The help and connectedness

Frank Artale is a managing partner at Ignition, joining the firm in 2011. His career in the software industry began in 1984. He most recently served as group vice president, business development at Citrix Systems, where he was responsible for all aspects of Citrix’s business development with software and hardware technology partners.

Frank joined Citrix from XenSource, where he was responsible for strategic operations and business development. Prior to XenSource, Artale was a founder and CEO of Consera Software, a management-software company, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2004. Before founding Consera, Frank was vice president of the Windows Solutions Group for VERITAS Software, where he oversaw overall product strategy for Windows targeted solutions.

He also was a general manager in the Windows 2000 group at Microsoft, one of the many product-management and sales positions he held during his nine-year career with the company. Before joining Microsoft, he held positions as a software engineer and engineering manager building trader workstation and retail-brokerage delivery systems, first at an IBM/Merrill Lynch joint venture (IMNET), then at FD Consulting.

Frank led Ignition’s investments in Appfog, Couchbase, Cloudera, MessageBus, ScaleXtreme and ServiceMesh. He is currently a member of the board of directors for Tellwise, TipBit, Unidesk, BlueStacks Systems, Bromium, Apprenda, Coho Data, SkyTap, SnapLogic, and Trifacta. In 2012 Frank was named to GigaOm’s list of top cloud VCs and, in 2013, to both the Forbes Midas “Hot Prospects” list and AlwaysOn’s “Power Players in the Cloud” list.

Frank attended Polytechnic Institute of New York as a Board of Trustees Scholar where he studied electrical engineering and computer science.

John Connors is a managing partner at Ignition.  John joined Ignition in 2005 after a distinguished career as a software-industry executive.

John spent sixteen years at Microsoft in several high-level, strategic roles. From January 2000 to April 2005 he was senior vice president of finance and administration, as well as the company’s chief financial officer. He also served as vice president of the Worldwide Enterprise Group and vice president and chief information officer (CIO). Before becoming CIO, John held a number of positions within and outside finance, including corporate controller; general manager of worldwide financial operations; director of business operations at Microsoft’s European headquarters in Paris; and director of business operations for the Worldwide Sales and Support Strategy Group.

John is a member of the board of directors of Nike (NKE), Splunk (SPLK), FiREapps, Xamarin, DataSphere, Motif Investing, Chef, Azuqua and Tempered Networks. He was also a board member of Xensource, acquired by Citrix in 2007; Heroku, acquired by Salesforce.com in 2010; Parse, acquired by Facebook in 2013; Tier 3, acquired by CenturyLink in 2013: and Scout Analytics, acquired by ServiceSource in 2014.  John also led Ignition’s investment in Splunk (IPO 2012).  John was named to the 2013 Forbes Midas List, a ranking of the world’s top venture capital investors, and to Business Insider’s 2013 list of top enterprise technology VCs.

John received his BA in accounting from the University of Montana. He also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Montana.

Nick Sturiale joined Ignition in 2013, as a managing partner and oversees the Palo Alto office. Early on, Nick spent 12 years as an entrepreneur in three startups where he held most all functional roles from QA, to product management to channel sales to marketing and BD. He was also founding CEO and Director of Timbre Technologies, a manufacturing-analytics software company, which won the 1999 UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition and was acquired by Tokyo Electron for $138 million in 2001.

As a VC the last 15 years, Nick’s has been directly involved in over 100 startups, held more than 25 board seats and invested across multiple platform generations from applications to web/cloud infrastructure to mobile enterprise to Big Data. To date, Nick’s companies have generated nearly $700M in realized value from approximately $100M in investment cost.

Prior to Ignition, Nick spent three years at Icon Ventures (formerly JAFCO Ventures) as a general partner, where he invested in companies such as VuClip (PCCW), Reputation.com, Bill.com and Delphix. Nick spent eight years at Sevin Rosen Funds, where he incubated and led first investments in companies such as Actional (PRGS), XenSource (CTXS), Solidcore (INTC) and Splunk (SPLK). Nick also worked at The Carlyle Group as a managing director and co-head of its Silicon Valley office.

Nick holds a BS degree (and completed BA requirements) from California State University, Chico, and an MBA with academic distinction from the University of California, Berkeley, where he is a frequent guest lecturer and a member of the Haas School Dean’s Advisory Group.

Cameron Myhrvold is a founding partner with Ignition, helping to start the firm in 1999. He worked as a top executive at Microsoft for more than a decade and previously co-founded a start-up software company that he sold to Microsoft.

Cameron worked for 13 years at Microsoft, mainly on operating system products. He was most recently the vice president of the Internet Customer Unit, where he was responsible for building business relationships with network operators and a broad range of telecommunications providers.

Prior to that Cameron created the Developer Relations Group at Microsoft, which evangelized Windows and Microsoft’s other operating-system technologies to independent software vendors and third-party developers. This effort eventually became a 320-member team with an annual budget of $65 million, and was responsible for revenue of over $400 million. It created a community of 44,000 independent software vendors to develop Windows software.

Earlier Cameron co-founded Dynamical Systems, a company that developed multitasking operating systems for the PC, which he sold to Microsoft in 1986.

Cameron serves on the boards of Cloudmark, Cask and Tempered Networks. He previously served on the boards of Topsy (acquired by Apple), Zenprise (acquired by Citrix Systems), Azaleos (acquired by Avanade), Likewise Software (acquired by EMC), Consera (acquired by Hewlett-Packard), Rendition Networks (acquired by Opsware) and RLX Technologies (acquired by Hewlett-Packard). He also acted as Ignition observer on the board of Splunk (SPLK). Cameron also serves on the Board of WildTangent and Seeq.

Cameron received a BA degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

Michelle Goldberg is a Partner at Ignition. She is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and emerging and future leaders in consumer and digital media software. Michelle cultivates CEOs, entrepreneurs and engineers to foster their talents and help bring their vision to life. She currently sits on 7 for profit and not for profit boards, including Glympse, Visible Technologies, SEOmoz, Ice.com. She previously sat on the board of TrackSimple, which was acquired in 2011 by BlueKai.

In addition to her work as a community mentor and VC, she is an active fundraiser and advisor in education. Prior to joining Ignition, Michelle consulted to Microsoft’s Developer Division, worked as an investment banker in mergers and acquisitions at Olympic Capital Partners, and as a management consultant with A.T. Kearney and the China External Trade Development Council (CETRA) in Taiwan.

She was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Women in Technology by the Puget Sound Business Journal, and was a 2008 “40 under 40” Honoree.

Michelle was awarded a Masters degree from Harvard University, and holds an undergraduate degree from Columbia University in the City of New York.

Jonathan Roberts is a Founder and Partner of Ignition. He invests in business application and services companies and is a director on the boards of AVST, Docusign, Spoken and Earth Class Mail.

Prior to Ignition Roberts spent 13 years at Microsoft, most recently as General Manager of the Windows CE Intelligent Appliance Division, where he was responsible for developing new WinCE products, product marketing, business development and long-term planning for the Windows CE platform as well as the retargeting of the Microsoft’s PocketPC effort. Roberts led the marketing and business efforts for Windows 3.1, 3.11, Windows NT 3.51, NT 4.0, BackOffice 1.0, Windows 98 and NT 4.0 on the Desktop, and finally all of Windows CE including embedded, Pocket PC, Auto, Phones, Set-top, Games, etc. Roberts received his B.A. in history from the University of Washington where he was also Student Body President. In addition to his Ignition boards, Jonathan was formerly on the executive committees of Epiphany School and the University of Washington Foundation Board.

Chris is a Principal at Ignition and invests in consumer internet and cloud computing investments and oversees Ignition’s seed program. He is on the board or an observer of Batch, Hipmunk, Datasphere, Fotopedia, Keas, Parse, SocialEyes and worked closely with Tracksimple prior to being acquired by BlueKai. He works with Ignition’s Entrepreneurs in Residence and portfolio companies on product definition, market segmentation and positioning, customer acquisition and retention, business development, recruiting, and fundraising.

Prior to joining Ignition, Chris spent 10 years in advertising and marketing roles, focused on startup brand development. At Heckler Associates, a leading branding firm, he launched Aravon, New Balance’s entrance in the comfort shoe segment, and Procare, New Balance’s partner program. He also worked on campaigns for PF Flyers, Suncadia, and Colgate. At Pivot + Levy, a marketing strategy and creative firm, he led business development, working with clients like Microsoft, Attachmate, and WCI Telecom.

Chris was marketing manager at the closeout sporting goods retailer Gear.com, prior to its sale to Overstock, where he ran offline and online marketing, including online advertising and sponsorships, search engine marketing, email marketing, as well as traditional ad campaigns. Chris began his career at Team One Advertising as an account executive, managing the national brand campaigns for Lexus and the American Cancer Society.

Chris earned his bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Occidental College and an M.B.A. from the University of Washington where he was a McGowan Scholar. Chris enjoys a long run along Lake Washington, cycling, skiing/snowboarding, and time with his wife and their three energetic boys.

Brad is a Founding Partner of Ignition. He invests in software, infrastructure, and consumer companies. Brad represents Ignition as director on the boards of Avvo, Fotopedia, Hipmunk, Ice.com, Keas, SocialEyes and TravelPost. Brad has previously served on the boards of GlobalScholar (acquired by Harland Clarke), SEVEN, and SourceLabs (acquired by EMC), and was an observer for Heroku (acquired by Salesforce.com).

Prior to founding Ignition, Brad is best known as an industry pioneer who built the Microsoft Windows franchise and led Microsoft’s Internet turnaround. During his nine-year tenure at Microsoft, he was a senior vice president and member of Microsoft’s nine-member Executive Committee. He was responsible for driving all aspects of the Windows business from 1990 through 1995, including establishing the vision and strategy, and executing on product marketing and development. In five years, he grew Windows from a $50 million business to over $3.5 billion. He was also responsible for the MS-DOS business during that period. He was named PC Magazine’s Person of the Year in 1995 for his leadership of Windows 95.

From 1994 through 1997, Brad led the Internet effort at Microsoft and was responsible for its Internet platform, as well as the Developer Tools Division and the Developer Relations Group. As part of the Internet efforts, Brad’s responsibilities included Internet Explorer versions 1-4, which he grew from 0% share to over 60%, Outlook Express, Java, Commerce Server, and Commercial Internet Server.

In 1996 and 1997, he also led the Microsoft Office division, was responsible for over $6 billion in revenue and managed over 5,000 people. In 1998-1999, Brad worked part-time at Microsoft, primarily as a strategic consultant for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Prior to Microsoft, Brad’s career involved running product development at Borland International; running product development at Silicon Valley startup called Analytica, which was later acquired by Borland; product development at Apple Computer; and computer science research at SRI International.

He received a Bachelor of Science degree magna cum laude in Computer Science from Brown University, and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Toronto.

Outside of Ignition, Brad enjoys bicycling, snowboarding, wakeboarding, and travel.

Steve is a Founding Partner of Ignition. He invests in telecommunications and wireless companies. Steve represents Ignition as a director on the boards of Modiv, TTMI, SeaMobile, Sparkplug, Public Mobile, Airbiquity and AVST. Steve also serves on the board of InfoSpace. He previously served on the board of Avogadro (acquired by OpenWave) and UIEvolution (acquired by SquareEnix).

Prior to Ignition, Steve worked closely with Craig McCaw for 18 years and was CEO of every major McCaw Company except Nextel. Most recently, Steve was the Chairman and CEO of Nextlink Communications (now XO Communications), where he was responsible for repositioning the company to a true Integrated Communications Provider offering a full complement of voice and data services.

Prior to Nextlink, Steve served as the co-CEO of Teledesic with Craig McCaw. In that capacity, he oversaw the operation of the company and the negotiation of the multi-billion dollar satellite contract with Motorola.

From 1994 to 1997, Steve served as CEO of AT&T Wireless. As President and CEO of AT&T Wireless, Steve grew the company from $1.8 billion sales to $4 billion. As CEO, Steve bought LIN Broadcasting for $3.5 billion; expanded AT&T’s footprint via the PCS auctions; built national GSM networks in India, Hong Kong and Taiwan; worked with Nokia to build the cornerstone of AT&T’s “Digital One Rate” offering; deployed the first nationwide packet-based data network; and launched the first nationwide digital air-to-ground network, achieving 40% market share.

Prior to becoming CEO of AT&T Wireless, Steve was part of the small McCaw team that recognized cellular’s promise in the early eighties. Steve financed McCaw’s expansion into cellular, raising $200 million in the industry’s first high-yield cellular deal and taking the company public in 1987. Steve also had extensive operational responsibility at McCaw. Steve was the president of McCaw’s cable operations and successfully sold that business for $750 million. From there he moved into Cellular operations where he was responsible for a large part of the McCaw cellular footprint in the United States.

Steve holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Seattle University, where he served as a Trustee of the Seattle University Board for 14 years.

Richard is a Partner at Ignition focusing primarily on infrastructure software, including virtualization, cloud and services investments. Richard’s prior investments include; Appature (IMS Health 2013), Azaleos (Avanade 2012), GotVoice (Spoken 2009),InstallFree (WatchDox 2012), Likewise (Isilon/EMC 2012), StorSimple (Microsoft 2012) and WHIPTAIL (Cisco 2013). He currently serves on the boards of Onehub and Talyst while working with several early stage technology companies in the Northwest.

Prior to joining Ignition, Richard was 16 years at Microsoft Corporation in several leadership roles including serving on the executive staff as a division level vice president. Most recently Richard was Senior Vice President of the OEM division where he was responsible for Microsoft’s licensing business with PC OEM and embedded device manufacturers. Richard served as VP Desktop and Consumer Applications, overseeing the creation and launch of Office 97 and several Microsoft Office product line extensions. Richard was Vice President of the Internet Business Unit and served as Vice President Far East Region where he was responsible for product development, sales, and marketing for Japan, China and Korea. Richard led the teams which produced the first successful double byte versions of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office applications.

Richard and his wife Susan have been active in helping families of children with developmental disorders. The Fades co-founded the Autism Center at the University of Washington. Richard is a board member of the Autism Center, and co-founder and prior chairman of the Autism Treatment Network (now a part of Autism Speaks).