John Burke

John Burke is a founder of True Ventures， with a passion in early stage investing and growing companies. For eight years， he lived through the balancing act of building his own company at BMI Software， which he founded in 1989 and sold in 1997. He began his venture career at ABS Ventures in 1999， working with Phil Black， and then， after the acquisition of Alex Brown and Sons by Deutsche Bank， continued on with DB Capital Partners. Before founding True， John was a Managing Member with Blacksmith Capital. He recently crossed an important threshold in his professional life: he has now been a venture capitalist longer than he was a CEO. However， like most life changing events， he can still remember the late nights dealing with HR issues， the relief of meeting payroll， and the satisfaction of delighting a customer.

Having lived through the tough decisions required in entrepreneurship， John is now able to guide his portfolio companies through the difficult times with a deftness that only those years of operating experience bring. John holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from U.C. Berkeley， a BA degree in Economics from U.C. Santa Cruz， and a MBA degree from Harvard Business School. When he is not thinking about how to create a more valuable company， you can probably find him bird hunting with his German Shorthair Pointer， teaching his kids to ski， or building furniture in his shop.