Dave McClure

Summary

I've been an engineer, entrepreneur and investor in Silicon Valley for 30 years. I founded Practical Venture Capital and 500 Startups, and worked at Founders Fund and PayPal. I’ve invested in hundreds of startups around the world, including 40+ unicorns and 10+ IPOs. I made the Forbes Midas List of top 100 global VCs in 2016 and 2017. I have a BS in Engineering and Applied Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. I'm a nerd. [Practical Venture Capital] In 2019 I founded Practical Venture Capital, a VC secondary firm that provides liquidity solutions for LPs and GPs in early-stage VC funds. We specialize in buying LP & GP fund interests in microVC funds at years 5-10 (“skip the J-curve”), as well as direct secondary in breakout companies within those portfolios. [500 Startups] In 2010 I founded 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley VC firm with over $2B AUM that has invested in 3,000 companies and 5,000 founders across 80 countries. Investments include 35+ unicorns and 10+ IPOs: TWLO (IPO 2016), SEND (IPO 2017), REAL (IPO 2019), Credit Karma (acq INTU $8B 2020), FLYW (IPO 2021), BARK (IPO 2021), GRAB (IPO 2021), GTLB (IPO 2021), UDMY (IPO 2021), Paidy (acq PYPL $2.7B 2022), Canva, TalkDesk, Lucid, Intercom, Innovacer, Algolia, Solana. We created 20 VC funds under the 500 brand, and invested in 20 other VC funds globally. [Founders Fund, Facebook fbFund] From 2008-10 I was a VC at Founders Fund with Peter Thiel and Sean Parker. I made seed-stage investments in 42 companies resulting in 5 unicorns / 4 IPOs (TWLO, SEND, LYFT, LIF, Credit Karma), and I led the seed round in Credit Karma (acq INTU, >400X return). The $3M portfolio I managed returned >$180M (~60X, fully realized). [PayPal, Aslan, Johns Hopkins] In 2001 I joined PayPal as Director of Marketing. Before PayPal I was founder/CEO of Aslan Computing (acq by Servinet, 1998). I graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1988 with a BS in engineering and applied mathematics, and played lots of ultimate frisbee with other engineers and CS nerds. I was born in Morgantown, WV and also grew up in Columbia, MD. I’m a fan of Dr. Seuss, Sesame Street, Schoolhouse Rock, and Free to Be You & Me.