Carter Griffin is a General Partner, co-manages the firm, and has been a member of Updata’s investment team since 2005. He has more than 20 years of experience as an operator and investor in the software industry. Before joining Updata, Carter co-founded Brivo Systems and served as Chairman and CEO until selling the company to a strategic acquirer. Brivo Systems pioneered the software-as-a-service model in the physical security market by introducing the first-ever on-demand system for facility access control. Carter also spent four years as a Senior Vice President at Kaiser Associates, where he advised Fortune 500 clients on competitive positioning and new-market entry strategies. Earlier in his career, Carter worked in London for the Coca-Cola Company and held positions at American Management Systems and Arthur Andersen. Carter serves on the Board of Directors of Mindshare, a leading forum for more than 1,000 tech CEOs.
Carter graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.S. in Business Administration. He also holds an M.B.A. from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Carter lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with his wife and daughter.
Jon Seeber is a General Partner, co-manages the firm, and has been a member of Updata’s investment team since 2006. He has more than 20 years of experience as an operator and investor in the software industry. Before joining Updata, Jon worked on the Business Development team inside IBM Global Services, managing acquisitions, divestitures, investments, and partnerships – key growth activities for IBM’s largest business unit. During his tenure there, Jon helped execute notable transactions including the acquisitions of Internet Security Systems, Healthlink, and Corio. Earlier in his career, Jon served on Active Duty and, more recently, in the Reserve, as an officer in the United States Air Force. He also spent time as a developer, and holds two U.S. patents in network optimization and network security.
Jon serves on the Board of Directors for the Washington Nationals Philanthropies (“WNP”), the official charitable arm of the Washington Nationals. WNP catalyzes the energy of Nationals fans, and the generosity and philanthropic goals of Nationals players, corporate champions, and community partners to invest philanthropic dollars with, through, and to Nationals Philanthropies – fueling greater good for a better Washington, DC region. Its signature program is the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy, whose mission is to use the sports of baseball and softball as vehicles to foster positive character development, academic achievement, and improved health among youth from underserved communities in Washington, DC.
Jon graduated from Duke University with a B.A., majoring in Computer Science and History. He also holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. While at Duke, Jon was a member of the varsity wrestling team and is now an assistant coach at The Potomac School in McLean, VA, where he lives with his wife and two sons.
Braden Snyder is a Partner at Updata Partners, bringing experience from his previous role at Sagent Advisors, a middle-market investment banking firm in the Software & Systems and Aerospace, Defense & Technology groups, where he was an Associate and focused on providing M&A and strategic advisory services to clients.
Snyder holds a B.S. in Commerce, with Concentrations in Finance and Accounting from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.
Dan Moss is a Partner at Updata Partners, bringing experience from his previous role in the Technology Investment Banking Group at Barclays Capital, where he was an Analyst and provided strategic M&A advisory services and participated in executing capital markets transactions with a concentration in the software and IT services sectors. Dan began his career as an analyst at America’s Growth Capital, a boutique investment banking firm where he provided advisory services to growth-stage companies across the technology industry.
Moss holds a B.A. in Mathematical Sciences and Economics with a Concentration in Financial Markets from Colby College. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
Alex Phelan is a Principal at Updata Partners, bringing experience from his previous role at Summit Partners, where he was an Investor focusing on growth-stage technology companies. He previously worked as an Investment Banking Analyst at William Blair and Spark Capital.
Phelan holds a B.A. in Business, Entrepreneurship & Organizations, and Business Economics from Brown University, where he was a member of the football team.
Ryan Brady is a Vice President for Portfolio Value Creation at Updata Partners, bringing experience from his previous role at the PEVC practice at Cuesta Partners, a boutique strategy & technology consulting firm, where was a Manager. In addition to client-facing activities, Ryan also served as the Director of Operations at Cuesta, which had grown to 50 employees at the time of his exit. Ryan began his career at Liberty Advisor Group, a technology-focused consulting firm based in Chicago.
Brady holds a B.S. in Accounting and Business Administration from Washington & Lee University, where he was a member of the lacrosse team.
Mary Hampton McNeal is a Vice President at Updata Partners, bringing experience from her previous role at Evercore, where she provided M&A and other financial advisory services to clients.
McNeal holds a B.S. in Accounting and Business Administration from Washington & Lee University, where she was a member of the women’s tennis team.
Justin Williams is a Senior Associate at Updata Partners, bringing experience from his previous role at LLR Partners, where he was an Investor focusing on growth-stage technology companies. He previously worked as an Investor at Domain Capital Group, focusing on media and entertainment investments. Justin began his career in Investment Banking at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey (Truist Securities).
Williams holds a B.A. in Business Administration, with a concentration in Finance, from Hampton University.
Emmanuel Onakoya is a Senior Associate at Updata Partners, bringing experience from his previous role at Vista Equity Partners, where he was an investor focusing on B2B enterprise software companies. He previously worked at Apollo Global Management and KPMG in strategic finance and M&A consulting.
Onakoya holds a B.S. in Accounting from Marist College, where he was a member of the football team. He also holds a Master’s in Accounting from Liberty University and is a licensed CPA in New York.
Matthew Chilton is an Associate at Updata Partners, bringing experience from his previous role at KippsDeSanto & Co., a middle-market investment banking firm specializing in the Aerospace, Defense & Government Services sectors, where he was an Associate and focused on providing M&A and strategic advisory services to clients.
Chilton holds a B.S. in Commerce, with a Concentration in Finance and Quantitative Finance Track from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, and a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Virginia.
Konstantinos Bailas is a Senior Analyst at Updata Partners, bringing experience from his previous role at Global Founders Capital, a venture capital firm based out of Germany where he was a Summer Investment Analyst.
Bailas holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics from Duke University.
Neal Singal is a Senior Analyst at Updata Partners, bringing experience from his previous role as the co-founder of Global Pal, a startup focused on digitizing restaurant ordering and payment processing.
Singal holds a BSBA in Operations & Analytics and Management from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.
Dilan Amin is an Analyst at Updata Partners, bringing experience from his previous role at Updata as a Summer Analyst.
Amin holds a B.S. in Finance and a minor in Computer Science from Wake Forest University.
Eli Cuene is an Analyst at Updata Partners, bringing experience from his previous roles at Updata as a Summer Analyst, and Groove Capital, a Minneapolis-based venture capital firm where he was an Investment Analyst Intern.
Cuene holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Duke University.
John Burton is an Operating Partner and co-founder at Updata. From 2013 to 2018, John served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Nintex, an Updata Partners portfolio company. Prior to Updata, John was with Legent Corporation, an international, publicly-traded enterprise software company, as president, COO and CEO. Earlier, John co-founded Business Software Technology Inc. (BST), a successful VC-backed firm acquired by Legent, where he served as officer, COO and director.
John holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Boston College.
Ira Cohen is an Operating Partner and co-founder of the firm. He served as CFO and Treasurer of CGA Computer, Inc., a public software and services company which he helped to take private in a management buyout in 1984 with Barry Goldsmith. Prior to CGA, Ira guided Tridex and Computer Magnetics, publicly-traded components and systems manufacturers, through acquisitions, divestitures, financings and an IPO.
Ira has served on the boards of several publicly-traded companies including: TSR Consulting (TSRI), Datastream Software (DSTM), Alphanet Systems (ALPH) and Computer Learning Centers (CLCX).
Ira is a CPA and received an M.S. in Finance from Boston University, a B.S. in Accounting from City University of New York and has completed Harvard Business School’s Executive Education program.
Sloan Gaon is a seasoned, digitally-focused CEO who excels in special situations including turnarounds, strategic pivots, business evolutions and business scaling at both public and private equity/VC-backed companies.
Most recently, Sloan was the CEO of PulsePoint, a data and technology company providing solutions for healthcare organizations to personalize information and improve outcomes. During his tenure, Sloan successfully led the launch of a new product line that reached $100 million in revenue in less than 5 years, contributing to EBITDA growth of more than $50 million over the same timeframe.
Prior to PulsePoint, he reinvigorated a 14-year-old startup in Dotmenu (DBA Campusfood.com and Allmenus.com), by refocusing its product strategy and developing a national expansion plan, that eventually led to a sale of the company to Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB) prior to its successful IPO. In addition, he held several senior strategic roles at Adknowledge, MIVA (NASDAQ: MIVA) (sold to Inovo) and Register.com (NASDAQ: RCOM) (sold to Web.com) and TurboChef (NASDAQ: OVEN) (sold to Middleby).
Sloan is a Syracuse College of Law and Clark University graduate (where he played NCAA baseball and donned the tools of ignorance as a catcher). As a native New Yorker who still marvels at the City that doesn’t sleep, he is a four-time New York City Marathoner. Sloan is married and has two children.
Barry Goldsmith is an Operating Partner and co-founder of the firm. He has spent more than 35 years in the information technology industry as an entrepreneur, senior executive, investor, and advisor to leading software and IT services companies. In 1968 Barry founded CGA Computer, Inc., which became one of the top providers of information technology consulting services and software products to Fortune 500 companies. CGA went public in 1969 and was then taken private in 1984 through a leveraged buyout with General Atlantic Partners. Two years later, when CGA’s divisions were sold to Computer Associates and CapGemini, the firm had grown to employ approximately 1,200 people with annual revenues in excess of $90 million. After the sale of CGA, Barry co-founded Updata Software, a provider of DB2 tools and Sablesoft, which were acquired by Online Software and Platinum Technologies, respectively. The firm’s name traces back to that company.
Barry has served on the boards of several publicly-traded companies including: Goal Systems (GOAL), Compuware (CPWR), Alphanet (ALPH), Astea (ATEA), and Frontstep (FSTP).
He is a graduate of Rutgers University, where he played lacrosse, and is a proud father and grandfather.
Jim Liang is an Operating Partner at Updata and has more than 40 years in the technology and software industries. He was Senior Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development at Amdocs, where he led all corporate strategic planning and acquisition activities. Before that Jim was VP, Strategy, Global Technology Services (GTS), IBM’s $30 billion revenue technology services division, leading initiatives to drive global growth. Prior to his roles as an operator, Jim had a distinguished investment banking career, culminating with his role as Head of Global Technology Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley, advising the world’s best known technology companies on transactions with more than $45 billion in aggregate value.
Jim holds a Sc.B. in Applied Mathematics/Economics from Brown University as well as a M.B.A in Finance/Marketing from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
Kate Winkler is a three-time CEO of private equity-backed companies, including a three-year tenure at Ruby, an Updata portfolio company that was sold to a strategic acquirer in 2022. A deeply knowledgeable and data-driven operator, Kate has worn many hats in her 25-year career working across the technology landscape, including a decade as a leading technology investment banker where she helped over 75 companies build and capture $4B in enterprise value.
Kate is a passionate and driven leader with expertise in technology-enabled business solutions, high-growth business models, and complex M&A. A student of successful businesses, Kate believes that the best companies are built on purpose and empowered with high-performance teams who lean into the power of data, take calculated risks, and adapt quickly.
When not in front of a computer, you can find Kate on the soccer pitch, climbing a 17,000-foot peak, diving in the deep wonders of the ocean, wrapping up a 550-mile bike ride or adding another passport stamp to a collection that includes over 65 countries.
Greg Olear is the Chief Financial Officer at Updata Partners, bringing twenty-five years of experience in finance and accounting. Prior to joining Updata, he was Vice President of Finance at Digital 5, a provider of software for streaming multimedia content.
Greg holds a B.S. in Commerce from Rider University and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the state of New Jersey. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Rick Lottenbach is a Controller at Updata Partners, bringing experience from his previous role at Alvarez and Marsal, where he was a Senior Director in the Federal Tax team and focused on the private equity and real estate industries.
Lottenbach holds a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Richmond. He also earned a M.S. in Accounting-Tax from the University of Virginia. Rick is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the state of Virginia.
Stephanie Moore is a Fund Accountant at Updata Partners, bringing over twenty years of experience in corporate accounting. Prior to joining the Updata team, she served as Corporate Accounting Manager for Armacell LLC. Stephanie is involved in Updata’s day to day accounting needs ranging from payables, receivables, tax and monthly financials.
Moore holds a B.S. in Business Administration- Finance & Accounting from Elon University.
Erica Snow is an Executive Assistant at Updata Partners, bringing experience from her previous role at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she was the Director of Operations for the women’s basketball program.
Snow holds a B.A. in Communications and Media Arts from Montclair State University, where she was a member of the women’s basketball team. She also earned her M.A. from VCU’s Center for Sport Leadership.
Steven Aldrich currently serves on the Boards of Blucora (BCOR), Xero (XRO.AX), and PerformYard, and is also the Chair of the Oakland Roots Soccer Club, a new community focused pro soccer team in Oakland.
Most recently, Steven spent seven years at GoDaddy, the last three as the Chief Product Officer, helping grow the company from 10 million to 18 million total customers; from 2 million to 8 million international customers; from $1 billion to over $3 billion in revenue; from a private to a public company; and from domain-centric to a full line of products and services for entrepreneurs. Steven started GoDaddy’s California offices when he sold his start-up Outright to the company in 2012, becoming Chief Product Officer in 2016.
Earlier in his career, Steven spent over a decade in a variety of leadership roles helping Intuit grow its consumer and small business divisions after joining in 1996 when he sold them InsureMarket, an online insurance marketplace he co-founded.
Steven earned an M.B.A. from Stanford where he was recognized as an Arjay Miller Scholar, and a B.A. in physics from the University of North Carolina where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar and a co-captain of the fencing team.
Elizabeth Cholawsky was most recently the CEO of HG Insights, a former Updata portfolio company and a big data and SaaS platform providing technology intelligence to B2B customers. Under her guidance, the company’s recurring revenue grew six-fold to over $60M ARR. Elizabeth was also CEO at Support.com (Nasdaq: SPRT), transitioning the company from low margin services to a balance of services and SaaS revenue. Elizabeth has also held executive positions at Citrix (CTXS), ValueClick, and other innovative technology companies.
Elizabeth excels at building high-growth companies, matching organizational design and capabilities with strategy. She has scaled organizations through developing strong, internal capabilities as well as driving growth with impactful M&A, sponsoring and successfully integrating multiple acquisitions at both Citrix and HG Insights. Her leadership roles have spanned general management, marketing, product management, global client services, and customer success. She is an active advisor to start-ups through her work with the Santa Barbara Angel Alliance.
In her spare time, she is an avid triathlete, has competed in the Santa Barbara Triathlon 24 times, and swims in the ocean year-round. Elizabeth is a passionate supporter of educational non-profits and is a Board member for Partners in Education and Exceeding Expectations.
Chris Cook is the former CEO of Delphix, an industry leading data company for DevOps, enabling companies to accelerate their digital transformation by providing an automated and secure DevOps data platform for all enterprise applications. Prior to Delphix, Chris was the President and COO for New Relic, the leader in providing real-time insights for software driven businesses, where he led the operational team from the early stages of the company through an IPO. Additionally, he has held senior leadership roles at CA Technologies, Wily Technology, Peregrine and BMC Software.
During his career, Chris has focused his leadership on the intersection of strategy, technology, people and operations, resulting in more than 15x revenue growth for multiple companies. He enjoys the environment and demands of rapidly growing and evolving companies.
Chris is passionate about mentoring partnerships with Founder CEOs of early-stage companies to help them build and grow their businesses and become more effective leaders.
Pat Cox is the CEO at Shufti Pro, an Updata portfolio company, and former VP and GM of TRUSTID at Neustar. He was previously Chairman and CEO of TRUSTID before it was acquired by Neustar. Pat has previously launched and lead two other companies in the authentication, identity and telecommunications industries, Metro One Telecommunications and Qsent. He served as EVP of TransUnion following their acquisition of Qsent.
Pat holds 29 patents in telecommunication and authentication technology and is a certified Class 1 NARTE engineer. He is an alumnus of Stanford University’s Executive Institute for the Management of High-Technology Companies.
Most recently, Ryan was the head of product at Quickbase, helping shape the platform strategy and M&A agenda. Prior to that, Ryan was the head of product at Nintex helping transform the company from a small Australian startup to a global leader in process automation, rebuilding their platform from the ground up in the cloud, acquiring four companies to expand their platform reach, and achieving several private equity buyouts along the way.
Before joining Nintex Ryan spent 8 years at Microsoft as part of the SharePoint product management team, growing the platform to over 2B in revenue and gaining recognition from Gartner and Forrester as a leader in Collaboration, Search, Enterprise Content Management, and Social Computing.
Ryan’s career has spanned the globe, living and working across the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia where he has built and grown successful companies, driven product strategy, redefined markets, won multi-million-dollar deals, managed global software development projects, and helped connect a country to the Internet along the way.
Ryan holds a BSc in Computer Science and Psychology from Victoria University in Wellington and loves to focus on finding the truth at the center of psychology, business, and technology.
Larry Freed is the co-founder and former CEO of ForeSee, the leader in customer experience analytics. While at ForeSee, Larry worked with many of the leading companies of the Fortune 500 and was a frequent speaker at many industry events. Following the sale of ForeSee, Larry founded 2nd Stage Partners where he advised, mentored, and consulted with early stage and growth stage technology companies. Prior to ForeSee, Larry served in executive leadership roles at Compuware and was CTO of Bank One. Larry currently serves as the CEO of Give and Take.
He also served on the board of directors of various tech companies and is currently on the University of Michigan Technology Transfer National Advisory Board and the Wolverine Venture Fund Advisory Board. Larry has authored two books, Managing Forward and Innovating Analytics.
Jill Nelson is the Founder and former CEO of Ruby Receptionists, the on-demand, integrated, mobile device-controlled live receptionist and chat platform. During her tenure as CEO, Ruby grew to more than 10,000 active customers, was named an Inc Magazine “Best Place to Work,” a People Magazine “50 Companies Who Care,” and landed on the Portland Business Journal’s Fastest Growing Private 100 Companies for 12 consecutive years – more than any other in Oregon’s history.
Jill sits on the Legacy Health Foundation Board, the TIE Oregon Board, the Elevate Inclusive Fund Advisory Board, and served on the board of Entrepreneurs Organization for many years, including in the role of President.
Jill holds her BS in Accounting from the University of Oregon. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, where she enjoys spending time with family, practicing her salsa moves, and taking in the beauty and bounty of the great Northwest.
Alex Pinchev is a veteran top global executive with a 35+ year track record of success in the software industry. Alex has held four CEO positions, served as President and Section 16 officer in two public companies, and founded three companies. He was previously the President of Global Sales and Marketing at Rackspace, at the time a publicly traded company with revenue over $2 billion. From 2003 to 2012, Alex was the President of Red Hat, leading global sales, services and field marketing, growing the company’s revenue from $50 million to more than $1 billion.
Alex’s experience ranges from founding companies to being a senior executive and serving on boards of prominent publicly traded global companies. He is an inspiring leader with extensive knowledge and connections in cloud, security, AI, IT infrastructure, open source, and related IT fields, specializing in sound positioning, growth, and go-to-market strategies.
Alex remains active on public and private boards and continues to advise and invest in startups and firms seeking global expansion.
William (Bill) Spruill is the co-founder and former CEO of Global Data Consortium (GDC), the most widely channel distributed global identity verification platform providing data driven KYC (Know Your Customer) solutions for more than 70 countries through a single API. Over the life of the organization, he oversaw the formation of more than 50 enterprise channel relationships and established a cohort of more than 120 data suppliers creating a unique consortium business model that drove more than $70 million in revenues.
Prior to GDC, Bill led business development at DataFlux/SAS creating a dominant channel position for their data quality technology in the enterprise ETL and Master Data Management technology sectors. Later Bill became COO of AddressDoctor (acquired by Informatica) a German international address verification platform where they focused on driving revenue growth through embedded OEM partnerships across a variety of market sectors.
Bill attended Northrop University in Los Angeles, California and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He sits on the executive committees of the North Carolina Council for Entrepreneurial Development and Triangle Family Services.
Simon Wilson’s career includes leadership positions as CEO, CFO, and Corporate Development roles in international B2B software companies. Notably, he served as the CFO of SurfControl, a LSE-listed internet security company that was later acquired by Websense (NASDAQ). Earlier, Simon was a partner in KPMG’s U.S. Corporate Finance Practice, specializing in providing strategic advice on corporate development and M&A services to software and IT services companies globally.
With over 35 years of extensive international experience in B2B software and a U.S. resident for three decades, Simon brings a wealth of knowledge in cross-border mergers and acquisitions and international expansion including Endace PLC (AIM), which was acquired by Emulex (NYSE). He held the position of Chairman at M86 Security, later acquired by Trustwave, and served as the Audit Committee Chair at Workshare, acquired by SkyDox. Simon has also provided international growth, U.S. market entry and M&A consulting services to a range of software companies including July Systems, an Updata portfolio company, which was acquired by Cisco (NASDAQ). Currently, Simon is the Executive Chairman at Uberflip (Toronto), another Updata portfolio company, Chairman at PCI Pal PLC (London AIM), and Independent Non-executive Director at Hazelcast (Palo Alto).
Simon is an alumnus of Birmingham University, England, holding a BComm. He is a member of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and the U.K. Chartered Institute of Marketing. Outside of advising and helping clients, Simon enjoys pursuing outdoor activities such as skiing and is actively learning padel and pickleball.