We are extremely excited to welcome Ben Metcalfe as the first addition to our team since we rebranded from IDG Ventures USA just a month ago. Ben has joined Ridge Ventures as our first ever Principal, and brings broad expertise as an entrepreneur, angel investor, software engineer, product developer, and operator that directly complements our existing investor team.

Ben’s track record is impressive. He was an early technical team member at the BBC newsite, co-founded and scaled WP Engine — a successful SaaS startup that 70,000 customers and over 500,000 websites rely on — and he’s built accessibility products for Uber.

Ben’s breadth of experience, however, goes beyond building companies, websites, and products; his expertise extends to details, from properly configuring DNS entries, to creative and strategic marketing plans, and to evaluating both technical solutions and business models as an investor. At WP Engine, he helped grow the company to tens of millions of dollars in revenue, while contributing to product, sales, marketing, and partnerships. What makes Ben impressive, is that he works tirelessly to achieve mastery across so many disciplines: from public policy, to yoga, to building tech products.

At Ridge Ventures, we believe in flexibility and a deep founder focus, and Ben’s addition strengthens that ethos. Ben provides a background and fresh perspective that we welcome and value: he understands the needs of today’s founders better than most investors, drawing from his time learning about technology and scaling businesses with no formal university background. He also helps expand Ridge’s network among young, ambitious founders so we can continue to work with the best and brightest.

We look forward to having Ben on the team. You can reach him at ben@ridge.vc.

– Alex