Steve Herrod

Steve Herrod is a Managing Director at General Catalyst based in Menlo Park, California. Before joining the venture capital firm in 2013, he served as Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Engineering at VMware from 2005 to 2013, and previously held the title of Vice President of Engineering at WebEx. During his tenure at General Catalyst, he has directed over 50 investments, building a portfolio that includes high-valuation technology companies such as Stripe, Canva, and Tanium. In 2024, he led the firm's investment in the artificial intelligence startup xAI at a $24 billion post-money valuation. Equipped with a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree from The University of Texas at Austin, he currently focuses on enterprise software, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and scaling deep tech artificial intelligence companies.