David E. Siminoff is a

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

investor and entrepreneur.

Biography

Education

Siminoff graduated with Honors from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. In 1986, he was a member of the varsity swimming & diving team, which went on to win multiple

Pacific-10 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

and NCAA Championships. He later earned an MFA from the USC Film School in 1989 and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from

Stanford Business School The Stanford Graduate School of Business is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business school in the United States, adm ...

in 1993.

Career

He founded barter company EastNet in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. He Joined Capital Research after selling EastNet, graduating from

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business is the Postgraduate education, graduate business school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective ...

. At Capital Research he focused on the

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...

, and

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

sectors, and his fund was an early investor in

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alter ...

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

and

America Online AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo! Inc. The service tra ...

.Smith, Martin
''Frontline'' interview
PBS website (May 2001). He was voted Best of the Buyside by

Institutional Investor (magazine) ''Institutional Investor'' magazine was a periodical published by Euromoney Institutional Investor. It was founded in 1967 by Gilbert E. Kaplan. A separate international edition of the magazine was established in 1976 for readers in Europe and A ...

in 1997, 98, 99 and 2000. He became an early investor in

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

, along with his jet ownership partner, Mark Pincus. He is an IFR-rated private pilot with over 2,500 hours of flight time. He joined the board of coupons.Com/Quotient before its ipo, running the audit committee. He sat on private boards and helped launch a number of venture capital funds, including

Formation 8 Formation 8 was an American venture capital firm founded in 2011 by Joe Lonsdale, Jim Kim, and Brian Koo. The company was headquartered in San Francisco, California. The firm was one of the most successful venture capital firms in the industry ...

/ 8VC, run by

Joe Lonsdale Joseph Lonsdale (born ) is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He co-founded companies including Palantir Technologies, Addepar, and OpenGov, and co-founded and serves as the managing partner at the technology investment firm 8VC ...

. He later worked as the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Spark Networks, a publicly traded firm which is the parent company of JDate. He was a general partner at

Venrock Venrock (portmanteau of Venture and Rockefeller) is an American venture capital firm formed in 1969 to build upon the successful investing activities of the Rockefeller family that began in the late 1930s. It has offices in Palo Alto, California, ...

, the

Rockefeller family The Rockefeller family ( ) is an American Industrial sector, industrial, political, and List of banking families, banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the History of the petroleum industry in th ...

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

arm.Siminoff profile, Venrock.com
Archived at the Internet Archive. Accessed Nov. 2, 2019.
/ref> In 2008 the Siminoffs co-founded

Shmoop Shmoop University Inc. (popularly known as Shmoop) is a for-profit online educational technology company that specializes in test preparation materials, mental health tools, and learning content for K–12 schools. Shmoop offers free study guide ...

, an online educational technology publishing company that specializes in

test preparation Test preparation (abbreviated test prep) or exam preparation is an educational course, tutoring service, educational material, or a learning tool designed to increase students' performance on standardized tests. Examples of these tests include ...

materials and

study guides A study guide can be anything that facilitates learning in a particular topic. It may be a textbook or other resource that fosters comprehension of literature, research topics, history, and other subjects. General topics include study and tes ...

.Ringle, Hayley
"Silicon Valley edtech company founded by former Yahoo executive moves HQ to Scottsdale: Affordable talent a driving factor in company relocation, exec says,"
''Phoenix Business Journal'' (July 1, 2019). Siminoff remains as Chief Creative Officer of Shmoop. He subsequently founded SimSim.

Personal life

Siminoff and his wife used to live in Los Altos Hills. They met while students at

.Swisher, Kara
"A couple with online connections,"
''The Wall Street Journal'' ( Jan. 27 1999)

at the Wayback Machine. Accessed Nov. 2, 2019. They have two children.Blodget, Henry
"For America's Crappy High Schools, Help Is Finally On The Way...,"
''Business Insider'' (Mar. 5, 2013). He and his wife live in Teton Village, Wyoming where he is involved in a wide range of Wyoming activities, co-hosting the Wyoming Global Technology Summit with Jack Selby,

Peter Thiel Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. According ...

and John Temte. He also sat in the kitchen cabinet of Senator Cynthia Lummis. He has sat on the Astrophysics Board at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

since 2019 and runs a Radio-Phototropic observatory built into his home in Wyoming. Siminoff is an amateur

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

(Golden Bone) and active

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

, formerly sharing flight duties with Eclipse Aviation partner Mark Pincus, the founder of

Zynga Zynga Inc. () is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher known for its social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile an ...

.Thomas, Owen
"Zynga Taps A Veteran Of Yahoo's Glory Days To Its Board,"
''Business Insider'' (Jul 19, 2012).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siminoff, David Living people American computer businesspeople American financiers American investors American technology chief executives Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area People from Los Altos Hills, California Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni 1964 births