After more than a decade as a founding partner at Boulder-based Foundry Group, Jason Mendelson is retiring to pursue other interests.
In an email announcement obtained by Inno, Mendelson detailed his decision to step away from Foundry.
After taking a sabbatical late last year, Mendelson said he consulted with people close to him, eventually deciding that he wouldn't return to the venture capital firm.
Mendelson, Brad Feld, Ryan McIntyre and Seth Levine launched Foundry in 2007, focusing on seed and Series A investments to help entrepreneurs get their ideas off the ground.
Since then, the company has raised seven funds, totaling nearly $2.4 billion, and invested in nearly 300 companies, according to Crunchbase. Among the company's most high profile investments: Denver's SendGrid and Bay Area-based FitBit.
In a follow-up email to Colorado Inno, Mendelson said Foundry Group's strong position made it the right time to step away.
"The firm is in great shape, we have a strong and great team including a world-class CFO and general counsel and a very experienced partnership," he said.
In the near-term, Mendelson said he's taking some time to concentrate on his "first love," music. He elaborated that he'll be releasing a new single soon and that if anyone is looking for a "drummer or up-and-coming bass player" to consider reaching out.
Mendelson said the future beyond his immediate concentration on music is murky and that he's still figuring out what's next.
"I don’t know what is next, but I’m very excited for the future and know that this is the right decision for me," he wrote in the announcement.
In reflecting on his time at the firm, Mendelson said he was proud of Foundry Group's efforts to grow startup communities, both in Colorado and across the nation.
"I think we built an entrepreneur-focused firm that was among the first firms to truly invest at a national scale," he told Colorado Inno. "We have all spent a lot of time building the startup ecosystems both in Colorado and elsewhere and I'm immensely proud of that, as well."
As he steps away, Mendelson is optimistic about the future of Colorado's startup ecosystem.
"14 years go there was a lot of activity but not a lot of focus and I think the ecosystem has gone from one of promise to one of fruition. With companies like Rally Software, Zayo Group and SendGrid going public and other important acquisitions such as Craftsy and Gnip, Colorado is firmly on the map of any venture capitalist. I look forward to seeing it continue to thrive over the next decades," he wrote.
Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, Mendelson was a co-founder of SRS Acquiom, which delivers a comprehensive platform of financial products and services to help M&A deal parties efficiently manage escrows, payments, risk, documents and claims. Before that, he was a managing director and general counsel for Mobius Venture Capital, where he also acted as its chief administrative partner overseeing all operations of the firm.
He also was an attorney with Cooley LLP, where he practiced corporate and securities law with an emphasis on representation of emerging companies in private and public financings, mergers and acquisitions. Lastly, Mendelson began his career at Accenture, serving as a senior consultant and software engineer focused on financial institution re-engineering engagements.
