Board of Directors
John Alonso
Founder & Chief Technology Officer
John is an innovator and entrepreneur, who co-founded OutStart and has been a key force in the development and implementation of its strategic vision, as well as serving as a chief architect of Evolution™ LCMS, OutStart's flagship asset-based LCMS. John was an early adopter and evangelist of a broad range of standards, including learning technologies, metadata, and technical documentation and is an active contributor to a number of these including ADL (SCORM), AICC and MedBig. John is a noted speaker and educator on learning and knowledge-sharing issues as well as standards. All told, John has over 25 years of software development and over 10 years of instructor experience. Prior to OutStart John ran course development for a large software company. Early in his career, John spent over 10 years in the Oil and Gas Sector, providing software solutions to large capital projects.
Robert Davoli
Managing Partner - Sigma Partners
Bob Davoli, managing director, joined Sigma in 1995 and has 25 years of experience in the high technology industry. His ability to identify and motivate innovative founding teams has been an essential ingredient of his investment strategy. Bob regularly leverages his deep operational experience and technology intellect to support the firm’s portfolio companies.
Most recently Bob was President & CEO of Epoch Systems, the leading vendor of client-server data management software products. He sold the firm in 1993 to EMC for $141 million. Previously, he was the Founder, President and CEO of SQL Solutions, a leading purveyor of services and tools for the relational database market. He sold SQL Solutions to Sybase for stock eventually worth over $100 million. Today the SQL Solutions consulting and system administration tools division of Sybase has over $300 million in annual revenues. He served as an executive officer of Sybase for over two years.
Sigma's investments Bob has been responsible for Sigma's investments in Aprimo, Cerulean Technology, Dazel Corporation, edocs, Excelergy, GlassHouse Technologies, Idiom Technologies, Incipient, Inflection Systems, Internet Security Systems, Madison Information Technologies, Noetix, Octane Software, Octave Software, StorageNetworks, Tradex Technologies, Vericept, Versata, Vettro, Vignette Corporation, Virtusa, and Visual Mining.
In recent years, Bob has appeared three times on the Forbes’ Midas list, a ranking of top venture capitalists. He also appeared on the cover of Business Week in a features story describing how VCs thrive through good and tough times.
Bob has a B.A. in History from Ricker College and studied computer science at Northeastern University.
Neal Hill
Managing Director - Great Northern Capital
Neal Hill is Managing Director of Great Northern Capital, Canada’s first late-stage venture investment firm. From 2004 to 2007, Mr. Hill was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, for Cognos Incorporated, where he was responsible for leadership of corporate strategy development, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic alliances. Previously for Cognos, Neal also served as Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President, Marketing for Business Intelligence Tools, as the company went through a major, highly successful, re-positioning from its earlier position as a development tools vendor. From 1997 to 2004, Mr. Hill served as Managing Director of VIMAC Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital firm concentrating on early-stage software firms. Earlier in his career, Neal also was CEO of a leading New England advertising and marketing agency, COO of a startup software company, and a Senior Analyst covering database and operating system trends for Forrester Research.
John Hudson
OutStart, President
John joined the company as President when OutStart merged with Eedo Knowledgeware in July 2008, where John was President and CEO. In the new company, John is responsible for global sales, business development and strategy. At Eedo Knowledgeware, John led the company from the start-up phase in 1999 to one of the world’s most recognized and respected providers of e-learning and knowledge management technology. John’s depth of knowledge of e-learning content development/deployment and vast experience in delivering performance-based enterprise learning solutions has been instrumental in forging a strong vision. John has also held leadership roles with organizations providing large scale technology-based solutions to Global 2000 corporations with a specific focus on learning and knowledge management for the past eighteen years. His industry experience includes financial services, telecommunications, high technology, aviation, defense and manufacturing.
Charley Lax
Managing General Partner of GrandBanks Capital
Charley is the founder and Managing General Partner of GrandBanks Capital . Charley's investment career includes investments in 41 portfolio companies, which have resulted in 29 exits thus far. His track record includes taking 15 companies public, of which 10 achieved market caps in excess of $1 billion. In addition to OutStart, Charley currently serves on the boards of Colubris Networks, Coradiant, Ember Corporation, and Incipient.
Charley has sponsored and managed investments in Art Technology Group Backweb, E*Trade, FreeLoader, Firefly Networks, GeoCities, Gamesville, GSI Commerce, Impulse Buy Network, Interliant, InvesTools, Launch Media, Mainspring, Email Publishing/Message Media , Multex Systems, Personalogic, Talk City, TheStreet.com, Third Age Media, Webhire, Yoyodyne Entertainment, Exactis, 1800Flowers.com, and most recently, Connected Corporation.
Charley is also a founding General Partner of SOFTBANK Venture Capital and SOFTBANK Capital Partners. In addition, Charley co-created Flatiron Partners, a New York City-based venture partnership, sponsored by SOFTBANK and JPMorgan Partners and was a member of its investment management committee. Prior to the creation of SOFTBANK Venture Capital, Charley served as a Vice President of SOFTBANK Holdings Inc., the predecessor venture investment arm of SOFTBANK. Charley was the first investment manager hired to focus solely on venture investments by SOFTBANK. Before his affiliation with SOFTBANK, Charley was a Venture Partner with Boston-based VIMAC Ventures LLC.
Prior to his career in venture capital, Charley worked for a series of software companies in marketing, product management and sales roles, including Phoenix Technologies Ltd., the BIOS developer.
Charley currently serves on the Advisory Boards of VON, New England Venture Summit, Silicon Valley Bank East, and Boston University School of Management.
Education: Boston University, B.S. (magna cum laude), 1982
John Simon
Managing Director - General Catalyst
As managing director of General Catalyst Partners, John Simon focuses on technology-intensive, industry-leading software platforms. In addition to serving on OutStart’s board, Mr. Simon is also a board member of GTESS, Vette, Hands-On Mobile; and JumpTap (General Catalyst co-founded the company).
Prior to co-founding General Catalyst, Mr. Simon was founder, chairman and CEO of UroMed Corporation (NASDAQ: URMD), which merged with Alliant Medical Technologies. Prior to founding UroMed, Mr. Simon was a venture capitalist with Highland Capital Partners and Charles River Ventures.
Mr. Simon is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). He is a co-founder and current trustee of The Steppingstone Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides educational opportunities to deserving inner-city students. In addition to serving on the boards of Steppingstone and Steppingstone-Philadelphia, John has continued his involvement with the non-profit sector by founding the GreenLight Fund Network, which catalyzes the replication and growth of innovative non-profits.
Mr. Simon earned a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.A. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
Massood Zarrabian
Chief Executive Officer - Outstart
Massood joined OutStart as President and CEO in March of 2001 with more than twenty-five years of technology and management experience. Under his leadership, OutStart has grown from a newly funded software company with one product and a handful of customers to a market leader with strong revenues and hundreds of customers. During his short tenure with OutStart he has overseen five successful mergers and acquisitions. Prior to OutStart, he was President of the eService Division of Broadbase Software, a leading provider of eCRM solutions. Before that, as President and CEO of Servicesoft, a leading provider of intelligent eService solutions, he directed the successful merger with Broadbase Software. Massood held executive positions with Lewtan Technologies Inc. and Cayenne Software, Inc.. He has also held a number of senior management positions at Computervision Corporation.
Massood graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering.