“Nirav Tolia has spent the last 11 years working at early-stage, pioneering consumer Internet companies. His experience lies in the areas of online community, user-generated content, e-commerce and social networking.
Prior to joining Benchmark, Nirav served as an advisor and consultant to several consumer Internet companies, including aSmallWorld, Simply Hired and Zillow. Previously, as COO and a corporate director at Shopping.com, a company he helped create through the merger of Epinions and DealTime, he was responsible for product development, marketing, engineering and operations. In that role, he helped build Shopping.com into the Internet’s largest comparison shopping site and third largest online shopping destination overall, with more than 20 million unique visitors per month. He also was instrumental in preparing the company for its initial public offering in 2004.
Prior to Shopping.com, Nirav was the co-founder and chief executive officer of Epinions, one of the first Web sites to introduce the mainstream use of online community and user-generated content. Over a four-year period, he successfully raised $45 million in venture financing, led the company to profitability and oversaw its 2003 merger with DealTime. He began his career as an early employee of Yahoo!, working in the production and marketing departments. He also co-founded and served as president of Round Zero, a prominent non-profit organization and networking forum for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Nirav is originally from Odessa, Texas.
Education: Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University
Current Advisory Boards: Zillow, Simply Hired, RealSelf, Bottlenotes
Other Affilitations: Board Member, Institute for Civic Leadership” (Source: Benchmark Capital)
