Brett Hurt

Brett Hurt has more than 15 years of Internet programming experience and began programming at age seven. He is currently the co-owner, alongside his wife Debra, of Hurt Family Investments (HFI), a family office that invests primarily in seed-stage companies (34 and counting). Prior to HFI, Brett worked at Austin Ventures, also focused on early-stage Internet and software investing. In 2005, Brett co-founded Bazaarvoice, the largest public SaaS (Software as a Service) business in social commerce. He served as CEO and President for seven and half years, leading the company from bootstrapped concept to almost 2,000 clients worldwide and through its successful IPO. Brett also founded Coremetrics and helped grow the company into a global, leading marketing analytics solution for the eCommerce industry before its nearly $300 million sale to IBM. He has also founded and served as CEO of Hurt Technology Consulting and BodyMatrix, an online retailer of sports nutrition products. Brett serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Wharton School of Business. He received the LBJ Humanitarian Award in 2014; the Joseph Wharton Award for Young Leadership in 2013; the CEO of the Year Award (for large companies) by the Austin Business Journal in 2012; and was named E&Y “Entrepreneur of the Year” for Austin in 2009. He is a member of the Austin chapter of the international Young Presidents' Organization and serves as Chairman of the Board at Edgecase.io. He is as a Mentor at TechStars Austin and Partner at Capital Factory, and blogs on entrepreneurship frequently at Lucky7.io. Brett holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin. Brett is a 2015 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.