Keith Rabois

Current

• Vice President, Strategy & Business Development at Slide

Past

• Vice President, Business & Corporate Development at LinkedIn
• Chief Operating Officer at Epoch Innovations
• Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Clarium Capital Management

• Executive Vice President, Business Development, Public Affairs & Policy at PayPal
• Director/VP, Business Development at Voter.com
• Policy Director at Quayle 2000
• Associate at Sullivan & Cromwell
• Law Clerk at Honorable Edith H. Jones, Unites States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

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Education

• Harvard Law School
• Stanford University

Recommended

19 people have recommended Keith

Connections

496 connections

Industry

Internet

Keith Rabois’s Summary

I craft business strategies to navigate precarious business environments. I create new products, generate innovative business models, craft provocative public policies, and love to solve intractable problems.

After leaving PayPal, I have been actively engaged with five Internet ventures funded by Sequoia as well as five other VC-financed Internet businesses. Since 2000, I have served as an executive or Director of at least 6 Internet companies named Best of the Web and at least 4 Webby Award winners.

I serve on the Board of Directors of yelp, Vendio, Xoom and FanIq.

I enjoy investing in promising new consumer Internet companies, including youtube (series A), LinkedIn (series A), geni.com (series B), Alter-G (series A), BluBet (series A), Handipoints (Series A), TokBox (Series A) and Yammer.

I mentor young entrepreneurs via Youniversity Ventures.

Keith Rabois’s Specialties:

Consumer Internet, Business Development, business strategy, competitive strategy, regulatory risk, Government Affairs, Litigation, Politics, network businesses, eBay vulnerabilities, viral marketing, start-ups, online payments, eCommerce, widgets, Facebook apps

Keith Rabois’s Experience

• Vice President, Strategy & Business Development

  Slide

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  May 2007 — Present (1 year 6 months)

  Slide is the world's best, and most popular, producer of widgets & social entertainment applications.
  
  Last month 170 million unique people viewed our Flash products (per comScore) and nearly 40 million unique users engaged with our Facebook applications. We lead Facebook developers with the two most popular popular apps developed on the platform (Top Friends, FunWall) as well as the cultural icon, SuperPoke.
  
  We are always hiring superbly talented people.

• Vice President, Business & Corporate Development

  LinkedIn

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

  January 2005 — May 2007 (2 years 5 months)

  LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network. I joined when the company had 1.5 M users, by the time I departed we had increased the user base by 10x.
  
  I was hired to develop substantial revenue streams that transcend the recruiting market. My team devised and launched one of the most innovative online advertising concepts since 1999. LinkedIn now offers the precise targeting historically available only via direct mail.
  
  LinkedIn Answers is another one of our major initiatives. Ask your network a business research question and you are virtually guaranteed to receive an insightful response.
  
  I championed the launch of "public profiles" before any other social network had adopted this tactic, amplifying our growth substantially. I was also the original advocate of premium subscriptions targeted at individual professionals, currently LI's primary revenue source.
  
  I managed our corporate communications team from May 2005 thru April 2006.

• Chief Operating Officer

  Epoch Innovations

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

  December 2003 — December 2004 (1 year 1 month)

  Epoch's initial neuroperformance product, BrightStar, was the best option for the millions of Americans who are afflicted with dyslexia.
  *Increased Revenue by 450% year/year ($2.8 MM)

• Entrepreneur-in-Residence

  Clarium Capital Management

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  January 2003 — December 2003 (1 year)

  Evaluated and incubated new ventures in the Consumer Internet field, from the sublime to the ridiculous.
  
  I developed an innovative and promising Internet venture to revolutionize the residential real estate market, which is still sufficiently interesting to pursue and is substantially more exciting than Zillow.

• Executive Vice President, Business Development, Public Affairs & Policy

  PayPal

  (Public Company; 501-1000 employees; PYPL; Internet industry)

  November 2000 — November 2002 (2 years 1 month)

  Promoted to manage BD, financial services, competitive strategy, government affairs, and public relations teams;
  Charged with assessing and resolving risks posed to the viability of the business, including regulatory risks, as well as devising competitive strategy vis a vis eBay and VISA/MasterCard;
  Supervised relations with external partners, including Providian, Intuit, Wells Fargo, UPS, DirecTV, Microsoft bCentral, and eBay enterprise sellers;
  Orchestrated multiple substantial public affairs campaigns to complement business strategy, including building a multiparty PAC, lobbying more than 70 Members of Congress and 20 U.S. Senators, as well as presenting PayPal's interests to the DOJ, FTC, Treasury and several state AGs;
  Impelled product initiatives to meet key strategic objectives, including devising the most profitable product feature for the company in '02.

• Director/VP, Business Development

  Voter.com

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

  February 2000 — November 2000 (10 months)

  Promoted to lead web distribution program for Charles River, Bessemer, Sigma Partners financed ($15 MM) political portal; managed 15- partner distribution network, including ten Media Metrix Top 50 sites
  Cut program's acquisition cost by 500% in five months
  Devised strategy to shift business model from destination portal to email marketing
  Assigned P/L responsibility for EDM division and supervised team of 6 product & BD professionals, leading program of 24 product lines

• Policy Director

  Quayle 2000

  (Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Public Policy industry)

  April 1999 — October 1999 (7 months)

  Developed concept for substantive speeches to be delivered by Vice President Quayle, including widely covered, provacative addresses on China, the American family, and extending the VP's "Murply Brown" legacy;
  Briefed VP on news and political developments; devised fresh arguments to advance during media appearances;
  Responded to media inquiries about VP's policies; directed opposition research; managed all research underlying "Worth Fighting For" by Dan Quayle.

• Associate

  Sullivan & Cromwell

  (Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Law Practice industry)

  October 1995 — March 1999 (3 years 6 months)

  Litigation Associate, primarily focusing on antitrust matters, cutting-edge intellectual property issues, and "white collar" criminal-exposure cases. Principal clients included British Airways, Standard Chartered Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, MBNA and The National Gallery of Art.
  
  Prevailed on 4 out of 5 motions to dismiss I drafted, affirmed on appeal by the D.C. and Eleveth Circuits

• Law Clerk

  Honorable Edith H. Jones, Unites States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

  (Government Agency; 1-10 employees; Judiciary industry)

  August 1994 — August 1995 (1 year 1 month)

Keith Rabois’s Education

• Harvard Law School

  J.D., September 1992 — May 1994

  Activities and Societies:

  Boykin Award, Ames Moot Court Competition
  Research Assistant, Professors Tribe, Dershowitz, Mansfield, Nesson, Heymann
  Assistant Prosecutor, Norfolk County

• Stanford University

  B.A., Political Science, September 1987 — May 1991

  Graduated Phi Beta Kappa, with Distinction and Honors.

Additional Information

Keith Rabois’s Interests:

Stanford basketball, soccer

Keith Rabois’s Groups:

Xoom (Board of Directors), 2003--present
yelp! (Board of Directors), 2005--present
Vendio (Board of Directors), 2003--present
Special Counsel, Board of Directors, ThinkCash, 2006
Carmichael Training Systems (Board of Directors), 2006--2007
FanIq (Board of Directors), 2007--present
technical consultant, google
Decorati (Board of Directors), 2007--present

•    HLSAlumni
•    The Stanford Review
•    PayPal Corporate Alumni (worked there previously)
•    Harvard Law School Alumni Network
•    Pre-IPO PayPal employees
•    Stanford University Alumni

Keith Rabois’s Honors:

Temple Bar Foundation Scholar, 1995

Keith Rabois’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• consulting offers
• new ventures
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch