Venky Harinarayan and his business partner Anand Rajaraman co-founded Kosmix in 2005 with the vision to connect people to the information that makes a difference in their lives. Together with Anand, Venky developed the first ecommerce search engine, Junglee, which was acquired by Amazon.com in 1998 for $250 million. At Amazon, Venky and Anand created the company’s search and marketplace business. In addition to Kosmix, Venky is a principal at Cambrian Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the Indian Institute of Technology.
Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan co-founded Kosmix in 2005 with the vision of connecting people to information that makes a difference in their lives. In addition to being a co-founder of Kosmix, Anand Rajaraman is a consulting assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University and a founding partner of Cambrian Ventures. Venky and Anand also co-founded Junglee, the company that pioneered internet comparison shopping, in 1996. After Amazon's acquisition of Junglee in 1998 for $250 million, Anand helped create Amazon's marketplace business, which today accounts for over 30% of Amazon's gross merchandise sales. Anand holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University. On his blog Datawocky he discusses data mining techniques in search, social media, and advertising.
As vice president of service management, STS Prasad oversees the Kosmix teams responsible for technical operations, ad operations and partners. STS has worked closely with Kosmix’s co-founders in product management and technical roles at Junglee and Amazon.com. He was a co-founder and CTO of enterprise mobile software provider Aventeon, and held senior technical positions at Sybase and HCL. STS is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin.
Sri Subramaniam leads the Kosmix development team and is responsible for building Kosmix’s technology platform. He has nearly 20 years of experience designing large-scale software architecture, advanced search technology and building technology teams. Prior to Kosmix, Sri spent four years as director of search at eBay, where he oversaw the development of three generations of search and categorization technology. He has held leadership roles in e-commerce startups Ventro and MarketFirst, and 3D Graphics Research at Sun Microsystems. Sri holds several patents in Search and 3D Graphics. Sri is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology and earned his MS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Michelle Yee Sangster is vice president of business development at Kosmix. Michelle has spent the past 20 years building international Internet brands, both in the United States and in Europe. Prior to joining Kosmix, Michelle was a senior director of business development at Yahoo! She also directed business development and content monetization at search marketing pioneer Overture, which was acquired by Yahoo! in 2003. Michelle worked with Kosmix’s founders at both Junglee and Amazon, and has held senior business development roles at WishClick, Cellectivity in the UK and Encyclopedia Brittanica. Michelle is a graduate of UCLA and holds an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business.
Ravi Raj leads Kosmix’s product team and manages the day-to-day operations of Kosmix sites: Kosmix.com and RightHealth.com. Ravi has more than 16 years of experience in product management. Prior to joining Kosmix in 2006, Ravi was senior director of product management at Yahoo!, where he specialized in search, social media and marketplace verticals. He also led product teams at AltaVista, Elance and SGI, and holds patents in sponsored search and e-commerce. Ravi is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, and holds a Master of Science degree from the University of California, Irvine.
Theresia has been with Accel Partners since 1999. She focuses primarily on software and internet investments with specific interest in security, Vertical Media/Search and online media and advertising. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of ForeScout, Glam Media, Interlace Systems, Imperva, Jasper Design Automation, Kosmix, Trulia and Wetpaint. She is also responsible for Accel's investments in CRS Retail Systems (EPIC), LetsTalk, PeopleSupport (PSPT), Webroot and Zimbra; and was part of the team responsible for investing in Walmart.com (WMT).
Theresia has worked in the computer and communications industries since the late-1980's as an entrepreneur, consultant and venture investor. Prior to joining Accel Partners, she was founding Vice President of Business Development & Sales at Release Software, a venture-backed company which developed products to enable digital rights management and payment technologies for the software industry. Theresia was a key member of the senior management team and was instrumental in growing the company from $0 to $15M in revenue in two years. Before that, Theresia worked as a management consultant at Bain & Company and a product manager at Silicon Graphics.
Theresia holds an Sc.B. in Engineering from Brown University, magna cum laude and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
Jonathan is the former Chairman and CEO of AOL. At AOL, Jonathan was primarily responsible for shifting AOL's Internet business from the walled garden approach to giving everyone access to free features and content, a move widely hailed as a success in the industry. During his tenure, he increased the profitability of the AOL franchise and generated over $9 billion in free cash.
Prior to AOL, Jonathan was CEO and president of USA Information and Services, now InterActiveCorp, where he managed the company's e-commerce properties including CitySearch, Expedia, Match.com and Ticketmaster. Jonathan also served as CEO and president of USA Broadcasting; managing director of Nickelodeon International; chief executive at Paramount; and vice president of programming and NBA entertainment at the National Basketball Association.
Ravi is a founding partner of Lightspeed Venture Partners, and primarily focuses on Internet and software investments. He has eleven years of venture capital experience and six years of operating experience. Before joining Weiss, Peck & Greer Venture Partners in 1999, Ravi was with Bessemer Venture Partners, and invested in NetGenesis Software [NTGX], Verio [VRIO], VIA-Networks [VNWI], Webspective Software (acquired by Inktomi) and InCert Software (acquired by Geodesic).
Previously, Ravi ran market development efforts for the engineering workstation division of Silicon Graphics, and also worked at Lehman Brothers and Booz Allen Hamilton. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering, an AB in Economics, and an MBA from Stanford University.
