Jim Long

Venture Partner

Jim Long joined Gabriel as a Venture Partner in early 2007, and drives new investments as well as advises existing Gabriel portfolio companies. Jim has over 20 years experience as a founder, CEO, and business leader building successful businesses in the technology industry, as well as developing new technologies and patents for the Internet and PC environments. He has been a founder, CEO, and executive at leading technology companies, and has served as an advisor to many startups and venture capital firms.

Venture Capital Experience

After doing software and product marketing at Hewlett Packard, Jim was one of the first MBA’s hired in the venture capital industry in 1982, when he joined Fred Adler Ventures. He spent four years at the firm, working directly with veteran VCs Jim Swartz and Arthur Patterson prior to them forming Accel Partners. Over the years, Jim has also done projects with venture firms Accel Partners, Crosspoint Venture Partners, IT-Farm (Japan), and Sequoia Capital. Jim’s venture experience also includes interim CEO jobs and “turn-arounds” at companies such as Linkware (acquired by Ungermann-Bass).

As an angel advisor/investor, Jim has been involved with several leading startups, including TiMetra (acquired by Alcatel), Manageware (acquired by Computer Associates), Ruckus Wireless (WiFi video leader), Coghead (SaaS for the long tail); Ready Systems (acquired by Mentor), and Jibe Networks (acquired by Citrix).

Investment Focus

Jim has a wide depth and breadth of experience in the technology industry, and focuses on investments in emerging cleantech, software, and consumer Internet companies, identifying disruptive business models with a capital efficient focus. He has helped direct investments at Gabriel in next-generation biofuels production, social software for the enterprise market, and innovative gardening technology.

Entrepreneurial Experience

Before joining Gabriel, Jim was a serial entrepreneur for most of the last 20 years. Most recently, Jim was CEO of RioPort, a leading music application service provider RioPort, powered MTV.com, Best-Buy.com, Yahoo, HP, Nike.com, and Microsoft, was the first Internet company to license digital songs for resale from all five major record labels and enabled the first music cell-phones via a partnership with Nokia. Considered the “father of streaming video," Jim was also CEO and founder of Starlight Networks, which pioneered video streaming and video multicasting with award-winning Intranet video infrastructure software. Starlight Networks was the leader in the corporate video streaming market when it was acquired by PictureTel in July 1998. Previously, Jim was one of the four founders of Tolerant Software, which became Veritas (VRTS) a leader in the storage management software market. Veritas was acquired by Symantec for over $12 Billion long after Jim left to invent video streaming.

Operating Experience

Jim began his career in software development and product marketing at Hewlett Packard, where he invented the first presentation graphics application and worked in Europe. During his career building and running startups as a CEO, Jim honed his management, startup, and business operational experience, wearing all the hats necessary to build successful businesses. He has built and worked with companies from the ground-up and led them through acquisition or IPO, helped turn around ailing companies, and invented new business strategies, such as SaaS models and new software development infrastructures, for several different companies. As an angel investor and advisor, Jim has worked with dozens of startups to help them execute successful business and technology strategies. Jim also spent a summer at the Boston Consulting Group during business school.

Board Memberships and Affiliations

Jim currently serves on the boards of Aurora BioFuels, Connectbeam, PlantSense, and YLX. Jim has previously served on boards of over a dozen other startup companies, as well as community organizations like the Las Lomitas Education Foundation.

Philanthropy

Jim currently contributes money and time to schools, children’s organizations, and local community groups.

Education

MBA – Harvard University (with distinction)
BS – Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, UC Berkeley