Jeff Housenbold

Jeffrey Housenbold is a venture capitalist, funding and advising the next generation of exceptional entrepreneurs who want to change the world in truly transformational ways. He is a widely recognized visionary CEO with 27 years of experience in leading, operating, and investing in hyper-growth consumer and enterprise companies. Housenbold has invested, coached, advised, and served on numerous public and private boards, including Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFLY), Caesars Entertainment Corporation (NASDAQ:CZR), Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN), and Chegg (NYSE:CHGG).

Housenbold is currently a Founding Managing Partner of Honor Ventures and a Senior Advisor to CEO and Chairman at SoftBank Investment Advisers, helping manage and lead the firm’s $100 billion Vision Fund. Some of his investments include DoorDash, Rappi, Compass, Katerra, Opendoor, Memphis Meats, Plenty, GetYourGuide, Clutter, and Globality.

Prior to SoftBank, Housenbold was an EIR at Sutter Hill Ventures, where he advised the firm on enterprise and consumer investments, and a special industry advisor to KKR.

From 2005 to 2016, Housenbold served as President and CEO of Shutterfly, Inc. When he joined, he was the fourth CEO in four years and the company was focused on survival, not growth. Despite macro-economic, industry, and cultural headwinds, he refocused and motivated the teams, growing the company’s global consumer base and developing innovative technology platforms that delivered robust and easy-to-use life-sharing solutions to millions of customers. Housenbold raised capital from leading VCs, conducted a successful IPO in 2006, and successfully acquired 17 companies, transforming Shutterfly into the 5th largest stand-alone ecommerce company in the United States. During his tenure he generated 20x plus returns for his venture investors.

Because of Housenbold’s focus on building a diverse and strong company culture, he and Shutterfly were nationally and regionally recognized with numerous awards including One of the Top Ten Fastest Growing Tech Companies by Forbes magazine, One of the Top 25 Mid-Sized Companies to Work For in the United States by the Great Place to Work Institute, and One of the Best Places to Work by Glassdoor, to name a few.

Prior to Shutterfly, Housenbold was Vice President of Business Development & Internet Marketing at eBay, where he managed customer acquisition and retention and completed several high- profile deals with Google, Microsoft, Disney, AOL, and Yahoo. At eBay he also held positions as Founder, Vice President & General Manager of its Business-to-Consumer Group and Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions. Formerly, Housenbold held senior management positions with AltaVista, including Vice President & General Manager and Vice President of Corporate & Business Development. He joined AltaVista through the acquisition of Raging Bull, the awardwinning community finance portal where he was the tenth employee and served as Chief Operating Officer. Housenbold was Vice President of Corporate Development at WinStar Communications where he focused on internet and media acquisitions and investments, and Manager and Co-founder of Accenture's Media & Entertainment Strategy Group.

Housenbold earned his MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Dean’s Fellow. His undergraduate degrees are in Business Administration and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was an Andrew Carnegie Presidential Scholar and graduated with high honors. Housenbold serves on the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon University, and delivered the commencement speech in 2014.

Housenbold has been recognized as an E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year, a Most Admired CEO by the San Francisco Times, Rising Star in Venture Capital, and one of The 40 Under 40 by both BusinessWeek and Corporate Leader magazines. He has been featured in leading publications such as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, ReCode, and TechCrunch, and is a frequent guest and contributor on CNBC, Fox News, Bloomberg, NBC, and PBS.

Housenbold is an avid photographer with his Canon 5D Mark III, and spends his weekends capturing the special moments created by his family. His other interests include sports, culinary arts, movies, music, comedy, travel, education reform, mentoring young kids, and being a dad to his three boys.

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