Martin Casado

Martin Casado is a prominent figure in the technology and venture capital industry, currently serving as a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).1 Here's an overview of his background and accomplishments:

Career Highlights

• Venture Capital: Joined Andreessen Horowitz as its ninth general partner in February 2016.3
• Entrepreneurship: Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Nicira Networks, a network virtualization company.13
• Corporate Leadership: After VMware acquired Nicira for $1.26 billion in 2012, Casado served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of VMware's Networking and Security Business Unit.15

Technical Contributions

• Software-Defined Networking (SDN): Pioneered the SDN movement during his time at Stanford University, leading to a new paradigm of network virtualization.13
• OpenFlow: Developed the OpenFlow protocol, which became fundamental to SDN.3

Education and Early Career

• PhD and Masters: Computer Science from Stanford University.13
• Bachelor's Degree: Northern Arizona University (received an honorary doctorate in 2017).3
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: Worked on large-scale simulations for the Department of Defense.13

Achievements and Recognition

• Awarded the ACM Grace Murray Hopper award.1
• Received the NEC C&C award.1
• Inductee of the Lawrence Livermore Lab's Entrepreneur's Hall of Fame.1

Investment Focus at Andreessen Horowitz

• Leads the firm's $1.25 billion infrastructure AI investment initiative.4
• Investment range: $500K - $40.0M, with a sweet spot of $20.0M.2
• Particularly interested in areas such as AI, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure.5

Martin Casado's diverse experience as a researcher, entrepreneur, corporate executive, and now venture capitalist has established him as a respected figure in the technology industry, particularly in the fields of networking, security, and artificial intelligence.