Joe Kraus

Mountain View, California, United States
Accredited investor
Member since January 04, 2011

About

Investor interests

Credentials

Accredited Investor, Qualified Purchaser

Activity

Investments made

LinkedIn, Pocket Change, Miso, Gyft, Hey, Odeo, Ngmoco:), Kongregate, Turo, simperium, Bionic Panda Games, HomeLight, OpenCandy, HomeAway, Corduro, InfraSearch, Gomiso

Exits

M&A

InfraSearch , Undisclosed, Source: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sun+Microsystems+to+Acquire+InfraSearch%3B+Enhances+Project+Juxtapose...-a071248580
Gamestop, Undisclosed, Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20011835-248.html
Kongregate , Undisclosed, Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20011835-248.html
Ngmoco , $300M to $1B, Source: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101012006059/en/DeNA-Acquire-ngmoco
Odeo , $1M to $50M, Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/Podcast/Aggregation/prweb525462.htm

IPO

HomeAway, AWAY, Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/06/28/homeaway-ipo-prices-at-27share-valued-at-2-2b/
LinkedIn, LNKD, Source: http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/19/technology/linkedin_IPO/index.htm

I am a(n):

Investor

If you're an entrepreneur or corporate innovator, why?

I love eating Ramen.

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

Rewarding: seeing a vision manifested. the relationships that form when a group of people tries to tackle the impossible. changing lives when you have a successful outcome.

Frustrating: not knowing if you're early or wrong. constant tradeoffs and resource decisions. constant selling.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs/innovators make?

I have two #1 mistakes. Not being persistent enough and not hiring well and/or hiring too fast

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

1. persistence rules the day. the negotiation usually begins at 'no'
2. hire slowly and hire better than yourself, always.
3. failure is over-rated. You learn far more from successes than failures.
4. better to be a trendspotter than a trendsetter
5. you only make what you measure.

Full bio

Joe has been with Google Ventures since 2009, and his primary areas of focus are mobile, gaming, and local services.

Prior to Google Ventures, Joe was a two-time entrepreneur. In 1993, he co-founded Excite.com, an early Internet search engine, holding multiple positions in the company, including leadership roles in product, business development, and marketing. More recently, he co-founded JotSpot in 2004, a wiki company that was acquired by Google in 2006. While at Google, Joe had multiple product management roles including Blogger, Picasa, Sites, Friend Connect, and OpenSocial.

In addition, Joe has been an active angel investor in multiple companies, including LinkedIn, Aardvark (sold to Google in 2010), Kongregate, and OpenCandy. Joe is also on the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF.org).

Joe received a B.A. from Stanford University.