I feel very fortunate to be a part of ActiveRain.  I want to thank the community and the team here at ActiveRain for welcoming me and being patient with me as I learn the ropes!  I am currently the CEO of ActiveRain and the Executive Vice President of Product at Market Leader (NASDAQ: LEDR).  

Here are my favorite recent blog posts:

• Hustle, Not Muscle: The Key to Lifelong Success
• How You Leave A Sales Presentation is As Important As Your Pitch
• Shocking SEO Revelations from the 2012 Exit Convention

Outside of work, I cherish and love my family.   I am happily married and have two wonderful daughters aged 6 and 4 who keep us very very busy.   In my personal time, I love running, yoga, skiing, and volleyball.

My greatest accomplishment over the past twelve months has been teaching both of my daughters how to ski.  I never thought I would get so much pleasure from skiing down the blues with my 6 year old daughter by my side.  If she is skiing and I am snowboarding, we are about the same skill level.  Now my three year old has mastered turning and stopping and I am hoping (fingers crossed) that she will be on the chairlift with us next year.

Here is a link to Nikesh Parekh's LinkedIn profile if you want detail in terms of my background.  

I have been a part of a lot of different businesses over the past 17 years.  

I am currently the CEO of ActiveRain and the EVP of Product at Market Leader.   ActiveRain is the largest blogging network and professional social network in real estate.  ActiveRain was purchased by Market Leader in October of 2011.  Market Leader is the leading provder of Saas solutions to the real estate industry.  I have a really interesting job managing products from CRM, social media and consumer web sites like RealEstate.com.

Prior to ActiveRain and Market Leader, I was CEO of a cleantech company called Bio Architecture Lab that had developed technology to convert seaweed into low cost sugars for biofuel and renewable chemical development.  We were fortunate to raise $35m in financing in a very challenging financial environment and build a 40 person company located in San Francisco and Chile.  In 2010, we hired a great CEO from Shell named Dan Trunfio to take the company to the next level.

For five years, I was an executive at one of the leaders in online marketing for the real estate industry called HouseValues.  HouseValues was a 70 person company doing $10m in revenue before I joined.  When I left, we were 600 employees, 2 locations, and nearly $100m in revenue over a five year period.   I joined in 2002 and ran product, business development, consumer marketing, and corporate development.  In 2005 and 2006, I started and ran our mortgage division.    

I have been able to work some interesting people in the venture capital and private equity industries:

Second Avenue Partners: I was lucky enough to work for four amazing individuals at a Seattle based venture firm called Second Avenue Partners. We focused on seed stage investments in the Pacific Northwest with hands-on heavy lifting in weekly meetings with the entrepreneurs.  We invested in some great companies like the In Situ Group (acquired by Boeing), HouseValues (NASDAQ:LEDR), Azaleos (acquired by Avanade), Essention (acquired by McKinstry), and LocationLabs (still going).  

CVC Capital Partners:  From 2000-2002, I served as a consultant as a consultant to CVC Capital Partners which is one of Europe's largest and best performing private equity funds.  In 2000, they were looking at technology and telecommunications investments.  We looked at mobile carriers, wireline carriers, directories, mobile towers and satellites.  Good experience.  Lots of travel.

Madrona Ventures: After HouseValues, I was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Madrona Ventures, which is one of the best known VC's in Seattle.  Good experience looking at start-up opportunities.  Good experience, good people.  In the end, I ended up joining Bio Architecture lab which was funded by XSeed Capital.

XSeed Capital:  Bio Architecture Lab was funded by Michael Borrus and David Hanzel from XSeed Capital.  XSeed Capital specializes in spinning out revolutionary technologies from universities.  These are generally high risk ventures, but if they work, they really can change the world.  Bio Architecture Lab was also funded by Energy Capital Management from Norway and Austral Capital in Chile.

Internet marketing, real estate, mortgage, lead generation, venture capital, private equity, Seattle, television, web marketing, search marketing, clean technology