Our mission

Mike Kwatinetz is a founding General Partner with Azure Capital Partners where he specializes in software and related infrastructure technologies. Prior to Azure, Mike was Group Head of Technology Research, a Managing Director and the senior software and hardware analyst at several major investment banks, including Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank Securities and PaineWebber. Mike was also a senior research analyst at Santhemes/*d Bernstein & Co.

Prior to his career in technology research, Mike was CEO of Woodbury Computer Associates, a software products and consulting firm, which resulted in a 160x cash-on-cash return.

Mike has provided research coverage and strategic advice to numerous technology companies and has consistently been viewed as a top resource on many, including Microsoft, Compaq, Dell, Apple, Hewlett Packard, VA Linux and Gateway. His coverage universe also included e-business software and internet devices and infrastructure. His theories on the shift of industry control to Microsoft and Intel, “The 4th Wave of the Web,” the advantages of Linux, and the need for PC vendors to go Beyond the Box” were considered agenda setting for the investment community. His technology investment strategy newsletter, SoundBytes, was one of the most widely read amongst public portfolio managers. He was top-ranked by Institutional Investor in PC Hardware and ranked second in PC Software and was the only sell-side analyst to ever be top three rated in both software and hardware, doing so for six straight years before leaving to form Azure in early 2000. In 1997 and 1998, Mike was rated Institutional Investor’s No.1 Large-Cap “Home-Run Hitter” for stock selection among all Wall Street analysts and remained among the Top 5 in 1999. Furthermore, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal have selected him as the No.1 PC analyst.

Mike received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Mathematical Modeling from the University of California Berkeley and his M.B.A. in Accounting from New York University. Until recently, he sat on the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) advisory committee. He is also author of “The Big Tech Score,” published by John Wiley & Sons.

Arjun Gupta is the founder and chief believer at TeleSoft Partners, a special situations venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. Over the last three decades, he has overseen investing in and helping build over 60 technology companies, of which over 40 companies have been acquired or gone public to date. At TeleSoft, Arjun manages capital commitments of $625+ million and has established corporate partnerships with Alltel/Verizon, Bechtel, and Deutsche Telekom's T-ventures. He was ranked by Forbes Magazine in the Top-100 technology venture investors on the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Midas Lists.

Arjun serves on the boards of Nexant, Calient, Education.com, L&T, Infotech, L&T Technology Services, the Aspen Institute and the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). He is a co-founder and co-chair of YPO Aspen Chapter.

Earlier in his career, Arjun was a technology industry specialist with McKinsey & Company, where his clients included Apple, PacBell/AT&T, and PacTel/Verizon Wireless. Prior graduate school, Arjun was a software design engineer, applications engineer and product specialist at Tektronix, Inc. Arjun has an MBA from Stanford University, MS and BS in Computer Science from WSC, and a BA in Economics with honors from St Stephen's College. He is an Advanced Leadership Fellow from Harvard University and Henry Crown Fellow from the Aspen Institute. Arjun is a passionate outdoorsman and lives in San Francisco and Aspen.