VMware CTO Stephen Herrod joining General Catalyst

Steven Loeb · January 16, 2013 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/2cf8

Herrod will stay on as an advisor to VMware

Stephen Herrod is leaving enterprise and virtualization giant VMware  to join venture capital and growth equity firm General Catalyst, it was announced Monday.

Herrod worked at VMware for 11 years, where he served as Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and Development. In his new role with General Catalyst, Herrod's focus will be investing in, and supporting, entrepreneurs at early-stage companies developing the next generation of technology infrastructure.

"Joining General Catalyst allows me to combine my three greatest professional passions: developing meaningful new technologies, building companies with strong technical teams and sharing my engineering and leadership experience," Herrod said in a statement. "I was particularly drawn to the firm's focus of partnering closely with entrepreneurs and I look forward to living that credo each day."

While in his role at VMware, Herrod was named "CTO of the Year" by InfoWorld. Prior to joining the company, he served as senior director of software engineering for Transmeta Corporation, where he engineered an early form of virtualization known as "Code Morphing." He also held previous engineering positions with Silicon Graphics and MIPS Technologies.

"Steve is a pioneer in virtualization and cloud technologies and we are incredibly pleased to have him join the General Catalyst partnership," said Hemant Taneja, Partner at General Catalyst. "Steve will help lead the firm's investment focus in next generation infrastructure technologies which we expect will go through significant transformation over the next decade."

Herrod will be joining Adam Valkin, formely of Accel Partner, who joined General Catalyst in December.

In General Catalyst's most recent fund, its sixth, it raised $500 million in December 2011. General Catalyst recently launched Rough Draft Ventures, a student partnership that invests $5,000 to $25,000 into student tech entrepreneurs in Boston.

 Founded in 2000, General Catalyst Partner has offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Palo Alto, California. The firm has invested in company such as Airbnb, Big Fish Games, and HubSpot,

In September, the firm led a $37 million round for online eyeglass retailer Warby Parker, and one of its partners, Joel Cutler, became a member of Warby Parker’s board. It also participated in a $20 million round for BigCommerce, an e-commerce platform for SMBs. It has also invested in e-commerce site The Fancy, and fashion deals app Swirl. Most recently, it participated in a $30 million in a Series C round for hotel metasearch engine Room 77.

Palo Alto-based VMware is a leader in virtualization, which is software that creates virtual machines that allow for cloud computing, increasing the effectiveness of a single computer by making it act like it is, in fact, multiple machines.

In July 2012, VMWare VMware announced, in a blogpost written by Herrold, that it was buying startup company Nicira for $1.05 billion in cash, as well as $210 million in assumed unvested equity awards. 

Herrold will be maintaining a presence at VMware as a strategic advisor..

(Image source: https://www.wired.com)

Support VatorNews by Donating

Read more from our "Fund News" series

More episodes

Related Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs

HubSpot

Startup/Business

Joined Vator on

HubSpot is an inbound marketing system that helps your company get found online, generate more inbound prospects and convert a higher percentage of them into leads and customers. HubSpot helps companies get found by more prospects using search engine optimization and marketing, leveraging blogs and the blogosphere and engaging in online social media. By using landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics, HubSpot customers convert more prospects into leads and customers. Based in Cambridge MA, HubSpot Internet marketing can be found at www.HubSpot.com and the Website Grader free SEO tool is available at www.WebsiteGrader.com.

Big Fish Games

Startup/Business

Joined Vator on

Founded in 2002, Big Fish is the leading online marketplace for premium casual games.  Through its proprietary, data driven platform, millions of consumers seeking immersive, relaxing entertainment easily discover and purchase premium casual games created by Big Fish’s network of more than 500 development partners and in-house by Big Fish Games Studios.  Renowned for offering A New Game Every Day!® on www.bigfishgames.com, the company offers thousands of games on multiple platforms -- PC, Mac, mobile phone, and tablet.  Big Fish’s websites, games, and customer service are available in ten languages – Danish, Dutch, English, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish – and its games are sold in more than 150 countries.  The company is headquartered in Seattle, WA, with regional offices in Oakland, CA; Vancouver, Canada; Cork, Ireland; and Luxembourg.

 

Room 77, Inc.

Startup/Business

Joined Vator on

Room 77 is a fast and powerful search and booking engine that offers the most advanced hotel shopping experience on the Web. Travelers can simultaneously compare pricing across every major online travel agency and more, shop across a variety of room types, and book more than 120,000 hotels worldwide, all with the confidence Room 77 will help them score a great room.

Airbnb

Startup/Business

Joined Vator on

Airbnb.com is the “Ebay of space.” The online marketplace allows anyone from private residents to commercial properties to rent out their extra space. The reputation-based site allows for user reviews, verification, and online transactions, for which Airbnb takes a commission. As of June, 2009, the San Francisco-based company has listings in over 1062 cities in 76 countries.