Momentum Venture Management, LLC

Momentum Venture Management helps early-stage companies achieve early business results and develop credibility in order to attract funding and transform their ideas, technologies and products into sustainable, successful businesses.

When entrepreneurs start thinking about launching a business, the first thing that usually comes to mind is raising capital. Unfortunately, however, investors don't write checks to support good ideas - they back companies that have clear business plans, credible management, and business traction. We provide highly experienced interim senior executive leadership to help emerging companies break out of the "entrepreneur's dilemma" and position them for success in business and fundraising. Our seasoned executives take interim C-level or board roles to assist entrepreneurs with critical business-building functions including:

• Honing their business plans so that they are compelling and achievable
• Setting up viable corporate and organizational structures
• Signing lead customers and partners
• Securing funding from the right investors at reasonable terms

Matt Ridenour - Managing Director
Prior to founding Momentum Venture Management, Matt spent more than 10 years working in private equity, venture capital and as a CEO in successful early-stage companies. He has been a principal in more than 25 private market transactions with an aggregate value of more than $200 million. Prior to founding Momentum Venture Management, Matt served as CEO of UNX, the world's largest independent institutional equity trading platform, where he secured $20 million in venture funding. He also founded Gazelle TechVentures, a $60 million VC firm where he continues to serve on the executive committee. Previously he was a principal in Blue Capital, a private equity firm spun out of McKinsey & Company, and also spent two years focusing on private equity advisory at Bain & Company. Matt holds a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College and graduated with High Honors as a Baker Scholar (top 5% in his MBA class) from Harvard Business School.
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Andy Wilson - Managing Director/Founder
Andy has a strong track record as a senior executive in early stage companies and brings particular expertise in product development and operations. Prior to founding Momentum Venture Management, he served as Senior Vice President of Global Product Management & General Manager of New Ventures at Overture Services, a Pasadena-based advertising services and marketing company that was acquired by Yahoo! for $1.7 billion. Previously he was President & COO of RiverOne, a high-tech supply chain ASP, where he raised more than $50 million of VC investment, built the management team and grew the organization to more than 150 employees. He spent three years at Bowne & Company (DESI), where he led the Western U.S. region from start-up to $50 million in sales/600 people and was promoted to Senior Vice President Strategic Operations and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the entire multi-hundred million dollar business unit. Andy holds an engineering degree with honors from Dartmouth College and received his MBA with a concentration in operations and technology management from Harvard Business School.
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Stuart MacFarlane - Managing Director
Stuart brings more than 10 years of consumer internet and new media experience to Momentum Venture Management, with a strong track record of launching popular online destinations. He joined Momentum in 2007 after serving as CEO of Insider Pages, a search engine backed by Sequoia Capital, Softbank Capital and Idealab. Stuart quickly built Insider Pages into a leading user generated content site before it was sold to Citysearch in 2007. Previously he was VP of New Ventures at Idealab, where he advised portfolio companies in business development, fundraising and new product development. Prior to joining Idealab, Stuart was Managing Director of Digital Media Services at Loudeye Technologies, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at MXG Media, and was also a consultant at Bain & Company. He started his career working for SmithKline Beecham for five years. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor's Degree from Cornell University.
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Jonathan Niednagel – Venture Partner
Jonathan joined Momentum Venture Management after serving as President of Xytech Systems, a media and entertainment-focused ERP software company.  Prior to this Jonathan was the CEO of Local.com, a Clearstone/ICP-backed location-based search engine within the idealab portfolio of companies. 
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Scott Shapiro - Associate
Since joining Momentum Venture Management in 2006, Scott has been involved in the execution and management of several of MVM’s portfolio companies. He has also evaluated a variety of early-stage technology opportunities.

Prior to joining MVM, Scott was an Associate in the Finance Practice of CRA International (Charles River Associates), where he provided research and analysis in matters involving business valuation, complex derivatives and investment analysis, breach of contract, securities litigation, and intellectual property valuation. While at CRA he built valuation models, regression models, calculated damages for multi-billion dollar lawsuits, and developed algorithms to analyze billions of trades.
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Dan Tamkin - Associate
Prior to joining Momentum Venture Partners, Dan founded Unified Dispatch LLC, a voice-recognition and call center-technology company based in Pasadena.  In 2005 Unified Dispatch LLC, acquired the assets of Unified Dispatch Inc. and restarted the business.   Since the acquisition, revenue has grown over 70% and the company has expanded into new verticals while sustaining significant profitability.  Prior to Unified Dispatch LLC, Dan was the Chief Operating Officer of Unified Dispatch Inc.  In these positions, he was responsible for creating the company’s business plan, raising more than $1 million from angel investors, and changing the business model from a licensed-based structure to a service solution. 
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Katie Cameron - Administrative Manager
Katie joined Momentum Venture Management as an administrative manager with extensive experience working with start-up ventures. In 1998 she opened a boutique intellectual property law firm with three attorneys in Indianapolis. After turning a profit in the first year in business, she successfully aided in its merger with the second largest law firm in Indianapolis. Katie then became the first employee for Gazelle TechVentures, a new venture capital firm based in Indianapolis. In 2000, she joined UNX, Inc, an agency brokerage firm in Burbank, California, where she served in various roles in administration, marketing, patent & trademark law, electronic trading and compliance. Katie majored in psychology and minored in business at Purdue University.