Jeff Todd
Jeff Todd is a senior associate on Sorenson’s Growth team. He joined Sorenson as an investor in 2021 and focuses on finding, evaluating, and supporting great B2B software companies. He believes that technology is fundamentally reshaping our lives and has the power to make the world a better place for everyone.
Prior to joining Sorenson, Jeff worked at Vector Capital, where he served as a board observer for companies in the cloud CPQ and live event ticketing industries and focused on investing in special situations for established technology companies.
Q&A
Q: What do you do when you're not working?
I am an avid skier, soccer player, and college football spectator. But when I'm not doing those activities or working, I'm working on Sourcehive, a social venture I co-founded focused on helping individuals in Ghana learn computer skills while also earning an income by performing data entry for US-based businesses.
Q: What's your favorite sports team?
Georgia Bulldogs
Q: How do you wind down after a long day?
Taking a long walk and reading a good book.
Q: What advice would you give to founders?
Love the game of life. The most successful people love the challenges that life (and building a startup) brings. Challenges of building startups, families, friendships, healthy habits, or whatever else someone may spend time on are the most interesting.
Bio
Prior to Vector, Jeff was a senior analyst with Citigroup where he advised some of the world’s most influential technology companies in the software, internet, semiconductor, and tech distribution industries. Jeff graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Science in finance. In addition to his studies, Jeff co-founded Sourcehive, a social venture focused on helping individuals in Ghana learn web development while also earning an income by performing data entry for US-based businesses.
“One valuable lesson I’ve learned is that it is easy to underestimate the size of a market when you are creating the market. When we invested in LiveView the outdoor security software market was very small but a major pain point for many organizations, particularly large retailers. The subsequent rapid growth at scale for LiveView is a testament to the importance of not underestimating an opportunity just because there isn’t an established market for that solution today”
Jeff, who comes from a family of engineers and lawyers, is the first of his family to be involved in software or finance of any kind. Because of that background, he’s had to take extra initiative to learn the industry and seek out mentorship from others. As such, he defines success as the continued opportunity to participate in the venture ecosystem. Jeff enjoys the multifaceted nature of venture, especially because the diversity of the industry ensures that there is no one-size-fits-all founder profile. Jeff believes the best founders have the rare combination of knowing an “earned secret” and having the ability to recruit and retain great talent to aggressively pursue solving an urgent pain point for customers.
“I really enjoy helping teams figure out how to bring that magic product to market as quickly, efficiently, and broadly as possible while considering the tradeoffs that they must make to maximize value.”
Jeff is most excited about investing in B2B software because of the rapid pace at which the industry can move. The enterprise software market is one of the most dynamic industries in the world, and Jeff enjoys staying on top of all that’s happening to find the next great company that will fundamentally alter how we all live our lives.
Sorenson NewsThe portfolio companies listed above represent a subset of all investments made by Sorenson. It should not be assumed that future portfolio investments will be profitable or equal to the success of the companies in this list. A complete list of Sorenson investments is available upon request.
