Nick Beim focuses primarily on internet, mobile, SaaS, adtech, big data and financial technology and services investments. He has a particular affinity for viral consumer services, online marketplaces, online collaboration networks, new forms of performance-based marketing and low-friction SaaS companies.

Nick led the initial venture investments in a number of pioneering internet companies including the Gilt Groupe, the leading private sale ecommerce company in the United States; Care.com, the largest global online marketplace for care services; Intent Media, a big-data innovator that enables ecommerce companies to monetize their massive customer intent data assets; and TheLadders.com, the largest online recruitment site for $100K+ jobs.

Nick’s software investments include Conductor, the leading SaaS platform enabling enterprises to manage, monitor and optimize SEO, and OatSystems, the RFID applications platform company founded by the team at MIT that developed the standards for passive tag RFID (acquired by Check Point Systems). Nick also sourced and served as a board observer at JBoss, which developed the most widely used open source application server (acquired by Red Hat).

Nick has also been an active angel investor, providing seed capital to companies including Fiksu, the leading mobile customer acquisition platform; FlipKey, the free, review-based online vacation rental marketplace (acquired by TripAdvisor); and Navigos Group, the leading online recruitment provider in Vietnam.

Prior to joining Venrock, Nick was a General Partner at Matrix Partners and worked in the technology groups at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs.

Born in London to American parents, Nick studied at Stanford University and Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar. Nick took a year off from his time at Stanford in 1990 and traveled to Russia, where he studied at Moscow State University, worked as a production assistant with Sixty Minutes and served as a researcher on the book “Charlie Wilson’s War.”

Nick’s primary passion outside of venture investing is international development, and in particular accelerating international development through entrepreneurship. Nick serves on the board of Endeavor, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs in developing countries that Tom Friedman has called “the best anti-poverty program of all.”

Nick is an avid windsurfer and skier, a former Outward Bound instructor and an aspiring kite boarder.

In 2011, Forbes named Nick as one of the “Elite 8″ to watch in Venture Capital.

“Nick has been enormously valuable to my companies. He is incredibly accessible and is always available to pitch in. At the Gilt Groupe, Nick introduced us to three key members of our team: our Chairman, the CEO of JetSetter and the General Manager of our Japanese operations. He has contributed significantly on strategic decisions and has been a lot of fun to work with.”
-Kevin Ryan, cofounder and CEO, the Gilt Groupe

“I’ve had the chance to work with Nick as an executive at TheLadders.com and now as Founder & CEO of a company in his portfolio. Nick is not only a very smart, thoughtful and balanced advisor on my board, but also an incredible mentor in supporting me and our executive team. He is an exceptional venture capitalist who is focused on developing long-term relationships, enhancing the professional growth of entrepreneurs in his network, and strategizing to help build successful companies. The smarts combined with the humility and genuine respectfulness is a rarity in this industry. I would wholeheartedly work with him again if I have the chance to build other companies down the road.”
-Shelia Lirio Marcelo, founder and CEO, Care.com

“Nick is an incredible guy who understands entrepreneurs well. He unselfishly invested his time in helping us develop Intent Media long before we looked for funding. Nick is also the straightest shooter you will ever meet, with no typical Silicon Valley ego, and he’s an incredibly successful venture capitalist. He shares our values and has been an ideal investment partner.”
-Richard Harris, cofounder and CEO, Intent Media