Ann Winblad


Ann L. Winblad is a businesswoman. She is a founding partner of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.

Early years

Ann L. Winblad was born on November 1, 1950, in Red Wing, Minnesota. She was born to father Wilbur Winblad, and she and five other siblings grew up in Rushford and Farmington.
During her high school years, she was a cheerleader and student valedictorian. Winblad earned her Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and in Business Administration from St. Catherine University and her master's degree in Education from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota. She received the John F. Cade Award for outstanding entrepreneurship in 1997.
With her master's degree, Winblad joined the Federal Reserve where she worked for 13 months.

Career

After earning her graduate degree, Winblad and three co-workers left the Federal Reserve to found Open Systems Inc. The accounting software company was eventually sold for over $15 million six years later. After the company was sold, Winblad became a tech consultant from IBM and Microsoft. Winblad began dating Bill Gates and invested in Microsoft in the 1980s. They met in 1984 at a Ben Rosen-Esther Dyson computer conference and dated for a few years. Even though they broke up after a few years, they remained friends.
In 1989 with John Hummer, she co-founded the venture capital firm Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. However, it took nearly two years to raise enough funds to launch Hummer Winblad, with IBM and St. Paul Companies investing in them. In its fledgling years, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners launched 16 startups.
In 2000, Winblad was inducted into the Fortune Small Business Hall of Fame.

Honors