Angus Davis

Providence, RI and Silicon Valley, CA
angus.davis@gmail.com

 
Official Bio

Entrepreneur & Innovator

I began my entrepreneurial career taking my grandmother's magazines, clipping articles, stapling them together into new magazines of my own creation and selling them door-to-door. My career as an eight-year-old media aggregator and syndicator was short lived, but in high school I joined the early team at one of the country's first commercial ISPs (Our class B was 155.212), where I built the first Web sites for many businesses.

After creating the first Web-based college application, I turned down college to become Netscape's youngest employee in 1996, where I worked with giants (marca, jimb) who were generous in teaching me what they knew about building the world's highest profile start-up success story. I was product manager for our Web browser, worked on the anti-trust suit, and helped launch mozilla.org.

In 1999, I left Netscape to co-found Tellme with Mike McCue. What followed were ten years of startup lessons learned. We raised almost a quarter billion dollars in capital, built a profitable business with over $100 million in sales and more than 300 employees, and made speech recognition part of everyday life. Today Tellme answers every call to businesses like American Airlines, UPS and American Express and most calls to 411. We created voice mobile search, so you can "say what you want and get it." In 2007, Microsoft acquired Tellme in their largest-ever acquisition of a private company. The most valuable experience was working with incredibly talented people.

After two years leading speech recognition strategy, I left Microsoft in 2009, returning to New England to bring home a Silicon Valley spark. I founded Swipely in Providence with a world-class team and the support of Index Ventures, First Round Capital, Greylock Partners and others. Swipely helps local, Main Street merchants turn their cash register into a direct marketing machine, unlocking the "big data" behind every transaction.

Education Reformer

I had an unusual educational path: skipping college to join "start-up U" in the Silicon Valley. My parents gave me opportunities at the world's best schools. I was lucky to have options.

Unfortunately most low-income children, especially children of color, lack access to effective schools. America's achievement gap is the greatest civil rights injustice of our generation, and I aim to do something about it.

In 2007, Rhode Island Governor Carcieri appointed me to serve on the Board of Regents, the state's chief education policy-making body. Soon thereafter, working with Mayor Dan McKee, Speaker Gordon Fox, CER, DFER, and others, we passed an ambitious expansion of the state's charter school law, ending a ban on new schools. In 2009, we opened Rhode Island's first "no-excuses" public school.

Working with the Rhode Island Foundation and prominent philanthropists, I shared the case for education reform. I introduced and passed new regulations to welcome alternative certification programs like Teach for America to our state. I co-chaired our Commissioner search committee, recruiting Deborah Gist to become Rhode Island's Commissioner of Education, the first change in leadership in 17 years. With her leadership, our strategic plan to improve education won the Race to the Top, the largest competitive federal grant in Rhode Island history, $75 million.

Given the slow pace of policy change, this is a good start. But in the face of the largest Latino-White achievement gap of any state in the nation, Rhode Island has only just begun to address this daunting yet urgent inequity. Each day I find myself overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenge, while at the same time inspired by the opportunity to solve it. You can help by getting involved with RI-CAN.

On the Web

Email: angus.davis@gmail.com
Sorry, due to volume, I may be slow in responding.

Tweets (@angusdav)

In the Press

I'd Like to Learn...

Here are a few things not directly related to my work that I am keen to learn:

Teaching

Case studies on Tellme were written by both Harvard Business School and the Haas School of Business at Berkeley. I am a guest lecturer each year at Haas and Brown. I also speak at MBA and entrepreneurship classes at MIT Sloan, Stanford Business School, Harvard Business School and Brown University. I always enjoy meeting bright minds, hearing challenging questions and sharing lessons learned in these forums.

 

Family

Rhode Island


Geoff Davis, my dad, is one of the nation's top life sciences lawyers at Ropes & Gray.

Gina Macdonald, my mom, is a consultant with Morgan Group.

Spink Davis, my late grandfather, inspires my work on education reform.

Joanna is my wife and inspires me to dream big. She's a teacher.

Consider doing business in Rhode Island. The state boasts a great quality of life, four beautiful seasons (3 of which are fantastic), affordable homes, affordable office space ($12 psf for cool loft space), easy commute to Boston (45 mins) or NYC (3 hrs by train or car). Our intellectual hubs at Brown and RISD provide a wealth of technology and design horsepower. We have a great arts and theater scene. Contact me if you're considering RI and I will give you a personal tour!

Business Endeavors

I pour passion, experience and capital into starting high growth companies that improve everyday lives. These technology companies share several common traits: world class team, large market opportunity and ability to execute.


Turn purchases into rewards

Say what you want and get it

Electronic whole genome sequencing

Peer-to-peer car rental

Paypal for groups

Mechanical engineering on demand

Online gift card distribution & fulfillment

Low-cost shipping network for e-tailers

Online distribution of CPG coupons

[incomplete list, more coming soon]

© 2007-2011 Angus Davis, all rights reserved.