Ashu Garg Email & Phone Number

Palo Alto , Ca, Us

Foundation Capital is a leading Silicon Valley based early stage venture capital firm. I focus on investing in bold founders who have a vision to transform markets and build enduring companies. We mostly invest in companies before they have revenues and work closely with them to improve their odds of finding product-market-fit. I have extensive experience across the stack from AI 1st applications to data/ML infrastructure, cyber security, and cloud infrastructure. I have the privilege of being an early investor in Data Bricks, Cohesity, Eightfold, Amperity (via an acquisition), Anyscale, Turing, Alation, Skyflow, Fortanix, TubeMogul (acquired by Adobe post IPO), and Tubi.tv. (acquired by Fox) amongst others. I truly feel my past experiences have prepared me in the most valuable way to become a partner to entrepreneurs. One thing I’m most proud of is being a valuable board member. In my view, a valuable board member is one who raises the aspirations of the founder and through him, the entire team. Something that I hope I’ve brought along with me from my time as an operator myself is that I feel that if entrepreneurs need one thing from a VC, it’s knowing that he or she really cares. It’s important that a VC is on board with them through the inevitable ups and downs that come along with being an entrepreneur. When I became a VC, one of the goals I set for myself was to become this kind of resource for my entrepreneurs. Being that person is the most rewarding aspect of being a VC.Hiring great executives is one of the most important things a founder needs to do. Helping a founder hire the best talent out there is rewarding for me. I love to step in, speak to a candidate and raise their aspirations around the job as well. Nothing makes me happier than helping my CEOs land a really difficult hire.

San Francisco, Ca, Us

Palo Alto, California, Us

Berkeley, Ca, Us

Palo Alto, Ca, Us

Palo Alto, California, Us

Santa Clara, California, Us

San Jose, California, Us

San Francisco, Ca, Us

Foster City, Ca, Us

Redwood City, California, Us

Seattle, Washington, Us

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, In

Everywhere, Oo

San Francisco, Ca, Us

Austin, Tx, Us

Emeryville, Ca, Us

Menlo Park, Ca, Us

I joined Trinity Ventures as an Entrepreneur in Residence with the idea of starting a company in the programmatic marketing space. Instead, I ended up looking into being the CEO of several start up opportunities. Through the countless interviews I held, it seemed that I had a lot to offer to founders. This led me to become far more intrigued by being an investor, which would allow me to share that knowledge that I have been lucky enough to build up through the amazing opportunities I’ve been offered throughout my career to more than one start up. This was the ultimate stepping-stone toward my career as a VC at Foundation Capital.

Redmond, Washington, Us

I am grateful for the opportunity I had in learning the things I’ve leveraged in terms of knowledge about MarTech, the marketing ecosystem and marketing automation. The reason is two-fold: I ran Ad Ops and learned the nuts and bolts of operating an ads platform. Second, through my role as a GM at Microsoft I had the opportunity to have access to and learn from the best and brightest marketing pioneers and innovators in this space, which helped me realize that this is the space for me.

Redmond, Washington, Us

On this job, I was afforded the unique opportunity to truly scale a business by starting with a team of seven and building it up to 500. I learned how to translate strategy into an execution plan at scale, while simultaneously motivating a huge team at the same time. Today, this is something that I bring to the table to all of the companies I invest into. Managing teams with multiple layers meant that I had to be able to go into a meeting with very little context, zoom in, engage deeply on the product and push the aspiration. Perhaps even more importantly, learning when to walk away and allow the team to execute. This experience is probably what contributed the most learning how to become an effective board member.

San Jose, California, Us

At Cadence, I learned how to sell technology based on its benefit to the business as opposed to speeds and feeds. Selling technology in alignment with the benefits it will yield for the company is the heart of marketing in the tech space. You only have the product that you are given to sell. You can’t change the product, so you have to change your view of the product by framing it in a way that sheds light on the value it would bring to the company.

Us

Each stint I had along my career path was transformational in one way or another, but McKinsey really helped me learn how to problem solve and advise, which is something many of us know McKinsey is notorious for today. What made this role unique is that I was part of a very small group that launched the first McKinsey office in India. It gave me my first set of experiences that pushed me into the role of an adviser that I enjoy so much today as a VC. I remember being 29 years old and having dinner with a founder/CEO at his home. He asked me for feedback on his COO, and when I went to the office the next morning, I learned that the COO had been fired overnight. While it was exhilarating to learn that the founder valued my advice so much, it also taught me the obligation that comes with such advice. A callous attitude toward this kind of advice is detrimental. Words are not just words, they are often tied to consequences. Even today, I am cognizant of the responsibility that comes with being a trusted adviser and do not take this privilege lightly. I am very grateful for this experience because what I learned all those years ago still manifests itself today in my ability to frame problems and determine what needs to be focused on in board meetings.

Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Nl

Way back in 1999, I was bursting with excitement about a local search engine I had developed for India called TringTring.com. There I was, sitting in a high-rise in this unusually fancy VC office with frosted windows and the quintessential Herman Miller chairs of the time. I could barely wait to pitch what I thought was going to be the next big thing, but once I did, I left that office head down, completely deflated, because the VC, quoting Bill Gates, had simply said “Search is a loss-leader”. At the time, I suppose this assessment was understandable, considering that India had only about 75-100K internet users. Today, when I sit in my own office and I take notice of our own frosted windows, I smile at myself, realizing that our windows might be the same as that office in Bombay, but I will always strive to be slightly different, more open and less definitive.

Blackfriars, London, Gb

I was fresh out of college and though I had never sold or even met a salesman in my life, I was given the opportunity to lead a team of 40 salespeople who were twice my age. Despite my lack of knowledge in the field, I learned the importance of leading from the front and how crucial the quality of empathy is in a leader. I also ran a chemicals plant and I will never forget the time that we had the very serious threat of a major gas leak and I spent a week of long nights watching over the factory and dozing off in the solitude to the quiet hum of the machines. Had I not done that, I would have never been able to connect on a personal level with the people who normally handled that responsibility. I realized that you can’t possibly know how tough a job is until you do it yourself and develop a sense of genuine empathy. I will be forever grateful for being given my first change to manage a big operation and lead a team from the front with empathy. In many ways, Unilever kicked off a lifetime of learning around these recurring themes that constantly pop up in my life as a VC today.

B. Tech, Engineering

Mba, Marketing, Strategy

Education record