Debby Meredith

Los Altos, California ● 650.704.7166 ● debby@meredithcole.com

Summary

Senior executive with proven track record in general management and development of software products.  Extensive experience in high-growth and turnaround situations with venture capital experience.  Strong management, leadership and engineering skills with ability to communicate at all levels.

Experience

Consultant, 2003 - present

  • Working hands-on with start-up companies, primarily as interim VP of Engineering, including OpenTable, Voltage Security, Scribd, BigTent, MokaFive, Good Technology, Friendster, and Efficient Frontier.
  • Able to take on mentoring projects or company/department assessment projects.
  • Working with select venture capital firms to provide insight into the engineering, operational and management capabilities of potential investment opportunities.

JAFCO Ventures, Venture Partner, 2003 – present

  • Am member of JAFCO investment team and conduct technical diligence on potential investments.

Mohr Davidow Ventures, Venture Partner, 2000 – 2003

  • Involved in software investment decisions and diligence. Post funding, helped assemble world-class engineering teams, architect enterprise software products and roadmaps, and establish engineering processes to build success from the beginning with various MDV portfolio companies.
  • Took on key hand-on roles in several MDV portfolio companies, ranging in duration from 5 to 9 months: interim VP Engineering of Terraspring, interim VP Engineering of oneREV Software (company later sold to Agile Software), interim CEO of Terraspring (company subsequently sold to Sun Microsystems), and founding CEO of Proofpoint (privately held company funded by MDV and Benchmark Capital).

America Online (by way of Netscape acquisition), Senior Vice President, 1999 – 2000

  • Reporting to the iPlanet CEO, participated at executive level establishing and running the Sun-Netscape Alliance.
  • Responsible for $50 million annual worldwide services business.
  • Managed division of over 250 professionals in offices worldwide including sales representatives, account managers, services engineers and operations personnel.

Netscape Communications (by way of Collabra acquisition), 1995 - 1999

Sr. Vice President and General Manager, Customer Satisfaction, 1998 – 1999

Selected to head new division focused on providing superior customer satisfaction, reporting directly to the Netscape CEO. Responsible for Netscape support services and revenue worldwide. Drove creation of new services offerings and web-based capabilities. Additionally, was the leader and spokesperson across the entire corporation for customer satisfaction and served on Netscape's Executive Committee.

Sr. Vice President, Strategic Products and Technologies, 1998

Responsible for core technology products and components used within Product Development by the Client, Server, and Applications divisions. This included Java, JavaScript, security, and networking services. Changed Netscape’s Java strategy from one of extending and porting Sun’s Java in constant catch up mode to developing an open Java interface allowing any vendor’s Java Virtual Machine to be plugged into the Netscape browser.

Vice President, Client Product Development, 1997 – 1998

Headed the development of the Netscape's award winning Communicator and Navigator product lines. The organization was over 300 people, including engineering, quality assurance, product marketing, user interface design, and documentation professionals. The browser product suite was released on multiple platforms, in multiple languages, and is one of the most popular software applications ever written.

Vice President, Client Engineering, 1995 – 1997

Responsible for the engineering of all Netscape end-user Internet products which included:

  • Netscape Navigator, Netscape Navigator Gold, and Netscape Communicator on all platforms, namely Microsoft Windows (3.1, 95, NT), Apple Macintosh (68000, PowerPC), and UNIX (SGI IRIX, Sun Solaris, SunOS, HP-UX, DEC Alpha OSF/1, IBM RS/6000 AIX, BSDI). Netscape Communicator is an integrated suite consisting of a web browser, e-mail client, discussion client, document editor, and calendar component, all which embrace open standards (HTML, XML, HTTP, POP3, IMAP4, LDAP, NNTP). Successfully shipped Navigator 2.0, Navigator 3.0, Navigator Gold 3.0, and Communicator 4.0 and several associated point releases.
  • Netscape Internet Access Edition, a shrink-wrap product for the retail channel.
  • Netscape Dial-up Kit, a customizable product for Internet Service Providers.

Additionally, spearheaded Netscape’s acquisition of DigitalStyle, a company with advanced dynamic text expertise that developed Netscape’s next generation layout engine and document object model. This effort, code named Gecko, became the core of the entirely re-written Netscape 6.0 and the open source mozilla.org efforts with Firebird.

Collabra Software, Vice President Development, 1993 – 1995

  • Responsible for all product development and support functions including engineering, quality assurance, publications, technical support, and information systems.
  • Staffed the technical organization, developed the engineering practices/processes, and put appropriate management structure in place as the organization and functional areas grew.
  • Released Collabra Share 1.0, a collaborative Microsoft Windows product that facilitated electronic discussions using a company’s existing e-mail infrastructure (MAPI or VIM). Additionally released the associated Collabra Share Mail Agent and Replication Agent.
  • Designed and developed the Collabra Share 2.0 product line which included the Client/Server version, Mail Agent, Replication Agent, Internet News Agent, and Lotus Notes Agent.

Slate Corporation, Vice President Development, 1990 – 1993

Responsible for staffing and management of engineering, product management, quality assurance, and office personnel. Managed team in successfully conceptualizing, designing, developing, and marketing pen-based application software and tools for Microsoft Windows for Pen Computing, GO's PenPoint, and Apple Newton, including:

  • Day-Timer Meeting and Expense Pack, a productivity package for the Apple Newton.
  • LapLink Pro for PenPoint and SafetyPen Utilities, utility products for PenPoint.
  • PenApps, a cross-platform application development tool for producing pen-based applications on both Microsoft Windows and PenPoint.
  • PenBook, a cross-platform viewer and authoring system for documentation on both Microsoft Windows and PenPoint.
  • PenPower for Microsoft Word and PenPower for Microsoft PowerPoint, add-in products.
  • Jot, an industry standard for the interchange of digital ink.

Metaphor Computer Systems, 1983 – 1990

Director of Engineering, 1988 – 1990

Responsible for staffing, budget, and management of thirty-five engineers.

  • Developed 386, OS/2, 68000, and UNIX application software to enable access, analysis, and presentation of data from DB2, SQL/DS, Teradata, Sybase, and Oracle systems.
  • Led efforts, including participation in the formation of the first Unicode standard, to localize and internationalize software.
  • Conceived of, and delivered, several new releases of the application software, including a new line of graphical database reporting tools.

Engineering Manager, 1986 – 1988

Managed group of engineers in the planning, design, implementation, testing, and enhancement of a windowing desktop environment and suite of end user tools for a high-resolution bitmap display workstation.

  • Hired and coordinated training of group of eleven engineers.
  • Developed and introduced new versions of all the major end user tools.
  • Product Manager, 1985 - 1986 Responsible for strategic planning and product management of Metaphor's software.
  • Authored and reviewed requirements specifications, technical specifications, data sheets, press releases, and sales collateral.
  • Led competitive analysis efforts, worked on product positioning, and established a new pricing program.
  • Trained and managed Beta sites.

Engineering Project Leader, 1983 – 1985

Responsible for team management in the development of workstation and system software.

  • Co-designed, developed, and tested the Capsule tool, a visual programming application for business professionals.
  • Individually designed, developed, and tested the spreadsheet application.
  • Led the design, development, and delivery of Metaphor's first graphical database query/reporting product.
  • Developed print server software to interface with Apple's first LaserWriters.

Logitech, Software Engineer, 1982 – 1983

Bell Laboratories, Member of Technical Staff, 1981 - 1982

Education

Stanford University, Masters, Computer Science

Graduated with Honors

University of Michigan, Bachelor of Science, Computer Science & Mathematics

Magna Cum Laude