David has led some of Greylock’s most notable investments including Facebook, Roblox, LinkedIn, Nextdoor, and Pandora. He is currently involved at the board level at Discord, Nextdoor, and Caavo. He joined Greylock as an investor in 2000, bringing to the firm a strong belief in the promise of media, mobile and network effect business convergence. That conviction led to some of David’s most successful and surprising bets, and continues to guide his investment thesis today.
“Consumer products are unique. Everyone gets to have an opinion being consumers themselves. Everyone will tell you why it won’t work or what’s wrong. To succeed, it takes thoughtful conviction, being deeply attuned to often latent consumer needs, and being willing to figure out why something will work — despite all the naysayers. The good news is that the products that succeed often become huge outliers. I love to work with founders who show conviction and creativity, and have an inherent understanding of the market dynamics.”
David has consistently been at the forefront of innovation in the consumer landscape. Prior to Greylock, David spent more than seven years as a product manager and developer for consumer internet, media and gaming organizations ranging from startup to publicly traded companies. David was SVP of Product Strategy at one of the first search pioneers, Excite and then Excite@Home. As an early employee at Excite starting in 1996, David also held roles as GM of Excite.com and VP of Content and Programming for the Excite Network. Before Excite, he was in interactive entertainment — in product marketing at Electronic Arts and development at Crystal Dynamics. He started his career in management consulting for Marakon Associates and The Boston Consulting Group, and also spent time at HBO.
David has been frequently named to the Forbes Midas List. He is a member of the Northern Lights Venture Capital Board of Advisors and oversees Greylock’s investments in those funds. He is also a Trustee of Yale University and Rockefeller University. He holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA from Stanford University.