Arjun Gupta

Arjun Gupta "is the founder of TeleSoft Partners, a special situations venture capital firm focused on high-tech and energy value chain companies. He has over 20 years of experience working with technology companies in venture capital, consulting and design engineering roles. At TeleSoft, Arjun manages capital commitments of $625+ million and has established Corporate Partnerships with Alltel, Bechtel, Deutsche Telekom, Nexant, Salesforce.com, and Symphony. In 2001, Arjun also started a foundation to support community projects in education, medical research and the arts. The foundation has helped provide partial funding for about 90 projects to date. He is a member of the Stanford Business School Management Board, trustee of The Aspen Institute, Trustee of the Rocky Mountain Institute, member of the Young President's Organization (YPO) Colorado Chapter Board, Trustee of Natural Resources Defense Council, and Member of the Board of Governors and President of the Western Regional Association of the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies (NASBIC).

"Over the past sixteen years, Arjun has overseen investing in and helping build ~61 private companies, resulting in ~35 mergers & acquisitions and IPOs to date with a combined current market equity valuation or cash equivalent of ~$19 billion (post bubble). Based on the private equity IRR data (disclosed by CalPers, CalSTRS, University of California, University of Michigan, UTIMCO and Washington State) on ~600 private equity funds from 1981-2002, the track record of TeleSoft and its principals has consistently been in the top 10% of the industry. Arjun was ranked by Forbes Magazine in the Top-100 technology venture investors on the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Midas Lists.

"Arjun serves on the boards of Calient Networks, LogLogic, Nexant and Validity Sensors. He also served on the board of Omnipoint as a private company through its IPO, until its acquisition by VoiceStream for $4+ billion in 1998. Subsequently, VoiceStream was acquired by Deutsche Telekom for $50+ billion to form T-Mobile USA. Earlier in his career, Arjun was a Strategy Consultant for high-tech clients with McKinsey, where he led top management projects for Apple, AT&T, AMD, Siemens/ROLM and Vodafone. Prior to business school, he was an operating systems Software Engineer with Tektronix.

"In addition to building companies, Arjun is a passionate outdoorsman. Over the last 30 years, his key expeditions include – (a) the North Pole to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Peary reaching the pole, (b) a scuba expedition with National Geographic to chart the Millennium Atoll in the South Pacific, (c) six Himalayan expeditions to peaks over 20,000 feet, (d) Arctic Expedition for Climate Change, (e) Conservation and Human Well-being in Africa, (f) Polar Bear and Grizzly tracking safaris in Alaska, (g) Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and Cotopaxi and Chimborazo in Ecuador, (h) New York and Chicago marathons, etc. He also served as a Liaison Officer with international expeditions for the Indian Mountaineering Federation.

"Arjun received his MBA from Stanford University, a MS and BS in Computer Science, Phi Beta Kappa, from WSU, and a BA (honors) in Economics from St. Stephen's College. He is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute."