Ignition Partners, an early stage business software venture capital firm, has appointed Bob Kelly as a managing partner in the firm’s Seattle office.
Kelly will be one of the firm’s four partners responsible for fund investments and overall firm strategy.
Kelly brings more than 20 years of experience with him from Microsoft where he held a variety of positions, most recently holding the position of corporate vice president for the cloud and enterprise business development and strategy team where he drove the merger and acquisition strategy and coordination of cross-division strategic planning.
During his tenure, Kelly played an integral leadership role in defining how Microsoft goes to market with server and cloud computing, and was instrumental in growing the Windows Server business from a relatively new product to a market leader, and helping to shape Microsoft's USD20-plus billion server and tools business.
He was also instrumental in the early days of Microsoft Azure, helping it grow into one of the industry’s leading cloud platforms.
“We couldn’t be more pleased to bring someone of Bob’s calibre and experience on board as part of our team,” says John Connors, managing partner, Ignition Partners. “Bob has all the attributes we were looking for in a partner, including deep experience and scar tissue in enterprise and cloud computing, a vast knowledge base from working with tech start-ups over decades, customer and vendor perspectives on where enterprise computing is heading over the next five to ten years, and a person I have known for decades who is just a high-quality, value-add human being.”
Kelly is very active in the start-up community as an investor and a mentor both in Seattle and San Francisco. He serves on the board of advisers at 9Mile Labs, a Seattle-based accelerator.
“I am thrilled to be joining Ignition Partners and look forward to this next challenge. I have known the Ignition team for years and trust in their knowledge and expertise in venture investing,” says Kelly. “Together we have the experience and passion to grow great companies and help business customers take advantage of the immense innovation happening in the industry today. I can’t wait to get started.”
