JO

John O’Farrell

General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz

Sunnyvale, California

Invests in

Stages:

  • Min Investment:

    $1,000,000.00
  • Max Investment:

    $100,000,000.00
  • Target Investment:

    $10,000,000.00

Skills

Strategy
Start-ups
Strategic Partnerships
Investments
Mergers & Acquisitions
Business Development
Venture Capital
Business Strategy
Corporate Development
Cloud Computing
Solution Selling
Mergers
Business Alliances
Management Consulting
International Business
New Business Development
Product Management

Work Experience

  • National Board Member

    2018

  • General Partner

    2010

    a16z is a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. I was recruited as the first non-founding General Partner in 2010. Board member at Slack, PagerDuty, Factual, GoodData and IFTTT. Non-profit board memberships: UNICEF USA; MapLight.

  • EVP Business Development

    2008 - 2010

    Silver Spring Networks provides an open, extensible and secure IP-based networking software and hardware platform that enables large electric utilities to deliver the full promise of the Smart Grid. Led development of cross-company strategy and three-year plan for international expansion. Recruited the business development and international teams. Led business development and startup of initial projects in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Ran partnerships and M&A.

2001 - 2007

  • EVP Business Development

    2001 - 2007

    Alliances -- EDS, Cisco Outbound M&A -- Rendition, iConclude, Creekpath, Tangram Inbound M&A: Acquisition of Opsware by HP Revenue-generating transactions: EDS, Cisco, NTT, NEC, Qwest...

1997 - 2001

  • EVP International

    1997 - 2001

    • Responsible for all aspects of international business, including business development and operations. • Founded international division and grew it to $70M annual revenues, 500 employees, 20M daily page-views, 280,000 broadband customers, 10 countries. • Negotiated joint ventures with local partners in Japan, Australia and Netherlands.

  • President, US WEST Interactive Services Group

    1995 - 1997

    • Responsible for Internet strategy development and execution. • Managed development of domestic high-speed Internet services strategy. • Established a venture investment unit and incubator, leveraging MediaOne’s broadband distribution into multiple strategic investments, generating several hundred million dollars in value.

US WEST Inc.

1992 - 1995

  • Vice-President, Corporate Strategy

    1992 - 1995

    • Managed cross-company strategy development effort, involving over 100 executives, and drove U S WEST’s industry-leading $15 billion investments in broadband cable in the US, Europe and Asia. • Key member of strategy and execution teams for Time Warner Entertainment investment and Continental Cablevision acquisition. • Managed strategy development and implementation of tracking stock for cable and wireless assets as a precursor to full spin-off.

Telecom Ireland (now Eircom), Dublin Ireland

1989 - 1992

  • Head of New Enterprises

    1989 - 1992

    • Developed and executed diversification strategy. • Founded successful call center and home security ventures. • Led business development activities in United States, Europe, Russia, Latin America and Asia.

  • Senior Associate

    1986 - 1989

    • Strategy development for clients including Toshiba, Airtouch, Pacific Telesis, GTE.

1985 - 1986

  • Marketing Associate

    1985 - 1986

    Marketing Associate (while attending Stanford GSB)