Salil Deshpande

Salil Deshpande

Salil Deshpande is Managing Director at Bain Capital Ventures, Palo Alto, and focuses on software infrastructure, open source and enterprise software. He is on the Forbes Midas List for 2013 and 2014.

Palo Alto
Member since March 27, 2014
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Salil focuses on software infrastructure, open source, middleware and enterprise software, such as Typesafe (the Scala language; Akka and Play frameworks for Java), Redis Labs (the Redis NoSQL database), Hazelcast (in-memory data-grids for Java), Aria Systems (ERP for recurring revenue businesses), Iron.io (queues and workers in the cloud), ZeroTurnaround (faster Java redeployments), and DynaTrace (application performance management; acquired by Compuware).

Prior to BCV Salil spent seven years as General Partner at Bay Partners, where he invested approximately $85M into 20 companies including Buddy Media (social media marketing platform; acquired by Salesforce.com), SpringSource (open source; acquired by VMware), Engine Yard (open source, Platform as a Service), MuleSoft (open source, cloud and enterprise integration), Lending Club (peer to peer lending), G2One (open source, Groovy, Grails; acquired by SpringSource), Sonatype (open source, software component management), Jambool (virtual currencies for social graphs; acquired by Google), Covestor (marketplace for emerging hedge fund managers), FantasyBook (fantasy sports apps on Facebook; acquired by Citizen Sports, now part of Yahoo), Triggit (retargeting on Facebook), Dropcam (webcams with cloud DVR service), and Vaxart (oral vaccine platform). Salil also inherited Tealeaf (customer experience management; acquired by IBM) and served on its board for three years prior to its acquisition by IBM. Salil’s numerous angel investments include Philz Coffee (handcrafted cups of love) and Datastax (the Cassandra NoSQL database).

Prior to Bay, Salil was founder and CEO of Customware, a CORBA middleware company (acquired by Visigenic, now part of Micro Focus), co-founder and CEO of The Middleware Company, a Java middleware company (acquired by Precise, now part of Symantec), and of TheServerSide.com network of developer media sites (acquired by TechTarget). Salil held technical leadership positions at several technology companies including Sun Microsystems, and taught summer courses at Stanford University.

During his years as an irreverent entrepreneur, he often wondered what went on “in those little VC brains.” Therefore as a venture investor, he tries to be honest and transparent about what he is trying to accomplish, respects entrepreneurs’ time by working hard and doing his homework, and openly discussing the merits of ideas or strategies, as a foundation for long term relationships.

Salil received his MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and his BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. Salil loves playing sports (both real and fantasy) with his 12 year old son, and enjoys the challenge of trying to convince his teenage daughter that he’s still cool and relevant.