Flywheel's Team
Flywheel Fellows

Andrew Constantin

Co-founder, Constantin Partners

Mr. Constantin is a co-founder of Constantin Partners, an angel investment partnership. The focus of the fund is seed- and early-stage financings in software, communications, and Internet companies. Representative portfolio companies include: Aravo, Atlantes, Garage.com, Tripwire Security Systems, Coremetrics, and Digital Fountain. Prior to Constantin Partners, Mr. Constantin was a founding partner and vice president of marketing for PFI, a regional competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) with networks in 12 western cities, which was successfully sold to Brooks Fiber Properties in 1997. Mr. Constantin actively consults for communications companies and has been featured in Red Herring Magazine. He also serves as an advisor to Staenberg Venture Fund, II. A graduate from the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in Communications, Mr. Constantin has been involved in numerous charities including Amnesty International and the V Foundation Wine Celebration, a wine auction for cancer research.

Audrey MacLean

Private Investor & Consulting Associate Professor, Stanford University

Audrey MacLeanhas a unique track record for entrepreneurial success as a founder, CEO, seed investor and board member in a variety of high- technology and consumer industries. She has been listed by BusinessWeek as one of the 50 most influential business women in America and was featured by Forbes in a cover article on Angel Investing. Ms. MacLean has over two decades combined experience in the computer and communications industry. She co-founded and was Vice President of Network Equipment Technologies (NET) which went public in 1987. She later co-founded and was CEO of Adaptive which merged with NET in 1993. Since that time, MacLean has continued her involvement in early-stage companies as a private investor and board member. Companies financed at the seed stage by MacLean that have gone public include Pete’s Brewing Co., Pure Software and AdForce. Her successful acquisitions include: Avedia by PairGain, Internet Middleware by Network Appliance and Firefly by Microsoft. Other start-up portfolio companies include: Acheiva, SpecialtyMD.com, Informed Diagnostics, Datacore, dsl.net, Selectica, Schoolpop, Conduit and Talkstar.com. She is also an affiliate in a number of first tier Venture Funds. In 1997, MacLean joined the faculty at Stanford in the Graduate School of Engineering where she is the lead professor on the Stanford Technology Venture Program’s flagship course entitled “Technology Venture Formation”. In addition, MacLean serves on the board of the Marrkula Center for Applied Ethics, Hospice of the Valley , the Churchill Club, Mitty High School and the Kauffman Foundation Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.

Bill Garcia

Private Investor

Mr. Garcia is a former Director of Public Affairs for Intel Corporation in Rio Rancho. Prior to joining Intel, Mr. Garcia served as cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Economic Development. In that position, he was involved in policy development for NAFTA and recruited Intel to locate its semiconductor fabrication facilities to NM. Mr. Garcia also was with U S West for 23 years. He serves or has served on more than 16 boards, including: the ASM Foundation Board, the Albuquerque Economic Forum and on the boards of New Mexico Technet, Rio Tech and United Way, the UNM Foundation, and the Bank of Albuquerque.

David Albin

Managing Partner, Natural Gas Partners
NGP is a private equity firm that manages over $1.6 billion of capital devoted solely to investing in the energy industry. NGP VII closed in March 2003 with $600 million. Prior to co-founding NGP Mr. Albin worked with Goldman Sachs.

David Alderson

Post Doctoral Scholar, California Institute of Technology

David is currently completing his post doctorate work at the California Institute of Technology. David’s research focus is on complex networks and national infrastructure protection. David has been a research fellow with the Center for Intl. Security & Cooperation, Santa Fe Institute, the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA, and at the Control and Dynamical Systems at Caltech. In private industry, he has played key roles in several venture-backed companies.

While at Reactivity, makers of internet security software, David helped to create and spinout CenterRun. CenterRun provides application provisioning solutions for the enterprise data center. Reactivity is backed by Accel Partners, Austin Ventures, Diamondhead Ventures and JK&B Capital. CenterRun is backed by Sequoia Capital, Crosslink Capital, and Needham Capital Partners. In the past, David has also worked with Goldman Sachs building technology for the Equity Derivatives Sales and Trading Group, for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, and with the Palo Alto Research Parc (formerly Xerox PARC).

Julie Constantin

Co-founder, Constantin Partners

Julie is a co-founder of Constantin Partners, an early stage venture capital firm.  She brings eighteen years of venture experience to her portfolio companies, which include:  Bazaarvoice, Tripwire Security Systems, EzRez Software, Coremetrics, Experience Project, New Vine Logistics and SAMBA Holdings.  Prior to Constantin Partners, Julie was the Director of the Internet Initiative for PFI, a telecommunications start-up which built fiber optic networks in 14 cities. Before PFI, she was with a venture financing firm making investments in software, communications and biotechnology companies. She is on the Board of The V Foundation for Cancer Research and is the co-founder and board member of The V Foundation Wine Celebration – a charity wine auction – which has raised over $30 million for cancer research.  Julie is also the Chair of the Marin Board for Women’s Initiative for Self Employment which provides educational training for lower-income women to start and grow their businesses. She holds an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurial and Strategic Management also from The Wharton School. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two sons.

Tom Byers

Chairman, Flywheel Board of Advisors
Professor, Stanford University

At Stanford University since 1995, Professor Tom Byers focuses on education regarding
high-growth entrepreneurship and technology innovation. He is the first holder of the
Entrepreneurship Professorship endowed chair in the School of Engineering, and is also
a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. He has been a faculty director
since the inception of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), which serves
as the entrepreneurship center for the engineering school. STVP includes the Mayfield
Fellows work/study program for undergraduates and the Entrepreneurship Corner
(ECorner) collection of thought leader videos. He is a principal investigator and the
director of the Epicenter, which is funded by the National Science Foundation to
stimulate entrepreneurship education at all USA engineering and science colleges. He is
the co-author of a textbook called Technology Ventures: From Idea to Enterprise that is
published by McGraw-Hill.
He is a past recipient of the prestigious Gordon Prize by the National Academy of
Engineering in the USA and Stanford University’s Gores Award, which is its highest
honor for excellence in teaching. He has been a member of advisory boards at Harvard
Business School, UC Berkeley, World Economic Forum, Conservation International, and
several private enterprises. Tom was executive vice president and general manager of
Symantec Corporation during its formation, and started his business career at Accenture.
Tom holds a BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and an MBA from
UC Berkeley. He also earned a PhD in Business Administration (Management Science)
at UC Berkeley.