Partner
JP Sanday
AISaaSBio + Healthcare
Jean-Paul (JP) Sanday is a partner at Menlo Ventures who invests at the inflection stage. Focused on vertical SaaS and, more broadly, enterprise software, JP is particularly excited about companies defining the future of work, infusing our lives with intelligent automation and democratizing data analytics.
His favorite part of the job is partnering with passionate founders to build a business that matters. These relationships are informed by his own experience as an executive in hypergrowth companies, where he learned the critical role culture plays in setting up a company for success. His conversations often focus on the “job” a product is hired to do, and he firmly believes nailing customer retention is the best way to build a lasting company.
In 2019, JP came to Menlo Ventures from Summit Partners, where his board and investment experience included Smartsheet (NYSE: SMAR), Clearwater Analytics (NYSE: CWAN), Ascentis (acquired by UKG), and Teaching Strategies. He previously served as Vice President of Growth at online education platform CreativeLive (acquired by Fiverr), and Vice President of Growth at mobile games and entertainment company Kiwi. He co-founded a mobile ad network focused on driving high-quality installs for app developers, and spent time as a Product Manager at Amazon.
JP graduated summa cum laude from Boston College Carroll School of Management and earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is Argentine and Peruvian by background, growing up in Argentina until he came to the U.S. on a college scholarship. Now, JP is building his family in the Bay Area. He and his wife have two daughters. When he’s not with his family or in the office, you can find him riding his bike or scuba diving somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
Supported by: Karen Avila, [email protected]
Investment Portfolio
Abnormal AI is an integrated email security solution for the cloud office, detecting the whole spectrum of email attacks, from vendor compromise and spear-phishing to unwanted spam and graymail.
Milestones
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2018 - Founded
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2020 - Partnered, Series B
Leadership
Evan Reiser
Co-Founder & CEO
Sanjay Jeyakumar
Co-Founder & CTO
Partners
CodeSignal aims to make talent accessible by empowering recruiters and employers to evaluate job candidates’ programming skills effectively and objectively.
Milestones
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2014 - Founded
-
2020 - Partnered, Series C
Partners
Knoetic is no-code people analytics platform that provides a unified view of organizational performance metrics (employee retention, recruiting pipelines, pay equity, DEI, engagement, etc).
Milestones
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2020 - Founded
-
2022 - Partnered, Series B
Partners
Netlify is an all-in-one platform for automating modern web projects at global scale—without servers, devops, or costly infrastructure.
Milestones
-
2014 - Founded
-
2024 - Partnered, Series C
Partners
Photomath is the #1 math learning app that uses the power of AI and the smartphone to instantly solve math concepts and provide step-by-step instructions for users to learn and retain.
Milestones
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2014 - Founded
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2020 - Partnered, Series B
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2023 - Acquired by Google
Partners
Qualio is a cloud-based quality management system for life sciences. Their ready-to-use QMS unites teams, processes, and data all in one place so companies can get to market quickly and scale successfully.
Milestones
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2012 - Founded
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2021 - Partnered, Series B
Leadership
Robert Fenton
Founder & CEO
Partners
Sana is an AI-powered learning platform that empowers organizations to find, share, and harness the knowledge they need to achieve their missions.
Milestones
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2016 - Founded
-
2022 - Partnered, Series B
Leadership
Joel Hellermark
Founder & CEO
Partners
Abnormal AI
Abnormal AI is an integrated email security solution for the cloud office, detecting the whole spectrum of email attacks, from vendor compromise and spear-phishing to unwanted spam and graymail.
Anycart
Anycart delivers groceries and offers home cooks over 250 recipes with step-by-step cooking videos.
Acquired by Weee! Inc.
Ascentis
Ascentis provides best-in-class human resources tools including HRIS, payroll, time and attendance, talent management, and recruiting software.
Acquired by UKG
Clearwater Analytics
Clearwater Analytics is a leading provider of SaaS-based investment accounting, reporting, and analytics solutions.
NYSE: CWAN
CodeSignal
CodeSignal aims to make talent accessible by empowering recruiters and employers to evaluate job candidates’ programming skills effectively and objectively.
H1
H1's health data platform supports the end-to-end therapeutic development process of medical companies and healthcare systems.
Knoetic
Knoetic is no-code people analytics platform that provides a unified view of organizational performance metrics (employee retention, recruiting pipelines, pay equity, DEI, engagement, etc).
Netlify
Netlify is an all-in-one platform for automating modern web projects at global scale—without servers, devops, or costly infrastructure.
OfferFit
OfferFit is a ML-powered, automated experimentation platform for lifecycle marketers that enables true mass personalization on a 1:1 basis, all tailored to the specific goal of the marketers.
Photomath
Photomath is the #1 math learning app that uses the power of AI and the smartphone to instantly solve math concepts and provide step-by-step instructions for users to learn and retain.
Acquired by Google
Qualio
Qualio is a cloud-based quality management system for life sciences. Their ready-to-use QMS unites teams, processes, and data all in one place so companies can get to market quickly and scale successfully.
Sana
Sana is an AI-powered learning platform that empowers organizations to find, share, and harness the knowledge they need to achieve their missions.
Smartsheet
Smartsheet provides businesses with collaboration software and solutions to create team efficiency, effectiveness and scale.
NYSE: SMAR
Solace
Solace connects Medicare patients with certified healthcare advocates who help patients navigate their complex care journeys.
Teaching Strategies
Teaching Strategies is the #1 provider of early childhood solutions in the country.
q&a
Investment Approach
Being able to navigate a dynamic market and changing landscape are skills all founders should master—this means clarity of vision is critical. Translating that vision into world-class execution is very difficult, but you can tell which founders are obsessing over this from early on. Many smart people can make a great PowerPoint, but marshaling resources and people to execute that plan is a talent.
I usually look for the “4 Hs”: horsepower, hunger, hustle and humility. When I see that powerful combination in a founder attacking an interesting market, I’m usually compelled to go all in.
Treat your cap table like a product—craft it the right way for it to align with your market opportunity. VCs are in the business of identifying inexorable trends that translate to a market undergoing significant (usually sudden) change that creates the opportunity to build a “venture business” that will produce venture returns. This means the demand for that product or service is being manifested in unnaturally short, compressed timeframes for the company to grow quickly without burning through all of their capital.
Many markets can support growing companies and are attractive, but they might not be “venture-ready” markets; there isn’t that unnatural manifestation of demand.
Too many times, founders start with their cap table thinking they need to raise venture capital, and then they architect a hypergrowth plan that those VCs like to see (insert hockey stick chart here!) and then they justify it with an explanation of the market size.
I think it should be the opposite: Start by really understanding the market, the demand patterns and changes happening that create the opportunity for the company, then put together an ambitious but realistic plan. Given that exercise, you can decide what the right cap table is to pursue that opportunity. Every round you raise you should be rinse and repeat—after all, you’ll have a lot more information about your market!
Treat the process of picking your next investor like a hiring decision. It will likely be the most important “hire” you will make that year, so spend time with them the same way you would for recruiting a new leader to the company.
