Steve Vassallo

Prior to joining Foundation Capital in 2007, Steve helped launch Ning, a consumer Internet service where anyone can create his or her own social network for anything. Prior to Ning, Steve was Director of Mechanical Engineering at Immersion, a development and licensing firm that pioneered tactile feedback and human touch technology. Prior to Immersion, Steve was a project leader and design engineer at IDEO, where he developed more than a dozen successful products for market leading companies including Cisco, Nike, BMW, Steelcase, McDonalds, and Caterpillar. Steve holds more than 20 patents and has received numerous product awards including Business Week Design of the Decade Award, IDEA99 Gold and Bronze Awards, NeoCon Gold and Most Innovative New Product Awards. Steve earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.