Brian O’Malley
General Partner, Forerunner Ventures
Brian O’Malley is a General Partner at Forerunner Ventures. He was most recently a Partner on Accel Partners’ early stage team. Previously Brian led Battery’s Seed & Early Stage practices, while focusing on investments in eCommerce, online marketplaces and internet applications. During his tenure at Battery, he has invested in Bazaarvoice (NASDAQ: BV), Brightedge, Coupa, Duetto, H.BLOOM, Insitu (acquired by Boeing), J. Hilburn, Joor, HotelTonight, Loosecubes, Peerflix (acquired by Live Universe), Serena & Lily, Skullcandy (NASDAQ: SKUL), Sociable Labs, Sosh, Sprig, TradeKing, Viddy (acquired by Fullscreen Media) and World Golf Tour. He prides himself on hustling to find unique companies and new markets before other investors recognize the opportunity. Prior to Battery, Brian spent several years at Bowstreet, Inc. (acquired by NYSE: IBM), as Director of West Coast Technical Sales and earlier as the company’s Technical Evangelist preaching the future of web service-based APIs. Earlier in his career, Brian assisted founding teams at Matrics, Inc. (acquired by NYSE: MOT) and Compoze Software (acquired by NASDAQ: ORCL) with go-to-market strategy and initial fundraising activities. He started his career as a web developer for Motorola Computer Group while only a sophomore in college. Brian has guest lectured on entrepreneurship at several top universities, including Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Stanford, UVA and Penn. He graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a Dual Concentration in Entrepreneurial Finance and Management. Brian has been named to Forbes’ Midas List VC Draft: Hot Prospects, as well as to AlwaysOn’s Power Players in Mobile and Power Players in The Cloud lists.
Content & Articles by Brian O’Malley
Closing Enterprise Deals in Founder-Led Sales as a Startup
In our recent Mucker Growth Series session, I invited David Mackay, Managing Director at D9Y and one of our operating experts at Mucker, to talk about closing enterprise deals in...
The 10 Security Gaps That Plague Startups Before Their A Round
A NOTE ON SEVERITY Not every item on this list carries the same level of risk. Some are the kind of finding that stops a deal. Others are serious but...
Community-Led Growth for Startups: Why Most Communities Fail and How to Build One That Actually Works
In our recent Mucker Growth Series session, I invited Sam Jacobs — founder and CEO of Pavilion — to talk about community-led growth: what it actually means, why most communities...
Pricing Models & Monetization Systems for Startup Success
In our recent Mucker Growth Series webinar session, we invited Jeffrey Tjiok and Jack Benson from Simon-Kucher to break down how startups can build pricing into their DNA from day...
Pitch Decks That Actually Raise Money: An Extreme Makeover Guide
Welcome to another recap from our Growth Series webinars, a series of sessions where we go deep into topics that help drive startup growth. In this session, we invited back...
Stop Hiding Behind Your Screen: In-Person Events Are How You Win in 2026
2026 is shaping up to be the year businesses rediscover the power of shaking hands, clinking glasses, and actually meeting their prospects in person. Don’t take my word for it...