Marten Mickos Joins Benchmark Capital as Entrepreneur-in-Residence
MENLO PARK, Calif., -- Benchmark Capital, an early-stage technology venture capital firm, today announced that Marten Mickos has joined the company as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Mickos was previously CEO of MySQL AB, a company he led for seven years until it was acquired by Sun Microsystems for $1 billion in February 2008. Benchmark was a lead venture investor in MySQL, and Benchmark general partner Kevin Harvey served as chairman of the company's board.
"Joining Benchmark is a natural move for me. We share a people-centric philosophy and a commitment to big ideas," said Mickos. "I look forward to engaging with brilliant and passionate entrepreneurs and company founders, and to helping build massive new businesses."
"Marten's success in building MySQL from a small start-up into one of the world's largest open source companies speaks for itself," said Harvey. "He is one of the most talented and courageous leaders I have worked with, and his inspiration and experience will be tremendously valuable for entrepreneurs in a number of technology sectors, not just enterprise software and open source."
After MySQL was acquired by Sun, Mickos served as Senior Vice President of Sun's Database Group. His previous experience includes multinational CEO and senior executive positions in his native Finland, and he currently serves on the boards of RightScale and Mozilla Messaging. In 2006, he received the Audemars Piguet European Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Nokia Foundation Award.
About Benchmark Capital
Benchmark Capital, an early-stage technology venture capital firm, was founded in 1995 to help talented entrepreneurs with original ideas build successful technology companies. Benchmark's general partners take a team-oriented, labor-intensive approach to venture investing to deliver a superior level of service to the firm's portfolio companies. Benchmark's portfolio includes high-profile start-ups such as Twitter, Second Life, Yelp, and Zillow, recent exits such as Infinera, MySQL, OpenTable, and Tellme, and franchise companies such as eBay, Juniper Networks and Red Hat. The firm manages nearly $2.8 billion in committed venture capital. For more information on Benchmark Capital, visit its website at www.benchmark.com.
"Joining Benchmark is a natural move for me. We share a people-centric philosophy and a commitment to big ideas," said Mickos. "I look forward to engaging with brilliant and passionate entrepreneurs and company founders, and to helping build massive new businesses."
"Marten's success in building MySQL from a small start-up into one of the world's largest open source companies speaks for itself," said Harvey. "He is one of the most talented and courageous leaders I have worked with, and his inspiration and experience will be tremendously valuable for entrepreneurs in a number of technology sectors, not just enterprise software and open source."
After MySQL was acquired by Sun, Mickos served as Senior Vice President of Sun's Database Group. His previous experience includes multinational CEO and senior executive positions in his native Finland, and he currently serves on the boards of RightScale and Mozilla Messaging. In 2006, he received the Audemars Piguet European Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Nokia Foundation Award.
About Benchmark Capital
Benchmark Capital, an early-stage technology venture capital firm, was founded in 1995 to help talented entrepreneurs with original ideas build successful technology companies. Benchmark's general partners take a team-oriented, labor-intensive approach to venture investing to deliver a superior level of service to the firm's portfolio companies. Benchmark's portfolio includes high-profile start-ups such as Twitter, Second Life, Yelp, and Zillow, recent exits such as Infinera, MySQL, OpenTable, and Tellme, and franchise companies such as eBay, Juniper Networks and Red Hat. The firm manages nearly $2.8 billion in committed venture capital. For more information on Benchmark Capital, visit its website at www.benchmark.com.
Posts
No comments: