Joe Horowitz has been Managing General Partner of JAFCO Ventures since its formation in 2003, bringing to JAFCO 25 years of experience working with early stage companies as a venture capitalist, advisor and entrepreneur. Joe is passionate about the value creation process and loves working with talented entrepreneurs. At JAFCO, though investments are always supported by a team effort, the companies Joe has been actively involved with include Aster Data Systems, Attributor, Avnera, Cortina Systems, Devicescape Software, FireEye, MarketLive, Meebo, Mimosa Systems, Ocarina Networks, Oodle, Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint, RedSeal Systems, SocialVibe and SiTime. Prior investments while at JAFCO include Infinera (INFN), Miradia (acquired by TMT) and WorkMetro (acquired by Jobing.com).
Joe's venture capital experience prior to joining JAFCO includes a 10-year tenure at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) from 1982 to 1992 and three years with Exxon Enterprises. At USVP, the first deal that he worked on was the seed financing of Sun Microsystems. Joe also spent several years managing his own venture advisory firm and was Chairman & CEO of Geocast Network Systems, a broadband infrastructure company backed by Mayfield, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Institutional Venture Partners.
Prior investments that Joe was involved with include Avia Group International (Reebok), Encompass (Yahoo!), Gymboree (GYMB), Imedia (Terayon), Micro Linear (MLIN), Microtune (TUNE), Netsys Technologies (Cisco), Pacific Microsonics (Microsoft), Ross Stores (ROST), Starsight Telecast (Gemstar), Stream Machine (Cirrus Logic) and Sun Microsystems (SUNW).
Joe received his MBA from the Wharton Graduate School of Business. As an undergraduate he studied engineering and applied sciences and then earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics at Columbia University.
