David Hornik

Bio

David Hornik is a General Partner with August Capital. He invests broadly in information technology companies, with a focus on consumer facing software and services, enterprise application, and infrastructure software. Prior to joining August Capital, Hornik was an intellectual property and corporate attorney at Venture Law Group, Cravath Swaine & Moore, and Perkins Coie LLP. In his legal practice, Hornik represented high tech startups in all aspects of their formation, financing, and operations, including Yahoo!, When.com (AOL), Sonique (Terra Lycos), WhoWhere (Lycos), and Ofoto (Kodak).

Hornik has an eclectic technology background. At Stanford, he studied and taught the impact of technology on music, earning a degree in Computer Music with Honors. At Cambridge, England, he explored the power of technology in tracking and combating bias crime, receiving an MPhil in Criminology. At Harvard Law School, from which he received a JD, magna cum laude, David focused upon the convergence of technology and the law, serving as an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology and publishing papers on digital audio and software piracy.

Hornik currently sits on the board of directors of DoneRight, Nomis Solutions, PayCycle, Six Apart, Splunk Technology, and VideoEgg. He previously served on the board of Evite, which was acquired by Ticketmaster, and was a board observer with Tickle Inc., which was acquired by Monster, and Actional, which was acquired by Progress Software. He is a frequent speaker on technology and business, and is the author of the leading venture capital blog, VentureBlog (www.ventureblog.com).

Academic Degrees

• JD, Harvard Law School, 1994
• M.Phil, Criminology, Cambridge University, 1991
• AB, Computer Music, Stanford University, 1990

Academic Appointments

• Lecturer, Stanford GSB, 2017-present
• Lecturer, Harvard Law School, 2007-present

Professional Experience

• General Partner, August Capital, 2000-present
• Board Member, Second Spectrum, Inc., 2015-present
• Board Member, Massdrop, 2015-present
• Board Member, Townsquared, 2014-present
• Executive Producer, The Lobby Conference, 2007-present
• Board Member, Splunk, 2003-present
• Board Member, Fastly, 2013-present
• Board Member, DataTorrent, 2013-present
• Board Member, Rocket Lawyer, 2011-present
• Board Member, Nomis Solutions, 2003-present
• Board Member, Tophatter, 2010-present
• Board Observer, PayNearMe, 2010-present
• Board Member, Bill.com, 2009-present
• Board Member, GLAAD, 2014-present
• Tech Curator, TED Conferences, 2014-16

Teaching

Degree Courses

2017-18

STRAMGT 356: The Startup Garage: Design

Startup Garage is an intensive hands-on, project-based course, in which students will apply the concepts of design thinking, engineering, finance, business and organizational skills to design and test new business concepts that address real world...

STRAMGT 366: The Startup Garage: Testing and Launch

Teams that concluded at the end of the fall quarter that their preliminary product or service and business model suggest a path to viability, continue with the winter quarter course. In this course, the teams develop more elaborate versions of...