CEO PRACTICE VS. FOUNDERS PRACTICE

In the CEO Quest CEO Practice, the focus is on companies who have moved beyond their A round funding event and are now scaling towards a successful exit. Our Managing Directors– CEO Practice have been tech company CEOs themselves, and bring diverse backgrounds with significant experience in the five domains of company building (People, Product, Revenue Engine, Systems and Funding).

In the CEO Quest Founders Practice, the focus is on companies traversing the perilous journey from angel and seed funding to an institutional A round. Our Managing Directors– Founders Practice have strong backgrounds in early stage entrepreneurship, in Product and in fundraising. They understand how critical funding is at this stage, and help CEOs achieve the value inflection points necessary to be funded.

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BILL PORTELLI

Managing Director, CEO Practice — Silicon Valley

Bill holds CEO Advisory and Board positions for companies in enterprise application and infrastructure markets assisting in the creation of breakout products, business strategies and high impact teams. He has cofounded and led startups to IPO and M&A exits including CollabNet and CCT, and held executive roles at Cadence responsible for driving rapid revenue growth of > $.5B. Bill has led venture/debt/PE fund raising for early & mid-stage companies across a range of markets. Rewarded for his leadership in internet and open source, Bill was awarded the Davos Technology Pioneer Award by the World Economic Forum.

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MARK SOCHAN

Managing Director, CEO Practice — Silicon Valley

Mark is a high-tech executive, entrepreneur, consultant and speaker. For over 25 years he has successfully managed hundreds of strategic partnership initiatives as well as mergers and acquisitions. He has led enterprise sales teams to $10B+ annual sales and grown revenue for clients such as Cisco, Microsoft, VMware, IBM, SAP, Capgemini and Accenture. Mark is passionate about helping ambitious technology companies master the art of identifying, pursuing, and closing breakthrough multi-million-dollar revenue opportunities.

Gnani Palanikumar

GNANI PALANIKUMAR

Managing Director, Founders Practice — Silicon Valley

Gnani has over 25 years of diverse experience in Silicon Valley as a founding member of early-stage startups and a product executive in large companies. He was an early team member of APIGee (IPO in 2014, acquired by Google), Selectica (IPO in 2000) and Agile Software (acquired by Oracle). For 8 years, he led Oracle’s Supply Chain Management cloud product team. Over the years, Gnani has introduced innovative products in early-stage tech companies that have generated market traction and revenues of over $100 M. Gnani’s current mission is to help early-stage founding teams traverse the journey from Angel & Seed rounds to A round and beyond.

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TOM MOHR

Founder and CEO; Managing Director — Silicon Valley

Tom has a diverse background, both as a serial entrepreneur and a Fortune 500 executive. He co-founded and built Digital Air Strike from white board concept to $20M revenue and cash flow positive. He led $200M Knight Ridder Digital, a Fortune 500 subsidiary, almost doubling revenue during his tenure there. He has run a $300M P&L, has raised lots of VC money, bought and sold companies and participated on boards (including CareerBuilder, Cars.com, Apartments.com and ShopLocal).

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