Ann Winblad
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Ann L. Winblad (born on November 1, 1950 in Red Wing, Minnesota) is a partner of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.
Early years
Ann L. Winblad was born on November 1, 1950 in Red Wing, Minnesota. Her father was a high school basketball coach.[citation needed] At age 7 she earned her first dollar, working in the strawberry fields of Farmington, Minnesota and earned 10c/pint.[citation needed] She learned "that patience and focus is a very good balance with overall efficiency; and that’s served me well as an entrepreneur."[1]
Education
She received a B.A. in mathematics and business administration from the College of St. Catherine, as well as an M.A. in education with a focus in international Economics from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota. She also has an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of St. Thomas.
Career
She began her career as a programmer and in 1976 she co-founded Open Systems, Inc., an accounting software company, with a $500 investment. She operated Open Systems profitably for six years and then sold it for more than $15 million.[citation needed] Prior to co-founding Hummer Winblad Venture Partners in 1989, she served as a consultant for clients such as IBM, Microsoft, and Price Waterhouse. Ann Winblad has co-authored the book Object-Oriented Software and written articles for numerous publications, including the Red Herring and Forbes.
In 1989 with John Hummer, she co-founded the venture capital firm Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. Hummer Winblad Venture Partners was the first venture capital firm to focus exclusively on software investments.[citation needed]
To be a successful venture capitalist, she says, "we have to look at the glass as half full….we have to slurp up that Kool-Aid for an instant, but we can’t get addicted."[2]
Boards
Ann has served as a Director of numerous start-up and public companies and, as of 2007[update], serves as a director of Ace Metrix, Voltage Security, Krillion, Star Analytics and Mulesource. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of St. Thomas and is an adviser to numerous entrepreneur groups, including the Silicon Valley nonprofit SDForum.
Honors
- Upside Magazine 100 most influential people in the digital age
- Vanity Fair top 50 leaders of the New Establishment
- Business Week top 25 power brokers in the Silicon Valley
References
Further reading
Lambert, Laura. (2005). "Ann Winblad." in The Internet: A Historical Encyclopedia. Part 1, Biographies. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 238-242.