Philip "Flip" Gianos has been with InterWest Partners for almost 25 years. With a background in engineering, Gianos has invested in multiple areas of information technology, including semiconductors, computing and networking equipment, and infrastructure and applications software. Currently, Gianos serves on the Board of Directors at Xilinx, a leading Programmable Logic Device Company. Gianos also serves on the advisory board of both Storm Ventures and the Global Semiconductor Alliance, and is a past president of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists.

Prior to joining InterWest Partners, Gianos was with IBM Corporation for eight years in engineering management. He managed both chip design and systems integration for several IBM office automation products.

Gianos earned his MBA from Harvard University and received his MS and BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He has one international and two U.S. patents.

Representative Previous Investments

Chiaro Networks – acquired by ECI Telecom
CIENA (CIEN)
Copper Mountain Networks – acquired as a public company by TUT Systems (TUTS)
Edify – acquired as a public company by Security First Technologies Corp. (SONE)
Kalpana – acquired by Cisco (CSCO)
Lightera – acquired by CIENA (CIEN)
Nanogen (NGEN)
Network Computing Devices (NCDI)
PlaceWare – acquired by Microsoft (MSFT)
Power Integrations (POWI)
Ramp Networks – acquired as a public company by Nokia (NOK)
Rendition – acquired by Micron Technology (MU)
SiTera – acquired by Vitesse (VTSS)
Stratacom – acquired as a public company by Cisco Systems (CSCO)
T/R Systems – acquired as a public company by Electronics for Imaging, Inc (EFII)

A Word from Flip

"Working with the entrepreneurial CEO is my favorite part of venture capital. A CEO can often feel isolated; I try to be someone who will take the time, listen, exchange ideas, and occasionally coax people through difficult decisions. It is difficult for a board member to contribute at the detailed operational level - management should manage the company.
However, over the years, working with many companies, we can make management aware of the patterns they may not see; our experience with similar situations combined with management's experience with the specifics makes for a better decision."