Biography
My first job, at 16, was pressing sweaters in a knitting mill during the summer for minimum wage. I started programming computers in high school. Before graduating with honors from Harvard College, I wrote code for oil refinery optimization and the ARPA-net. I then wrote code for compilers, composition systems, operating systems, DBMS internals and applications, large scale financial transaction processing, document processing, workflow and more.
I started working in the technology side of venture capital in the early 1990's. I became a GP at Oak Investment Partners in 2000, where I worked to improve the outcomes of our computer-based investments, from infrastructure and tools to the consumer internet. I moved to their sector fund Oak HC/FT to concentrate on health care and financial technology investments. I retired in 2023.
As I matched my own experience with that of the companies we invested in, I started to notice patterns. I first discussed the things I noticed and then put them into long e-mails. The e-mails became private-circulation papers. I made many additions and corrections based on feedback and new experience. I started posting highlights of the ideas on this blog. I'm finally releasing the material as the Building Better Software Better series of books, five of which have been published so far. The most recent book describes how entrepreneurs start software-fueled companies and grow them to success. They are available in paperback and Kindle format on Amazon.
Detailed CV: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-black/a2/2b4/49b