June 12, 2014
Foundation Capital
If there’s one thing better than being in the right place at the right time, it’s having great relationships with entrepreneurs who always seem to be in the right market at the right time.
That has defined our relationship with MobileIron, which has just announced its IPO.
Four years ago, I got a call from John Donnelly – a friend and former colleague who has worked closely with me on several startups. John had just joined MobileIron as VP of sales, and he was getting ready to take their mobile IT platform to market in a serious way. “You’ve got to find a way to get involved in this company,” he said.
I quickly got in touch with CEO Bob Tinker and the founding team. Within a few weeks, Foundation had successfully pitched an offer to lead MobileIron’s Series C round.
In just a few years, MobileIron has grown faster than any other enterprise company I’ve worked with. Today, they have more than 6,000 enterprise accounts – including more than 350 of the global 2,000.
There are many factors behind this growth. First and foremost is MobileIron’s world-class talent – from the founding team to the executive team, to the outstanding sales team John leads today. I particularly enjoyed working with the board, which included representatives from Sequoia Capital, NorWest Venture Partners, Storm Ventures, and Institutional Venture Partners.
In addition, MobileIron has been perfectly aligned with the right market from the very beginning. The company first launched their mobile security and IT management platform at the same time as the iPhone and Android devices were beginning break BlackBerry’s virtual monopoly on enterprise users. As users increasingly brought their own devices to work, MobileIron was perfectly positioned to take advantage.
At Foundation Capital, we couldn’t be more proud of MobileIron’s impressive growth.
For my part, I’ve been happy to be a part of their journey and to help in ways I could. In the early days of our relationship, we made sales calls on behalf of John and his team, helped recruit key executives and partners, and helped scout three important acquisitions – including the acquisition of another Foundation Capital company.
In the process, MobileIron has grown to become one of the strongest companies in the space.
As more and more companies embrace mobility as a primary computing platform and transform the way they do business, MobileIron is becoming more and more indispensable to them – and to the future of mobile work.
At Foundation Capital, we pride ourselves on helping build great, market-shifting companies. MobileIron has already proved it is both of those things, and that their IPO begins an even more exciting chapter in their remarkable story.