Paul Holland

Paul is a General Partner (Emeritus) at leading venture capital fund, Foundation Capital, following 18 years helping take startup companies from zero to $100M to IPO or acquisition.

A successful veteran of Silicon Valley, Paul oversees Mach49’s Venture Investing practice. He works with global businesses to design, launch, and manage CVC Funds that leverage the experience, deal flow, global network, and success of his team of top-tier Silicon Valley VCs. Paul supports Executive Investment Committees, bringing the discipline, portfolio mindset, metrics, and best practices needed to drive meaningful growth. He also teaches clients best-in-class methods for partnering with and leveraging external startups to drive maximum value and innovation across the core business.

Prior to joining Foundation, he had an equally impactful operating career, joining Reed Hastings at Pure Software, ultimately running Europe, Middle East, and Africa and helping Pure have one of the strongest IPOs at the time. He was later recruited by Benchmark Capital to join Mark Gainey at Kana Communications as its first C-suite executive to help Kana grow quickly and go public.

Paul began his career at SRI International, conducting inquiries on a broad variety of topics for global businesses. Paul is a former president of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, and he is the producer of the documentary Something Ventured, about the early days of the Silicon Valley. He premiered his newest creative endeavor for the stage, Walls: An American Story in January 2020. He has guest lectured on entrepreneurship at Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth, MIT, the University of Virginia, and James Madison University.

Paul holds a Master of Business Administration from UC Berkeley, Master of Arts in Foreign Affairs from University of Virginia, and a Bachelor of Science degree from James Madison University.