# Michael Dearing

> Michael Dearing is the founder and sole General Partner of Harrison Metal, a seed-stage venture capital firm based in Woodside, California. A former SVP at eBay who oversaw nearly $20 billion in gross merchandise sales, Dearing is one of Silicon Valley's most respected — and deliberately low-profile — early-stage investors. He taught entrepreneurial finance and management at Stanford for nearly a decade, coined the concept of 'cognitive distortions of founders,' and has backed companies including AdMob (acq. Google $750M), Acompli (acq. Microsoft $200M), MasterClass, PagerDuty, and Signal Sciences. He operates Harrison Metal with the philosophy that great general management is the scarcest resource in startup ecosystems.

- **Role:** Founder & General Partner at Harrison Metal
- **Organizations:** Harrison Metal, Stanford University, Grace Science Foundation, Project Ellis
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** AB in Economics (Economic History), Brown University, MBA, with Distinction, Harvard Business School
- **Known for:** Founded Harrison Metal in 2006/2008; raised six funds including $68M Fund V and $60M Endowment I, Backed AdMob (Google acquisition, $750M), Acompli (Microsoft, $200M), Signal Sciences (Fastly, $775M), TellApart (Twitter, ~$533M), MoPub (Twitter, ~$350M), Led PagerDuty to NYSE IPO (2019)

## Career timeline

- **early career** — Associate Consultant at Bain & Company
- **early career** — Operations at Filene's Basement, Downtown Boston flagship store
- **early career** — Corporate Strategic Planning at The Walt Disney Company
- **late 1990s** — COO then CEO at Industrial Shoe Warehouse; taught himself to sell on eBay to move failed retail inventory
- **1999** — Joined eBay, starting in furniture and appliances category management
- **1999-2006** — Rose through eBay to SVP & General Merchandise Manager, eBay North America, overseeing $1.7B in revenue and ~$20B in gross merchandise sales; led development of Buy It Now, eBay Stores, ProStores, and Want It Now
- **2006** — Began teaching at Stanford School of Engineering; founded Harrison Metal informally
- **2008** — Harrison Metal officially incorporated as a venture fund
- **2009** — First major exit: AdMob acquired by Google for $750 million
- **2006-2014** — Consulting Associate Professor at Stanford — Mechanical Engineering, Management Science & Engineering, d.school — teaching Launchpad, Entrepreneurial Finance, Creative Product Marketing, and more
- **2013** — MoPub (portfolio) acquired by Twitter for ~$350M
- **2014** — Acompli (portfolio) acquired by Microsoft for $200 million
- **2015** — TellApart (portfolio) acquired by Twitter for ~$533M
- **2017** — Published influential Medium article: 'The Cognitive Distortions of Founders'
- **2017** — Published 'Factory vs. Studio' framework on Medium
- **2018** — Closed Harrison Metal Capital V at $68 million
- **2019** — PagerDuty IPO on NYSE — Harrison Metal portfolio exit
- **2019** — Published 'Thank You, Daniel McCallum' on Medium
- **2020** — Closed Harrison Metal Endowment I at $60 million; Signal Sciences acquired by Fastly for $775M
- **2021** — MasterClass reached unicorn status
- **2024** — Portfolio exits: Good Eggs (GrubMarket), Hivemapper, Orbit (Postman)
- **2025** — Harrison Metal invested in CoreStory Series A ($8.735M); firm now at 107 portfolio companies

## Achievements

- Founded Harrison Metal in 2006/2008; raised six funds including $68M Fund V and $60M Endowment I
- Backed AdMob (Google acquisition, $750M), Acompli (Microsoft, $200M), Signal Sciences (Fastly, $775M), TellApart (Twitter, ~$533M), MoPub (Twitter, ~$350M)
- Led PagerDuty to NYSE IPO (2019)
- Backed three unicorns: MasterClass, CircleCI, Guild Education
- Taught among Stanford's most popular engineering/entrepreneurship courses for nearly a decade
- Coined 'cognitive distortions of founders' — a framework widely cited across the startup ecosystem
- As SVP at eBay, led business unit with ~$20 billion in gross merchandise sales
- Developed Buy It Now, eBay Stores, ProStores, and Want It Now while at eBay
- Authored and published 'The Mutually Beneficial Trading Tree,' a capitalist parody children's book
- 107 total portfolio companies with 67 exits (53 acquisitions, 1 IPO) across six funds
- Dubbed 'the hottest angel investor you've never heard of' by Kara Swisher (AllThingsD, 2010)

## Latest updates

- **2025-10** — Harrison Metal invested in CoreStory, a Series A round of $8.735M alongside NEA, Alumni Ventures, and Samsung NEXT
- **2025-05** — Harrison Metal confirmed active with 107 portfolio companies and headquarters in Woodside, CA
- **2024-08** — Portfolio company Good Eggs acquired by GrubMarket
- **2024-04** — Portfolio company Orbit acquired by Postman; Hivemapper merged with crypto foundation
- **2024-02** — Harrison Metal invested in Quilter, Series A, $10M

## Links

- Website: https://harrisonmetal.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldearing/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/mcgd

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/michael-dearing
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-05