Kevin Merritt

Summary

I'm a technology-focused entrepreneur, angel investor and advisor based in Seattle, WA. I've founded, led and successfully exited two venture-backed companies. Most recently I've been investing and advising startups that are in one of the following four areas: Seattle, vertical SaaS, GovTech, and WineTech. My passion for the wine industry has led me to study viticulture and enology and work two harvests at a winery. I'm an aspiring winemaker. In addition to my investment and advisory roles, I own Wine Industry Insight, a free daily newsletter for the wine industry (www.wineindustryinsight.com). In 2007 I founded Socrata (originally known as blist). We raised $54M of venture capital across three rounds. In 2018, Socrata was acquired by Tyler Technologies, forming the new Data & Insights Division. I served as President of this division, which is focused on helping public sector institutions turn data into a strategic asset, improving operations and program outcomes. Before founding Socrata, in 2002 I founded MessageRite, a web-based email archiving software developer and service provider. In 2004 FrontBridge Technologies acquired MessageRite and I became VP of Archiving and Compliance and functioned as CTO of the archiving service. In 2005 Microsoft acquired FrontBridge and moved the 150-person company, including me, to the Seattle area. At Microsoft I initially served as a Software Architect and ultimately as Director of Operations. At heart, I'm a software entrepreneur with a passion and focus on making customers elated by delivering great software as a service. Specialties: Experienced angel investor and entrepreneur with roots in software engineering, application architecture, big data and analytics, and email infrastructure.