Editor’s Note: Semil Shah is a contributor to TechCrunch. You can follow him on TechCrunch at @semil.
“In The Studio” rolls on this week by welcoming an experienced international venture capitalist who has spent time within the storied firms of Wall Street while also participating on a three-time national tennis championship team in college before helping guide his current firm into some of the best growth-stage deals in the Valley and guiding many companies as they expand into China.
GGV’s Glenn Solomon is the type of growth-stage investor the tech blogs don’t cover often, but a closer look at his firm’s model and global position reveals many interesting morsels that are both relevant and differentiated for the startup tech community. With a $625 million fund spread across the Valley and China (they have full partners in the same fund located in China), GGV invests in growth-stage deals, helps management expand to China, and also help Chinese companies expand from China. Solomon is also an active writer, keeping a focused blog tuned for founders who are looking to prepare to go public.
In this discussion, Solomon and I discuss a range of topics: the competitive landscape for expansion capital on Sand Hill Road today; the reasons late-stage tech valuations are climbing and potential impact on the public markets; and a fascinating look at what’s going on in China, both on the web and mobile, and why Solomon and his partners are committed, long-term, to the world’s largest and one of its most dynamic markets.
Glenn Solomon is a partner at GGV Capital, an expansion stage venture capital firm that invests in the U.S. and China. Since joining the firm in 2006, Glenn has led GGV’s investments in Pandora (NYSE: P), Successfactors (NYSE: SFSF/Acq by SAP), Isilon (NASDAQ: ISLN/Acq by EMC), Quinstreet (NASDAQ: QNST), Square, Conviva, Nimble Storage, Gridstore and Zendesk, helping the first four successfully navigate the initial public offering process. He is also actively involved with GGV’s investments in Appirio, BlueKai,...
GGV Capital is a $1.6 billion expansion stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley (Menlo Park, CA) and Shanghai, China. Founded in 2000, the firm leverages a unique operating model – one team investing across the US and China, the two largest economies in the world. The firm invests across a range of sectors including Internet/Digital Media,Cloud/SaaS and Mobile sectors in the US and China as well as the Consumer sector in China. Fourteen (14)...
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