Paul Holland

Bio

Paul's primary focus is on helping early-stage start-ups go from zero to $100M in revenue. He helped take public two venture-funded software start-ups, Kana Communications (KANA), and Pure Software (RATL). Prior to joining Foundation Capital, was senior vice president of worldwide sales at Kana Communications, a leading supplier of Enterprise Relationship Management solutions to strategic e-businesses. Paul went on to build a team of over 350 people that secured more than 900 customers worldwide, helping Kana become one of the top ten IPOs of 1999. Before Kana, Paul was a vice president and general manager for another highly successful start-up, Pure Software, helping raise their market value from $2 million to over $1 billion in his five-year tenure there. He began his professional career at SRI International (formerly the Stanford Research Institute). Paul enjoys spending time with his wife Linda Yates, and their three daughters, Kylie, Devon, and Piper. In his spare time he enjoys golf, volleyball, poker, traveling (he has visited over 50 countries to date), and is building a LEED Platinum home in Portola Valley. Paul has been guest lecturer on entrepreneurship at Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School of Business, Harvard Business School, James Madison University, and the Stanford Graduate School of Engineering. He is an active advisor and supporter of Project BUILD in East Palo Alto, the Bing School at Stanford and Sustainable Silicon Valley. He is the executive producer of a critically acclaimed documentary on the origins of the venture capital industry called Something Ventured, and is the past president of the Western Association of Venture Capital. Paul currently serves on the board of directors for CalStar Products, Chegg, Coverity, Inside View, MobileIron, and Serious Materials; and previously for Talking Blocks (acquired by Hewlett-Packard), RouteScience (acquired by Avaya), TuVox (acquired by West) and Ketera (acquired by Rearden Commerce). Paul received an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley; an MA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia; and a BS from James Madison University.