Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2016: Bryan Wolf

Fresh from securing one of the biggest exits ever achieved by Intel Capital and a promotion to vice-president in 2014, Bryan Wolf was bounding with confidence at the group’s annual Intel Capital Global Summit last year.

A veteran at Intel with more than 24 years under his belt, Wolf began his career at Intel on the operational side of the company shortly after graduating from Pennsylvania University. Early on, he was paired with a server products-focused internal startup. He found working in the dynamic atmosphere of an internal startup exciting. He enjoyed the potential impact it could have on the server products industry.

Wolf was attracted by how fast-paced and innovative the server world was. He was fascinated by how nimble startups could be while operating on a shoestring budget.

He said: “I basically helped shepherd that internal startup from a financial controller standpoint for about five years.

“Subsequently I became fascinated with that particular piece of the industry. I was looking for an opportunity where I could participate more broadly in that growing server segment. Intel’s corporate business development group at the time – the precursor to Intel Capital – took a chance on me. I joined that team in 1997 and have been working in the venture community ever since, focused on data centre and cloud infrastructure.”

Wolf has been involved with a number of deals since 1997, but highlighted more recent deals such as Virtustream’s series A financing round worth $40m in 2010, which was acquired by EMC for $1.2bn, object storage firm Amplidata, which sold to Western Digital for an unspecified sum after Intel backed it through its B to D rounds, and flash storage firm Virident, which also sold to Western Digital for $685m following a $21m series C backed by Intel.

Bringing in financial and strategic returns matters. Wolf said: “Historically, both Intel Capital and others who have been in this industry for some time see that, as the cycles turn, if you are not focused equally on both the strategic side and the financial side then in the downturn many go away bcause they can not justify themselves financially.”

Wolf a better balance between the two would help the industry in the eyes of indepedent venture capitalist (VC). He said: “There should be no real difference between a corporate venture capitalist and a traditional VC.

“A well-run, well-managed corporate venturing unit is indistinguishable and can add the same value – if not more value – than any other investor. Intel Capital has helped set that standard for corporate venture capital.”

Wolf now sees his role as maintaining that standard for the foreseeable future through effective, strategic deal-making that benefits the corporate VC and the wider entrepreneurial community as a whole.