Three decades of building, investing, and advising.
I've spent more than 30 years as a founder, CEO, investor, board member, mentor, and advisor.
My experience spans startups, public companies, venture capital, fundraising, acquisitions, international expansion, commercial real estate, and early-stage investing.
I've been on both sides of the table: raising capital and investing it, building companies and evaluating them, leading teams and advising the people who lead them.
I founded ValueClick in Santa Barbara in 1997, when online advertising was still in its infancy.
We helped pioneer the pay-for-performance advertising model, building one of the first large-scale online ad networks where advertisers paid for measurable results rather than simply paying for impressions.
ValueClick grew rapidly, expanded internationally, and completed its NASDAQ IPO on March 30, 2000, finishing that year with approximately $56.7 million in revenue.
The company was later renamed Conversant and, years after my departure, was acquired by Alliance Data for approximately $2.3 billion.
I was also honored to be named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Serial Entrepreneur
ValueClick was one chapter in a much longer entrepreneurial career.
Over the years, I founded and led a number of businesses, many of them at the beginning of industries that later became commonplace.
Enterprising Solutions
One of the first direct-marketing businesses to establish a presence on the internet. In 1994, we launched Home Business Solutions, selling books, information, and products to the growing home-based business market.
AAA Internet Promotions
The first paid directory-listing service on the internet, created before search engines as we know them existed. The "AAA" name was intentional: alphabetical directories were common at the time, and the name helped put us at the top of the list.
Web-Ignite
One of the early search engine optimization companies and one of the first online advertising agencies, helping businesses learn how to be discovered and marketed on the emerging web.
ValueClick
A pioneer in performance-based online advertising and among the first pay-for-performance online advertising networks to go public. ValueClick grew into a global company and completed its NASDAQ IPO in 2000.
Local Market Launch
An early pioneer in helping brick-and-mortar businesses manage and distribute their location information across the growing number of search engines, directories, maps, and online platforms where customers were looking for them.
Across these businesses, I dealt firsthand with fundraising, partnerships, executive hiring, boards, acquisitions, rapid growth, international expansion, exits, business failures, and starting over.
I've experienced companies at nearly every stage, from an idea on a blank page to the public markets.
Capital & Investing
I've raised well over $100 million across companies and investment funds and have spent decades working with angel investors, venture capitalists, institutional investors, boards, and entrepreneurs.
I've personally invested in more than 50 startups.
In 2018, I co-founded Entrada Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Santa Barbara, where I served as Managing Partner.
That experience gave me a valuable perspective: I've spent years on both sides of the fundraising table.
I know what it feels like to ask investors to believe in a company. I also know what it feels like to evaluate a founder, an opportunity, and the risks before deciding whether to invest.
Brian brings a depth of experience and expertise that only someone who’s been both a successful founder and a successful VC can provide. His insight has been some of the most valuable guidance I’ve received.
Daniel Howard, PhD
CEO, Quantum Energy, Inc.
Commercial Real Estate
I've also participated in the development and ownership of commercial real estate, including shopping centers, hotels, vacation rentals, and other investment properties.
That work taught me a different discipline than venture: structuring financing and partnerships, managing long-term assets, and operating businesses where the economics are tangible and patient. It's given me a wider frame of reference for the companies I advise today.
Boards & Leadership
I've served as a board member for several companies over the course of my career.
Board work has given me another perspective on leadership: stepping outside the day-to-day operation of a business and focusing on strategy, capital allocation, accountability, risk, and the decisions that shape a company's future.
Founders, Pitches & Mentoring
I've reviewed thousands of pitch decks and sat through hundreds of live entrepreneur presentations.
I've worked with founders on fundraising, strategy, partnerships, executive hiring, acquisitions, exits, and the many decisions that come with building and leading a company.
I've also mentored dozens of entrepreneurs and leaders.
Over time, I found myself increasingly drawn to those conversations: helping someone recognize a pattern, challenge an assumption, see a situation more clearly, or think through an important decision from another perspective.
Weekly conversations with Brian turned my hardest decisions into clear ones. Through fundraising, growth, and a pivot, Brian gave me honest counsel and the clarity to find my true north. He is a rare blend of true business acumen and genuine heart.
Rashi Bahri Chitnis
CEO & Founder, Shoonya Kids
Nonprofit & Social Enterprise
I've worked directly with nonprofit organizations across Santa Barbara County, including SB ACT, Good Samaritan Shelter, and New Beginnings, mentoring and advising their leaders on strategy, growth, and the operational realities of running a mission-driven organization.
Much of that work has focused on designing and building social enterprise ventures inside those organizations: revenue-generating businesses that fund the mission rather than leaving it dependent entirely on donations and grants.
It's some of the most demanding work I've done. Building a business with no capital cushion, in service of a mission, alongside a team that didn't set out to be entrepreneurs, asks for every bit of the discipline that building a venture-backed company does.
Conscious Leadership
My interest in leadership extends beyond strategy and business performance.
I co-founded the Santa Barbara Conscious Leadership Circle, bringing together local entrepreneurs and leaders interested in exploring a more thoughtful and self-aware approach to leadership, business, and life.
That experience reinforced something I've come to believe strongly:
The quality of a decision often depends as much on the person making it as it does on the information in front of them.
Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara has been home since 1991, and I've lived here and built my businesses here ever since.
For more than three decades, I've been part of the Santa Barbara entrepreneurial community as a founder, CEO, investor, venture capitalist, board member, business mentor, nonprofit leader, and advisor.
Today, I bring that experience to private conversations with founders, entrepreneurs, and leaders in Santa Barbara and beyond who are facing important decisions.
Daniel Howard, PhD
CEO, Quantum Energy, Inc.
