Margit Wennmachers

Margit Wennmachers is a venture capitalist at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and a co-founder of OutCast Communications (now The OutCast Agency), one of the tech world's top public relations firms according to The New York Times.[1] She is one of a handful of women at high-profile venture capital firms[2] and among the few venture capital marketing executives at the partner level.[1]


Margit Wennmachers
Margit Wennmachers of Andreessen Horowitz
EducationUniversity of Lippstadt, Germany
OccupationVenture Capitalist, Andreessen Horowitz

Biography

Born and raised in Breberen, Germany, Wennmachers' father was a mushroom farmer who pivoted to raising pigs. She was the youngest of four children.[3] Her mother died in a car accident when she was 18.[4] Wennmachers earned a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Lippstadt, Germany.[5]

Career

Wennmachers began her career in the European office of a U.S.-based startup.[6] She later moved to San Francisco to become a member of the executive management team[7] at Blanc & Otus, a high-tech communications firm. In 1997, she co-founded OutCast Communications with Caryn Marooney. By 2010, their clients had included Facebook, Autodesk, Amazon, Yahoo!, EMC, Netflix, Cisco, Zimbra and VMware, as well as Andreessen Horowitz.[2] Under her’ leadership, OutCast grew from two employees to a multimillion-dollar business.[1] She oversaw client work as well as the firm's business operations.[7]

Wennmachers became a partner of Andreessen Horowitz in September 2010[8] to help identify and evaluate new start-ups for investment potential and advise the firm and its portfolio companies on marketing and branding.[9] Andreessen Horowitz's investments include Twitter, Jawbone,[10] Facebook, Foursquare, Groupon, and Zynga.[11]

Wennmachers became a non-executive director at Next Fifteen Communications Group plc in 2011.[12] She also serves on the board of trustees for the World Affairs Council.[13] She has been a speaker at the DLD Conference in 2011[14] and 2013,[15] Ad: Tech in 2012,[16] Upward in 2014,[17] and The Spark in 2016.[18]

Wennmachers was named to Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal's list of 100 Women of Influence for 2012.[19]

References
  1. Cain Miller, Claire (15 June 2010). "Andreessen Horowitz Hires a Female Partner". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  2. Swisher, Kara. "Exclusive: OutCast's Wennmachers Joins Andreessen Horowitz as Partner". All Things D. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  3. Hempel, Jessi (2018-01-21). "The Spin Master Behind Facebook, Airbnb, and Silicon Valley As You Know It". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  4. Hempel, Jessi (21 January 2018). "How to Win Founders and Influence Everybody". Wired. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  5. "Outdated Values: Germany in the Age of Disruption". www.handelsblatt.com. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  6. https://money.cnn.com/2014/10/02/news/economy/ozy-silicon-valley-queen/
  7. "Margit Wennmachers". CrunchBase. TechCrunch. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  8. Miller, Claire Cain (2010-06-15). "Andreessen Horowitz Hires a Female Partner". Bits Blog. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
  9. Chapman, Lizette (4 April 2012). "Venture Firms Offer More Than Just Cash". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  10. Ozy, Lorena O'Neil (2014-10-02). "The real queen of Silicon Valley". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
  11. "Portfolio Companies (Entire Portfolio)". Andreessen Horowitz. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  12. "Next Fifteen appoints Margit Wennmachers as non-executive director". News. The Drum. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  13. "Council Leadership". About Us. World Affairs Council. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  14. "DLD11 - The Communications Difference (Brandee Barker, Brooke Hammerling, Margit Wennmachers)". YouTube. DLD. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  15. "DLDwomen13: Where are Marla Zuckerberg, Mary Jobs and Joan Bezos? (Margit Wennmachers)". YouTube. DLD. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  16. "CNET News: Are leading tech companies vulnerable?". YouTube. Ad: Tech. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  17. "UPWARD Topical Discussion: Women in Venture Capital (April 17, 2014)". YouTube. Upwards. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  18. "Talk mit Margit Wennmachers: "Investoren müssen Start-Ups in Ruhe arbeiten lassen"". Handelsblatt.com. Handelsblatt. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  19. "Women of Influence: Margit Wennmachers". Silicon Valley's Women of Influence 2012. San Jose Business Journal. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
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