We are proud to announce that we have added Jonathan Kaplan to our team as Chief Operating Officer, a newly-created position for our firm.
Our Co-Founder Thomas Ball has known Jonathan for nearly a decade here in Austin and has seen how his diligence and focus on operations have been game changing for entrepreneurs and companies. We are building out a firm for the long term and have been very thoughtful about creating an infrastructure that best serves our mission, our investors and our portfolio. We believe that Jonathan will be a highly accretive addition and we look forward to leveraging his extensive scaling expertise from an administrative perspective to grow NCV.
Jonathan previously served as chief legal officer and general counsel of Austin-based RetailMeNot, guiding the company in the public markets and through its $630 million acquisition by Harland Clarke Holdings. Jonathan also was the founding executive sponsor of RetailMeNot’s diversity & inclusion (D&I) program and will help NCV with its continued implementation of the Diversity Pledge and other D&I programs. Prior to RetailMeNot, Jonathan was an attorney at leading international law firms based in California and Austin including DLA Piper and Latham & Watkins. His practice focused on the emerging growth ecosystem, supporting entrepreneurs and the investors that finance them through the full business life cycle, including equity and debt financings, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and strategic transactions. Jonathan has a JD order of the coif from the University of California, Davis, where he was the editor in chief of the UC Davis Law Review, and a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Jonathan is excited to start his new role at NCV and about working with our portfolio:
“I was drawn to the opportunity to join Next Coast Ventures because of its differentiated commitment to supporting entrepreneurs in markets throughout the United States and the quality of the firm’s investments to date. I am delighted to join Next Coast Ventures, and I look forward to working with Michael, Thomas and the talented team to evolve the firm’s operational infrastructure to benefit entrepreneurs, portfolio companies, investors and our communities.”
Jonathan will be responsible for all operations of our firm, including financial planning and reporting, investor relations, legal, HR, compliance and the firm’s diversity and inclusion efforts. He will also be integral in the formulation and execution of our strategy and supporting NCV’s portfolio companies by providing advice regarding operations, corporate development and compliance.
Since day one, our mission has been to provide our portfolio with the best resources in the industry and Jonathan’s addition to the team is a prime example of that. As entrepreneurs ourselves, we understand how immensely additive operational and legal expertise are to a company and its leadership as they scale, and we know Jonathan’s experience and hands-on approach are going to be invaluable tool for our portfolio as they ramp up their growth. Please join us in welcoming Jonathan to the team!
