Brian Ascher

Brian joined Venrock in 1998 as a Kauffman Fellow, after holding senior marketing and product marketing positions at Intuit, Inc.  He had responsibility for launching several versions of the market-leading software product Quicken and the Quicken.com website.  The job led to a passion for the user experience for Brian, one that he continually applies to consumer ventures.  He also brings strategic consulting knowledge gained at the Monitor Group and investment banking experience from Robertson, Stephens & Company to his portfolio companies.  Brian earned a BA degree, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Brian's investment focus includes web, SaaS, and mobile.  Brian's past investments include ADiFY (Acquired by Cox Enterprises), DATAllegro (Acquired by Microsoft), Unicru (Acquired by Kronos), Fogdog Sports (NASDAQ: FOGD/Acquired by GSI Commerce), RelayHealth (Acquired by McKesson) Simple Star (Acquired by Sonic Solutions), and Winery Exchange (position acquired by financial buyers.)  Brian's current investments and Board seats include Vocera Communications, Awarepoint, Shopflick , Intercasting Corp , Atrenta , Martini Media Network , and Retail Solutions.