Team

 
Ashmeet SidanaCHIEF ENGINEER

Ashmeet Sidana

CHIEF ENGINEER

Ashmeet is the Founder and Chief Engineer of Engineering Capital.

Investing before traditional venture firms, Engineering Capital specializes in leading seed rounds in software companies with a technical insight. Ashmeet’s experience includes running venture capital funds and leadership positions helping build the industry leading products VMware ESX Server and Silicon Graphics WebFORCE.

Ashmeet came into venture from VMware, where he ran product management for their flagship product - ESX Server. His successful investments include Azure (IPO NYSE: AZRE) and SignalFx, acquired by Splunk for $1 billion, Tubi.tv (acq: FOX). He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Evinced, Kognitos and Nexla. His additional active investments include Asimily, Kentik, Menlo Security, Robust Intelligence, vFunction, and YotaScale – in all of which he was the seed investor.

Ashmeet received an MBA from Wharton with Honors, MS in Computer Science from Stanford University, and a BS in Computer Science summa cum laude from USC. In his spare-time he can be found planning his second trip to Mt. Everest.

 

Adina LuoOPERATIONS (Part/time)

Adina Luo

OPERATIONS (Part/time)

Adina manages operations at Engineering Capital. Adina has worked across different functions at early stage startups as both founder and early employee, including product, design, marketing, and business development. Outside of operational roles, Adina has worked at a portfolio level at Atomic, in brand at Disney, and in strategic capacities on various media and entertainment ventures. These days, Adina is particularly interested in the intersection of technology and media.

Adina graduated with a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. When she’s not making a mean slide deck, Adina enjoys filmmaking and open water swimming.

 

Jim AndersonMENTOR

Jim Anderson

MENTOR

Jim Anderson is a mentor and informal advisor. Jim has over two decades in venture capital, including founding partnership positions in Merrill Pickard Anderson & Eyre and in Foundation Capital, with collectively well over $1 billion in capital commitments. Jim was the founding motivation behind Legacy Venture, a $100 million+ philanthropic fund-of-funds, that expands charitable contributions through investments in premier venture capital funds. Before working in venture capital, Jim was with Hewlett-Packard’s Computer Systems Group where he held various marketing management positions.

Jim holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BSEE and MSEE from Purdue University.

 

Steve BlankMENTOR

Steve Blank

MENTOR

A retired eight-time serial entrepreneur-turned-educator and author, Steve Blank has changed how startups are built and how entrepreneurship is taught around the globe. He is the author of the bestselling The Startup Owner’s Manual, and his earlier seminal work, The Four Steps to the Epiphany, credited with launching the Lean Startup movement. His May 2013 Harvard Business Review article on the Lean Startup defined the movement. Steve is widely recognized as a thought leader on startups and innovation. His books and blog have redefined how to build successful startups; his Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, UCSF and NYU has redefined how entrepreneurship is taught; and his Innovation Corps class for the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Department of Energy forever changed how the U.S. commercializes science.

 

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Scott Bonham

MENTOR

Scott Bonham was the co-founder of GGV Capital and instrumental in helping the firm’s portfolio companies navigate technology and marketing hurdles for more than a decade. Prior to founding GGV, Scott was a Vice President at Capital Group Companies and a consultant at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Scott also spent four years at Silicon Graphics in various marketing roles and started his career as a systems engineer and maintenance foreman at a General Motors assembly plant. Scott earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (First Class Honors) from Queen's University, Canada and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

 

George KadifaMENTOR

George Kadifa

MENTOR

George Kadifa was most recently executive vice president, Strategic Relationships, HP. Reporting to HP's CEO, George was responsible for leading growth initiatives and alliance programs with key partners, service providers and the largest customers. Kadifa previously served as executive vice president of HP Software. He led HP's $4-billion software portfolio that includes IT Operations Management, Application Delivery Management, Enterprise Security, and Big Data.

Kadifa previously served as Operating Partner at Silver Lake, a global technology investment firm with more than $14 billion of assets under management. He was responsible for driving growth and operational improvement in a wide range of enterprises within the 24-company portfolio of the firm's large-cap investment fund. Kadifa has significant expertise in building and managing technology businesses. He has held various leadership positions at technology and management consulting companies such as IBM, Corio Corporation (founder), Oracle, Booz-Allen & Hamilton and Xerox.

Kadifa holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the American University in Beirut, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and an M.B.A., with Honors, from the University of Chicago. He is based in Palo Alto, California.​​

 

Kathryn GouldMENTOR in memoriam

Kathryn Gould

MENTOR
in memoriam

Kathryn Gould was key to the formation of Engineering Capital. Kathryn started her career as a scientist, before turning to high-tech entrepreneurship. After earning her undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto, Gould worked as a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory, just outside Chicago. She earned her M.B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1978 and went on to join Oracle in its early days as its first vice president of marketing. She then went on to become one of the first women venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, serving as general partner at Merrill, Pickard, Anderson & Eyre. In 1995, she became one of the first women in the valley to found a VC firm.