VC Bio: David Weiden

Beginning in door-to-door sales, David learned to appreciate two favorite expressions: "nothing ever happens until somebody sells something" and "the key to success is massive failure," i.e., one has to be willing to fail in order to succeed. One sales pitch led to a full-time job at McCaw Cellular, now AT&T.

After being told in 1995 by his then employer Morgan Stanley that email would never be used for business, David jumped at the chance to join Netscape, where he learned from some great leaders and managers. At Netscape he led the Directory and Security division, which offered among the first commercial products supporting Linux and open source. Later David led AOL's Communications, Community, and Instant Messaging product divisions as they surpassed 50M users worldwide. David then joined Tellme Networks as SVP of marketing and business development. Using a quantitative framework called Rifle, the company grew revenue beyond $100M and to profitability. Microsoft subsequently acquired Tellme.

David's investment focus includes Internet software, digital media, and services and communications. A number of David's investments have been significant acquisitions or had IPOs including Bitfone (HPQ), Good Technology (MOT), Ingenio (T),LogMeIn(LOGM), Opsware (HPQ), Slide (GOOG), and Tellme (MSFT). He has been recognized by Fortune and Forbes as one of the top investors under 40.

David grew up in Seattle and graduated from Harvard magna cum laude with highest honors in the special major Organizational Behavior and Economics. He took additional coursework in engineering at MIT and NYU. He lives with his family in Portola Valley, California, and can be reached at dw@khoslaventures.com