Maveron, the Seattle venture capital firm led by former investment banker Dan Levitan and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, has named David Wu to the position of venture partner. Wu, who will be based in the firm’s San Francisco office, is an active angel investor and former executive with Homestead.com.
“There are many cutting-edge consumer companies in the Bay Area, and Maveron has been expanding our San Francisco team to find and finance the most promising startups,” said Amy Errett, a partner at Maveron. “David’s deep connections to the entrepreneurial community will help Maveron identify early-stage companies with the unique potential to become valuable consumer brands.”
Wu, who holds engineering and economics degrees from Stanford University, is a former Executive-in-Residence at Redpoint Ventures who currently serves on the Internet committee at Silicon Valley’s Band of Angels. Founded in 1998, Maveron focuses its efforts on consumer companies, including Trupanion, Lemon, Pinkberry, Zulily and Potbelly Sandwich Works.
Paul Griff, the former CEO of Root Metrics, has joined Intellectual Ventures on a temporary basis as an entrepreneur-in-residence to investigate commercial opportunities for wireless communications technology based on metamaterials. Griff stepped down from Root Metrics last summer. He’s the former managing director of mobility at Bsquare.
Doug Aley, the former CEO of Seattle startup Off & Away, jas joined Zulily as vice president of corporate development. Aley joined the fast-growing daily deal startup, which raised $43 million last year, a few months ago from Lockerz. Off & Away, an online travel deal site, was sold to Lockerz for an undisclosed prize last year. Aley is a former entrepreneur-in-residence at Madrona Venture Group and executive at Jott Networks.
Chirpify, Portland startup which, among other things, has developed a payment system for concert tickets and other products on Twitter, has named former American Express executive Rayburn Chan as vice president of corporate development. Chirpify raised $1.3 million from BuddyTV CEO Andy Liu; Geoff Entress; former Facebook executive Rudy Gadre; HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes; Voyager Capital and others earlier this year.
Former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson, who stepped down earlier this year amid a controversy surrounding his resume, has landed a new gig as CEO of ShopRunner. He replaces co-founder Scott Golden who will move to the role of president. Thompson, a former PayPal exec, said in a press release:
“Joining ShopRunner is a tremendous opportunity to build on the strong foundation that the company has already established,” said Scott Thompson. “While PayPal and ShopRunner are fundamentally different businesses, there are similarities in each of their success. Both companies are focused on building the broadest network of satisfied merchants by providing the value that creates a large and loyal customer community, creating a virtuous circle.”
Know of a notable tech industry move or hire? Email tips@geekwire.com. More Tech Moves here.
