Brian Jacobs
Founder + General Partner (Emeritus)
“I’ve helped a lot of companies become the leaders of their category. Every one of them was built by a team with diverse skills and perspectives.”
When Brian founded Emergence Capital with Jason Green and Gordon Ritter, he wanted to build a culture of that combined winning BIG with humility. “We knew that we would compete with other strong venture firms in Silicon Valley who had established brands and really smart people. Our competitive advantage is our tight focus and our coordinated teamwork.” Intacct was a tiny company with less than $2 million of revenue when Brian recognized its potential to be a leader in the massive accounting software category. As the lead investor, he coached the management team as it established a scalable sales and marketing process, raised almost $100 million and sold the company to Sage Group in 2017.
Brian was named to the Forbes Midas List in 2006 and 2007. He is a board member of Bill.com, Impartner, Drivewyze, Eversight and InsideView and AASCEND (the Autism Aspergers Spectrum Coalition for Education, Networking and Development.)
In 2019, Brian was named to the faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Management were he co-teaches a course on angel and venture capital financing. Brian is also the founder of Moai Capital, a seed capital firm that makes early stage investments in areas outside of Emergence Capital’s focus.
Prior to Emergence Capital, Brian had help to launch another venture capital firm. He was an early general partner at St. Paul Venture Capital (funded by Traveler’s Insurance) where he led the Silicon Valley office and helped to grow the firm to over $3 billion under management. Previously, Brian worked as a product development engineer for the Raychem Corporation, where he developed advanced software and electronic systems for military aircraft. He also has engineering and product development experience with RCA, Westinghouse, and Polaroid, and he holds several patents. Brian has a MS and BS in mechanical engineering from M.I.T. and an MBA from Stanford.
He is happily married with two children, and enjoys international travel, ancient stone structures, cycling and cross-country skiing.
