Donald Yonce

Don C. Yonce is a successful technologist with exceptional first hand insights and experiences in starting and building companies, taking many companies public and involved in multiple mergers and acquisitions. Early in his career, Don was the Senior Strategy Architect at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. where he led Wal-Mart’s Advanced Technology Group and was responsible for the systems and communications architecture for all Wal-Mart store chains within the United States and internationally. During this time, Don was also the main point of contact for all of Wal-Mart’s technology vendors. After Wal-Mart, Don joined a small startup in Silicon Valley: International Network Services. International Network Services quickly grew to become the world’s largest network consulting organization with an Initial Public Offering in September 1996 and a market cap of over $4 Billion. After the NASDAQ IPO, Don remained a Principal Consultant for the firm until the company’s merger with Lucent Technologies, Inc. in 1999. During this timeframe, it became apparent to Don that many companies were struggling to effectively manage their networks and the market was ready for the direct download delivery of highly functional network management systems. It was at this time he founded SolarWinds, Inc. (NYSE: SWI) a developer and marketer of network, systems, virtualization, and storage management software with a primary objective of providing exceptionally high quality software tools at an affordable price. Don’s extensive systems architecture experience and networking expertise coupled with his exceptional development abilities were the foundational pillars on which SolarWinds was built. Don self-funded SolarWinds to over $40MM of EDBITDA. Then enlisted Bain Capital, Insight Venture Partners, and Austin Ventures to assist in taking the company public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2009. Don served as SolarWinds Chairman and Chief Architect while personally writing all SolarWinds tools including the popular Orion platform. Don continued to serve on the Board until 2010 and was still the largest shareholder when the company was purchased by Thoma Bravo and SilverLake for $4.6 billion in 2016. Since leaving his daily involvement in SolarWinds, Don has developed a passion for working with young entrepreneurial companies. At Mobility Ventures and Aspen Grove Capital, Don leads software investments and specifically focuses on the areas of SaaS (software as a service), cloud, mobility, Open Source, IoT, virtualization, storage, and data center automation. Don has also founded three large Private Equity funds and various technology companies. He continues to be involved in portfolio companies architecture, software development, and finance.