Manuel Rosso Joins Austin Ventures

Manuel Rosso has joined Austin Ventures as an entrepreneur-in-residence, with a focus on Internet marketing opportunities. He previously was VP of marketing for IMVU Inc., a B2C social media startup.

PRESS RELEASE

Austin Ventures (“AV”), one of the nation’s leading venture and growth capital firms, announces the addition of Manuel Rosso to the Entrepreneur-in-Residence (“EIR”) program. As an EIR, Mr. Rosso will apply his expertise in the B2B and B2C online demand generation Internet field.

 

“Manuel is a proven executive with deep Internet marketing experience. His knowledge and skills are uniquely valuable and will allow him to make an immediate impact by either starting a company or joining an existing company in our portfolio. We look forward to a long-term partnership with him,” said Thomas Ball, AV Partner.

 

Mr. Rosso has 15 years experience in consumer marketing and strategy on a trajectory that has taken him from traditional consumer packaged good industries to Web 1.0 e-commerce to a cutting edge Web 2.0 consumer focused startup. He was most recently Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at IMVU, Inc., a B2C social media startup that was recently named a Rising Star in the Deloitte’s Silicon Valley Technology Fast 50. During his tenure at IMVU, Manuel led the company through an accelerated growth stage, monetizing next generation community building, avatar based social interaction, and virtual goods via a thriving micropayment economy. During his tenure, IMVU increased its monthly revenue ten times.

 

Prior to IMVU, he was Director of Brand Marketing for Dell Inc.’s eight billion dollar Consumer & Small Business Desktop group, responsible for driving revenue, marketing functions, including customer acquisition, and product management. He also held a variety of other roles in marketing, product management, and corporate strategy. Before Dell, he held marketing roles at Colgate Palmolive and V. Suarez (beverage distributor). Mr. Rosso has a Master of Business Administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.

 

“The partnership with Austin Ventures is a huge opportunity,” said Mr. Rosso. “I’m excited to roll up my sleeves and work closely with Austin’s consumer-focused community of entrepreneurs”.

 

AV’s relationship with Mr. Rosso is part of a stated strategy to partner with talented executives with proven track records to build growth companies in attractive markets. AV has a dedicated in-house talent function that identifies executives that want a hands-on partner in building their next business.

 

Mr. Rosso will be based in Austin, Texas, and evaluate potential deals in Texas and throughout the United States.

 

About Austin Ventures

 

Austin Ventures (“AV”) has worked with talented entrepreneurs to build valuable companies for nearly 25 years. With $3.9 billion under management, AV is the most active venture capital and growth equity firm in Texas and one of the most established in the nation. With a focus on business services, information services, integrated media, computer and communications hardware, and enterprise software, AV invests at all stages of company development, from $100,000 “planned experiments” in early stage ideas to $100+ million investments in expansion rounds, minority recapitalizations, and buyouts of middle market growth companies. Visit www.austinventures.com for more information.