP NetWeaver. o Recruited over 2000 ISVs who adopted the SAP NetWeaver platform, which led to significant revenues to SAP. Developed and implemented all program marketing, events, legalities, operations and supporting infrastructure. o Evangelized SAP as an open, partner-friendly platform player to the ISV, SI and VC communities in key markets.
Director, Product Management/Sales Engineering
1997 - 2001
TopTier Software was acquired by SAP AG in 2001 for $400M, a 20X revenue multiple. One of first 10 employees to join TopTier Software in the U.S. Responsible for product definition, on-going product-management, and customer implementations. Oversaw all OEM product lines, totaling over 50% of TopTier’s annual revenue. Handpicked, trained, and managed successful team of Product Managers.
Education
MBA
1994 - 1996
Latest Articles
Announcing Sapphire Venture’s CIO Innovation Index: Benchmarking Disruption Within IT | Sapphire…
Talks about Company Scaling, Sapphire Ventures and Cio