Board of Directors
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David Helfrich
Managing Director
David Helfrich brings more than twenty years of experience investing in and building technology companies. He helped found and build a number of the most successful and innovative networking companies in the industry – Newbridge Networks, Ascend Communications, Centrum Communications/3Com and Copper Mountain Networks.
Before co-founding Garnett & Helfrich Capital with Terry Garnett in 2003, David was the managing member and General Partner of ComVentures, an early stage venture capital fund. He was responsible for investments in a number of innovative startup companies, including CoSine, Entera (acquired by CacheFlow/Blue Coat Systems), IntruVert (acquired by Network Associates), Internet Photonics (acquired by Ciena), P-Cube (acquired by Cisco), and Kagoor (acquired by Juniper).
Prior to ComVentures, David spent 17 years in various operating roles in the communications and networking industries. He was Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Copper Mountain Networks, a leading provider of high performance DSL networking products. He was a member of the founding team and was responsible for defining market/product requirements, implementing sales and distribution channels, building strategic partnerships and securing customer contracts. His contribution led to a successful IPO and a public market valuation that reached more than $5 Billion.
As a founding executive of Centrum Communications, David successfully positioned the company as the early leader in the multi-protocol Remote Access Server (RAS) market. This led to the acquisition of Centrum by 3Com just six months after initial venture funding was received. David remained with 3Com as Vice President of Marketing.
David was Vice President of Sales and Marketing and a founding team member with Ascend Communications. His work led to a successful IPO, a billion dollars in annual revenues, and the acquisition of Ascend by Lucent for $24B. Before joining Ascend, David was Assistant Vice President of Marketing at Newbridge Networks, Inc. He was responsible for flagship products that generated over 70% of company revenues. Newbridge completed its IPO three years after formation and grew revenues to over $1B before Alcatel acquired it for $5B.
David holds an M.B.A degree from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and a B.S. degree in Business Administration from California State University.