Nathan Beckord

Nathan has worked with startups on strategy, finance, business development, and venture / exit issues for over ten years. He has consulted to more than 100 startups across multiple industries-- from software, SaaS, and social media, to mobile, entertainment, and consumer products-- and he has been an advisor or investor in 13 funded startups with 5 exits.

He has also served in interim Corporate / Business Development and CFO roles, and helped several firms develop key strategic partnerships with F500 firms. Nathan has co-founded three technology companies and is currently on the Advisory Boards of five startups.

Nathan is an active speaker and moderator on startup panels, and together with Pivotal Labs, he co-produced the popular 'Project Startup' series of events. He is an annual judge at the Venture Labs Investment Competition, held in Austin, Texas. He is currently preparing for his next event, on Startup Exits -- Early Stage M&A.

On the content side, he authors the blog Seed Stage Capital and maintains the VA Facebook Page, which is a curated collection of resources for startup founders. He is an advisor and contributor at Founders Space and is (very slowly) working on a book project titled "Startup: An Owner's Manual" scheduled to be published in 2011.

Previously, Nathan worked for JP Morgan, Access Ventures, and Piper Jaffrey. He has been involved in three technology IPOs and nearly 40 acquisitions, in addition to numerous private investments and business development deals. Nathan has an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the University of Texas at Austin and a BSC from Santa Clara University. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Nathan is an avid sailor and has logged more than 10,000 coastal and offshore nautical miles, including a 22-day Pacific Ocean crossing to French Polynesia. He has also climbed 19,340-ft. Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, trekked in Peru, Chile, New Zealand and the Himalayas of Nepal, and toured by motorcycle in the U.S., Vietnam, Cambodia, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

He currently enjoys racing sailboats on the San Francisco Bay and riding 'boxer motor' BMW motorcycles.