Jacob joined

Jacob joined is a Senior Associate of Shasta Ventures. He joined Shasta Ventures in the summer of 2011 bringing with him a wealth of experience from many sides of the modern day startup industry. Before Shasta， Jacob joined Microsoft to help design and launch the BizSpark program， Microsoft’s first initiative tailored specifically for early-stage startups. As US program lead， his focus was working with all constituents of the startup ecosystem， from early-stage incubators， investors， service providers， and more， to help align mutual interests for the startup’s success. At the time of his leaving， BizSpark had over 35，000 members in over 100 countries. Prior to Microsoft， Jacob was the “business guy” at VentureBeat.com leading all non-editorial efforts including revenue generation， advertising relationships and strategic partnerships with companies like The New York Times and IDG. During college， Jacob co-founded a nutraceutical company with significant international operations in South Africa. As CEO， he led this startup to become a publicly traded-OTC company that manufactured and distributed three product lines: a dietary supplement， gum， and energy drink， in retail， online， and direct marketing channels. Jacob is the co-founder and Chairman of the Beverly Mullins Memorial Scholarship， a scholarship at UC Berkeley that offers financial assistance to non-traditional aged single parents who are defying all obstacles in the pursuit of education. Jacob has a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University.

I love people. I love meeting new people， and my natural first instinct after learning about them is， “How can I help them? Who can I introduce them to?” I love connecting the dots between people to their mutual benefit. I’ve had the opportunity to view this industry from all sides of the table， as an entrepreneur， a member of the new-media， as a large corporate partner， and now as an investor. I’m one to jump in and help startups whether it’s strategically thinking through a go-to-market plan， or poundin