Matt Jacobson

Background

Matt Jacobson is a General Partner at ICONIQ Capital and ICONIQ Growth, where he has worked since September 2013 and serves on the firm’s Executive, Investment, and Management committees ^{1 2}. He helped launch ICONIQ Growth’s growth investment strategy alongside co-founder Will Griffith ³.

Jacobson began his career as an analyst at Lehman Brothers in the Investment Banking Division, where he worked on debt and equity financings, M&A transactions, and strategic advisory assignments, including advising Yahoo! on Microsoft’s unsolicited $44 billion bid ^{1 4}. He was at Lehman Brothers from approximately 2006 to 2008 ⁵.

After Lehman Brothers, Jacobson moved to Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), a $7.7 billion private equity and venture capital firm, where he focused on investments in the internet and software sectors ¹. At TCV, he helped source and execute investments in Groupon, HomeAway, and Everyday Health ¹. He worked at TCV from approximately 2008 to 2011 ⁵.

Between TCV and Battery Ventures, Jacobson served as Chief Executive Officer of Groupon’s New York operations, Groupon’s largest market at the time, where he grew revenues by 220% ^{1 4}. He held this role from approximately 2011 to 2012 ⁵.

Jacobson then worked as an investor at Battery Ventures for approximately one year before departing to join ICONIQ Capital in September 2013 ⁴.

Jacobson holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, with a dual concentration in Finance and Management (class of 2006) ^{1 2}.

Stated Thesis

Jacobson has described ICONIQ Growth’s approach as building “long-term partnerships” with founders rather than viewing investments as trades ³. He has stated that ICONIQ is prepared to offer “any resource possible at our disposal” to founders, including orchestrating personal assistance such as helping founders’ family members during natural disasters ⁶.

On what he looks for in founders, Jacobson gravitates toward “founder archetypes who are operators that have experienced a pain point firsthand and then step out of their role to fix it,” viewing this as indicative of authentic founder-market fit ⁷. He has stated that “people matter most” when evaluating opportunities and that “great founders can create categories” ⁷.

Jacobson has described ICONIQ’s typical entry point as the Series B stage when companies are generating approximately $10 million in annual revenue ⁶. He avoids structural protections in term sheets, believing founders should choose valuation discounts over complex terms ³.

On AI, Jacobson and co-partner Will Griffith have articulated that “tomorrow’s winners will harness proprietary data, embrace agentic workflows, rethink pricing models, and stay technically close to both product and customer” ⁸. He has described the current AI landscape not as “the death of software” but as “a period of evolutionary innovation — and a Great Sorting” ⁹.

On market conditions, Jacobson has noted: “The vast majority of our value has historically come from the public markets; we’ve had around 30 IPOs in the last 11 years. That’s changing. We haven’t had a new company go public since 2021” ¹⁰. He indicated ICONIQ would pursue “new sources of activity” including M&A and secondary market trading in startup equity ¹⁰.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 30 verified investments personally attributable to Jacobson (via board seats, named involvement in deals, or representative investment lists), his actual investment behavior reveals several patterns.

Sector breakdown (of 30 verified investments): Enterprise SaaS dominates with 20 of 30 companies (67%), including Datadog, GitLab, Miro, Collibra, BambooHR, Relativity, Highspot, Sendbird, UnifyApps, and Pigment. AI-native companies represent 6 of 30 (20%), including Anthropic, Glean, Whirl AI, and UnifyApps. Fintech accounts for 4 of 30 (13%), including Adyen, Robinhood, and Chime. Cybersecurity represents 3 of 30 (10%), including CrowdStrike, Orca Security, and Twistlock (acquired by Palo Alto Networks). Note: many companies span multiple categories, so totals exceed 100%.

Stage distribution: Jacobson’s investments are overwhelmingly growth-stage, consistent with ICONIQ Growth’s stated Series B entry point. His board seats — Datadog (Series D), GitLab (Series D lead), Miro (Series C), Collibra (growth), BambooHR (growth) — reflect mid-to-late-stage entry. The most notable exception is ICONIQ’s seed investment in Whirl AI in March 2026, which appears to represent a willingness to invest earlier for high-conviction enterprise AI bets.

Geographic concentration: Portfolio is predominantly US-based. European investments include Adyen (Netherlands), Collibra (Belgium/US), Miro (originally Russia/US), and Pigment (France). Jacobson works closely with Index Ventures on multiple European investments ³.

Board engagement pattern: Jacobson is an exceptionally active board member, currently serving on the boards of at least 11 companies: Datadog, GitLab, Miro, Collibra, BambooHR, Relativity, Sendbird, UnifyApps, Pigment, Orca Security, and Monte Carlo Data ^{5 11}. Former board seats include Braze (2017-2023), Sprinklr (2014-2022), Twistlock (2018-2019), and InVision ⁵. This level of board involvement is unusually high for a growth-stage GP and suggests deep operational engagement with portfolio companies.

Co-investor patterns: ICONIQ frequently co-invests with Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Partners, and Lightspeed at the growth stage. Jacobson has also brought portfolio company operators as co-investors — notably Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman and Datadog president Amit Agarwal co-invested in NinjaOne alongside ICONIQ ¹².

Notable emphasis on enterprise AI applications: Jacobson has focused increasingly on AI application-layer companies rather than foundation models. His statement that “Enterprise AI is full of pilots that never make it to production” because “the AI lacks sufficient understanding of the environment it is operating in” reflects a thesis centered on enterprise AI infrastructure and workflow tools ¹³. However, his personal involvement in leading Anthropic’s Series F and co-leading the Series G shows flexibility when conviction is high ¹⁴.

Gap between stated and actual thesis: Despite ICONIQ publicly stating it avoids AI foundation model companies, Jacobson personally led the Anthropic Series F and co-led the Series G ¹⁴. This suggests his actual AI appetite is broader than ICONIQ’s public messaging implies.

Portfolio

The following table includes investments personally attributable to Jacobson through board seats, named deal involvement, or confirmed lead roles.

Note: Years marked with “~” are approximate, based on board appointment dates or estimated from fund vintage. This table represents investments where Jacobson’s personal involvement is verified through board seats, public filings, or press mentions. ICONIQ Growth has 140+ portfolio companies total; many additional investments may have Jacobson’s involvement without public attribution.

In Their Own Words

“The vast majority of our value has historically come from the public markets; we’ve had around 30 IPOs in the last 11 years. That’s changing. We haven’t had a new company go public since 2021.” — Matt Jacobson, PYMNTS, 2024 ¹⁰

“In 2022 we made zero new investments. Zero.” — Matt Jacobson, Fortune, July 2024. (ICONIQ later clarified two investments closed in early 2022 that were committed in 2021.) ⁶

“Each day, every day, all day long: Hold it up. We want to earn it. We want to deliver.” — Matt Jacobson, Fortune, July 2024 ⁶

“Enterprise AI is full of pilots that never make it to production, and the reason is often the same: the AI lacks sufficient understanding of the environment it is operating in.” — Matt Jacobson, Whirl AI press release, March 2026 ¹³

“UnifyApps understands that you need a holistic approach to achieve trusted, effective AI agents. By aligning every data source and application to an enterprise use, they are enabling AI to actually understand and orchestrate work.” — Matt Jacobson, UnifyApps press release, November 2024 ¹⁹

“The premise is wrong. What we are seeing is not the death of software. It is a period of evolutionary innovation — and a Great Sorting.” — Matt Jacobson, LinkedIn, 2024 ⁹

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials specifically about Matt Jacobson were found through dedicated searching. The ICONIQ Growth firm profile contains founder quotes about ICONIQ generally (from Frank Slootman of Snowflake, Sanjay Beri of Netskope, Bret Taylor of Sierra, and Mati Staniszewski of ElevenLabs), but none specifically attribute their experience to Jacobson personally versus the broader ICONIQ team.

Connections

• Board member, Datadog (since July 2019; board observer from December 2015) — alongside Olivier Pomel (CEO), Amit Agarwal (former President, now ICONIQ GP). Serves on Audit Committee and chairs Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee ^{2 5}
• Board member, GitLab (since July 2018) — elected Class I director at 2025 Annual Meeting, term expiring 2028. Alongside Sid Sijbrandij (Co-Founder & CEO). ICONIQ led GitLab’s $100M Series D ^{5 16}
• Board chairman, Collibra (since 2016) — enterprise data governance platform ⁵
• Board member, Miro (since ~2021) — alongside Andrey Khusid (CEO & Co-Founder). Appeared jointly at SaaStr Europa 2022 ^{5 7}
• Board member, BambooHR (since ~2016) ⁵
• Board member, Relativity (since ~2015) — legal technology platform ⁵
• Board member, Sendbird (since ~2019) — communications API platform ⁵
• Board member, UnifyApps (since 2024) — AI enterprise integration platform ¹⁹
• Board member, Pigment (since 2023) — enterprise planning software ¹¹
• Board member, Orca Security — cloud security platform ⁵
• Board member, Monte Carlo Data — data observability platform ⁵
• Former board member, Braze (2017-2023) — customer engagement platform, now public ⁵
• Former board member, Sprinklr (2014-2022) — social media management platform, now public ⁵
• Former board member, Twistlock (2018-2019) — container security, acquired by Palo Alto Networks ⁵
• Former CEO, Groupon NYC (2011-2012) — led Groupon’s largest market ^{1 5}
• Former investor, Battery Ventures (~2012-2013) ⁴
• Former investor, Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) (~2008-2011) — worked alongside Will Griffith (now ICONIQ co-founder) ¹
• Former analyst, Lehman Brothers (~2006-2008) ^{1 5}
• Frequent co-investor with Index Ventures on European deals ³
• SaaStr Europa 2022 speaker — interviewed Miro CEO Andrey Khusid on stage ⁷

Sources