Lars is a Managing Director at Hummer Winblad and has played a key role in the firm’s investments in SaaS, virtualization, cloud and mobile technologies. Prior to joining Hummer Winblad Venture Partners in 2006, Lars was involved in founding and operational roles at start-up companies. He was a co-founder of AutoFarm (now Novariant), a company focused on GPS and robotics. Lars was in charge of strategy, product marketing, business development and building the sales team across three continents. While Lars spends less time programming now, he started his technical career coding and hacking computer games. He is the holder of several US patents.

Lars is an avid sailor and a former member of the Canadian Sailing Team. He represented Canada sailing Snipes in the Pan American Games as well as other international events. Lars has a Masters of Science (Engineering) from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of business. He also holds an Engineering Physics degree from Queen’s University (with Honors). Lars previously sat on the board of the SIIA (Software Information Industry Association) Piston, and PLUMgrid, and is a founding charter member and previous co-chair of the C100 (Canadians in the Silicon Valley).

Lars has played a key role in the firm’s investments in PLUMgrid (acquired by VMWare, Software Defined Networking), Influitive (Advocate Marketing), vKernel (acquired by Quest Software, virtualization systems management), Pancetera (acquired by Quantum, virtual storage management), NuoDB (Scalable SQL database) and Kiip (acquired by NinthDecimal, Mobile Rewards).