Microsoft General Manager switches to Venture Capital
By Bala Shah

Ashu Garg is one of the most respected and successful Indian executives in America.  An IIT and IIM alumni, he was General Manager with Microsoft’s On-Line Services business where he was responsible for Strategy and Business Management for the Digital Advertising P&L.  Recently, Ashu Garg has left Microsoft to join Trinity Ventures as executive-in-residence.  Trinity has more than 1 billion dollars under management and has invested in more than 100 ventures. 

Ashu has held a number of roles at Microsoft.  Before his last role as GM, On-Line Services business, Ashu was a General Manager within the WW Sales and Marketing Group at Microsoft (for the core software business) where he led the WW Field Readiness function (across all products, customer segments and regions). Ashu was given the charter to build out the WW Field Readiness (MS speak for Field Marketing) function at MS in 2003 in response to the business need to accelerate growth, and he grew it to a 500 person strong marketing function with over $ 125 M in spend that played an integral role in the Office and Vista launches.

Ashu Garg’s main role at Trinity Ventures will be to help identity next-generation advertising and digital media opportunities. Trinity has had a good track record in this field and had invested in Photobucket before it was acquired by News Corp,  Bix before it was acquired by Yahoo and Sygate before it was acquired by Symantec. 

Ashu,  while based in California,  maintains close contact with India through The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Pant IIT Alumni Association, and The Indian Angel Network. He sits on the board of Vienova, an early stage online education services provider.  He was one of the key organizers of the recent IIT conference in California