ken pelowski, Managing partner

Ken founded Pinnacle Ventures in 2002 while working at Redpoint Ventures. Prior to Redpoint, Ken founded and was Chairman of the Board of Currenex, which was acquired by State Street for $560 million. Before Currenex, Ken was Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer and a Board Director of GetThere (a Brentwood Venture Capital/USVP portfolio company) where he led its IPO as well as its $750 million acquisition by Sabre. Prior to joining GetThere, Ken was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Preview Travel (a Kleiner Perkins portfolio company), which acquired and changed its name to Travelocity. Ken led Preview’s IPO. 

Before joining Preview Travel, Ken was a Corporate Vice President and Executive Committee Member at General Instruments and at Quantum Corporation where he was responsible for corporate strategy and business development. Previously, he held senior management positions in sales and marketing at Sun Microsystems and Intel. 

Ken is a board member or observer at the following companies: Cobalt Technologies, a company developing green specialty chemicals; Kabam, the leading developer of free-to-play core games on mobile, online and social networks; Aquantia, the leading developer of 10GBase-T networking silicon for servers and datacenters; Viajanet, a fast-growing OTA in Brazil; and SocialVibe, the leader in next-gen online and mobile engagement advertising. He is also involved with Pinnacle's investments in BlueKai, Gilt, Grupo Xango, Modcloth, Silver Peak Systems, Shoedazzle, and Videology.

His prior involvements include Broadbus Technologies (acquired by Motorola), LifeSize Communications (acquired by Logitech), Right Media (acquired by Yahoo), WiChorus (acquired by Tellabs), ZING Systems (acquired by Dell), and Farecast (acquired by Microsoft).

Ken is also a board member of several nonprofit organizations. 

He received a BSE in electrical engineering and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

EMAIL
kpelowski@pinnacleventures.com

CURRENT INvestments

Aquantia
BlueKai
Cobalt
Gilt
Grupo Xango
Kabam
Shoedazzle
SocialVibe
SilverPeak
Viajanet
Videology

Prior Investments

Wichorus (TLABS)     
Right Media (YHOO)
Farecast (MSFT)
Zing (DELL)
Broadbus (MOT/GOOG)
Lifesize (LOGI)