# Rich Wong

> Rich Wong is a General Partner at Accel, one of the world's premier venture capital firms, where he has invested since 2006. A self-described 'accidental' venture capitalist with roots in mobile technology operations, he was the first outside investor and board member at Atlassian and led bets on UiPath, Rovio (Angry Birds), AdMob, and dozens of enterprise software companies globally. Known for his 'prepared mind' investment philosophy, his belief that the best companies can hide anywhere on earth, and his conviction that great VC is fundamentally a human business, Rich is one of Silicon Valley's most globally-minded and relationship-driven investors.

- **Role:** General Partner at Accel
- **Organizations:** Accel, MIT-Stanford Venture Lab, Council on Foreign Relations, National Venture Capital Association
- **From:** Santa Rosa, California, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MBA, MIT Sloan School of Management
- **Known for:** Forbes Midas List 2016 (#42) - top 100 tech venture investors globally, Forbes Midas List 2021 - recognized again among top tech investors, First outside investor and board member at Atlassian, which grew to $60B+ market cap

## Career timeline

- **1980s** — First job at Hewlett-Packard stock room in high school, pulling electronic parts for spectrum analyzers
- **Early career** — Consultant at Procter & Gamble
- **Early career** — Consultant at McKinsey & Company
- **Pre-2006** — Operating executive at Covad Communications
- **Pre-2006** — Operating executive at Openwave Systems, a mobile technology pioneer
- **2006** — Joined Accel as General Partner in November; closed first deal within 30 days
- **2010** — Led Accel's investment in Atlassian as the company's first outside investor and board member
- **2011** — Led Accel's $42M Series A in Rovio (Angry Birds), co-led with Atomico
- **2014** — AirWatch (portfolio company) acquired by VMware for ~$1.54B
- **2015** — Atlassian IPO on NASDAQ
- **2016** — Appeared on Forbes Midas List at #42
- **2019** — Led three Accel-backed IPOs in one month: Slack, CrowdStrike, and Fiverr
- **2021** — UiPath IPO on NYSE; appeared on Forbes Midas List again
- **2022** — Led Dovetail Series A ($63M) with co-partner Arun Mathew
- **2024** — Invested in Napkin AI seed round ($10M) for visual AI storytelling

## Achievements

- Forbes Midas List 2016 (#42) - top 100 tech venture investors globally
- Forbes Midas List 2021 - recognized again among top tech investors
- First outside investor and board member at Atlassian, which grew to $60B+ market cap
- Led Accel's investment in UiPath, which IPO'd on NYSE
- Led three Accel-backed IPOs in a single month in June 2019: Slack, CrowdStrike, and Fiverr
- Served on the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA)
- Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations
- Board of Directors member at MIT-Stanford Venture Lab
- Featured in the book 'Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes'
- $250,000 philanthropic gift (with wife Gerri) to Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy

## Latest updates

- **2024-08** — Led seed investment in Napkin AI ($10M), a visual AI tool for business storytelling
- **2024-10** — Featured on 'The Art of Accel-ing' episode of the Joys of Compounding podcast, discussing his career, philosophy, and the evolution of AI
- **2022-01** — Led Dovetail's $63M Series A with co-partner Arun Mathew
- **2021-04** — UiPath IPO on NYSE; appeared on Forbes Midas List

## Links

- Website: https://www.accel.com/team/rich-wong
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richpwong
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/rwong

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