Kent Goldman

Current

• Principal at First Round Capital

Past

• Director, Corporate Development / M&A at Yahoo! Inc.
• Director, Business Strategy at Yahoo! Inc.
• Senior Associate at Venture Strategy Partners II LP

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Education

• Cornell University

Recommended

1 person has recommended Kent

Connections

398 connections

Industry

Internet

Kent Goldman’s Experience

• Principal

  First Round Capital

  (Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  July 2008 — Present (1 year 5 months)

• Director, Corporate Development / M&A

  Yahoo! Inc.

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; YHOO; Internet industry)

  April 2007 — July 2008 (1 year 4 months)

  • Developed the strategy, identified the target and lead negotiations throughout Yahoo!’s $350 million acquisition of Zimbra, a developer of open source email and productivity applications.
  • Present acquisition candidates to Jerry Yang (CEO), Susan Decker (President) and Blake Jorgensen (CFO).
  • Partner with business units to identify opportunities where M&A can accelerate product roadmaps.

• Director, Business Strategy

  Yahoo! Inc.

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; YHOO; Internet industry)

  October 2004 — April 2007 (2 years 7 months)

  • Led business strategy practice for the Yahoo! Front Page, Mail, Messenger, My Yahoo, Groups and 360.
  • Oversaw the long-term monetization strategy, competitive intelligence and M&A activities for business unit.
  • Chaired working group to develop advertising models and products suited to dynamic Ajax-based services. Effort includes a cross-functional team comprised of leaders from the product, engineering and sales teams.
  • Collaborated with the Yahoo! Developer Network to develop a sustainable business framework to enable the opening of Yahoo! APIs to the developer community.

• Senior Associate

  Venture Strategy Partners II LP

  (Partnership; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  September 2001 — October 2004 (3 years 2 months)

  • Co-sponsored $1.25 million lead investment in Ajax webmail and RSS aggregator, Oddpost. Business subsequently sold to Yahoo! generating a 1375% IRR. Represented both the first venture-backed exit in RSS space as well as one of the first Ajax exits. Company technology now forms the basis of Yahoo’s next-generation email product.
  • Sourced investment opportunities and identify markets for $190 million early stage, technology venture fund.
  • Focused on RSS, email and personal communications businesses and technologies.
  • Represented Venture Strategy Partners in all aspects of portfolio company support and transaction execution.

Kent Goldman’s Education

• Cornell University

  1992 — 1996

Kent Goldman’s Contact Settings

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