Mike Slade

Background

Michael B. Slade earned a B.A. in Economics from Colorado College in 1979 and an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1983 ¹². He began his career at Microsoft in 1983, where he spent seven years in product marketing roles, introducing Excel (1985), Works (1987), and Microsoft Office (1989), before serving as Director of Corporate Marketing in the systems software division ¹²³.

From 1991 to 1993, Slade served as VP of Marketing at NeXT Computer, Inc., reporting directly to Steve Jobs ¹²³. In 1993, Paul Allen hired Slade as CEO of Starwave Corporation, Allen’s venture into Internet and multimedia ¹²³. At Starwave, Slade launched ESPN.com, NBA.com, NFL.com, NASCAR.com, ABCNews.com, and the Go.com network ¹²³. He retired as Chairman and CEO of Starwave upon its sale to the Walt Disney Corporation in late 1998 ¹²³.

From 1998 to 2004, Slade served as a strategic advisor and member of the executive team for Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs ¹²³. Because Slade had no turf to protect within Apple, Jobs reportedly let his guard down with him, and Slade sat on the executive team during the period that included the launches of the iMac and iPod ⁴⁵.

In 2000, Slade co-founded Second Avenue Partners, a Seattle-based venture capital firm providing management, strategy, and capital for early-stage companies, alongside Nick Hanauer and Pete Higgins ¹²³⁶. A fourth co-founder, Keith Grinstein, passed away on September 28, 2008 ⁶.

Also in 2000, Slade joined fellow former Microsoft executives Chris Peters and Rob Glaser in purchasing the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), which was near bankruptcy at the time ⁷⁸. Peters and Glaser withdrew their interests in 2010 and 2018 respectively, leaving Slade as sole owner until Bowlero Corp. acquired the PBA in 2019 ⁷⁸. Slade was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame for meritorious service on January 18, 2020 ⁸.

Slade serves on the board of RealNetworks (RNWK), where he has been a director since November 2011, after previously serving as a strategic advisor to the company from 2005 to 2006 ⁹. He is also a trustee of Colorado College and established the Slade Fund for Sustainable Development Studies there in 2001 ¹.

Stated Thesis

Second Avenue Partners publicly describes its approach as providing “management, strategy, and capital to early-stage companies” in the Greater Puget Sound area ⁶¹⁰. The firm invests in “promising teams and transformative ideas” across internet, consumer, social media, software, mobile, and clean energy sectors ⁶¹⁰.

The firm’s co-founder Pete Higgins has described their philosophy: “We wanted to get involved in young companies, not as pure investors, but as mentors. We believe that the value isn’t created doing the deal. It’s figuring out how to delight customers with great products and provide great service, hire great people, and all the things that come with running a company” ¹¹.

Higgins has also described the firm’s hands-on engagement: “You’ll find us meeting on a weekly basis with the CEO. We’ll sit down and go through the issues of the day and then actually get to work on them, whether it’s hiring, or figuring out pricing strategy or reviewing the product or marketing plan, or fussing over the financials and how fast we can burn cash” ¹¹.

Slade is described as “actively seeking new investments” with a preference for “minority stake” positions and a willingness to “syndicate” ³.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 20 verified investments where Slade has direct involvement (as personal investor or board member through Second Avenue Partners), the following patterns emerge. Note: Second Avenue Partners has a total documented portfolio of approximately 53 investments ¹⁰, but only 20 could be verified as having Slade’s direct involvement. This sample may not fully represent his complete investment activity.

Sector Distribution (20 verified investments)

• Internet/Media/Entertainment: 7 of 20 (35%) – Newsvine, GeekChicDaily, TheWrap, ESPN.com (via Starwave legacy), Fan Nation, Fantasy Moguls, Coolspotters
• Software/SaaS/Enterprise: 5 of 20 (25%) – Azaleos, Seeq, Audience Science, TalentSpring, Iota Software
• Consumer/Marketplace: 4 of 20 (20%) – RealSelf, FlowPlay, StubHub, Lively
• Hardware/Deep Tech: 2 of 20 (10%) – Skydio, Modumetal
• Clean Energy/Climate: 1 of 20 (5%) – Cervest
• Other: 1 of 20 (5%) – Professional Bowlers Association

Stage Distribution

The majority of verified investments are at the seed and Series A stages, consistent with Second Avenue Partners’ stated early-stage focus ⁶¹⁰. The firm invests across Pre-Seed through Series D but concentrates on the earliest stages ¹⁰.

Geographic Concentration

Investments are heavily concentrated in the Seattle/Greater Puget Sound area ⁶¹⁰¹¹. Portfolio companies like Newsvine, RealSelf, FlowPlay, Azaleos, Seeq, and Modumetal are all Seattle-based ¹⁰¹².

Investment Style

Slade takes board seats on many portfolio companies, serving as a hands-on, operational investor leveraging his extensive experience as a CEO (Starwave), product marketer (Microsoft), and executive advisor (Apple, Steve Jobs) ¹²³. His current and past board seats include RealSelf, TheWrap, Skydio, FlowPlay, Fantasy Moguls, TreeRing, and entree.ai ¹. He has also served in advisory roles with Ctrl-Labs (acquired by Meta in 2019 for between $500M and $1B) and Intentional Software (acquired by Microsoft) ¹³¹⁴.

Co-Investor Patterns

Slade almost always co-invests alongside his Second Avenue Partners co-founders Nick Hanauer and Pete Higgins ⁶¹⁰. On personal investments outside the firm, he has co-invested with entertainment industry figures such as Joe Roth (Revolution Studios) on GeekChicDaily ¹⁵.

Notable Gaps

Despite claiming interest in “mobile” and “social media” sectors, verified investments skew more toward media, enterprise software, and consumer internet than pure mobile or social platforms. The “clean energy” investment thesis is represented by only 1 of 20 verified investments (Cervest), suggesting this is a minor focus despite being stated ⁶¹⁰.

Portfolio

This table represents approximately 20 of an estimated 53 investments made through Second Avenue Partners ¹⁰. Many entries use founding year as a proxy for investment year and are marked with “~”. Only investments where Slade’s direct involvement could be verified are included.

In Their Own Words

During his PBA Hall of Fame induction speech in January 2020, Slade reflected on the PBA ownership experience: “When you’re an underdog you have to be scrappy and try things and that’s what we did” ⁸.

Slade has also worked as a strategic consultant for the NBA, Starbucks, RealNetworks, Disney, the NFL, and various Paul Allen companies ³, reflecting a pattern of advising major brands on digital strategy informed by his pioneering internet media work at Starwave.

No additional independently sourced quotes from Slade about his investment philosophy or approach to working with founders were found despite dedicated searches across podcast transcripts, interviews, and social media. His podcast appearances (Internet History Podcast, Danielle Newnham Podcast, Colorado College’s Life After the Block) focus primarily on his career at Microsoft, NeXT, Starwave, and Apple rather than his investing philosophy ⁴⁵²⁰.

What Founders Say

Mike Davidson, co-founder of Newsvine, wrote upon the company’s acquisition by MSNBC.com in 2007 that Second Avenue Partners (with Mike Slade on the board) funded Newsvine, and described the outcome as “a win for our investors at Second Avenue” ²¹. However, this is not a detailed testimonial about the investor-founder relationship.

No other independently sourced founder testimonials about working with Mike Slade were found despite dedicated searches. Searches for founder experiences, portfolio company CEO reviews, and testimonials across Twitter/X, blog posts, podcast transcripts, and press coverage did not yield direct founder quotes about Slade’s involvement or value-add as an investor.

Sources