This month we'll be talking to Jonathan Taylor, serial entrepreneur and angel investor at Entrenext Ventures. Coder turned entrepreneur, Jonathan began selling (and buying) companies. He's gained a lot of insight on teams, culture, investing, and negotiating along the way.
We'll be talking to Jonathan about his story, his journey through starting 7 companies, running 5, selling 6, and acquiring and integrating 17 others.
Jonathan founded Voxeo with a great team in 1999 of 15 founders. Thanks to a strong mix of practicality, frugality, and tenacity, Voxeo survived the dot com era, 9/11, and the financial implosion of 2008, growing to the top-performing, Gartner Magic Quadrant leading vendor of enterprise software for customer service. Aspect Software acquired Voxeo in July of 2013 for $150m.
Tropo is one of the fastest growing companies in both the developer and carrier platform markets. As the Chairman of Tropo, Jonathan focused on strategic planning, negotiations, and M&A. In May, 2015 Cisco acquired Tropo, delivering a great return to its founders and shareholders. It was sold at 22x multiple exit to Cisco. Jonathan personally initiated spin-out of Voxeo Labs from Voxeo. With shareholder approval, he led spin-out process with his business partner, Stephen Neish, and the management of Voxeo Labs. Voxeo Labs was renamed after its lead product, Tropo, when Voxeo was acquired in 2013. He became the lead investor in Tropo after spin-out and helped build it into a multi-million dollar per year revenue business.
Currently at growth stage, Jonathan has raised over 2 million in funding from angel investors for Sighthound.
Jonathan is now a Mentor Capitalist with Entrenext Ventures, where he works with Kubos, RBC Signals, Sighthound, Sightplan, Snapshots, and Vinesleuth, as well as being the Chief Product Officer of Sighthound.
Before Voxeo and Tropo he was a CTO and founder in the telecom and storage industries; wrote x86 BIOS and driver code; and wrote software for Atari 8-bit and 16-bit computers.
Entrenext Ventures
Angel Investor
I love to build things.
I started off as a coder, became an entrepreneur, and started selling (and buying) companies. Along the way I learned more about teams, culture and negotiating than I did about coding. I'm now a deal focused board member, investor, and mentor working with (and investing in) teams of smart, hardworking, trustworthy people.
I still love to build things - but…
Neoware Studios
Chapter Director
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