As a partner at Norwest, I understand the powerful role investments can play in shaping industries as well as the greater society. That’s why we invest in values-driven founders who view their companies not only as opportunities for financial success but also as conduits of positive change. By partnering with those types of business leaders, […]

Developers run the enterprise… sort of, but they undeniably are among the most valuable talent resources in an enterprise. With PLG the current model for GTM success, developers are under ever greater pressure to build “more, better, faster”. With this heightened pressure – and organizations striving for developer happiness – developers in droves have turned […]

2021 began as a year of fresh starts. Although we faced ongoing challenges, we teamed with our founders and CEOs to offer guidance and help them grow their businesses. We made 110 new and follow-on investments in a wide range of incredible companies across the consumer, enterprise, and healthcare sectors. Catch the highlights of 2021, […]

Dror Nahumi, General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners What trends are you most excited about investing in, generally? We are a large fund that invests in early-to-late-stage companies across a wide range of sectors with a focus on consumer, enterprise and healthcare. My focus is primarily in Israeli companies and I’m seeing many exciting startups in […]

Dr. Robert Mittendorff featured in the San Francisco Business Times Dr. Robert Mittendorff, partner at Norwest Venture Partners and emergency doctor at Kaiser Permanente, said there’s a real worry the regulatory changes won’t be permanent, especially on the reimbursement side, and if “it’s not permanent, we will see a retreat, and the access for telemedical […]

At the start of 2020, we were optimistic that we would see a new wave of startups and emerging technologies that would solve problems for consumers and enterprises. Little did we know that a global pandemic would turn the world upside down, disrupting many industries while accelerating others. Despite a curveball of a year, the […]

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters ravaging many parts of the country, and one of the most polemical political years in U.S. history, 2020 feels like the plot of a Michael Bay film.  There couldn’t be a more dramatic backdrop for our portfolio founders and companies.  Even in the best of years, […]

Building and sustaining brand loyalty in a post-COVID-19 world will require a strategy based on digital transformation and creativity Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, brands faced numerous disruptions, including the rise of robust e-commerce platforms and tools, omnichannel marketing tactics, the use of analytics for data-driven decision making, automation, social media advertising and influencers, and […]

As a twenty-something-year-old, I hover on the border between being a millennial and a Gen Z. I’m old enough to still remember dial-up internet when you couldn’t use the computer and the phone at the same time. How CD players gave way to MP3 players to iPods to iPhones. But I’m young enough that I’d […]

If nothing else, 2020 has been a year of accelerated change (and, shockingly, it’s only July). In many ways, it is the year of 2020 hindsight – in which subtle, yet existing trends are thrown into stark relief as a pressing reality accelerates long term, profound change. Nowhere is this more true than in the […]

In business, it’s generally most fun to talk about marketing campaigns, product launches, and expanding into new markets. But if you aren’t having the “money conversation” with your management team on a regular basis, you may be setting your business up for potential challenges that could otherwise be avoided. Over the years, we’ve found that […]

Founders don’t build a startup because they crave routine and job security. They understand their path will be carved out from every decision made along the way, and will often involve challenging twists and turns they couldn’t have anticipated.  To help future founders get a birds-eye-view of just what those twists and turns can look […]

Norwest recently hosted an event with theBoardlist in our San Francisco office. We had the opportunity to share our space with some amazing female founders and executives for a day of informative and interactive working sessions to help women prepare for board service. We covered topics including the board search process, interviewing, compensation and negotiating, […]

“We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.” – Winston Churchill, 1931 We are thrilled to announce our Series B investment in Memphis Meats, a pioneer in the cell-based meat industry. The company’s vision is to […]

As we look ahead to 2020, we’re keeping our eyes on innovative consumer enthusiast brands, as well as tech companies bringing the right skills and technology to enterprise, cloud, and IT infrastructure. In healthcare, we’ll continue to track new technologies that improve health outcomes and make care more personalized, efficient, and cost-effective. We are optimistic […]

As we enter a new decade, it’s fun to reminisce about all of the incredible technological advancements that have been made over the last 10 years. It seems that one way or another, everyone is “disrupting” something (cue: eye roll). One of the core values for the NVP growth equity team is to not take […]

Over the past few years, the term “Rule of 40” has been popularized within the SaaS and subscription industries to describe a business where revenue growth + EBITDA profitability exceeds 40%. Companies achieving “Rule of 40” or above are typically viewed as strong businesses deserving of high valuations. This simple formula weighs growth and profitability […]

Today, Mist Systems announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Juniper Networks. These two companies will be teaming up to transform how enterprises operate IT infrastructures and deliver business-critical networking services to employees, customers and users. Over the past decade, wireless networks have become a mandatory and mission critical element […]

Paying back a friend on Venmo. Buying stocks on Robinhood. Checking your bitcoin balance on Coinbase. A lot of your financial life is quietly powered by Plaid, a platform that provides the infrastructure to seamlessly and securely connect financial apps with consumer bank and credit card accounts. We are excited to announce that Norwest is […]

As a kid, Jeetu Patel dreamed of traveling the world as a Pan Am employee. His career took a different flight path, however, when he moved to the U.S. from India to attend college at the University of Illinois at Chicago. While in school, he joined a research and advisory firm Doculabs, and after 12 […]

A bet on people This morning, Workday (WDAY) announced plans to acquire Adaptive Insights for more than $1.5 billion. This is Workday’s largest-ever acquisition. At first glance, this would seem like just another big SaaS deal. However, this acquisition is fundamentally different and transformational. Why? Because it unites two great companies that are defining the […]

During the last decade, the explosion in enterprise data growth created a clear need for businesses to transition from Excel tables for data gathering, manipulation, and visualization to modern business intelligence (BI) systems. These systems fall under a category which we call “Visualization BI” or “VBI.” VBI systems are mostly focused on the same attributes […]

Mudit Garg is the co-founder and CEO of Qventus, a leading company that is using AI to transform hospital operations. He has witnessed the biggest challenges at the center of today’s conflicted healthcare system. Hospitals cost the U.S. nearly $1 trillion annually and face rising pressure to balance costs while trying to provide patients with […]

Edtech is one of the fastest-growing segments in the education market. But why? In today’s fast-paced world, the skills we obtain from degrees or vocational training aren’t quite enough — there’s always something new to learn to improve performance, and employers are expecting you to take the initiative. As more people are seeing the importance […]

Sean Duffy admits he’s been a health geek since he was a teenager. His obsession drew him to study neuroscience at Columbia University and it continued to pull at him even after he went to work at Google. In 2009, he decided to pursue a joint MD/MBA degree at Harvard. Between his first and second […]

A few years ago, we began exploring the inter-connectivity of the mobile economy. At the time, “deep linking”一the use of a link to connect a user with a specific piece or page of content within an application, rather than to the desired content’s app homepage一was all the rage. The main reason this trend exploded was […]

Norwest’s investment in Modsy, a leading personalized home design solution, started before the company was even formed. Nearly two years ago, Norwest vice president Jared Hyatt was looking to decorate his new apartment, but had no idea where to begin. He hired two different interior designers to tackle the space, but between the hidden fees, […]

Today marks a very exciting milestone in Norwest’s history. We are pleased to announce that we have raised Norwest Venture Partners XIII, our new $1.2 billion fund. NVP XIII will enable us to continue our mission of helping incredible founders and entrepreneurs and their companies thrive. Our success is their success and we could not […]

The Positive Disruption Happening in Today’s Healthcare World After billions of investment in the space, we now have seen several bona-fide IPOs, multiple commercial-stage companies acquired, and evidence of digital healthcare companies positively impacting scores of patients. Even with all of this exuberance, most of us believe that the field of digital healthcare is still […]

Data + Data = Insights In data analytics, the combining of disparate data sets can often yield unique and valuable insights.  Today we announce Appriss’ acquisition of our portfolio company The Retail Equation; bringing together Appriss’ crime, drug, and automotive data assets with TRE’s comprehensive SKU-level, retail transaction database.  What new insights can be found […]

When we started the Norwest Venture Partners growth equity practice back in 2009, our mission was to find private, rapidly growing, profitable, founder-owned companies in which to invest across multiple industry sectors. Through deep thematic research, in highly strategic industries, we would proactively create investment opportunities, leverage Norwest’s long track record of success, and add […]

I’m often asked for input on how to best build and grow an online marketplace. If you look at the ones that have hit their stride and are growing like Lending Club, which had the second-biggest IPO of 2014, and others like Udemy, Minted, Etsy, and Airbnb, they all have one thing in common: a […]

Jet is a member-based e-commerce marketplace that is reinventing the concept of wholesale online. Costco reshaped essentials shopping through the membership model. Amazon changed e-commerce with a marketplace approach. Jet takes the best elements from each of these approaches to give customers a vast platform of retailers, the best prices, and the exclusivity and privilege […]

Today, wearing a seat belt is second nature, but not too long ago there was a time when many cars didn’t have seatbelts and if they did, wearing them was viewed as optional. It took a generation — and lots of education — to convince car owners that the seatbelt is a vital component of […]

MobileIron’s IPO brings light to the enormous transformation we’ve seen, and continued opportunity ahead in enterprise mobility. Since the company was founded, the adoption of mobile technology has become a disruption of historic proportions. Mobile has outpaced earlier transitions we’ve witnessed such as mainframe to PCs and client/server to the Internet. I remember the day […]

Key performance metrics I look for as a venture capital investor I have spent more than 15 years of my career building, investing in, advising, and studying online marketplaces.  I am convinced marketplaces possess very unique and fascinating characteristics, which are often counter-intuitive and easily misunderstood.  By “marketplaces,” I am referring to a central exchange […]