Greylock Partners has been long focused on two distinct areas when it comes to venture investments—consumer and enterprise. The last consumer partner hire the firm made was former CEO of Mozilla, John Lilly. And today, the firm is deepening its experience in its enterprise practice with the addition of Dev Ittycheria as Venture Partner in Greylock’s Silicon Valley office.
At Greylock, Ittycheria will be focusing on investing in enterprise software companies, with a focus on cloud-based services and enabling IT infrastructure. Ittycheria is a long-time enterprise veteran with a history of not only founding successful startups, but also helping lead established companies towards revenue growth. He co-founded BladeLogic, which he led through a successful IPO and eventually a sale to BMC Software in 2008 for $900 million.
Following the acquisition, Ittycheria was the President of BMC Software where he led BMC’s $1.4 billion enterprise service management business with more than 4,000 employees in over 25 countries. Prior to BladeLogic, he founded early cloud computing pioneer Applica, which merged with Brakeaway Solutions (Brakeaway went public in the late 1990s). He also had a brief role as Entrepreneur-In-Residence in Bessemer Venture Partners.
More recently, Ittycheria has been a startup investor and board member at several companies including Bazaarvoice, AthenaHealth and application management company AppDynamics (where Greylock is a founding investor). It was actually through his recent work with AppDynamics that he grew closer to Greylock partner Asheem Chandna, who also serves on the company’s board. Chandna tells us he felt that Ittycheria’s experience advising enterprise companies and leading his own ventures would fit perfectly with Greylock’s venture strategy.
Ittycheria, who has already started actively helping a number of Greylock companies think through and refine their go-to-market and distribution strategies, tells us jokingly that after having started, built and scaled two companies, he has lots of scar tissue, and enjoys helping advising other enterprise companies navigate through these waters. He explains, “I chose Greylock because they have amazing track record in both enterprise and consumer…It’s a great cultural fit.”
With the addition of Ittycheria, Greylock’s senior investing team in enterprise now includes six professionals, says Chandna.
Ittycheria explains that particularly interested in investing in companies enabling cloud servers and underlying management and IT infrastructure, including storage, big data, enterprise mobility, and security.
He adds that he believes that IT buying behavior has changed significantly since his days at BladeLogic. “Companies are realizing there’s not a lot of innovation coming out large incumbents in the enterprise. Today, because of the disruptive technologies coming out of startups, customers are much more open to working to smaller, innovative companies.” Because of this trend, he believes it’s a “great time to be en enterprise investor.”
Source:http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/29/greylock-deepens-enterprise-experience-adds-former-bladelogic-ceo-and-bmc-president-as-venture-partner/
At Greylock, Ittycheria will be focusing on investing in enterprise software companies, with a focus on cloud-based services and enabling IT infrastructure. Ittycheria is a long-time enterprise veteran with a history of not only founding successful startups, but also helping lead established companies towards revenue growth. He co-founded BladeLogic, which he led through a successful IPO and eventually a sale to BMC Software in 2008 for $900 million.
Following the acquisition, Ittycheria was the President of BMC Software where he led BMC’s $1.4 billion enterprise service management business with more than 4,000 employees in over 25 countries. Prior to BladeLogic, he founded early cloud computing pioneer Applica, which merged with Brakeaway Solutions (Brakeaway went public in the late 1990s). He also had a brief role as Entrepreneur-In-Residence in Bessemer Venture Partners.
More recently, Ittycheria has been a startup investor and board member at several companies including Bazaarvoice, AthenaHealth and application management company AppDynamics (where Greylock is a founding investor). It was actually through his recent work with AppDynamics that he grew closer to Greylock partner Asheem Chandna, who also serves on the company’s board. Chandna tells us he felt that Ittycheria’s experience advising enterprise companies and leading his own ventures would fit perfectly with Greylock’s venture strategy.
Ittycheria, who has already started actively helping a number of Greylock companies think through and refine their go-to-market and distribution strategies, tells us jokingly that after having started, built and scaled two companies, he has lots of scar tissue, and enjoys helping advising other enterprise companies navigate through these waters. He explains, “I chose Greylock because they have amazing track record in both enterprise and consumer…It’s a great cultural fit.”
With the addition of Ittycheria, Greylock’s senior investing team in enterprise now includes six professionals, says Chandna.
Ittycheria explains that particularly interested in investing in companies enabling cloud servers and underlying management and IT infrastructure, including storage, big data, enterprise mobility, and security.
He adds that he believes that IT buying behavior has changed significantly since his days at BladeLogic. “Companies are realizing there’s not a lot of innovation coming out large incumbents in the enterprise. Today, because of the disruptive technologies coming out of startups, customers are much more open to working to smaller, innovative companies.” Because of this trend, he believes it’s a “great time to be en enterprise investor.”
Source:http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/29/greylock-deepens-enterprise-experience-adds-former-bladelogic-ceo-and-bmc-president-as-venture-partner/
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