Dave McClure has been geeking out in Silicon Valley for almost twenty years as a software developer, entrepreneur, startup advisor, angel investor, blogger, & internet marketing nerd. He is an advisor or investor for Mint, SlideShare, TradeVibes, TipMobile, Oortle/PhotoPhlow, 750 Industries, KissMetrics, Spock, TeachStreet, Eventvue, RichRelevance, Mashery, Simply Hired & HealthUnity. His current passion is helping startups with internet marketing, product strategy, and startup metrics.
Dave is the program chair for STARTonomics, a conference on startup metrics, and the founder & organizer of Startup2Startup, a monthly dinner series for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs & investors. He has previously been a conference chairperson for Graphing Social Patterns, and Web 2.0 Expo. He has been a guest lecturer on social networks, application platforms, & viral metrics at Stanford University. Dave is a board member for microfinance accelerator Unitus, advisor to microfinance lender Kiva.org, and a co-founder of the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network.
Previously Dave launched & ran marketing for job search engine Simply Hired, and its evil twin SimplyFired.com. From 2001 to 2004, Dave worked at PayPal (acquired by eBay in 2002) as Director of Marketing, where he started & ran the PayPal Developer Network program. Prior to PayPal, Dave was a database consultant & programmer for several companies, including Microsoft and Intel. In 1994 he founded Aslan Computing, an internet & e-commerce consulting group later acquired by Servinet/Panurgy in 1998.
Before coming to Silicon Valley, Dave barely graduated from the Johns Hopkins University with a BS in Mathematical Sciences Engineering and a minor in frisbee, billiards, & foosball. His interests include microfinance and economic innovation, entrepreneurship and venture capital, ultimate frisbee, cartoons and animation, and an ever-growing collection of funny-looking hats.
For more info on Dave visit his LinkedIn profile & his blog: Master of 500 Hats.
Dave-isms:
-”Great entrepreneurs are passionate about customers and products, not about being great entrepreneurs.”
-”Build something, damnit.”