Erik Rannala
Co-Founder & Partner
Prior to forming Mucker Capital, Erik was most recently at Harrison Metal Capital, where he helped lead one of the original seed-stage “micro-VC” firms in Silicon Valley.
Before Harrison Metal, Erik served as vice president of global product strategy and development at TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel site. Prior to TripAdvisor, Erik held a variety of positions at eBay, including leadership of eBay’s premium features business, which grew during his tenure to over $400 million in revenue, significantly outpacing overall eBay revenue and transaction growth. Previously, Erik held leadership roles at MVP.com and Accenture, where he was a software developer in Accenture’s first practice group dedicated to Internet strategy and development. Erik earlier served at the Domestic Policy Council in the White House.
Erik holds a BS from the University of Delaware and an MBA from Duke University.
Erik can be reached at erik at mucker dot com.
Articles by Erik Rannala
More Funding Won’t Magically Fix Your Startup
by Erik Rannala Some entrepreneurs think that (more) money will solve all their company’s problems. It won’t. Like a teenager with a million dollar allowance and an identity crisis, a...
Venture Capital Is Dead. Long Live Venture Capital.
(Guest post by my partner, Erik Rannala) There have been rumblings recently that the traditional VC model could be in danger of extinction, threatened by more contemporary investment sources such...
What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From the 5 Craziest Investor Meetings
As a startup founder, a huge amount is staked on your ability to fundraise. Investment means you have something to live on while you turn your idea into a reality....
Is Uber Really Worth $40 ($50?) Billion?
This is the second part of my last post. . . Uber’s stratospheric valuation has joined “the weather” as the conversation topic of last resort at awkward dinner and lunch...
Reconstructing Uber’s Uber Financials
Like many of people in the tech community, I’ve been following Uber with a mix of awe, horror, and admittedly, jealousy. How exactly is it doing? How is it worth...
Getting Past the Catch-22 of Venture Capital
There are some venture capitalists who consider themselves “entrepreneurial VCs” because they identify with and approach investing from an entrepreneur perspective. Others are actually former entrepreneurs who join a venture...