Jay Haynes
Managing Director, Strategyn Equity Partners
Biography: Jay Haynes has been an entrepreneur and private equity investment professional for the past 18 years. He is an award-winning CEO with extensive experience formulating and executing growth strategies; recruiting, building and leading product development and operating teams; leading and managing product development; creating financial models; managing budgets; raising equity capital; and serving on the board of directors of growth companies. Jay was previously CEO of the networking software company Blue Falcon Networks (which later became Akimbo after a merger with NexTV). Blue Falcon’s investors included Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Sprout Group and Zone Ventures, and Akimbo’s investors included Kleiner Perkins, Cisco and AT&T. Jay was actively recruited by Blue Falcon’s investors during a difficult stage in the company’s life. He was responsible for formulating a new strategic plan, rebuilding the technical and product development teams, recruiting a new executive team, raising new equity capital, and executing the new plan. Prior to Blue Falcon, Jay was the founder and CEO of mValue, a privacy software company, whose lead investors were SunAmerica and Zone Ventures. At mValue, he created the company’s strategy, product roadmap, and financial model and raised equity and debt for the company. Jay recruited and managed the company’s executive team, and he led the successful development and launch of three software products. Earlier in his career, Jay worked as an investment professional with GTCR Golder Rauner, a leading private equity firm in Chicago with over $3 billion under management. Jay started his career in leveraged buy-outs and was a founding employee of the buyout firm that created Steinway Musical Instruments (NYSE: LVB) through a series of acquisitions. Jay also cofounded The Aviation Group with his father, a former Naval aviator. Jay has served as an Adjunct Professor at the Presidio School of Management and at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. Jay graduated Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors from Brown University, and he received his MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
You can connect with Jay on LinkedIn, and you can learn more about Strategyn Equity Partners here.
Personal: I live in San Francisco with my wife Hollie and our three girls.
Spare Time: I enjoy soaring, sailing and playing music. I’m a licensed glider pilot and was awarded a Symons Wave Memorial Award, also known as a “Lennie,” for a glider flight to 30,000 feet over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. On the safer side, I also play guitar and enjoy singing to my two girls.
Quote: Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Best Vacation: Bejing 2008 Olympics
Life in San Francisco is: … Passionate and inspirational.
