John Simon

John joined Sigma Prime in November of 2012 to help build the firm and help invest in great entrepreneurs. He focuses on software-based businesses and disruptive technology businesses, often getting involved in businesses at their formation or earliest stages.

Previous to joining Sigma Prime, John was a Co-Founder and Managing Director of General Catalyst Partners. At Sigma Prime, he is responsible for investments in both new and existing technology businesses. Special areas of interest include software companies with an emphasis on mobile and software-as-a-service platforms, and disruptive technology companies in a variety of areas. Current Sigma investments include: BlueConic, Codeship (acquired by CloudBees), nToggle (acquired by Rubicon Project), and Phenom People. John has been a recipient of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council “Investor of the Year” Award.

While at General Catalyst Partners, portfolio companies of General Catalyst Partners for which John served on the Board of Directors, or that John was otherwise involved with include: Jumptap (acquired by Millennial Media), Paydiant (acquired by PayPal), OwnCloud, Big Fish Games (acquired by Churchill Downs for up to $885M), BetterLesson, Mocospace, Thumb, Swirl, Swoop, CyPhy Works, BionX, Aidin, Fractyl Labortoris, Corvia Medical, and OvaScience (NASDAQ:OVAS, achieved a market capitalization in excess of $1.1B), Taleo (NASDAQ:TLEO, acquired by Oracle for $2B), m-Qube (acquired by VeriSign), SignalDemand (acquired by PROS), ProfitLogic (acquired by Oracle), Maven Networks (acquired by Yahoo!), Bullhorn Software (acquired by Vista Equity), QuickPlay Media (acquired by Madison Dearborn), BzzAgent (acquired by Dunnhumby/Tesco), Outstart (acquired by Kenexa/IBM), and TearScience (acquired by Johnson & Johnson).

Before co-founding General Catalyst Partners, John was the Founder, Chairman and CEO of UroMed Corporation. UroMed completed its initial public offering in 1994 and was subsequently merged to form Alliant Medical Technologies. Prior to founding UroMed, he led marketing and sales at Adaptive Networks and was a venture capitalist at Highland Capital Partners and Charles River Ventures.

John is a member of the World Presidents’ Organization (WPO). He’s a co-founder and current trustee of the Steppingstone Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides educational opportunities to deserving inner-city students. In addition, he’s continued his involvement with the non-profit sector by founding the GreenLight Fund (www.greenlightfund.org), which spurs the replication and growth of innovative non-profits. GreenLight has operations in Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Detroit, Charlotte, Kansas City, Atlanta, and, coming soon, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and its proven approach is currently impacting over 150,000 lower income children and families annually‎ in measurable and life-changing ways, and that number will continue to grow as GreenLight scales.