Dan Scholnick - Trinity Ventures

“Being in a start-up is a total emotional rollercoaster. Some days you wake up and are on top of the world. You pass a huge milestone and think, how could anything be better than this?”

“The next day, you get a call from a potential investor who passes on the deal. Then you're scrambling for money and eating ramen noodles for 10 straight days because there's no money. The reason I worked at several start-ups is the adrenaline rush. There is the promise that you will have a huge impact and at the same time make a lot of money. To be successful, entrepreneurs must have an irrational belief that what they are doing is going to change the world. You have to have a ton of energy and not need much sleep. Money helps. But more important is finding someone to watch your back.”

Dan Scholnick, Principal
dan@trinityventures.com

Dan joined Trinity Ventures in 2007 with significant experience in mobile and Internet applications as well as enterprise and infrastructure software. Most recently, Dan founded a venture backed mobile application startup. Dan also worked for SVB Capital supporting the software and services practice for the firm’s $56 million equity fund. Dan started his career as an early employee at Wily Technology, an application performance management company acquired by CA. As the company’s first technical hire, he collaborated with the founder to develop the first version of Wily’s flagship product. During his tenure at Wily, Dan also worked in the sales organization on pre‐ and post‐sales engagements with many of Wily’s Fortune 500 clients.

Focus
Mobile, Internet, Enterprise Software.

Education
M.B.A., Harvard Business School  
A.B., Computer Science, Dartmouth College

Active investments
BillShrink
Blue Stripe Software
CrowdFlower (Dolores Labs)
New Relic