Scott Lenet

Scott Lenet
Born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Occupation

Founder and President at Touchdown Ventures

Founder and Managing Director, DFJ Frontier (DFJ Frontier)
Spouse(s) Natalie Sorotsky
Website Profile at DFJ Frontier

Scott Harris Lenet is an American venture capitalist and co-founder of the seed stage venture capital firm DFJ Frontier.

Early career

Lenet began his venture capital career in 1992 at Geocapital Partners, where he was the first Associate and had responsibilities for fundraising, deal sourcing, and due diligence. While at Geocapital Partners, his successful investments included Logic Works, which went public prior to being purchased by Platinum Technology and Computer Associates. He also worked on the IPO of Marketing.

Beginning in 1996, Lenet worked for First Virtual Holdings, Inc., one of the first three companies offering internet payment systems. Lenet helped write the company's S-1 registration statement for its initial public offering. Following business school at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he worked in product marketing at Trilogy Software in Austin, Texas, where he was responsible for launching the electronic commerce procurement product BuyingChain. The enterprise software solution won awards at the 1998 Internet Commerce Expo and the 1999 Spring Internet World. BuyingChain was also awarded Infoworld's Ecommerce Product of the Year for 1999.

Subsequent to Trilogy, Lenet co-founded SmartFrog.com, the first cash back rewards program for online shopping. He served as the company's Chief Executive Officer and sold the business to Cybergold in 1999.[1] He joined Cybergold as Vice President of Business Development and helped manage the sale of the company to MyPoints.

DFJ Frontier

In 2002, Lenet co-founded DFJ Frontier with David Cremin and DFJ. He is a member of the board of Directors of AudioMicro, BOOM! Studios, Jiwire, Netpulse, Seismic Games, and Super Heat Games. He is an observer on the boards of GameSalad and SkyGrid. Lenet led DFJ Frontier's investment in MaxPreps, a Sacramento area company which was purchased by CBS Sports; Lipomics Technologies, which was sold to Tethys Bioscience; Delve Networks, which was sold to Limelight Networks (Nasdaq:LLNW); World of Good, which was sold to eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY); and Unsubscribe, which was sold to TrustedID. He has also served on the boards of DigitalPath Networks, BondMart, and Dragnet Solutions.

Touchdown Ventures

In 2014, Lenet co-founded Touchdown Ventures with David Horowitz and Rich Grant. Touchdown partners with leading corporations to launch and manage their venture capital programs. Touchdown manages the complete lifecycle of a corporation’s venture capital activities, from entity formation to investment management.

Educational roles

Lenet began teaching venture capital and entrepreneurship by guest lecturing at Syracuse University's graduate program in Law, Technology, and Management in 1993. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Entrepreneurship Center at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, where he was also an Adjunct Professor from 2003 to 2010. Together with Andrew Hargadon, Lenet co-founded the UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship and developed curriculum funded by the Kauffman Foundation. He previously served as a Director of UC Davis Connect. Beginning in 2010, Lenet began teaching at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and is also a frequent lecturer on venture capital and entrepreneurship for the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation.[2] He has guest lectured at colleges and universities across North America and in Europe.

Lenet holds an A.B. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University, where he co-founded the school's astronomy club with Eric Tilenius, a General Manager at Zynga and former venture capitalist and founder of Netcentives, a competitor to Cybergold and MyPoints. He also received an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. At Wharton, he co-founded the school's technology club and chaired the school's first Internet technology conference, "Business + the Internet" in 1997. He also contributed to teaching Marketing 101 to undergraduates as a teaching assistant and founded Wharton Tech Corps, a non-profit volunteer infrastructure to improve K-12 education through technology. Lenet attended the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University in the summer of 1986, prior to his senior year of high school.

Lenet authors a column entitled "Something Ventured" to educate entrepreneurs about venture capital. The column has appeared in the Sacramento Business Journal and on the DFJ Frontier web site. He has also authored articles for AlwaysOn.

Personal life

Lenet lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children.

Lenet served on the Emeritus Boards of the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra and SARTA, a non-profit dedicated to helping entrepreneurs in the Sacramento region. Lenet previously served on the board of directors of both non-profits until 2009.

Lenet is the grandson of Fred Silberstein, an educator who was the Chief Censor at the Nuremberg Trials while serving in the United States Army during World War II. He is the son of Michael Lenet, the founder of Shadow Broadcast Services (a subsidiary of Westwood One), the first on air traffic reporting service, founded in 1975.

Lenet is the great-nephew of Benny Bass, an American boxer and International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee.

Notes

  1. ↑ Boulton, Clint. "Cybergold Acquires SmartFrog.com", "Internetnews.com", November 18, 1999, accessed July 31, 2011.
  2. ↑ , "USC Experts Directory", July 31, 2011
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