Todd Klein, who sits on the board of D.C. area companies like CustomInk, Optoro, Echo360 and Cava, is joining Revolution as its newest partner, the VC firm announced today.
"This is an incredibly professional and experienced group of people who don't panic with bad news and who are incredibly mindful of all of the constituencies that matter in these groups that they fund," Klein told DC Inno in an interview. "That likemindedness was really compelling to me."
Today's announcement follows a report in The Washington Business Journal that Klein would be leaving his post at SWaN & Legend to join Revolution in an at-the-time undisclosed role. Klein is joining Revolution a year after it launched a $525 million growth fund, and he's helped build up more than 150 venture and growth stage companies in his 20-year career.
Klein founded Legend Ventures in 2005, which eventually merged with SWaN Investors in 2012 to create the SWaN & Legend venture firm we all know today. At the time of his departure in May, Klein was SWaN & Legend's managing director and chief investment officer.
The move makes sense when you look at how much their portfolios overlap. Both Revolution and SWaN & Legend participated in Cava's $30 million funding round and in Optoro's $30 million round, as well. Klein already sat on the board of CustomInk, Optoro, Echo360 and Cava, which are all also Revolution investments.
As SWaN & Legend was beginning to talk about plans for its next growth fund, Klein said he was starting to reassess his career, a natural spot for most investors to take a look at their careers.
See, Klein said that committing to a new growth fund is at least a 10-year commitment. And he was realizing that he was ready to take on investments in later stage companies that could still be accelerated.
"Revolution was a natural fit," he said. "And Revolution, itself, had been building its team, and there was a spot (for me)."
So, a few months ago, he started transitioning away from his duties at SWaN & Legend — a long task that's still in the works seeing as he sits on the boards of numerous companies and has built deep relationships with those at SWaN and the local startups he advised while there.
People in my industry love disruption, we love disrupting industries.
And it was a transition that included the added factor of Klein's temporary tenure as the chief operating officer at Anonymous Content, which produced films like "Spotlight" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," this past spring. He would sit in table-reads for upcoming feature films, talk with creators about how to best build-up their projects and assessed other possible production projects.
But it was that time at Anonymous Content that made him even more of an asset to Revolution; he now had that much-needed operational experience that Revolution likes to see in its partners (Re: Steve Case building up AOL, and Ted Leonsis continuing to build up Monumental Sports).
"The founding group all ran businesses," Klein said. "So that experience on the other side of the table is really valuable, and I find that really compelling moving forward."
In his new role, Klein said he's excited to dive head first into further deploying Revolution's latest growth fund. He's interested in the media and consumer spaces, along with innovations in healthcare.
"There’s so much transformation going on," Klein said. "People in my industry love disruption, we love disrupting industries."
Along with Klein's hire, Revolution also announced the promotion of Steve Murray to managing partner and Evan Morgan to special partner. Luisa Sucre has been added to the team as an analyst.
The new hires and shifts come after Revolution hired "Hillbilly Elegy" author JD Vance as a partner to oversee its "Rise of the Rest" program in March, and they announced a few new Rise of the Rest tour dates.
This story has been updated based on an interview with Todd Klein after Wednesday's release.
