# Tomas Barreto

> Tomas Barreto is an Operating Partner for Engineering at Kleiner Perkins, one of Silicon Valley's most storied venture firms. He was the 5th engineer and 14th employee at Box, where he scaled engineering through IPO and past $500M in revenue, eventually leading 150+ person teams as VP of Engineering. He later joined Checkr as its first VP of Engineering, then co-founded Okay - an engineering analytics startup backed by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins that was acquired by Stripe in 2023. Now at Kleiner Perkins, he advises 20+ portfolio companies on building and scaling world-class engineering organizations, drawing on two decades of experience that spans IBM, Microsoft, Box, Checkr, and his own startup.

- **Role:** Operating Partner, Engineering at Kleiner Perkins
- **Organizations:** Kleiner Perkins, Box, Checkr, Okay, Stripe, Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator
- **From:** Caracas, Venezuela
- **Nationality:** Venezuelan-American
- **Education:** BS in Computer Science and Economics, Duke University
- **Known for:** One of the first 15 employees at Box, helping take the company from startup to IPO, Scaled Box engineering team from a handful of engineers to 150+ people and $500M+ in revenue, First VP of Engineering at Checkr, tripling the engineering team size during critical growth phase

## Career timeline

- **2004** — Software engineering internship at Shodor, a math and science education non-profit in North Carolina
- **~2005** — Early career software engineering roles at IBM and Microsoft
- **2007** — Joined Box as employee #14 and 5th engineer, one of the company's earliest technical hires
- **2011** — Joined Splunk's CIO Advisory Council
- **2016** — Promoted to VP of Engineering at Box, leading 150+ person teams through IPO and $500M+ in revenue
- **2017** — Joined Checkr as first VP of Engineering; scaled engineering, product and design from 25 to 100+ people
- **2018** — Became Scout at Sequoia Capital and YC Continuity Advisor at Y Combinator
- **2019** — Co-founded Okay (engineering analytics startup) with Antoine Boulanger, backed by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins
- **2023** — Okay acquired by Stripe; Barreto's engineering analytics platform exclusively powers Stripe's engineering org
- **2024** — Joined Kleiner Perkins as Operating Partner for Engineering (October 2024)

## Achievements

- One of the first 15 employees at Box, helping take the company from startup to IPO
- Scaled Box engineering team from a handful of engineers to 150+ people and $500M+ in revenue
- First VP of Engineering at Checkr, tripling the engineering team size during critical growth phase
- Co-founded and served as CTO of Okay, raising $6.6M from Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins
- Sold Okay to Stripe in 2023 in Stripe's first acquisition in over a year
- Advisor to 20+ companies including Loom, Oura, and Modern Treasury
- Scout at Sequoia Capital (2018-2023)
- YC Continuity Advisor at Y Combinator (2018-2022)
- Contributed to 5 patents in enterprise cloud collaboration technologies at Box
- Operating Partner for Engineering at Kleiner Perkins, advising the firm's entire portfolio

## Latest updates

- **2024-10** — Joined Kleiner Perkins as Operating Partner for Engineering
- **2023-05** — Okay acquired by Stripe, marking Stripe's return to acquisitions after a multi-year pause

## Links

- Website: https://www.kleinerperkins.com/people/tomas-barreto/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasrb
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/tomasrb

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/tomas-barreto
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Last updated: 2026-05-08