MENLO PARK, Calif. March 26, 2008 —With several digital media investments in its current portfolio, early-stage venture capital firm Trinity Ventures today announced that Ashu Garg will join as an executive-in-residence (EIR) to help identify next-generation advertising and digital media opportunities.
“Online advertising has reached a point of substantial growth since Trinity’s successful investment in early pioneer 24/7 Real Media, and there are tremendous opportunities for success in the unfolding landscape,” said Ajay Chopra, venture partner at Trinity.  “Trinity is known for investments in consumer-facing opportunities like Photobucket, acquired last year by News Corp., Bix, acquired by Yahoo, and SkyFire, which launched this year at DEMO – each of which have ad-supported business models. Recently Trinity has been looking at compelling next-gen ad plays. We invested in the Ripple out-of-home ad network and are seeking other well-differentiated opportunities in this space. Ashu will help us to identify the plays that are most promising for future success. He brings deep domain expertise, from product conceptualization to customer acquisition, and everything in between.”
Garg has held a variety of operating and management roles at Microsoft Corporation, McKinsey & Company, Cadence Design Systems and Unilever Plc. Most recently he was General Manager of Microsoft’s Online Services business, where he was responsible for strategy and business management for the Digital Advertising Solutions Business Group. His responsibilities included developing the business plan and yield management across the network. At McKinsey, Garg helped early-stage digital media and software companies address growth. He held senior operating roles at both Cadence and Unilever.
Garg is involved in a number or organizations including The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Pant IIT Alumni Association, and The Indian Angel Network. He sits on the board of Vienova, an early-stage online education services provider.

About Trinity Ventures
Trinity Ventures, a 21 year veteran in the venture business with more than $1 billion under management, partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to build great companies. Trinity Ventures focuses on early-stage technology investment opportunities with a particular emphasis on the Digital Media, Internet Services, Mobility, Security and Software markets. Trinity has invested in well over 100 ventures, including such leading companies as Aruba Networks (NASDAQ: ARUN), Blue Nile (NASDAQ: NILE), Crescendo Communications (acquired by Cisco: CSCO), Extreme Networks (NASDAQ: EXTR), Forte Software (acquired by Sun Microsystems: SUNW), Illustra (acquired by Informix, now part of International Business Machines: IBM), LoopNet (NASDAQ: LOOP), PhotoBucket (acquired by News Corporation: NWS), Speedera Networks (acquired by Akamai Technologies: AKAM), Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), and Sygate Technologies (acquired by Symantec: SYMC).