Todd Chaffee

Todd Clayton Chaffee has been a driving force in the finance and venture capital industry for over 25 years. Mr. Chaffee is a General Partner with Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm focused on rapidly growing, later-stage technology compan ies. Joining IVP in March 2000, Mr. Chaffee has led investments in companies such as Akamai (AKAM), ArcSight (ARST), Ariba (ARBA), ComScore (SCOR), Digital River (DRIV), HomeAway, Kayak, LivingSocial, Netflix (NFLX), Nuance Communications (NUAN), Omniture (OMTR), Twitter, VeriSign (VRSN), and Yahoo (YHOO). IVP has invested in more than 300 companies, and has had over 85 IPOs. Today, IVP is one of the most successful later-stage venture capital firms in the world.

After graduating with honors from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, Mr. Chaffee rapidly progressed up the corporate ladder at Fortune 500 companies, including American Express, Wells Fargo/Norwest and TRW Information Systems. Mr. Chaffee joined Visa in 1994 and was quickly promoted to Executive Vice President of Visa, becoming the youngest Executive Vice President in Visa’s history. Mr. Chaffee’s responsibilities included overseeing the Strategic Planning, Corporate Development, Advanced Technology, and Equity Investment divisions. Mr. Chaffee went on to become President of Visa’s venture capital operation and within five years built a highly lucrative division of the company, which generated more than $1.2 billion in capital gains for the company with an IRR of 243.2 % and a 32x multiple of capital invested.

In addition to his responsibilities at Visa and IVP, Mr. Chaffee has been and entrepreneur and active investor in the travel industry. Mr. Chaffee founded Grand Expeditions, Inc., a group of specialized travel companies offering a range of travel experiences from the luxurious to the adventurous, including one of the first companies to offer travel to Antarctica. Grand Expeditions, Inc. had revenues of over $200 million when it was acquired by First Choice Holidays.

Recognized for his exceptional talent in identifying companies with large potential growth, Mr. Chaffee has been selected for Forbes magazine’s Midas List, its annual review of the world’s most successful investors. Additionally, Mr. Chaffee was also selected for the Morgan Stanley/AlwaysOn Top 100 list of venture capitalists.