# George Zachary

> George Zachary is a General Partner at CRV (Charles River Ventures) and one of Silicon Valley's most storied venture capitalists, known for seed-stage bets on Twitter, Yammer, and PillPack. A Greek-American MIT graduate who once helped build the Nintendo 64 at Silicon Graphics, he pivoted from consumer internet to bioengineering after a near-miss cancer scare in 2015 - writing more diligence on his first biotech deal than in the prior decade combined. He deploys capital guided by a single question: does this founder need - not just want - to build something big?

- **Role:** General Partner at CRV (Charles River Ventures)
- **Organizations:** CRV, Shutterfly, StartX (Stanford), Mohr Davidow Ventures
- **From:** New York City, USA
- **Nationality:** American (Greek heritage)
- **Education:** B.S. Computer Science and Management Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- **Known for:** Led CRV seed investment in Twitter at ~$10M valuation (estimated 1,416x return), First institutional investor in Yammer; acquired by Microsoft for $1.2B (2012), Co-founded Shutterfly (NASDAQ: SFLY, IPO 2006)

## Career timeline

- **1985-1987** — Interned at Apple Computer, worked on the Macintosh II project
- **1987-1989** — Consultant at Shell Canada, built mathematical models for oil & gas discovery
- **1989-1992** — Co-founded CATS Software, enterprise derivatives trading platform (later acquired by SunGard)
- **1992-1994** — Director of Sales/Marketing at VPL Research, one of the original virtual reality companies (acquired by Sun Microsystems)
- **1994-1995** — Business lead at Silicon Graphics (SGI) overseeing Nintendo 64 project from conception through delivery
- **1995-2002** — General Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV), achieved highest IRR in firm history
- **1999** — Co-founded Shutterfly, the photo-sharing and printing platform (IPO 2006, NASDAQ: SFLY)
- **2002** — Famously passed on investing in Google while at MDV - a lesson he still discusses publicly
- **2004** — Joined CRV (Charles River Ventures) as General Partner focused on consumer internet
- **2005** — Led CRV's seed investment in Twitter at a ~$10M valuation (estimated 1,416x return on entry)
- **2008** — Became founding board member of StartX, Stanford's startup accelerator
- **2011** — Led CRV's investment in Yammer, enterprise social network
- **2012** — Yammer acquired by Microsoft for $1.2B; Millennial Media IPO
- **2013** — Twitter IPO on NYSE (TWTR)
- **2015** — Led CRV investment in PillPack (online pharmacy); suffered cancer scare that changed his focus
- **2016** — Formally established CRV's bioengineering practice; led investment in Freenome
- **2017** — Ranked #62 on Forbes Midas List; Color Genomics Series C investment
- **2018** — PillPack acquired by Amazon for ~$750M
- **2024** — Udacity (CRV portfolio) acquired by Accenture

## Achievements

- Led CRV seed investment in Twitter at ~$10M valuation (estimated 1,416x return)
- First institutional investor in Yammer; acquired by Microsoft for $1.2B (2012)
- Co-founded Shutterfly (NASDAQ: SFLY, IPO 2006)
- Led CRV investment in PillPack; acquired by Amazon for ~$750M (2018)
- Ranked #62 on Forbes Midas List (2017)
- Deployed ~$150M with returns exceeding $1 billion
- Achieved highest IRR in Mohr Davidow Ventures history
- Oversaw Nintendo 64 business at Silicon Graphics from conception through launch
- Founded CRV's bioengineering investment practice (2016)
- Founding board member of StartX (Stanford's accelerator)

## Latest updates

- **2024-03** — Udacity, a CRV portfolio company he led investing in (Series C, 2014), was acquired by Accenture
- **2023** — Continues active investing at CRV with focus on bioengineering and health tech
- **2018-06** — PillPack, CRV portfolio company, acquired by Amazon for approximately $750M
- **2017-05** — Ranked #62 on Forbes Midas List; CNBC published profile on cancer scare motivating biotech pivot

## Links

- Website: https://www.crv.com/team/george-zachary
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgezachary/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/georgezachary

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/george-zachary
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-30