Ben has a wide-angle view of the world. And it’s not just because he’s a published amateur photographer. Born in Peoria, raised in San Francisco, and educated in Cambridge, Ben looks at everything in life from multiple angles.
Ben joined Maveron as a principal in 2009 and focuses on investments in the mobile and Web enabled consumer services sectors. Ben currently serves on the board for The Wrap.com, and is a board observer for Course Hero, KidZui, Mozes and VideoEgg.
Ben joins Maveron from Storm Ventures where his board involvement included Ad Infuse, Adgregate Markets, Boorah, DeviceVM, Marketo, Mobio, and YieldBuild. Ben began his career in venture capital at RRE Ventures, where he invested in Massive, an in-game ad network purchased by Microsoft in 2006 for over $200 million. He later joined the strategic venture capital arm of the CIA, In-Q-Tel, where he led their investment in Rhevision, maker of tiny cell phone zoom lenses.
Ben came to venture as an operator in several technology startups. Most recently, Ben served as vice president strategy at Greystripe, a mobile rich media ad platform. At Yahoo, he directed the Southeast Asia mobile strategy. Ben was also an engagement manager at ZEFER, an Internet consulting firm (acquired by NEC), which raised over $150 million in venture capital financing and grew to over $100 million in annual revenue.
Ben lives in the Bay Area with his wife and twin boys. He’s an avid traveler and deeply involved with humanitarian relief efforts. His travels have taken him to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, China, Africa, Brazil, and Central America. Of course with the arrival of twin boys, he’s narrowed his scope a bit to the local beauty of the Bay Area and Seattle.
Ben received his BA in Computer Science with honors from Harvard University, and his MBA from Columbia Business School, with Dean's List and Beta Gamma Sigma distinctions. Ben is also a graduate of the Kauffman Fellows Program, an exclusive professional organization for the venture capital industry.