Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

About

Hummer Winblad Venture Partners (HWVP) is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm founded in 1989 by Ann Winblad and John Hummer ¹². The firm pioneered the concept of a venture capital fund investing exclusively in software companies, making it the first VC firm with an all-software focus ¹³. Ann Winblad, a former systems programmer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and co-founder of accounting software company Open Systems Inc. (sold in 1983), partnered with John Hummer, a former first-round NBA draft pick who played six seasons in the league before earning his MBA at Stanford in 1980 ³⁴⁵.

Raising the initial fund took nearly two years and 134 meetings, with IBM and The St. Paul Companies among the primary early investors ⁶. In 1999, Bill Gates invested in the firm’s venture fund ¹. Over its 30-plus-year history, HWVP has managed over $1 billion in cumulative capital across multiple funds and launched over 160 enterprise software companies ²³. Notable fund sizes include Fund V at $424 million (2000), Fund VI at $201 million (late 2007), and Fund VII which targeted $105-150 million ⁷.

In 2015, the firm rebranded from “Hummer Winblad Venture Partners” to “HWVP” ⁷. In 2016, for the first time, the firm raised a fund without Ann Winblad or John Hummer listed among the general partners, signaling a generational transition ¹⁷. In July 2021, HWVP announced the closing of a $70 million fund and a rebrand to Aspenwood Ventures, led by Managing Directors Lars Leckie and Steve Kishi ⁸⁹. Ann Winblad transitioned to Partner Emeritus, serving as an advisor ⁹.

The firm is headquartered at 338 Spear Street, Suite 42E, San Francisco, CA 94105 ².

Stated Thesis

HWVP publicly describes itself as focused on “early-stage enterprise software companies” and characterizes its team as having “deep operation understanding in every aspect of company building, from the early stage product development to the challenges of rapidly scaling to meet demand” ². The firm states its team consists of “technology forward thinkers and engineers” who have “been in the trenches themselves” ².

Ann Winblad has described the firm’s focus as “all business to business opportunities, primarily those that are aimed at the enterprise. At the enterprise, we have two levels. There’s the core software infrastructure that includes development tools, data center infrastructure, integration, and security. On top of that, we’ve always been investors in analytics” ¹⁰.

Lars Leckie has stated that “it is a very good time to quietly invest in enterprise and SaaS infrastructure” and that “small, focused funds do the best by their investors,” suggesting “$35 million to $50 million per partner is ideal” ⁷.

Steve Kishi has characterized the firm’s focus as “early-stage investments in enterprise software applications and infrastructure” leveraging deep knowledge of “SaaS and virtualization technologies” ¹¹.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 28 verified portfolio investments, HWVP’s actual investment behavior closely matches its stated thesis of exclusive enterprise software focus, with some notable patterns:

Sector breakdown (28 verified investments): - Enterprise applications / SaaS platforms: 10 of 28 (36%) — MuleSoft, Five9, InsideSales, Extensity, Aria Systems, Birst, Employease, Oomnitza, StepFunction, Stackery - Infrastructure / virtualization / cloud: 8 of 28 (29%) — PLUMgrid, vKernel, Pancetera, Akimbi Systems, Altiscale, NetDynamics, Wavemaker, Scalent - Analytics / business intelligence: 4 of 28 (14%) — Omniture, Arbor Software/Hyperion, OptiMine, Ace Metrix - Developer tools / DevOps: 3 of 28 (11%) — Powersoft, Sonatype, Wind River Systems - Consumer internet / media: 3 of 28 (11%) — Napster, The Knot, Liquid Audio

Stage distribution: Overwhelmingly early stage. The firm has consistently led seed and Series A rounds, frequently as the first institutional investor. Notable first-investor roles include MuleSoft (two-person startup), Five9, InsideSales, Aria Systems, and Birst ¹²⁷.

Check size: $500K to $3M, with a sweet spot around $2M for initial investments ¹³.

Geographic focus: Predominantly US-based companies, with some willingness to invest globally. MuleSoft’s CEO was originally based in Malta, and Lars Leckie has noted the firm “sources ventures globally” ¹⁰.

Outcomes: The portfolio shows a high rate of successful exits. Of the 28 verified investments: 7 IPOs (Powersoft, Arbor/Hyperion, Liquid Audio, Extensity, Omniture, Five9, MuleSoft), at least 8 acquisitions by major technology companies (Sun Microsystems, Sybase, Intel, VMware, Quest Software, Quantum, Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, Barracuda Networks), and 1 notable failure (Napster) ¹²¹⁴.

Notable gaps: Despite claiming an exclusive software focus, the firm made a few consumer internet bets during the dot-com era (Napster at $15 million, The Knot, Liquid Audio) that diverged from the enterprise thesis ¹¹⁵. Post-2005, the portfolio shows a much tighter enterprise-only focus.

Co-investor patterns: The firm has co-invested with U.S. Venture Partners (InsideSales), NEA and Salesforce Ventures (MuleSoft), SAP Ventures (MuleSoft), C5 Capital (Oomnitza), and Voyager Capital (Stackery) ⁷¹⁶¹⁷.

Portfolio

This table represents approximately 41 verified investments. HWVP claims over 160 total portfolio companies over its history, meaning this represents roughly 25% of known investments ³.

In Their Own Words

“You just need to stand in the river of innovation and never take your deal flow for granted. I try to have meetings with three to five people a week that I’ve not met with before. Sometimes those meetings I wish I hadn’t taken, but many times they’re surprisingly interesting and reveal a new set of ideas, as well as a new set of people.” — Ann Winblad, Founding Partner, in a Sramana Mitra podcast interview ¹⁰

“Software development — for any company — must become a core strategic competency, not just a cost center, or they risk being Ubered or Amazoned.” — Ann Winblad, Sonatype blog post ²¹

“A category 5 hurricane for the enterprise in cloud, mobile, AI, and big data.” — Ann Winblad, describing future disruption opportunities, Sonatype blog post ²¹

“My job is to audition the future. Your job is to create it.” — Ann Winblad, Sonatype blog post ²¹

“It is a very good time to quietly invest in enterprise and SaaS infrastructure.” — Lars Leckie, Managing Director, StrictlyVC interview, April 2015 ⁷

“Small, focused funds do the best by their investors. $35 million to $50 million per partner is ideal.” — Lars Leckie, Managing Director, StrictlyVC interview, April 2015 ⁷

“Stackery provides the most sophisticated software we’ve seen in the ‘serverless’ space.” — Steve Kishi, Managing Director, Stackery funding announcement, April 2018 ¹⁷

What Founders Say

“Ann and the HWVP team have been invaluable partners as we’ve scaled MuleSoft. They have deep operation understanding in every aspect of company building, from the early stage product development to the challenges of rapidly scaling to meet demand. Their guidance and help with partnerships, team building, strategy and positioning has been spot on. They often inquire, ‘How can we help’ and then deliver on what we ask.” — Greg Schott, CEO, MuleSoft, HWVP website ¹²

“HWVP has been a trusted partner. Their focus on software and SaaS, deep industry expertise, pragmatic guidance and willingness to help in all aspects of building a company has proven to be extremely valuable.” — Mike Burkland, CEO, Five9, HWVP website ¹²

“The HWVP partners are extraordinary champions for entrepreneurs. These partners are always there for sage advice, recruiting, customer leads, and of course as a sounding board.” — Josh James, CEO, Omniture, HWVP website ¹²

Note: These testimonials are sourced from the HWVP firm website and may reflect a curated selection. No independently sourced founder testimonials from third-party publications were found.

Sources