Venktesh Shukla
Managing Partner at Monta Vista Capital
Venktesh Shukla
Managing Partner at Monta Vista Capital
Cupertino, California
Overview
Work Experience
Founder & Managing Partner
2014 - Current
Currently investing out of its third fund, Monta Vista Capital is a seed stage venture fund that invests in strong IP based companies with transformational impact on the industry. Typically, the fund invests in technologists with deep domain expertise and a disruptive vision of the future. The fund relies on its extensive network of relationships for helping its portfolio companies with introduction to customers, partners and initial set of employees. The fund prides itself on being entrepreneur friendly and providing help beyond funding. Companies invested include Aviatrix, Tekion, Cequence Security, Captiv8, Tatari, Omni Design Technology, Nyansa (acquired by Vmware) Fortella (acquired by 6Sense), PatternEx (acquired by Corelight), DuploCloud, SafeAi, MotorQ, KlearNow, Connext Network, Spatial Inc, Lightbeam, Convai, Eridan, Minds.ai, Compute.ai, Boomerang Intelligence, Strike Ready, Uhnder, XY Retail, The Modern Data Company, Bumblebee Networks & FirstShift.ai
President, Member of the Board and Trustee
1994
FFE helps talented but poor students in India realize their dreams of becoming doctors, engineers or scientists. As the largest scholarship giving entity in India, it has awarded 18000 scholarships over the last 22 years. Its founding president since inception till 2012 and now a member of the Board in FFE USA and a trustee of the FFE India Trust.
Trustee / Chairman
2015 - 2020
With 61 chapters across 18 countries. TiE’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship globally through mentoring, networking, education, and funding. Dedicated to the virtuous cycle of wealth creation and giving back to the community, TiE’s focus is on generating and nurturing our next generation of entrepreneurs. TiE is unique in the sense that it is the only organization in the world that brings together the most successful people in the world with those who want to be successful under one umbrella.
President & Member, Council of Trustees
2013 - 2016
As president of the largest chapter of TiE ( 60 chapters worldwide) led it to all time record in terms of membership, revenue and relevance to Silicon Valley. The aim of this non profit is to provide a platform for interaction of its charter members and to promote wealth creation through entrepreneurship. Its charter members represent the entire ecosystem of entrepreneurship including partners from leading VC funds, senior corporate executives and successful entrepreneurs as well leading attorneys and accountants. Its annual flagship conference, TiEcon, was rated by Worth magazine among the top 10 conferences worldwide for ideas and entrepreneurship along with World Economic Forum, TED, and Demo. TiE organizes programs that inspire, educate, fund and mentor aspiring entrepreneurs. Launched popular programs such as TiE Angels for angel funding, TiE Launchpad as an accelerator for B2B start ups, TiE CIO Forum and Lunch with Movers and Shakers.
Member, Board of Trustees
2012 - 2016
Good Samaritan is an acute care hospital serving Santa Clara County, California, in two locations: main campus in San Jose and Mission Oaks campus in Los Gatos. Through leadership in research and adopting the latest technological and clinical practices, Good Samaritan Hospital offers excellent medical care for the people of Silicon Valley and surrounding counties. Good Samaritan Hospital is one of the first five hospitals in the United States certified by the Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center. Readers of Bay Area Parent magazine have chosen Good Sam as the "Bay Area's Best Place to Have a Baby" and "Family Favorite Hospital" for 10 consecutive years. Our Inpatient Acute Rehabilitation Program is the only Silicon Valley hospital with a CARF accreditation specifically for stroke. In 2008, Good Samaritan was again the only northern California hospital to receive the Outstanding Achievement Award from the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. Good Samaritan is an accredited Chest Pain Center.
Chair
2010 - 2012
Started an angel investor group called TiE Angels. In June 2012, had 135 members in this group to provide seed funding to promising entrepreneurs. TiE Angels has funded 15 companies so far.
Member, Board of Directors
2004 - 2012
Technology leader in hardware assisted verification of complex semiconductor chips. Headquartered in France, the company's platform enables HW/SW verification early in the design cycle. Most of the top 2O chip companies including Intel, Apple, Sony, Texas Instruments, ST, and ARM are its customers. The company had a succesful exit through acquisition by Synopsys.
Chief Executive Officer
2005 - 2010
Raised $12 million in a climate hostile for EDA investment. Built an outstanding team of engineers in Los Gatos and Bangalore. The breakthrough functional verification technology received exceptionally favorable review in the industry. Sold to Synopsys.
Sr. V.P. Marketing & Business Development
2002 - 2004
Recruited to this specially created position for me that combined product marketing, corporate marketing and business development for this global company with $220 million in revenue at its peak. Pruned product lines enabling engineering to focus on high value products only. Created tools and training to enable sales team to move away from transaction based selling approach to architecture based selling leading to rapid revenue growth. Changed the paradigm of interaction with Wall Street and with industry influencers. Dramatically improved perception of the technology breakthrough in the marketplace led stock price rise from $6 to $29 at its peak with a market cap of $1 billion for the company.
Chief Executive Officer
1999 - 2002
Joined this six-person start up and built it into the leading enterprise mobile company of the day. The company which started under the name of Web-on-Phone, Inc., provided an innovative solution for voice and mobile based interaction. Signed up customers like E-Trade, Fidelity, Alaska Airlines, America West Airlines, Biogen, NTT, Hitachi and Toshiba. Raised $86 million in equity investment. The company received numerous honors such as Red Herring Top 20, Upside 100, Computerworld 100, Forbes' 25 Best of the Web, C-NET's top 10 mobile company and many others. Despite the tough economy, generated revenues of $4.6 million in the first full year of product shipment in 2001. Built a 120 person company with exceptional employee loyalty with voluntary departures being less than 2% during my period at the helm. Recruited a successor and left the company due to strategic differences with the Board in negotiating a tough economy following the market collapse