Ann Winblad

Winblad received a B.A. in Mathematics and in Business Administration from St. Catherine University and an M.A. in Education focused on International Economics from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota; the University of St. Thomas later awarded her an honorary Doctorate of Law.⁠[1]

She began her career as a systems programmer at the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis.⁠[1]

In 1976 Winblad co-founded Open Systems, Inc., an accounting software company, which she ran for six years; the company was acquired in 1983 by UCCEL, a New York Stock Exchange–listed company.⁠[2][3][1]

In 1989 Winblad co-founded Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, the first venture firm focused exclusively on software. The firm states that it has launched over 160 enterprise software companies; in 2025 the National Venture Capital Association put the number at over 200 companies.⁠[1][4]

The National Venture Capital Association cites her investments in MuleSoft and Hyperion as pioneering.⁠[4]

The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation’s profile lists her as Partner Emeritus of Hummer Winblad and an advisor to Aspenwood Ventures.⁠[3]

In 2000 Winblad was inducted into Fortune’s Small Business Hall of Fame.⁠[3]

On May 2, 2014, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry released “a16z Podcast: Demystifying Venture Capital.” Winblad joined Cowboy Ventures’ Aileen LeeAileen LeeAileen Lee is the founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures and was previously a partner at Kleiner Perkins and the founding CEO of RMG Networks; in a 2013 study of startups she coined and popularized the business term “unicorn.”Open the full entry, Aspect Ventures’ Theresia Gouw, Intel CapitalIntel CapitalIntel Capital is the corporate venture capital arm of Intel, founded in 1991, whose investments have included VMware, MongoDB and Astera Labs; Intel announced in January 2025 that it would spin it off as a standalone fund, then decided that April to keep it.Open the full entry veteran and UPWARD founder Lisa Lambert, and Andreessen Horowitz’s Margit Wennmachers to discuss what venture capitalists do day to day, the path to a career investing in startups, VC trends, the importance of technical skills and how to build the next generation of entrepreneurs and investors. The final segment was recorded at the UPWARD event at a16z, where Winblad addressed the audience.⁠[5]

The episode was uploaded to the a16z YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel on January 1, 2019, under the title “a16z Podcast | Demystifying Venture Capital.”⁠[6]

On February 13, 2025, the National Venture Capital Association named Winblad to its 2025 Venture Vanguard class, to be honored on June 5, 2025, at the NVCA Leadership Awards Dinner in Menlo Park, California. NVCA president and CEO Bobby Franklin credited her with “building the first successful venture firm focused exclusively on software.”⁠[4]

After the acquisition of Open Systems, Winblad worked as a strategy consultant for clients including IBMIBMIBM (International Business Machines Corporation) is an American information technology company, renamed in 1924 from the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R).Open the full entry, MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft is a technology company founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975 and headquartered in Redmond, Washington, with businesses spanning Windows, Microsoft 365, Azure, enterprise software, artificial intelligence, gaming and devices.Open the full entry, Price Waterhouse and numerous start-ups. She co-authored the book Object-Oriented Software and has written articles for numerous publications.⁠[1]

Winblad has served as a director of numerous private and public companies, including MuleSoft, Hyperion, Sonatype, The Knot, Liquid Audio, Net Perceptions and Ace Metrix, as well as Intacct, Voltage Security and Krillion.⁠[1][2]

She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of St. Thomas, a board member of the Richard Schulze Family Foundation and a member of CNBCCNBCCNBC is an American business and financial news cable channel launched by NBC in 1989; it merged with its rival FNN in 1991 and since January 2026 has been part of Versant Media Group, spun off from Comcast.Open the full entry’s Platinum Group, and sits on the investment committee of Seraphim Capital.⁠[1][3]

Hummer Winblad Venture Partners: Official website: https://hwvp.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annwinblad/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]