Daniel Burstein

Daniel Burstein is Co-Founder and a Managing Partner of Millennium Technology Value Partners. For 11 years, Millennium has been a pioneer, innovator, and leader in developing institutional-quality alternative liquidity programs for companies and shareholders in the venture capital ecosystem, partnering with the world’s leading technology companies to design investment structures that foster long-term growth. In addition to its leadership in secondary investing, Millennium actively plays the role of “Lifecycle Capital Partner” to growing companies, providing creative capital solutions that help to drive growth throughout a company’s entire lifecycle. The firm has made more than 300 investments in leading technology companies that include Facebook (FB), Twitter, Zappos (AMZN), Chegg, Lookout, Tellme (MSFT), RigNet (RNET), Good Technology, BeachMint, HauteLook (JWN), Tumblr, ETF Securities, Tremor, LegalZoom, Wayport (T), NetSpend (NTSP), iPass (IPAS), Airvana (acquired by SAC Capital), HootSuite, ID Analytics (LOCK), ArcSight (HPQ), PlaySpan (V), Alibaba.com, Datapipe, and many others. The firm’s portfolio companies have achieved 18 IPO and M&A events over the last three years. Before Millennium, Dan was Senior Advisor at The Blackstone Group, where he worked for 12 years during the period when Blackstone set the standard for excellence in the private equity business. Over the course of his career, he has been a consultant to the CEOs and senior executives of major global corporations including Sony, Toyota, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems. Dan has served on more than a dozen public and private company boards. He has also been a forum fellow at the World Economic Forum in Davos and has been honored many times for his books and journalistic work, including awards from the Overseas Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi. He and his Millennium partner, Sam Schwerin, have co-authored several thought-leading articles and white papers on the Direct Secondary Market and the growing need for alternative liquidity programs to address the systemic lack of liquidity in the venture capital ecosystem. AlwaysOn recently named Dan as one of the top 100 Power Players in New York’s venture capital community, as well as a Power Player in Digital Media. Dan has made personal venture capital investments since 1983, when he first worked as a consultant in Silicon Valley. He began making institutional venture capital investments in the second half of the 1990s. He articulated and led an investment thesis that focused on early stage companies that were building backbone infrastructure for the Internet and enhancing the security, reliability, and user experience of the web. The small funds he led experienced extraordinary returns available in that time period for this investment thesis. The New York Times bestselling author of 14 books, Dan has written about technology trends, global economic issues, and popular culture. Among his path breaking books are Yen! a 1988 global bestseller about the rise of Japanese financial power; Road Warriors, a 1995 book about the birth of digital media and the Internet; Big Dragon, a 1998 book about China’s future; Secrets of the Code; a 2004 guidebook to the Da Vinci Code that was on the New York Times bestseller list for six months; Blog! a pioneering 2005 book about new developments in Web 2.0 businesses and social media; and Secrets of 24, about the political, moral, and technological issues in the TV series “24.”  His latest book is THE TATTOOED GIRL: The Enigma of Stieg Larsson and the Secrets Behind the Most Compelling Thrillers of our Time, which was nominated for the prestigious Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Dan’s books have been published in more than 32 languages and several have been turned into documentary films. He is a frequent speaker at venture capital events and has made numerous TV appearances on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, the History Channel, Charlie Rose, and Oprah. He is currently at work on a new book about the impact of new digital technologies and social media on human thought, culture, and evolution. Actively involved in several community initiatives in Connecticut where he lives, Dan was a founding Board member of the Weston Education Foundation and has served on the Advisory Board for the Westport Youth Film Festival (WYFF) since its inception in 2004. He was honored with WYFF’s Founder’s Award in 2010 for his community service.