Dan Engel

Dan has been a B2B and B2C software entrepreneur since 1997, and has been a public securities retail investor since 1991. Prior to launching SBVP, in addition to being an active angel investor over the last nine years, Dan was a Venture Capitalist-in-Residence and Venture Partner at OCV Partners and NGEN Partners, a $261M and $250M VC fund, respectively.

Prior to becoming a VC, Dan led customer acquisition for Google, GoToMeeting, Picasa, and FastSpring.

In 2005, Dan co-founded FastSpring, a Fintech SaaS firm providing e-commerce store management and payments for 3,000+ software vendors worldwide. As CEO, Dan bootstrapped FastSpring’s revenue from $0 to over $120 million using funding of $30,000. FastSpring (acquired in 2013 and then again by Accel-KKR in 2018), was known for its phenomenal customer service. It was the #1 fastest-growing company in the LA area during 2006-2010, 13th fastest-growing in N. America, and ranked 41 & 53 on the Inc 500 for 2010 & 2011. FastSpring grew during the Great Recession at a compound growth rate of over 10% per month for over three years and had an annual churn rate of 1.3% across 3,000+ software clients. As a co-founder/original investor in FastSpring, Dan earned an ROI of over 900X on his original investment.

Prior to co-founding FastSpring, Dan led online customer acquisition/advertising for Google AdSense & AdWords, through its IPO. Before Google, Dan was VP of Market Development at Picasa, a digital photo consumer software company sold to Google in ’04 (now Google Photos). Dan led Picasa’s customer acquisition & business development initiatives, growing revenue by 7x in ten months. Previously, Dan led customer acquisition/revenue generation for GoToMyPC & GoToMeeting software, generating tens of millions in revenue over a 2-year period, helping lead to a $225M acquisition by Citrix in ’03 & building a major online brand. In ’16, the GoToMeeting division generated over $600M in recurring SaaS revenue and was acquired by LogMeIn for $1.8 billion. At 24, Dan was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Idealab, the #1 dot com era incubator, after starting a consumer e-commerce company in college.

Prior to being a VC and a software entrepreneur, Dan’s passion was investment asset management. Starting in high school with Smith Barney (today Morgan Stanley), he held a variety of financial internships. He worked with Sanford C. Bernstein (today Alliance Bernstein), creating their first website in 1996. During college, Dan interned at Merrill Lynch, working for four years alongside a veteran value investor who became Dan’s investment mentor. Later, at Fidelity Investments‘ FMR Division, Dan worked alongside the industry’s top fund managers and investment legends such as Will Danoff, Peter Lynch, and Ned Johnson. At 19, Dan sought out and learned from legendary value investor Philip Carret, a role model to Warren Buffett who helped pioneer value investing in 1927.

Dan serves on various boards, including non-profit boards such as New Beginnings, a non-profit that provides counseling services to military veteran, low income and homeless individuals, Partners in Housing Solutions, a non-profit that helps place homeless people from Santa Barbara County into permanent housing, and the Board of the Santa Barbara/Santa Maria Continuum of Care (CoC), the regional planning body that coordinates the community’s policies, strategies, and activities toward preventing and ending homelessness. Dan is a Board Member at Mobile1st and a Board Observer at Blue Triangle. Dan graduated Tulane University in 1998 majoring in Finance. He has appeared in various publications, including Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal.