OpenView Partners – Our role after we invest expansion capital in portfolio companies

October 21, 2009

As a Venture Capital Investment firm we play three roles with our portfolio companies.

Investor role

Board role

Advisor role

We play the role of Investor with portfolio companies seeking expansion stage capital through due diligence and funding, if and when any additional funding occurs (Although our approach of operational value add with labs tends to minimize the need for any additional rounds of funding once OpenView is involved) and then again at exit time with a company. This is the role we spend the least amount of time on with our portfolio companies.

We play the role of a Board Member during the quarterly board meetings (Usually 4 hours) and four 1 hour board update calls that occur in between the the quarterly board meetings.

The role we spend the most time with our portfolio companies is as an Advisor. All OpenView partner’s have had extensive operational experience in expansion stage software companies and are uniquely qualified to provide guidance and advice based on real world experience to the companies we have provided growth equity to. Below are the links to our partners backgrounds.

http://openviewpartners.com/who/maxwell.html
http://openviewpartners.com/who/roberts.html
http://openviewpartners.com/who/raouf.html
http://openviewpartners.com/who/barry.html
When you combine over 75 years of operational software experience of our partners with operational software company experience of our OpenView Labs team you have tremendous depth and real world experience to help you grow your business, maximize your marketplace opportunity and build a sustainable business model in a capital efficient way. The link below explains how we help with OpenView Labs.

http://openviewpartners.com/help/index.html
Where all of this pays off is when it comes to the company exit strategy. You as the founder and your team’s hard work combined with OpenView’s operational experience delivered in an advisory capacity help insure that you receive the best return in the marketplace.

With this approach our track record speaks for itself. We have never lost a company, never had to sell the assets off, never had to merge a cat with a dog to try and make the company look like something someone might want to take home with them.

So if you are looking for more than just venture capital and you truly want a partner who plays the role of an active advisor with your best interest in mind you should make sure you find a firm who has in depth operational experience and the right operational model to help build a great company and realize your dreams.

All the best,

G

Venture Partner

<strong>George Roberts</strong> is a Venture Partner at OpenView. He enjoys partnering with companies and helping them achieve their goals through strategy, focus and operational execution. From 1990 to 2003, George spent 13 years at Oracle Corporation, most recently having served as Executive Vice President of North American Sales. While at Oracle, George was responsible for over $1 billion in revenue and more than 2,000 employees, reporting directly to the company’s CEO and Chairman, Larry Ellison.