Glaser

Four months after stepping down as chief executive of RealNetworks, Rob Glaser has found a new line of work. He's becoming a venture capitalist.

The 48-year-old technology executive has been named a part-time venture partner at Accel Partners, the Silicon Valley powerhouse whose portfolio includes Facebook, Kayak, Groupon and others. Tech history buffs may recall that Accel was an early investor in a tiny little company that Glaser founded in 1994 called Progressive Networks, which, of course, became RealNetworks. In that regard, the Accel-Glaser matchup makes sense.

Glaser is looking forward to his new role at Accel, noting that the firm has a "super high density" of really smart people behind it. He's also intrigued with the idea of being the eyes and ears in Seattle for the 27-year-old venture capital firm.

In taking on the venture partner role, Glaser said it afforded him the opportunity to find the "most exciting places to have an impact."

So, what gets the software entrepreneur excited these days? For one, Glaser tells TechFlash that he's most interested in the intersection of digital media, social media and mobile media. Entrepreneurial ideas that fall in the middle of those three arenas are right in the "bullseye," he said.

"Social media has been around for a while, but it is really just in the last 18 months where people have understood the power of treating the social graph as a fundamental platform," said Glaser, adding that we are just now "entering the renaissance of social media."

In fact, Glaser said he views social media as transformational as when he joined Microsoft 27 years ago to help usher in the PC era and when he formed RealNetworks in 1994 at the beginning of the Internet revolution.

Glaser has been working with a few stealth startups, though he declined to offer details about those companies.

And the father of an 11-day-old baby boy said it was unlikely that he'd strike out with his own entrepreneurial venture.

"I may decide that I love the fingers in multiple pies structure of this," said Glaser. "I may find one of the situations that I really fall in love with, but I don't think I will get involved with one thing monolithically in the next year or two. Part of that is the fact that I still have deep connections with Real, and I want to keep that connection."

Glaser -- who remains chairman of RealNetworks -- has ties to numerous startups in the Seattle area. (On the day of his departure in January, we noted just how many startup companies in the region have ties to RealNetworks).

Glaser said he's excited to introduce Seattle startup opportunities to Accel, providing a direct link into the firm.

"Like most of the world-class Valley firms, they don't really have a presence in Seattle," he said. "I am hoping to have the opportunity to work with the best of the Seattle entrepreneurs and maybe introduce them into Accel earlier on or at a more front-and-center way that might not have been the case otherwise."

It is not uncommon for experienced technology execs to choose venture capital as a career path. We've seen a few other notable examples in recent years, including former aQuantive CEO Brian McAndrews who joined Madrona Venture Group last summer and former Microsoft CFO John Connors who landed at Ignition Partners in 2005.

As the founder and former CEO of Real, Glaser said he was able to guide the company from a tiny startup at a "hole in the wall in Pioneer Square" into a large, publicly-traded company with more than $500 million in revenue.

Knowing the different "scale points" that companies hit during that sort of growth path could be valuable to the Accel portfolio, he said. In fact, he's already put some of those skills to work, spending part of his day on Tuesday meeting with Booyah founder Keith Lee who just scored $20 million from Accel and others.

Accel is a backer of Seattle startups such as Medio Systems and Wetpaint.