| Website | tello.com |
| Blog | startupseven.com |
| @beninato | |
| Birthplace | Chicago |
| MIT, B.S. | 1989 |
| Aerospace Engineering |
Joe Beninato loves startups. His first entrepreneurial experience was watching his grandfather and father run a successful restaurant in Chicago for over 50 years. Since graduating from M.I.T. with a degree in aerospace engineering, he has worked with more than fifteen startups, serving as founder, employee, investor or advisor.
Joe most recently was the founder and CEO of Presto, a venture-backed startup in partnership with Hewlett-Packard that allows people who don’t use computers to receive digital photos and emails from their family and friends.
Before founding Presto, he was Vice President of Product Marketing & Business Development at Roku, a privately-held digital media startup company. Prior to Roku, Joe founded and served as Vice President of Marketing for When.com, the leading Internet calendar and event service that was acquired by America Online. Joe has spearheaded marketing and product efforts for Books That Work (acquired by Sierra OnLine), Integrated Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: INTS, later merged with Wind River Systems) and S3 Inc. (NASDAQ: SIII, later known as SONICBlue).
Actively involved in the Silicon Valley startup community, Joe is a limited partner in several venture capital funds, and has served on the board of directors for Presto, When.com, eDaycare (acquired by Arrowsight), and the non-profit Churchill Club. He has acted as an investor or advisor for Bigstep (acquired by Affinity Internet), Ofoto (acquired by Kodak), and numerous other startup companies. Joe has served as a mentor for the Stanford University Technology Venture Formation class and the fbFund REV incubator program.
| Company | Date | Round | Size | Participants |
| Tello | 6/10 | Seed | $1M | 12 |
