Michael J. Stark

Michael J. Stark

Program
MBA '80
Co-Founder & General Partner,
Company
Crosslink Capital, Inc.
Career Background

Michael co-founded Crosslink Capital in 1999, a San Francisco based investment firm that is focused on venture capital growth equities. Crosslink invests in early/seed stage venture capital financings, through to mid-stage private opportunities and into the public market. This strategy allows Crosslink to remain a very long-term partner with its portfolio companies and to glean investment insights in all phases for innovative companies.

Crosslink Capital was the first venture capital firm in the U.S. to integrate public and private technology investing and has a Crossover Fund Series with a 20+ year track record. Today the firm manages $3.6 billion. Michael oversees Crosslink’s public and private investment activities including being portfolio manager of its public funds. Notable venture capital investments have been Ancestry.com, BetterUp, Building Connected, Chime, Coupa, Equinix, Molekule, Pandora, Verodin, Virage Logic, Vungle and Weave.

Michael received his B.S. in engineering from Northwestern University in 1978 and his MBA from the University of Michigan in 1980. He then worked for Intel Corporation in strategic planning. Michael joined Robertson Stephens in 1983, was elected the youngest partner of the firm in 1984, served as Director of Research establishing the investment direction for 16 senior institutional analysts in the technology, healthcare, biotechnology, software and consumer/retail industries and served on the firm’s management and commitment committees. During the mid-1980’s he led venture capital investments in Cirrus Logic, Cypress Semiconductor and Xilinx.

In addition to his role at Crosslink, he currently serves on the Board of Directors of the University of Michigan Ross Business School Advisory Board and Northwestern University’s McCormick Advisory Committee.