Marc Bodnick to Become Quora's New Grown-up

Yesterday brought bad news for Elevation with a report that superstar partner Marc Bodnick was leaving the firm. The story seems to have gotten a lot more interesting today. We’re hearing reports that Bodnick isn’t simply heading for a new sexier venture firm– he’s heading to Quora to become the company’s CFO. This certainly adds some credence to those who believe Quora is more than just the next generation of Yahoo Answers. It’s no secret that Bodnick has been deeply impressed by the company and spending a good deal of time on the site.

As this story has unfolded this morning, there’s been some debate over exactly what title Bodnick will have, and we’ve continued to update this story based on what sources close to the players are telling us. His background is in finance, so he’ll no doubt help out with CFO-duties, but it’s not clear why Quora needs such a polished full-time CFO at this point in its development. He will likely wind up serving as the requisite “grown up” more than anything else, helping Quora scale, build a real business and giving the company a polished spokesperson. It’s a role Bodnick would be familiar with– after all his sister-in-law is Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Zuckerberg’s no. 2 at Facebook.

We’ve reached out to Quora for confirmation and will add more news when we know it. At this stage in Quora’s development, the title isn’t that relevant anyway– any C-level officer will wind up wearing a million organizational hats.  What is important is that the news is a clear sign that Quora isn’t planning on selling anytime soon and is already laying the foundation to build a larger company. And, apparently, we’re not the only ones hearing it. Elevation declined comment, and Bodnick hasn’t responded to our email.

A side note for Elevation: This could be less a sign that Bodnick viewed the firm’s chances of raising a second fund doomed as was speculated yesterday, and more about him wanting to jump on board with one of the Valley’s hottest startups. While it’s a blow for Elevation– no doubt– we understand that financially the fund is in great shape, thanks mostly to the soaring valuation of Facebook. While Bodnick has been credited with bringing that deal in, the relationship actually goes back to the earliest days of Facebook when Roger McNamee and Bono were both angel investors and McNamee was an informal adviser to Zuckerberg.