Chip Austin

Chip is General Partner and co-founder of HBSE Ventures (HBSEv).  Prior to HBSEv, Chip was General Partner and co-founder of i-Hatch Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm formed in the 90’s in New York City.  Across multiple funds and Special Purpose Vehicles, i-Hatch invests in teams and technologies disrupting global markets.

Prior to founding i-Hatch, Chip was President & CEO of Bertelsmann Online, the digital division of one of the world’s largest mass media companies, Bertelsmann AG.  As founder and first employee, Chip built and launched BOL.com in 5 European countries while simultaneously merging US operations with Barnes&Noble.com.

In partnership with Bertelsmann Ventures, Chip also served as Acting CEO of European-based DealPilot.com.  DealPilot.com, the first commercial Internet-based comparison shopping service, subsequently sold a majority of its shares to Bertelsmann and merged into Shopping.com (NASDAQ:SHOP).

Prior to joining Bertelsmann, Chip was Senior Vice President, Sales & Business Development, for Prodigy Inc.  In his varied roles running Sales and Marketing, as well as General Manager of Prodigy’s first Internet Service, Chip helped to establish, position, and market new Internet services and build new distribution channels while transforming Prodigy from a proprietary closed online service to IP-based network.

Before joining Prodigy, while at the management consulting firm of McKinsey and Company for seven years, Chip primarily worked in New York, Europe and Australia with a variety of international clients in the media and technology areas, and was a founding member of McKinsey’s Interactive Practice.

Chip also has worked at Morgan Stanley, in the Investment Banking division, as well as at IBM’s Personal Computer Division in its early years. Chip has a degree in Computer Science and Economics summa cum laude from Duke University, as well as an MBA from Harvard Business School, and remains involved with the Duke Startup Challenge, Harvard Business School New Ventures Contest, and HBS Alumni Venture Capital Advisory Board.