Baris
Aksoy

Based in Palo Alto, Baris is deeply passionate about working early with product-focused technical founders across enterprise software such as hybrid/cloud infrastructure, machine learning applications, vertical SaaS, and security.

He brings unique perspectives on these areas Google Cloud, where he served as the Head of Global Strategic Business Development in Media, Gaming, and Telecom prior to AV8. He initially oversaw M&A integration, and then led strategic deals for the industry vertical at Google Cloud

Prior to Google, Baris was the CFO at Anvato, eventually leading the acquisition of the company by Google. Earlier, Baris was an investor at Intel Capital, covering global consumer and enterprise investments. Baris has invested in dozens of companies including Monese, Woven, Veriff, OpenFeint (acq by Gree), Yume (NYSE IPO), Crowdstar (acq by Glu Mobile), Sense Networks (acq by YellowPages), Caring.com (acq by Bankrate), and a number of others. Early in his career, Baris held product management and engineering roles at Calix and Alcatel.

Baris is a Kauffman Fellow. He received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his B.S. in electrical engineering from Istanbul Technical University.

What drives you to want to help entrepreneurs

The journey of taking a fragile idea and building into a business firing on all cylinders is one of the most memorable experiences in a person’s career. I LOVE getting on that journey with some of the smartest people in the world. Having been involved in building a few successful and failed startups before, I have a high level of empathy for what they are going through and I thrive to be a trusted business partner to the founders along this journey.

What job, other than AV8, would you like to attempt?

While I would love to be a great cook, I will stick with the next best thing, sommelier.

What’s an important work/life lesson you’ve learned?

“Depth over breadth” was a consistent advice I got through my career. It’s especially hard when there is a new shiny object popping up every day. It’s important to cut that noise and focus on your own journey. It takes a lot of discipline. As Warren Buffett said it, you only have to do a very few things right in your life.

A favorite place you’ve been, that you can’t wait to get back to?

Kyoto. There is a divine balance of nature, spirituality, food and good people that I have not seen anywhere else.

Someone in history you’d most want to have dinner with?

Mahatma Gandhi. An inspirational symbol of peace. I’m hoping that my name meaning “peace” in Turkish would be a good icebreaker.