Wesley Chan
Wesley Chan was an early product innovator at Google Inc., best known for founding and launching Google Analytics and Google Voice.[1] He is currently a Managing Director at Felicis Ventures and invests in early-stage technology and software startups.[2]
Early life and education
Chan holds bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science and electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed his graduate research at the MIT Media Lab.[3]
Career
Chan joined Felicis Ventures as a Managing Director in January 2015. He co-manages the fund with his partner, Aydin Senkut, where they met when they were both early employees at Google.[4]
Previously, Chan joined Google Ventures in 2009 as one of the early General Partners. In 2014, he transitioned to a role as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the fund.[5] As an investor, he led investments in and sat on the Board of Directors of software and web startups, cleantech companies, and biotech firms, including AngelList, iPerian (exited to Bristol Myers-Squibb), UberConference, The Climate Corporation (exited to Monsanto), Coolplanet Energy Systems, Parse (exited to Facebook), and Optimizely.[6]
Prior to joining Google Ventures, Chan helped to write and launch Google AdWords and AdSense and also founded and launched Google Analytics and Google Voice.[7] Chan led and managed the acquisitions of Urchin Software Corporation and GrandCentral Communications which became the foundation for Google Analytics and Google Voice.[8]
Among the projects he has built, led, or founded while at Google include:
- The acquisitions of Urchin Software Corporation and Measure Map which became the Google Analytics service.
- Google Toolbar 2.0. where he led the design of Google's popup ads blocker.
- The acquisition of GrandCentral Communications, and Gizmo5, two web telephony service that became Google Voice and Google Hangouts.[9][10]
- Google AdWords and Google AdSense, including building Google's first display advertising serving system, for which Chan holds several US patents for.[11]
- Google Talk and Google Hangouts[12]
- Google WiFi[13]
Chan was also a research lead at HP Labs[14] in Palo Alto, CA and was a software engineer at Microsoft and Fujitsu.
Awards and recognition
Chan is a recipient of a Google Founders' Award for his work on building the Google Toolbar and growing it into one of the most installed client products in the world.[15]
He was selected by Technology Review Magazine as one of their top "35 under 35" TR35 innovators in 2010 for his work on founding Google Voice and Google Analytics.[16]
Chan holds 15 US patents from his work building Google AdWords and AdSense.[17]
Other interests
Chan is an accomplished photographer and has been published in numerous times in books and in the press. He was also the Chief Photographer Emeritus for Google.[18]
Notes
- ^ "EARLY GOOGLE EMPLOYEE REFLECTS ON CAREER". Retrieved 2012-04-16.
- ^ http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/14/wesley-chan-felicis-ventures/. Retrieved 2015-01-20.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ "Project Voyager MIT Media Lab". Retrieved 2010-10-12.
- ^ http://upstart.bizjournals.com/money/loot/2015/01/21/ex-google-stars-chan-senkut-felicis-ventures.html. Retrieved 2015-01-20.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ "Google Ventures' Wesley Chan Steps Down As General Partner To Work On His Own Startup". Retrieved 2014-04-10.
- ^ "Wesley Chan's Investment Profile". Retrieved 2012-04-15.
- ^ "Google Ventures' Wesley Chan: From Voice to VC". Retrieved 2011-11-15.
- ^ In The Plex: How Google Works, Thinks, and Shapes Our Lives. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
- ^ Albanesius, Chloe (2007-07-03). "PC Magazine: Google's GrandCentral Buy Anticipates Web Voice Mail". Retrieved 2009-12-16.
- ^ "Google Voice Blog: Google Welcomes Gizmo5". Retrieved 2009-12-16.
- ^ "USPTO Patent Search: Wesley Chan". Retrieved 2014-04-16.
- ^ "Google Talk Blog". Retrieved 2010-04-03.
- ^ "CNET - Google employees' wireless patents published". Archived from the original on 2012-07-15. Retrieved 2008-07-01.
- ^ "Chan HP Labs Publications" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-10-08.
- ^ "VentureBeat: New DEMO Speakers Announced". Retrieved 2010-03-18.
- ^ "Technology Review TR35 Profile: Wesley Chan". Retrieved 2010-10-11.
- ^ "USPTO Patent Search: Wesley Chan". Retrieved 2014-04-16.
- ^ "Chan TED Biography". Retrieved 2010-09-01.