Menlo Ventures Hires Naomi Pilosof Ionita and Chris Penner
Summary
Pilosof is a sought-out advisor to companies, and serves as a guest lecturer in tech communities such as 500 Startups and Reforge.At Menlo, she will focus on consumer and prosumer business models and will lead investments in companies with high potential to scale using product-driven growth strategies.In this multifaceted role, Penner serves as a co-director of Menlo FUEL, an in-house arm that provides forward-thinking guidance and resources in the areas of sales, business development, marketing and talent.In addition to working with Menlo’s portfolio companies on their GTM strategies, he will further build out the firm’s ecosystem of advisors, industry leaders, CIOs and other functional heads—including, Menlo’s Enterprise Briefing Center, with a focus on driving potential prospects and customers to portfolio companies.Notable areas of investment include: – Marketplaces (Uber, Rover.com, Breather, RealtyShares, Getaround); – Consumer Services (Machine Zone, Tumblr, Betterment, Poshmark, Roku, Siri); – Smart Cloud Infrastructure (Dropcam, 3Par, Avi Networks, Avere Systems, eero); – SaaS (Carbonite, Signifyd, Clarifai, Overops, Usermind), Fintech (Betterment, Bluevine, RealtyShares); Cybersecurity (Cavium, IronPort, BitSight, vArmour, Dedrone); and Life Sciences Technology (Synthego, Cofactor Genomics, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, 3T Biosciences).