Mike Ford built SiteMinder from the ground up in hospitality software, figuring out how to sell to and onboard independent hotels at scale while also serving large chains, and he treated hotel booking channels like OTAs, direct, and GDS as a blended portfolio to optimize rather than taking an anti-intermediary stance. He counts winning an early chain customer and integrating smoothly with Oracle OPERA among his proudest achievements, and his work building SiteMinder was recognized with the 2016 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Eastern Region Award before he became a venture partner at EVP.
About their Fund
EVP is known for high founder affinity, ranking #2 in Astral Ventures' anonymous VC Leaderboard among ANZ funds and ahead of many larger names, and for being a low-profile, relationship-driven firm led by Howard Leibman, known as the founder whisperer, who takes an active, hands-on approach by sitting on boards like Practice Ignition and Deputy and building concentrated portfolios rather than spreading bets across many companies. The fund now focuses specifically on early-stage AI-first software companies building for global scale, backing serious software businesses at the Series A stage using criteria like economic quality, earned founder market fit, and compounding advantage, while also offering structured support such as executive hiring through resources like Talent_OS.
















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