Paul Holland
Chairman, Venture Investing and Shift AI Board Member
A successful veteran of Silicon Valley, Paul oversees Mach49’s Venture Investing practice. He works with global businesses to design, launch, and manage CVC Funds that leverage the experience, deal flow, global network, and success of his team of top-tier Silicon Valley VCs. Paul supports Executive Investment Committees, bringing the discipline, portfolio mindset, metrics, and best practices needed to drive meaningful growth. He also teaches clients best-in-class methods for partnering with and leveraging external startups to drive maximum value and innovation across the core business.
Paul has been a General Partner at leading venture capital fund, Foundation Capital, for 18 years helping take startup companies from zero to $100M to IPO or acquisition. He enjoys being on the front lines—working side-by-side with entrepreneurs developing fast-growing, dynamic new ventures—experience he is also bringing to support Mach49’s work helping large companies build their own disruptive ventures.
Prior to joining Foundation, he had an equally stellar operating career, joining Reed Hastings at Pure Software, ultimately running Europe, Middle East, and Africa and helping Pure have one of the hottest IPOs of that vintage. He was later recruited by Benchmark Capital to join Mark Gainey at Kana Communications as its first C-suite executive to help Kana grow quickly and go public, ultimately attaining a $9B market cap. In total, Paul helped generate over $13B in market capitalization during his operating career.
Paul began his career at SRI International, where, as he likes to tell his kids, he was a “human Google,” conducting inquiries on a broad variety of topics for global businesses.
He received his MBA from UC Berkeley, MA from University of Virginia, and BS from James Madison University. Paul is a former president of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, and he is the producer of the documentary Something Ventured, about the early days of the Silicon Valley. He premiered his newest creative endeavor for the stage: Walls: An American Story in January 2020. He has guest lectured on entrepreneurship at Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth, MIT, University of Virginia, and James Madison University.
Paul has been a General Partner at leading venture capital fund, Foundation Capital, for 18 years helping take startup companies from zero to $100M to IPO or acquisition. He enjoys being on the front lines—working side-by-side with entrepreneurs developing fast-growing, dynamic new ventures—experience he is also bringing to support Mach49’s work helping large companies build their own disruptive ventures.
Prior to joining Foundation, he had an equally stellar operating career, joining Reed Hastings at Pure Software, ultimately running Europe, Middle East, and Africa and helping Pure have one of the hottest IPOs of that vintage. He was later recruited by Benchmark Capital to join Mark Gainey at Kana Communications as its first C-suite executive to help Kana grow quickly and go public, ultimately attaining a $9B market cap. In total, Paul helped generate over $13B in market capitalization during his operating career.
Paul began his career at SRI International, where, as he likes to tell his kids, he was a “human Google,” conducting inquiries on a broad variety of topics for global businesses.
He received his MBA from UC Berkeley, MA from University of Virginia, and BS from James Madison University. Paul is a former president of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, and he is the producer of the documentary Something Ventured, about the early days of the Silicon Valley. He premiered his newest creative endeavor for the stage: Walls: An American Story in January 2020. He has guest lectured on entrepreneurship at Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth, MIT, University of Virginia, and James Madison University.
Paul Holland
Chairman, Venture Investing and Shift AI Board Member
A successful veteran of Silicon Valley, Paul oversees Mach49’s Venture Investing practice. He works with global businesses to design, launch, and manage CVC Funds that leverage the experience, deal flow, global network, and success of his team of top-tier Silicon Valley VCs. Paul supports Executive Investment Committees, bringing the discipline, portfolio mindset, metrics, and best practices needed to drive meaningful growth. He also teaches clients best-in-class methods for partnering with and leveraging external startups to drive maximum value and innovation across the core business.
Paul has been a General Partner at leading venture capital fund, Foundation Capital, for 18 years helping take startup companies from zero to $100M to IPO or acquisition. He enjoys being on the front lines—working side-by-side with entrepreneurs developing fast-growing, dynamic new ventures—experience he is also bringing to support Mach49’s work helping large companies build their own disruptive ventures.
Prior to joining Foundation, he had an equally stellar operating career, joining Reed Hastings at Pure Software, ultimately running Europe, Middle East, and Africa and helping Pure have one of the hottest IPOs of that vintage. He was later recruited by Benchmark Capital to join Mark Gainey at Kana Communications as its first C-suite executive to help Kana grow quickly and go public, ultimately attaining a $9B market cap. In total, Paul helped generate over $13B in market capitalization during his operating career.
Paul began his career at SRI International, where, as he likes to tell his kids, he was a “human Google,” conducting inquiries on a broad variety of topics for global businesses.
He received his MBA from UC Berkeley, MA from University of Virginia, and BS from James Madison University. Paul is a former president of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, and he is the producer of the documentary Something Ventured, about the early days of the Silicon Valley. He premiered his newest creative endeavor for the stage: Walls: An American Story in January 2020. He has guest lectured on entrepreneurship at Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth, MIT, University of Virginia, and James Madison University.
Paul has been a General Partner at leading venture capital fund, Foundation Capital, for 18 years helping take startup companies from zero to $100M to IPO or acquisition. He enjoys being on the front lines—working side-by-side with entrepreneurs developing fast-growing, dynamic new ventures—experience he is also bringing to support Mach49’s work helping large companies build their own disruptive ventures.
Prior to joining Foundation, he had an equally stellar operating career, joining Reed Hastings at Pure Software, ultimately running Europe, Middle East, and Africa and helping Pure have one of the hottest IPOs of that vintage. He was later recruited by Benchmark Capital to join Mark Gainey at Kana Communications as its first C-suite executive to help Kana grow quickly and go public, ultimately attaining a $9B market cap. In total, Paul helped generate over $13B in market capitalization during his operating career.
Paul began his career at SRI International, where, as he likes to tell his kids, he was a “human Google,” conducting inquiries on a broad variety of topics for global businesses.
He received his MBA from UC Berkeley, MA from University of Virginia, and BS from James Madison University. Paul is a former president of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, and he is the producer of the documentary Something Ventured, about the early days of the Silicon Valley. He premiered his newest creative endeavor for the stage: Walls: An American Story in January 2020. He has guest lectured on entrepreneurship at Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth, MIT, University of Virginia, and James Madison University.
