John Hamm Email & Phone Number

I am an executive coach and leadership/strategy advisor to CEOs and C-Level executives in (mostly) venture backed technology growth companies. As a former (4x) technology CEO with both IPO and M&A outcomes, and as a venture/operating partner in several tier one venture capital firms, I bring 35+ years of leadership/operating and VC consulting experience to the role and challenges of the CEO role. I have advised more than 115 CEOs (and many of their teams) at all stages in technology and consumer tech companies in San Francisco, London, Brazil, New York, Boston, and Toronto. My leadership book, "Unusually Excellent", (c 2011, Wiley), is the basis of my coaching practice along with well proven frameworks from Pat Lencioni (5 Dysfunctions of a Team) and Geoff Moore (Crossing the Chasm & Core-Context). I also facilitate strategy and leadership workshops for Executive Teams, and their Boards of Directors. Two of my Harvard Business Review articles, "Why Entrepreneurs Don't Scale" (December, 2002) and "The 5 Messages Leaders Must Manage" (May, 2006) are used in more than 20 MBA courses globally.

Menlo Park, Ca, Us

As an operating partner, I focus on CEO/executive coaching and advising Khosla portfolio CEOs on matters of leadership, executive team development and management, and market strategy. I bring 25 years of operating and advisory experience to the portfolio.

San Francisco, California, Us

Results-Based Leadership Development Using High-Impact Coaching and Behavioral Science. Personalized Coaching and Development Platform Built to Maximize Growth of Your Leaders. Customized Solutions. Top-Tier Coaches. Dashboard & insights. 1:1 Coaching.

San Francisco, Ca, Us

The Last Mile, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in San Francisco, is an innovative approach to recidivism prevention. It is the first prison program in California, and the US, that focuses on technology entrepreneurship.Our approach is a combination of inside prison and reentry programs. The combination facilitates strong reentries in which our graduates, incarcerated men and women, their families and our society at large, can thrive.

London, London, Gb

As a Venture Partner at Octopus Ventures, I worked with the investment partners in London, and the portfolio CEOs globally, to drive leadership practices and the strategy process. I provided executive coaching to about 20 of the portfolio CEOs and facilitated a number of workshops for the entire portfolio of companies on leadership, strategy, culture and communication. I also worked with the internal Octopus investment team to evolve their thinking on the strategy for the firm, long term.

Irvine, California, Us

Solarflare was acquired by Xlinix in July 2019

Westlake Village, California, Us

Acquired by Logitech, February 2019

The GRAMMY Foundation was established to cultivate the understanding, appreciation and advancement of recorded music to American culture — from the artistic and technical legends of the past to the still unimagined musical breakthroughs of future generations of music professionals. The Foundation accomplishes this mission through programs that engage the music industry as well as the general public. The Foundation works in partnership with The Recording Academy to bring national attention to important issues such as the impact of music and arts education. The Grammy Foundation has now merged with the The Grammy Museum to combine forces and their missions.

San Francisco, Ca, Us

PonoMusic is a digital music company founded in 2010 by musician Neil Young, focused on delivering studio-quality digital music content to music aficionados worldwide – a convenient alternative to MP3 quality digital downloads and streaming options. Under my leadership, PonoMusic was widely credited with driving the “quality” movement of digital music that has transformed the industry and launched/shipped revolutionary Pono Player, an audiophile class portable music player, named the Stereophile product of the year for 2015. PonoMusic completed the 3rd most successful Kickstarter Campaign in history, in April, 2014 with 19,000 backers raising $6.2M in 35 days.

Accept Software was acquired in October, 2012 by Artemis, a Versata Company. Accept was the leading provider of solutions to Global 1000 companies for Enterprise Product Development.

San Jose, Ca, Us

IronPort was founded in early 2003 by Scott Weiss and Scott Banister, and acquired by CIsco Systems in early 2007. I was an early angel investor (prior to venture capital funding) and worked closely with the CEO and Executive Team providing strategy and leadership consulting from formation through acquisition. In addition, I assisted Ironport with recruiting key members of the engineering and sales team.

Documentum (NASDAQ:DCTM) was acquired by EMC Corporation during my service as a Board Member. I served as executive coach to Dave DeWalt as he transitioned to CEO during my tenure.

San Bruno, Ca, Us

Worked with Partners Geoff Moore and Philip Lay to provide strategic advice to high growth technology firms.

San Francisco, California, Us

Whistle Communications was acquired by IBM in June, 1999. IBM integrated the Whistle technology into its personal computer/internet appliance product line.

Founding Board Member and Advisor to the Executive Team, pre-public. Provided strategic advice to the original founding team and venture investors. First private investor in Brocade.

VP, Sales; VP & GM, Enterprise Products, RAID and Fiber Channel products, a > $500M product division of Adaptec.

San Jose, Ca, Us

Ran Western Digital UK, Ltd. and had responsibility for all OEM accounts and commercial operations in Western Europe and South Africa.

Houston, Texas, Us