Jonathan Sills Joins Battery Ventures as an Executive-in-Residence

WALTHAM, MA and MENLO PARK, CA and HERZLIYA, ISRAEL--(Marketwire - Feb 12, 2013) - Battery Ventures today announced that seasoned marketing executive Jonathan Sills has joined the firm as an Executive-in-Residence (EIR) in its Menlo Park office. Sills, previously CMO at Shoedazzle and SVP at Proflowers, will bring his more than 14 years of marketing and customer acquisition expertise to help early and growth stage portfolio companies drive revenue via efficient and effective marketing programs. In his previous positions, Sills used his particular expertise in data-driven marketing to impact the bottom line. His areas of specialty span earned and paid media, customer retention, consumer insight, and analytics.

Sills brings deep background in consumer-facing marketing and with that, strong conviction that many of the same principles and practices can be readily applied in the B2B world. He cites a number of growth companies such as Vistaprint, Constant Contact and Square, who are marketing to the small and medium business segments and successfully applying B2C concepts to fill their prospect funnels and optimize their websites. Sills believes this trend will continue to reach deeper into the enterprise segment. In a world with more choice, fragmentation and distraction than ever before, he also feels the slow build of traditional sales cycles and processes is becoming less relevant than capitalizing on potential customer interest and response during shorter bursts of engagement.

Sills was introduced to the Battery team through portfolio company TrialPay CEO Alex Rampell. "I have known both Jonathan and the Battery team for many years, and believed there would be great synergy," said Rampell. "Battery has core strengths investing in both the enterprise and consumer arenas, and Jonathan really bridges those two segments. He has pioneering ideas about bringing B2C concepts to B2B companies, and will help companies with best practices that can save time and costly trial and error. Battery has always been about more than supplying capital, and this is continued evidence of that approach."

"We're taking an unconventional approach to our industry's EIR concept, adding a business function expert to partner with our current portfolio to fuel growth, rather than an entrepreneur with whom we will look to start a new company," said Roger Lee, Battery General Partner. "Our companies are stretched to do more with less these days, and efficient, data-driven customer acquisition programs can make a big difference. We're honored to have him, view him as an extension of our team, and he has already rolled up his sleeves to work with a number of our companies."

About Battery Ventures
Since 1983, Battery has been investing in technology and innovation worldwide. The firm partners with entrepreneurs and management teams across technology sectors, geographies and stages of a company's life, from seed and start-up financing, to growth and buyouts. Battery has supported many breakthrough companies around the world, including four companies who IPO'd in 2012: Bazaarvoice, ExactTarget, Guidewire, and Splunk. Learn more about all of the companies in Battery's portfolio at http://www.battery.com/our-companies.

Battery invests worldwide from offices in Boston, Silicon Valley and Israel. The firm has raised more than $4B since inception, and is currently investing a $750M fund. For more information, visit www.battery.com. Follow Battery on Twitter @BatteryVentures.