Tod Francis
"In addition to the customer insight and marketing mindset that Tod brought, he helped us hire our CMO, which was crucial for the company. He also was the one who really made the introduction and worked back channels to help us raise our next round of financing from Bob Kagle at Benchmark." - Aaron Patzer, Mint CEO
- Investments:
- Caring.com
- LiquidSpace
- Luminate
- Mamapedia
- Path
- Plastic Jungle
- Smule
- TaskRabbit
- Threadflip
- Turn
- Zefr
- Selected Prior Investments:
- BabyCenter
- Blue Nile
- FatBrain
- GolfWeb
- Jamba Juice Company
- Logoworks
- LoopNet
- Mint
- NextCard
- P.F. Chang's China Bistro
- WeddingChannel.com
"No matter how strong your technology is, your product has to be worthwhile and unique to the end user."
Tod Francis has 25 years of experience working with marketing and consumer-driven companies. Prior to co-founding Shasta in 2004, Tod worked as a general partner at Trinity Ventures for ten years, where he was involved in building consumer-Internet companies such as Blue Nile, BabyCenter, FatBrain, LoopNet, NextCard, Wedding Channel, Jamba Juice and PF Chang’s. Previously Tod spent ten years in other marketing and management positions, including serving as a partner at Ram Group Marketing Management and a marketing manager at Johnson & Johnson for the Tylenol brand.
Tod earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He also holds a BA in economics from Northwestern University.
At Shasta, Tod’s investment focus is on technology-enabled companies serving consumers. He’s particularly interested in online consumer services; next-generation commerce enabled by the Internet; next-generation advertising platforms; and companies focusing on energy monitoring and efficiency.
My experience as an entrepreneur started early. By college, I had started and run three businesses. Shasta was also a start-up. We borrowed office space, printed cards at Kinko’s, used credit cards to finance purchases and raised capital. At Shasta, we get to live the entrepreneurial dream every day, not only because we started the firm from scratch, but because we get to work with so many amazing entrepreneurs doing what they love.
We only do well if our companies do well. It’s not just about showing up at board meetings. It’s about supporting the CEO and the founders with whatever they may need help with, whether that’s making introductions or interviewing candidates or providing feedback on a marketing strategy. Whatever it takes.
