Through Stuart’s extensive experience as a successful big data serial entrepreneur, as well as his leadership role within Microsoft, Frost VP expects to be able to draw upon a group of highly talented executives expert in early stage, venture-backed startups, well seasoned in the cloud and big data technology space to assist the incubated companies. Stuart has carefully cultivated an environment of complimentary technologies and expertise and expects that his executive teams will be able to rapidly adapt to changing market conditions as they present across the portfolio of companies. As the companies achieve successful exits, key executive resources can be redeployed to critical roles across the portfolio.
Stuart Frost is a highly successful, serial high-tech entrepreneur with more than 20 years experience as a Founder, CEO and Chairman of early stage software companies. During that time, he has led many successful rounds of VC funding, together with two IPOs.
After graduating with a degree in Electronics Engineering from Nottingham University in England, Stuart began his career as a programmer and systems analyst in 1983. He started his first company, SELECT Software Tools, in 1988 at the age of 26. He led the company through rapid growth and expansion including a very successful IPO in 1996, at which time seed investors saw a gain of 83X.
Stuart founded DATAllegro in June of 2003, and was its CEO through to the $275m acquisition by Microsoft, which generated gains of 36X for its seed investors. After the acquisition, Stuart became General Manager of Microsoft’s $1bn data warehousing product group and was then given responsibility for strategy across Microsoft’s $7bn Database Systems Group.
On leaving Microsoft in October 2010, Stuart began building the portfolio of big data startups that is now evolving into Frost Venture Partners.
John is a serial entrepreneur and five time CEO with 30 years of experience leading private and public software companies. He has had hands-on success in all corporate lifecycle stages, from raising capital and early market penetration for start-ups, to delivering on top and bottom line results for public companies around the world. John raised over $60M in Venture and Private Equity for his last 3 private companies. His expertise and experience in start-ups, rapid growth strategies for early stage organizations, executing successful corporate ‘turn-arounds’ and his M&A experience will provide foundational guidance for the FVP portfolio companies. Previous companies include CEO M86 Security (acquired by Trustwave), CEO Finjan Software (acquired by M86 Security), Pres./COO Tumbleweed Communications, CEO Valicert (acquired by Tumbleweed), also Cisco, Adobe, and GE Information Services.
Bill is our Chief Financial Officer responsible for finance and administration of the Company. His career has spanned over 20 years and includes leadership experience on both the finance/admin and operations side of several technology companies, leading several venture financings, M&A transactions and concluding with successful exits. Previously, Bill was an engagement leader with a Big 4 public accounting firm, Ernst & Young servicing numerous technology-focused and publicly held companies. Bill received in B.S. in Accounting from California Polytechnic University, Pomona and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) in California.
Dave Salch is a technology entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in successfully bringing innovative products to the market. As CTO of DATAllegro, Dave took the concept of a scalable database appliance to market from the initial vision. After the acquisition, Dave spent two years as a technology architect in Microsoft’s SQL Server division. Prior to this Dave was CTO of another startup, 8e6 Technologies, which produced several innovative products in the Internet filtering and reporting market. Dave began his career as a self-employed entrepreneur and software / hardware engineer, which provided deep insights into the business, sales and engineering aspects of innovation.
Dave is an experienced startup and product executive with 20+ years in helping launch and grow product companies. At Frost, Dave leads the evaluation of new venture concepts, the creation and launch of new ventures, the application of Lean Startup principles, and the mentoring of teams in Product Design and Definition. In addition to a focus on driving and managing innovation at numerous startups, Dave has previous experience with incubators as a prior resident in Idealab. He also has particular expertise in software prototyping, having spent 6 years leading the product suite for iRise. Dave has a BS in Product Design from Stanford University, and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.