Former Ruby CEO Stephanie Copeland Weber has been named chief executive at Portland software company SheerID.
She is taking over from co-founder Jake Weatherly, who is moving to the board as a director and strategic adviser.
“I’m incredibly proud of all that we have accomplished over the last 13 years building SheerID into the market leader in our category,” Weatherly said in a written statement. “I am excited to welcome Stephanie as the company embarks on its next phase of growth, and I look forward to serving in an advisory capacity to support continued growth and success for SheerID.”
This transition has been in the works for about a year. In an interview Weatherly said he has always known there will be a time when it makes sense to hand over leadership. He and co-founder David Shear kept that in mind as they brought on institutional investors. Shear remains president of SheerID.
“Sometimes things don’t work out this way.” said Weatherly, of what happens when institutional investors get involved. “Having been strategic about this I was able to handpick my successor.”
The SheerID board looked at candidates from around the world and some from public companies. Copeland Weber was introduced to the company through board member Erik Benson. Benson’s Voyager Capital invested in the company’s Series A round in 2015.
The two knew each other from being part of the Portland startup community, said Copeland Weber.
She was attracted to the opportunity based on the the kind of company Weatherly and Shear have built.
“I knew after my amazing experience at Ruby, I wanted an equally admired company and brand where I could continue the great work of a founder CEO and support growth of a company that has amazing product-market-fit and positively engaged team and culture,” she said. “I hoped to find that and continue to invest my time in Portland if I could.”
SheerID was founded in 2011 in Eugene before moving the headquarters to Portland. The company makes software used by brands, like Amazon, Nike and Spotify, to verify consumer identities and market discount deals to groups such as teachers, students, military and first responders.
The company has more than 200,000 authoritative data sources and digitally verifies 2.5 billion consumers for customers. SheerID’s product is white-labeled and embedded in brand websites and other consumer engagement tools.
In a written statement board member Jason Glass praised Copeland Weber's ability to execute on operations and her care for "people and culture," as reason for her selection.
"Stephanie is an experienced operator who possesses the skills and expertise to help SheerID scale top-line revenue and profitability. She will continue in Jake's legacy of prioritizing a company culture where team members know the plan, understand the goals, respect each other, and work in a transparent, team-centric environment," said Glass, who is a partner at CVC Capital Partners. CVC led a $64 million round in SheerID in 2019.
Looking ahead, Copeland Weber sees opportunity to sign on more brand customers in more countries. She and Weatherly also see product expansion potential to help solve more customer problems with the company’s identity verification software.
Copeland Weber was at virtual receptionist company Ruby for six years. She started as senior vice president of operations under founder Jill Nelson. She was named CEO after the company sold to a strategic investor. Prior to Ruby she was at software maker GuideSpark.
SheerID has 200 employees. The majority of the team is in the Portland metro and based out of an office in Wells Fargo Center. The company has some remote members of the leadership and remote engineers in Eugene. It also has an office in the London.
Last year, Weatherly was named the Sam Blackman Award winner by the Technology Association of Oregon and won the Entrepreneurial Achievement Award from the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network.
