InterWest Adds Keval Desai, Promotes Bruce Cleveland

InterWest has added Keval Desai as a partner, and promoted Bruce Cleveland to general partner. Desai is the former director of product management for Google. Most recently, he worked as vice president for product at Digg. And earlier in his career he worked at venture funds ONSET Ventures and Morgan Stanley Venture Partners. In his time at InterWest, Cleveland has focused on cloud computing, analytical applications and mobile infrastructure companies. Cleveland’s current active investments include, Aria Systems, Cloud9, Doximity and Signal Demand.

PRESS RELEASE:
As Google’s former director of product management, Desai led teams
that launched new advertising products & businesses – including
Video/TV ads and an expansion of AdWords. He also launched syndication
of Google’s advertising products to third parties. Desai, who has
worked in Silicon Valley since the early 1990’s, has been an active
angel investor for the past two years. He is an investor, advisor or
Board member at several startups, including: Backblaze, Duostack,
MyLikes, Optimizely, Rixty and SpotMixer.

“As InterWest increases its emphasis on digital media, consumer
Internet and mobile investments, Keval’s vision and experience in
building products in these areas will make him a tremendous resource
for the entrepreneurs that we back,” said Doug Pepper, general partner
at InterWest. “His track record of building Google’s advertising
products into juggernauts, his knowledge of social media, combined
with his experience as a company founder, an angel investor and a
venture capitalist – make him a perfect fit for InterWest.”

Immediately prior to joining InterWest, Desai was vice president for
product at Digg. Earlier in his career, he was a co-founder of Achex,
an Internet payments company acquired by First Data. Before joining
Google, Desai was an investor at two venture capital firms, ONSET
Ventures and Morgan Stanley Venture Partners.

“There are approximately seven billion people in the world and less
than one third have Internet access,” said Desai. “Only five percent
of the world’s population has smart phones that can access the web.
Even Facebook counts only ten percent of the world’s population among
its customers. When it comes to innovation on fixed and mobile
Internet, we are still in the early innings. The best is yet to come!
Our son is two years old and I can’t wait to see how he will use
technology to learn, play and socialize with his fellow citizens
across the globe. For starters, he already spends an hour a day
watching YouTube videos on his iPad. What’s next? For entrepreneurs
with big ideas who are passionate about building products and
businesses for tomorrow’s decision makers, my partners at InterWest
and I are open for business. We want to help accelerate your vision.
Let’s get to work.”

Desai holds an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley,
an M.S. in computer science from UC Santa Barbara and a B.E. in
electrical engineering from the University of Mumbai. He is a member
of the Dean’s Advisory Board at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business
– and also sits on the Board for the Lester Center for
Entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley.

Bruce Cleveland Promoted to General Partner
Since joining InterWest, Cleveland has focused on cloud computing,
analytical applications and mobile infrastructure companies. Last
year, his portfolio company, CubeTree, was acquired by SuccessFactors
(SFSF). Cleveland’s current active investments include: Aria Systems,
Cloud9, Doximity, Flurry, Marketo and Signal Demand.

“Bruce’s success at InterWest with companies like CubeTree, Marketo
and others – combined with his own long track record as a technology
entrepreneur – have made him a fantastic asset for InterWest and our
portfolio,” said Pepper. “We’re very proud to have Bruce on our team
and congratulate him on his well-deserved promotion.”

Prior to joining InterWest, Cleveland was one of the original members
of the Siebel executive team. He held numerous executive positions at
Siebel, including senior vice president and general manager of
products, senior vice president and general manager of the OnDemand
and SMB divisions and senior vice president of marketing and
alliances. Forbes and IDC credited him with creating the most
effective alliance organization in the enterprise software industry.

“The Internet continues to drive transformations in the way that
businesses find, acquire and monetize their customers,” said
Cleveland, whose blog Rolling Thunder is at
www.interwest.com/rolling-thunder. “Young companies – whose solutions
successfully harness the power of cloud computing – have the potential
to create new markets and outcompete traditional software providers.
One of the roles I enjoy is helping entrepreneurs compete against the
incumbents. Happily, I have an unfair advantage: I used to be a
traditional software executive, so I know how they think.”

In addition to Siebel, Cleveland held executive positions in
engineering and product management at Apple Computer and Oracle
Corporation. He attended the United States Military Academy, West
Point, and received a B.S. in business administration from CSU,
Sacramento.

About InterWest
For more than 30 years, InterWest has partnered with exceptional
entrepreneurs to build winning technology and life sciences companies.
With more than 200 years of combined operating and investing
experience, the firm’s investing team has raised $2.8B, completed more
than 70 IPOs, and participated in nearly 60 upside acquisitions. As
the firm invests InterWest X, a $650M fund, the InterWest team
continues to believe that providing capital is just the beginning of a
long-term collaboration with entrepreneurs to turn their vision into a
thriving company.

The firm’s past successful investments in information technology
include: CIENA (CIEN), Copper Mountain Networks (CMTN), Crystal
Semiconductor (acquired by Cirrus Logic, CRUS), CubeTree (acquired by
SuccessFactors, SFSF) Cyrix (CYRX; acquired by National Semiconductor,
NSM), Edify (EDFY; acquired by Security First Technologies, SONE),
Epocrates (EPOC), Kalpana (acquired by Cisco, CSCO), Lightera
(acquired by CIENA), Lombardi Software (acquired by IBM), Network
Computing Devices (NCDI), Open Silicon (acquired by Unicorn Investment
Bank) PlaceWare (acquired by Microsoft, MSFT), Platform Solutions
(acquired by IBM), Radius, Rendition (acquired by Micron Technology,
MU), Sierra Logic (acquired by Emulex, ELX) SiTera (acquired by
Vitesse, VTSS), Silicon Graphics (SGI), Stratacom (STRM; acquired by
Cisco, CSCO) and Xilinx (XLNX).

The firm’s past successful investments in life sciences include: AkaRx
(acquired by Eisai), ArthroCare (ARTC), Aspreva Pharmaceuticals (ASPV;
acquired by Galenica group, GALN), Cor Therapeutics (CORR; acquired by
Millennium Pharmaceuticals, MLNM), Corixa Pharmaceuticals (CRXA;
acquired by GlaxoSmithKline, GSK), Coulter Pharmaceuticals (CLTR;
acquired by Corixa Pharmaceuticals, CRXA), Cubist Pharmaceuticals
(CBST), Epicor Medical (acquired by St. Jude Medical, STJ), Inspire
Pharmaceuticals (ISPH), IntraLase (ILSE; acquired by Advanced Medical
Optics, EYE), LenSx Lasers (acquired by Alcon, ACL), Myogen (MYOG;
acquired by Gilead, GILD), NovaCardia (acquired by Merck, MRK) Spinal
Dynamics (acquired by Medtronic, MDT), TheraSense (THER; acquired by
Abbott Labs, ABT) and Ventritex (VNTX; acquired by St. Jude Medical,
STJ).