OpenView Promotes Elizabeth Cain to General Partner, Launches Accelerate Program to Help Female-founded Startups Scale
BOSTON (PRWEB) February 22, 2018 -- Today, OpenView, the expansion stage venture firm, announced the addition of Elizabeth Cain to its partnership. Cain is the firm’s eighth general partner and second female to sit on OpenView’s investment committee. She joined the firm in 2016 as Vice President of Go-to-Market, leading OpenView’s expansion platform – the firm’s operational arm which provides marketing, recruiting, pricing, sales and product support to its portfolio.
“Liz has been a huge part of our firm since she first joined two years ago,” said Scott Maxwell, OpenView’s founder and Managing Partner. “She has proven herself time and again to be invaluable to our team and every portfolio leader with whom she interacts. We are lucky to have her join our partnership.”
Prior to OpenView, Cain served as AVP of Worldwide Business Development at NetSuite. There she launched NetSuite’s Business Development Representative and Solution Consulting Associate teams, which she scaled to a 170-person global organization.
According to a study by Harvard Business Review, only 8% of US venture firms have female partners – a fact not lost on OpenView, nor anyone in the tech space who cares about gender diversity. Cain’s promotion along with the firm’s involvement with organizations like NCWIT, theBoardlist and Athena Alliance point to the fact that OpenView has not only recognized the gap, but has already undertaken efforts to close it at the firm, across its portfolio and throughout the broader tech community.
As part of these efforts, OpenView also announced today Accelerate, a new program aimed at helping female-led business-facing software companies reach the expansion stage. As part of the program, eligible participants will receive access to OpenView's extensive resources, network and team including a strategy planning offsite with partners, pitch deck assistance, introductions to the firm’s executive and buyer networks as well as invitations to ongoing events and OpenView’s annual CEO Retreat.
“Female-led businesses consistently outperform those of their male counterparts,” said Cain. “Yet only 2% of venture funding went to these companies in all of 2017. We have a clear problem, with an unclear solution. With my promotion to partner and OpenView’s continued efforts around diversity, especially through Accelerate, I’m hopeful that we can and will move the needle in the right direction.”
Those interested in Accelerate may apply or nominate a candidate by March 31 here.
About OpenView
OpenView, the expansion stage venture firm, helps build rapidly expanding software companies into market leaders. Through our expansion platform, we help companies hire the best talent, acquire and retain the right customers and partner with industry leaders so they can dominate their markets. Our focus on the expansion stage makes us uniquely suited to provide truly tailored operational support to our portfolio companies. Learn more about OpenView at ov.vc.
Media Contact
Gail Axelrod
gail(at)ov.vc
Gail Axelrod, OpenView Venture Partners, http://openviewpartners.com/, +1 (518) 577-6633, [email protected]
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