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Maria has been building and founding technology businesses for 25 years. Her operational, entrepreneurial, and senior management experience in venture-backed technology companies includes two Massachusetts IPOs of the Year and the founding of two successful companies and a venture capital firm. Prior to co-founding .406 Ventures, Maria served as an SVP of VeriSign following its 2005 acquisition of Guardent, the market leading Managed Security Services provider for $142 million. Guardent was a Sequoia, Charles River Ventures and NEA-backed IT security company that Maria co-founded and led as CEO. In this role, Maria received industry recognition as "Massachusetts CEO of the Year" and "Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year," among others.
Prior to Guardent, Maria was Senior Vice President responsible for sales and marketing at Razorfish, an IT services company that acquired her previous company, i-Cube, for $1.8 billion in 1999. At i-Cube, Maria led sales and marketing. Prior to i-Cube, from 1993 – 1997 Maria was responsible for North American sales at Shiva, the category-creating remote access leader. Prior to Shiva, Maria held sales and marketing roles at Lotus Development Corporation and Software City Inc.
Maria holds an AB in English literature from Mount Holyoke College where she has served as a Trustee and where she currently serves as a member of the college's investment committee.
At .406 Ventures, in addition to her investment activities, Maria manages brand building and deal flow strategy and currently serves on the boards of .406 portfolio companies Bit9, Digitalsmiths, Kaltura, Mineral Tree, Vaultive, Veracode and formerly served on the boards of Adtuitive and Memento until their respective acquisitions by Etsy and FIS.
“the real deal”
At a work gig or home with my family
Lifeguard or VC…different but equally enjoyable
Not being fluent in another language…
Failing….I'm driven by a fear of failure
Inside Private Equity (for you Craig)
North Truro, MA
Champagne
“Perfect”
A toss up… loved running a company; love helping build them…
Big
Sunrise on the water
’53 MG TD
Dad bringing home trinkets from his business trips.
Standard poodles….
French pastries
People read their slides…tell your story!
waiting
Responsibility, perseverance and calm under pressure
Dishwasher in college
First year out of college…
First year in college…
Live to fight another day…
Fear of failure…
“No…”
Elvis Costello, Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Pink Martini
Varsity tennis in high school (sadly)
To help build more than 1 great company at a time