Scott A. Jones
Chairman
Scott brings over two decades of experience and achievement to ChaCha as a veteran entrepreneur, inventor, strategist, and venture capitalist. His well-seasoned perspective and pioneering instincts provide unique direction for the gifted team that ChaCha continues to assemble.
At age 25, Scott invented the massively scalable, easy-to-use voicemail system that has been used by over a billion people around the world. Subsequently, he built Gracenote, the company that supplies Internet-based music services for companies including Apple, Yahoo, and Sony. Gracenote services are being accessed globally at the rate of 24 billion times per year by applications such as iTunes.
Two decades ago, Scott described publicly, during speeches in Hong Kong and London - well before desktop search engines and the Web were born a vision of people having access to all of mankinds knowledge, from anywhere, and at anytime. In late 2005, Scott realized that the enabling technologies of the Web and the ubiquity and portability of mobile devices finally provided the necessary pieces of the puzzle to manifest the dream. Hence, ChaCha was born. Scott is now driven by the singular focus of making ChaCha the world s easiest-to-use and most comprehensive way to access information and answers while people are on the go.
In addition to his focus on changing the world, Scott has traveled the globe with his family, loves to find great hole-in-the-wall eateries with Vee and enjoys time with his sons playing basketball, blowing up things in kitchen science experiments, and watching random YouTube videos.
More information on Scott is available at
www.scottajones.com.
Rod Canion
Rod Canion has been a leading figure in the technology industry since co-founding Compaq Computer Corporation in 1982 and serving as its Chief Executive Officer through a decade of unprecedented growth. During his tenure as CEO, Compaq set records for the largest first-year sales in the history of American business and reached the Fortune 500 and the $1 billion revenue mark faster than any other company in history. By 1991, Compaq employed more than 10,000 people and operated in 65 countries worldwide. In September 1999, Rod led the initial investment round for Questia Media, Inc.; became chairman of the board and later helped the company raise $150 million. Questia provides the world s largest online library of liberal arts books and journal articles for high school and college students doing research. In 1992, Rod founded Insource Technology Group and served as its Chairman until September 2006.
A native of Houston, Rod graduated from the University of Houston in 1966 and 1968 with Bachelor’s and Master s degrees in electrical engineering with an emphasis on computer science. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Invesco Ltd., Physician Capital Group, Auditude and ChaCha Search, Inc., and is a director of the Houston Technology Center.
Morton Meyerson
Morton Meyerson was formerly the Chairman and CEO of Perot Systems in addition to serving as President of EDS, where he led the company to unprecedented growth quarter after quarter. By the time of his departure, EDS was the largest computer services company in the world. At his private investment firm, 2M Companies, Inc., Morton invests in companies that exhibit the same qualities and values as the most successful teams he led at EDS and Perot Systems. And that’s exactly what he sees in ChaCha.
Richard Harroch
Richard joined VantagePoint in 2003 from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, bringing with him an extensive body of transactional and business expertise. He is a successful entrepreneur, founder and Chairman of two companies: LawCommerce.com (sold to LexisNexis) and Allbusiness.com (sold to Dun and Bradstreet.) He is a noted author, having written and edited a number of legal and best-selling business books on start-up companies, partnerships, and joint ventures. Richard has been involved in negotiating or structuring more than 100 Internet related partnerships, financings, distribution deals, web content and license agreements and e-commerce contracts. Richard has also been involved in more than 250 mergers and acquisitions, corporate financings and strategic alliances. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley (BA) and the University of California, Los Angeles (JD), where he was Managing Editor of the Law Review.
Mark Leschly
Mark Leschly is a managing partner of Rho Capital Partners and Rho Ventures, a member of the Investment Committee of Rho Fund Investors and the founder of Rho’s West Coast Office. With more than 15 years of experience in private equity and venture capital, Mark is an experienced and seasoned investor firmly committed to finding and optimizing ways – strategically, financially and operationally – to support technology company CEOs and their teams build compelling high-growth businesses.
Mark started his investment career with a focus in healthcare and for the last decade has broadened his emphasis to include information technology and new media. Prior to joining Rho, he spent five years at Healthcare Ventures as general partner and had several years of management strategic consulting experience at McKinsey & Company.
Mark is a former touring professional tennis player, previously selected to the Danish Davis Cup team. He received an M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and a B.A. from Harvard University.
