we are

Michael Perone

Managing Partner

Michael Perone has been a pioneer in the high-tech industry for more than 30 years. Michael's sales enablement, lead generation, and online marketing strategies have set industry standards that countless other companies emulate today. Perone co-founded Barracuda Networks (NYSE: CUDA) in 2003. As Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Perone led worldwide communications and marketing strategies, including corporate brand management and identity. Under his marketing leadership, Barracuda grew to over $400M in annual revenue and executed a successful IPO.

Prior to Barracuda, Perone co-founded and served as President and Board Member for Address.com, a leading free email and Internet access service that reached more than 3.5 million users (acquired by WhitePages). He also co-founded Spinway Inc. (acquired by Kmart Corporation), a free ISP that powered retail branded ISPs, including Kmart's Bluelight.com Internet service, as well as Coscto, Barnes and Noble, Yahoo, Home Depot, and many others. Additionally, Perone co-founded Affinity Path, a private-label ISP that powered and supported thousands of ISPs throughout North America. He also has held systems engineering positions with GE Aerospace. In 2007 he was awarded “Technology Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California” by Ernst & Young.

Marc Wolfe

Managing Partner

Marc Wolfe has vast experience in brand and creative content development, mass media strategy and acquisition, and measurable execution. Prior to Switch9, he spent 12 years fueling Barracuda Networks’ growth from a privately-held, single-product upstart to a publicly-held iconic leader in email, network and data security. As Barracuda's VP of Worldwide Marketing, Wolfe built a 50+ person in-house agency to efficiently grow demand by effectively leveraging digital and traditional media: multi-national websites, SEM/SEO, social media, public relations, out-of-home advertising, professional sports, and broadcast (network radio and national television).

Prior to joining Barracuda in 2006, he served as Director of Marketing and Operations for a Los Angeles-headquartered law firm, where he was instrumental in growing the business from startup to national prominence. Previously, he served as Vice President of Marketing for ADAPT Software Applications (acquired by SYSPRO) where he was responsible for worldwide marketing and channel development. Wolfe's 30 years of experience also includes marketing and operations leadership roles with: Southland Micro Systems, Magic Software Enterprises, The Walt Disney Company (Buena Vista Home Entertainment) and OMNIVAR (acquired by CompuCom). Marc earned his B.A. in Marketing Communications from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

MC Petermann

Managing Partner

Mary Catherine ("MC") Petermann is a startup enthusiast, storyteller, and brand builder. Most recently, she was VP of Corporate Communications for Barracuda Networks, where she spearheaded numerous initiatives and helped take Barracuda public in November 2013. In this role, she led internal and external global communications, including multiple M&A, and served as VP of Marketing for Barracuda Sentinel to launch the company's AI-based email security offering.

MC joined Barracuda when the company acquired web security startup Purewire, where she served on the founding management team as VP of Marketing. Under her marketing leadership and with a rockstar team of engineers and entrepreneurs, Purewire quickly catapulted to one of the hottest security startups, being named a Gartner Cool Vendor, DEMOgod, Top 10 Most Innovative Companies at RSA, and numerous other awards and accolades.

Prior to Purewire, she was Director of Corporate Communications at CipherTrust, where she led global communications initiatives before its acquisition by Secure Computing, and worked with various PR agencies prior to that, where she helped launch and raise the visibility of numerous tech companies and nonprofits. She received her B.A. with highest honors from the University of Southern Mississippi.